Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival
DIGITAL GYM MEDIA ARTS CENTER SAN DIEGO
2921 El Cajon Blvd.
San Diego, CA 92104
Media Art Center San Diego (MACSD) grew out of the expansion of the San Diego Latino Film Festival (SDLFF), which originated in 1993. Incorporated in 1999, Founder and Executive Director Ethan van Thillo has grown the organization from a festival to a mid-size organization with diverse state-wide programs and services for residents, visitors, and independent and amateur filmmakers.
MACSD’s Programming Philosophy is based on the organization’s founding vision: to challenge the historical exclusion of under-represented communities from the media arts field, and distorted images of these communities by mainstream media. The organization’s annual film festival introduces San Diego audiences to contemporary U.S-Latino and Latin American cinema that is otherwise unavailable.
Showcases for LGBTQ and filmmakers, Jewish-Latino filmmakers, women filmmakers, a youth media showcase and others address film artists and audiences that often are often marginalized. Educational, creative and production oriented programs reach underserved youth, and residents while providing MACSD with opportunities for community-based collaborations and the ability to fulfill our mission.
Parking:
Metered parking on El Cajon Blvd.
Street parking on Kansas &/or 30th St.
Jury for 2017
San Diego Asian Film
Festival Programmer
San Diego Italian Film
Festival Programmer
Horrible Imaginings Film
Festival Programmer
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Social Media Manager, Film Critic, and Filmmaker
Known for sporting the fiercest nails on staff, Cynthia is a proud UCSD graduate with a double major in Ethnic Studies and International Studies. A native San Diegan, Cynthia spent her childhood in Japan, studied in Shanghai, and bounced her way through Hong Kong, Rome, and Beijing. Hidden talents include speed packing, Aztec Dancing, and Resident Evil games. Come to her for an opinionated discussion of globalism, hegemony, or sushi.
Gerry Maravilla is an independent filmmaker and the Head of Crowdfunding at Seed&Spark, a subscription video streaming and crowdfunding platform with the highest crowdfunding success rate in the business (75%!). As an independent filmmaker, Gerry ran a successful campaign on Seed&Spark for his short film, “Cross”, the story of Filipino-American backyard boxer in the San Fernando Valley. It recently completed a cross country festival run. His most recent short, “Desert” raised over $500.
San Diego Italian Film Festival Programmer Diana Agostini is a Development and Communication professional with a background in International Cooperation. Long before moving to San Diego in 2012, she began her work in the non-profit educational sector, on national and international projects. She combines her passion for cultural studies to the one for arts, trying to find creative ways to express messages and promote critical thinking.
Christine Schindel has worked in content marketing for the last 10 years as a copywriter, copyeditor, and digital marketer. She is currently the marketing director for a national mortgage broker and also for San Diego's Horrible Imaginings Film Festival. Christine has been a film enthusiast since childhood and likes to spend her free time reading books, watching movies, and eating sauerkraut with her cat, Mr. Norman Bates.
So Yun Um is a Korean-American Film Critic and Filmmaker. She runs the film website & YouTube channel, So’s Reel Thoughts which highlights international, independent, and genre films. She writes a bi-weekly column called Badass Femmes for Crome Yellow & is the creator of the Girl Talk Series. She is affiliated with various LA Film Festivals and is part of the Women Film Critics Circle.
Seed & Spark Crowd
Funding Specialist
Schedule of Film Program & Events
Immerse yourself in Fourth Wave feminism!
We invite you to join us as we premier our Second Annual Festival at the Digital Gym Cinema in San Diego. Les Femmes Underground International Film Festival (LEFUFF) is the ONLY travelling festival that showcases exclusively feminist experimental art and narrative work.
Let us lead you into the underground world of feminist inter-sectional art, music, and celluloid fantasies. LEFUFF invites you to take a cinematic adventure that destroys the meaning of mundane with its unique programming. Les Femmes Underground International film festival features films from over 30 different countries ranging in genres from Documentary, Experimental, Narrative, Horror, Female Sexuality, and our own concoction Psychotropic.
This particular programming will merge women using occult ideology and notions of the phrase, “witch” as a way to indoctrinate equality, independence, and empowerment.
Spellbinding is guaranteed!
RED CARPET EVENT- 2:00PM
Kick off the evening with the glamorous Red Carpet Event. Get your picture taken against our festival backdrop and network before the evening festivities. Grab a complementary cocktail or two prior to our event. Check out local artist exhibits and vendors on the historic North Park Strip.
*** First 50 people get exclusive LEFUFF grab bags.
SEED & SPARK CROWDFUNDING PANEL- 2:00PM
Crowd Funding Specialist : Gerry Maravilla
Seed&Spark is a new model for entertainment that combines the convenience and awesomeness of subscription streaming for audiences with the career-building power of crowdfunding for creators. Their mission is to create an entertainment landscape that reflects what society actually looks like. They are based in Los Angeles, with outposts in New York and Chicago.
Seed&Spark recently launched The Hometown Heroes Rally, which invites filmmakers from across the country to bring diverse stories rooted in real communities to the screen. Up to 5 winners will have their narrative feature executive produced by the Duplass Brothers and receive up to $25,000 in cash for production.
SHOWCASE A - 3:00pm-4:00pm
SHOWCASE A.1 social deviance
(documentary film)
Guest Judge: Cynthia Kashiwagi
San Diego Asian Film Festival
Killing Us Softly- Candy Royalle and the Freed Radicals
Australia
‘Killing US Softly’ is a mirror held up to humanity - it points out our ugliest, greediest and most idiotic ways. It is a chant, a protest rally, a wake up call to the people, and a reminder that we still have the power to take back what they are taking from us. (05:00)
Brujas - Lindsey Hagen & Miles Joris-Peyrafitte
United States
"Brujas" is an urban, free-form, creative and autonomous organization that seeks to build radical political coalition through youth culture. This group of minority female skaters express community through skateboarding, art and political organizing. This NYC collective has created a nationwide following inspiring change makers, creatives and skaters alike to come together in solidarity to exercise their freedom of expression. (06:48)
Troll: a Southern Tale - Marinah Janello
United States
An eccentric musician/filmmaker navigates self expression based on his experiences living and growing up in the South. (11:42)
Primary Colours - Roua Aljied, Emily Ramsay, & Derek Price
Canada
A cinepoem by Sudanese-Canadian spoken word artist Roua Aljied, aka Philosi-fire, about the realities of domestic violence and how each step a woman takes is a new colour to paint on the canvass of her life. This story is based on all too familiar statistics and is a raw and honest call to arms by an activist who will not be silenced. (03:16)
Names of Women - Poppy Liu & Amanda Madden
United States
Names of Women is a short film based on a true abortion story from the point of view of a woman who has gone through it. It is the complex, nuanced, spiritual, human side of the abortion story. It is the feminine telling of an abortion story. (12:42)
VENDORS
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Joshua has played in queer punk bands in the Northwest and California and cooked vegan food for 20+ years and has toured doing both. Joshua will be bringing several of the most fun cookbooks and zines to peddle for this fabulous event. Including "Comfort Eating with Nick Cave" with concept and art by Automne Zingg!
Cheryl Agustin
Based in LA. Creator, collector, & lover of all things bizarre & beautiful. Aspires to create art in all its forms & transform into a crazy cat lady.
The Troubled Type
HandLettering + Typography + Calligraphy ✒️Finding Beauty in the Ugly 💌DM your troubles & we'll transform them into art 💀🌸
The East Side Story Project is a documentary project dedicated to threading together the obscure origins of the iconic “East Side Story” lowrider oldies compilations. These albums of soul and doo-wop ballads remain both an icon and mystery to the extended Chicano community that continuously enjoys these albums.
Ovarian Psyco-Cycle Brigade (OPC)
Ovarian Psyco-Cycle Brigade (OPC) are womyn of color, sisters, mothers, overgrown knuckleheads, riders, writers, students, wage slaves, hustlers, artists, MCs, poets, intellectuals, radical scholars, passionate womyn, environmentalists, urban farmers, medicine womyn, militants, feminists, renaissance womyn, fearless fierro riders and modern-day charras on steel horses!
SHOWCASE B.2
SEXual ReduXXX (THE ADULT SHOW)
Guest Judge: So Yun Um
Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles Social Media Manager, Film Critic, and Filmmaker
DISCLAIMER
*** The programming that follows contains adult material such as nudity, suggestive content, and language not suitable for individuals under the age of 17… unless you’re okay with your kids watching mature material… then we cannot judge you.
Let is all Hair Out - Sam Gurry
United States
Sights - hair hair hair. Sound - the losers "street drummer" via FMA (00:34)
Pornoauguri - Martina Scarpelli
Italy
An erotic animation exploring sexuality and the female reproductive system . (1:46)
Instantaneous Culture - Elly Clarke
Germany
Instantaneous Culture is a ballad about love in a time of mobile phones, about wanting, longing, desiring but not really getting. Talk and communication versus action, song versus stillness and some great lingerie to go with it. (2:31)
Sherry - Eliane Lima
United States
Sherry is an experimental documentary film which witnesses the private life of Robert, a 75 years old gentleman from Orange County. Every day, Robert transforms himself into a living doll, Sherry. (24:00)
Cosmoetico - Martina Scarpelli
Italy
What was it like, before the birth of the universe? Does reality exists just because we are able to perceive it? A girl searches for an answer to the big questions. (4:46)
Amo - Alex Gargot
Spain
An android programmer obsessed with replicating human anatomy and intelligence will be led to the darkest corners of his own mind by Mia, his domestic companion android. (17:00)
Serpentine - Bronwyn Maloney
United States
'Serpentine' follows a young woman through a moment of self-realization. In the midst of reflective fantasy, her thoughts of herself arouse a surreal exploration of sensuality, self-esteem, and deeply rooted fears. (2:02)
Humanoid - Ekaterina Stashevskaya
Moscow, Russian Federation
A sixteen-year-old teenage girl invented a humanoid for her lonely mother to make their family full and happy. However, the girl diagnosed problems in a program of a robot and everything went wrong.(16:01)
River of Blood - Leila Jarman
United States
River of blood is high art conceptual music video that with imagery laced with femininity: flowers, watermelons, eggs, the female form. There are moments of intimacy and moments of struggle with the main character against herself and her environments. (3:03)
SHOWCASE A - 4:15pm-5:15pm
SHOWCASE A.2
PSYCHOTROPIC VISIONS
(EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA)
Guest Judge: Gerry Maravilla
Seed & Spark Head of Crowdfunding
Tough Luck- Jamie Wolfe
Short and sweet , the oddly humorous loops of animation show Jamie’s offbeat psychedelic/surreal style made for artist Sneaks AKA Eva Moolchan. (01:31)
Two - Carolina Mandia
United States
Painted on film. (00:53)
Move Mountain - Kirsten Lepore
A girl journeys through a vibrant, pulsing, macrocosmic landscape, but a precipitous incident compels her to venture up a mountain in an attempt to save herself. A story about illness, perseverance, and our connection to everything around us. (10:56)
Simultaneous Occurrence of Contradictory Effects - Amia Yokoyama
A science-fiction inspired animated film that probes the dynamic between human, parasite and cure. An obsession to collate pressure between two touches. Mind watering and mouth wandering, it seeps into a liminal space where corporeal realities collapse on themselves. (07:28)
Erasure - Birgitta Hosea
United Kingdom
Based on the filmmaker’s own early experiences of working as a cleaner, this experimental animation uses repetitive actions and the textures of ink, bleach and other cleaning products to re-animate the labour of domestic work performed over and over by many generations of women, but then forgotten and taken for granted. (03:00)
Tomato - Caitlin Craggs
United States
A juicy moving picture about words, history and a beloved, oft overlooked fruit. Tomatois the first in a series of bite-sized, visually punny films that reconsider some of the most humble and ubiquitous foods on our plate— the ways we define and consume them, and also how those foods might be defining us. (02:43)
Manspreading - Rachel Ara
In 2015 the word "Manspreading" was officially entered into the English Dictionary.
This is a lighthearted animated take on the word from the London Underground. (01:00)
Until Dawn - Kaylee SooHyun Lee
United States
A woman relives the horror of her lover's death until she is awoke by the stark reality of passing time. A short animation about death, grief, and closure. Animated with charcoal. (04:44)
Phosphena - Maya Erdelyi
United States
A cut-paper hybrid animation inspired by ‘phosphenes:’ an “entoptic phenomenon characterized by the experience of seeing light without light actually entering the eye.” Loosely inspired by the bowerbird and its constructions--the animation is a tale of love, deception, and tragedy. (4:04)
Reshet - Rachel Gutgarts
Israel
A short, abstract, experimental music analysis made with silk screen prints. Every 30 frames are printed in a grid formation on a3 paper, then scanned and cut to their original form as a running, 25 fps, animation. Original music by Shaun Shar-Lev. (01:30)
Tangerine - Jaclyn Goldstein
United Kingdom
Cut out animation. (00:24)
Unpainted Women - Kathy Rose
United States
Part Fantastic Voyage, part celebration of my younger self, this is a finely crafted jewel in which I am looking for those who are not immune to splendor. Reality is both harsh and wondrous. I am trying to circumvent it all. (04:19)
SHOWCASE B - 7:30pm-10:00pm
SHOWCASE B.1 FEMME FATALES (HORROR)
Guest Judge: Christine Schindel
Horrible imaginings Programmer
Short Cut - Prano Bailey-Bond
United Kingdom
A blood splattered tale of karma. Bad boyfriend, sleeping girlfriend, fast car, full moon. When Kurt takes a shortcut he enters a supernatural realm and is forced to sacrifice a little piece of himself. (5:00)
Hard Times - Ibba Armancas
United States
Shay, the happy-go-lucky last woman on earth, thinks the end of the world is great. She can do, eat, and wear whatever she wants. In fact, the only downside she’s noticed is that the apocalypse makes it hard to get laid. So when she stumbles upon a zombie-infested sex shop, she’s willing to take on its Mean Girls-esque undead horde if it means getting her satisfaction. (10:30)
Brainless Killers - Ren Thackham
Australia
Brainless Killers confronts humans with a question, if we were farmed and hunted like animals are, how would we feel about it? Set in a world of zombies you've like nothing you've seen before, created by the Academy Award winning make up team that brought you Mad Max Fury Road, Brainless Killers follows two journalists on a journey through Zombridge and they get a lot more than they bargained for. (17:55)
Glenda - Puppett
United States
A re-imagining of Twin Peaks ”25 years later." Lucy’s daughter Glenda searches for answers in her mother's mysterious hometown. She meets the Log Lady’s daughter and other mysterious residents of Twin Peaks. (5:00)
Sacrifice - Elena Passani
United Kingdom
Morgan Woods is a young nurse caught in a struggle between the world of medicine and magic. Her mother is dying but as a witch she refuses medical care, insisting that magic is the only thing that will cure her. When their attempts to heal her fail, her mother demands Morgan to perform a sacrifice to save her. (20:02)
Light Thief- Eva Daoud
United Kingdom
When the essence of Love is snatched from someone and locked away in a vessel with no name what happens to those persons and how do they change? How can the broken hearted souls break that curse and recover from their pain? Can they regain their spark by overcoming dark supernatural forces?. (19:00)
SHOWCASE A 5:15pm-6:15pm
SHOWCASE A.3
YOUTH & ALTERED STATES
Guest Judge: Diana Agostini
San Diego Italian Film Festival
Quetzal - Irene Marco
Veracruz
Quetzal is a coming of age film about a young boy who is sent into the jungle to catch the bird that represents the essence of his tribe and step into adulthood. Fearfully, he sets himself into a journey of self-discovery, understanding and forgiveness when he accidentally shoots a birdwatcher. (24:00)
Dian - Tamara Shogaolu
Indonesia
Unable to conceive a child, a desperate woman turns to dark magic to save her marriage—and her position in a traditional Javanese villa (19:00)
Iris - Gabrielle Demers
Canada
Emanuelle is training on her stationary bike but she can't get her mind
off the image of Laura. The more she pedals, the more her memories
turn to desire. (9:52)
La Madre Buena- Sarah Clift
Mexico
A Mexican mother embarks upon an epic journey across land and through her politics, to find her son's birthday request, - a Donald Trump piñata. (5:36)
RECEPTION - 6:00pm-7:30pm
Drinks, hors d'oeuvres, appetizers, desserts
PLAG Presents Musical Guests
Iress + Spare Parts for Broken Hearts
We are getting catered by Rancho’s Cocina!
They are known for their vast selection of Vegetarian and Vegan Mexican dishes. Come surround yourself with beautiful Mexican decor and music of the Gypsy Kings, while eating quality and healthy food.
2017 OFFICIAL SCREEN PLAY WINNERS
Kelly Jean Karam - Screen Play: Brew Master
Kelly Jean Karam is an emerging talent whose screenplays have won high acclaim from multiple industry sources including Best Script Miami International Science Fiction Film Festival, 2017; Best Horror and Original Concept Depth Of Field Film Festival, 2017; Best Feature Script California Women's Film Festival, 2016; Winner Best Feature Chicago Horror Film Festival, 2016; Winner Best Script Los Angeles Film & Script Festival, 2016; Best Thriller Feature Haunted Horror, 2016; Best Short Los Angeles Film Awards 2016; Best Script MINDFIELD, 2016; Best Feature Genre Celebration Festival, 2016; Official Finalist Atlas Awards, 2016; Remi-Award WorldFest Houston International Film Festival, 2016; Finalist Beverly Hills Screenplay, 2016; Winner Best Screenplay Peachtree Village International Film Festival, Atlanta, 2015. And Top-Listed The Black List.
Tiffany Rhodes - Screen Play: Naked in the Dog Park
Tiffany Rhodes is a San Francisco Bay Area Native born May 5, 1982. Her first comedy feature screenplay NAKED IN THE DOG PARK is an official selection in several festivals awaiting final judging. In 2016 she created a documentary, BELIEVERS which follows Rhodes as she explores exotic spiritualism. She co-directed and produced this film that is now in contract to be optioned for a tv series. BELIEVERS won Finalist Best Documentary 2017 in the Santa Barbara Int’l Film Festival and Semi Finalist 2017 in Cinefest LA.
Before Rhodes was a filmmaker she worked in the corporate world for almost a decade. Regarded as a creative manager she has built teams, opened new locations and mentored staff. With her passion in the arts she transformed standard corporate trainings into live theater. Her leadership skills stems from her ability to tell stories further inspiring her employees to want to be a part of something bigger. In 2012, she retired from the corporate world and became a wife, a mother and a writer.
