WFA 2021 Film Guide

After finishing his mandatory military service, Matan Portnoy went backpacking for a year with his best friend, Roy Maayan. The pair travelled to India, Nepal, Burma and Thailand and fell in love with the landscapes, people and cultures encountered. Matan and Roy felt a deep need to translate their life-changing experiences into a personal, visual creation and found no better way to do so than making a music video for the amazing band, Hayelala. The song describes exactly what they felt as they came back home - "Getting Older".

Hear Me Out is a short documentary about the Ghanaian community journalist Helen Udanbila, who manages a local radio programme which seeks to give a voice to the young girls and women in Saboba, Northen Ghana, Africa. The documentary is produced in collaboration with Ghana Friendship.

Halima, a Sudanese henna painter, goes to see Basma, a young Egyptian bride, to prepare her for her wedding. Under the eyes of her daughter Ward, the encounter between the two women grows from complicity to suddenly unveiled tensions.

High Flying Jade is the true story of a bipolar woman from Los Angeles who moved to Vietnam and joined the circus in Hồ Chí Minh City. In the US, Jade was an air traffic controller but repeated attempts at suicide culminated in hospitalization. She was eventually diagnosed and treated for bipolar disorder. Now, she tries to manage her unique brain chemistry with learned-mindfulness and focused aerial training. We meet her one week before the opening night of her first ever performance in a real, big top circus.

A young girl exploring her family’s attic discovers a trunk filled with memories and a timeworn journal. As she opens the cover and begins to read about a long-ago romance, the girl is transported to another time and place, where the wonders depicted within evoke a musical tribute to one woman’s true love.

Made during the CV19 lockdown and commissioned by Multistory as part of their project Stories in Isolation, Home Time tells a child’s simple point of view during a congested and manic period. In the midst of a nationwide lockdown, a school-boy is just a boy. Now that school is been taken from him, his realisation of how much he loved his teachers, classmates and the routine arises and he poetically awaits the day he can return.

This is the tale about a young boy who travels with his imaginary friends in search of a way home. Will he find a place to stay or is his journey really the meaning of life for him now?

I'm an Electric Lampshade is an offbeat, heart-warming portrait of the world’s least likely rock star. This documentary-narrative hybrid feature tells the story of Doug McCorkle, a buttoned-up, mild-mannered corporate accountant who, after retiring at age 60, puts his marriage and life savings on the line to chase his wildest dream. Shot in the United States, Mexico & the Philippines, the film features a strong cast of undiscovered talent from across the globe. Like Sean Baker’s Tangerine, the cast is a menagerie of real people portraying versions of themselves, bringing an authenticity to the film that would be impossible to fake. The result is a mind-bending musical odyssey in the tradition of Stop Making Sense and Searching For Sugar Man.

Innerverse presents various characters, and explores how their personal life experiences shape their belief systems and perception.

A couple on their anniversary freaks out when they both experience the same oddly vivid nightmare.

Eugenio is a western writer experiencing difficulties. His most famous character, Jesus Kid, is getting bad sales. His salvation seems to appear when he is hired to write the script for a movie.

In 1829, while portaging, a young man abandons his kukum (grandmother). Years later, he and his son are camping by the haunted spot where she was abandoned.

Lea, a therapist specializing in the treatment of victims of sexual abuse, is unable to follow her own methods after she herself suffers an assault and plunges into the abyss of her own psyche. It is a journey through the inner realm of a violated woman, where reality and fiction, truth and dream intertwine.

A gold digger is getting an unexpected help to deal with thugs. Made for the Winter Film Awards 2021 14-Day Film Challenge.

In this supernatural horror tale based on a Korean ritual starring Margaret Cho and Lyrica Okano, a woman entertains a macabre offer that would let her pursue her dreams, for better or for much much worse.

On the fringes of society, in an end of the road trailer park, a single mother assumes the worst of her daughter. After destroying what she believes to be incriminating evidence, she becomes lost in the desert where she learns that not everyone is as they seem.

A small tavern in Queens, New York becomes the meeting spot for young hopefuls who move to NYC in pursuit of their dreams, forming a bond of friendship and building a neighborhood community spot likened to “Cheers”. Everything changes as COVID-19 transforms Queens into a major hotspot in the global pandemic; Sparrow Tavern is closed and its staff are among the tens of thousands of service workers laid off across the city. Observing strict COVID protocols and using remotely operated cameras, director Johnny Sweet creates a powerful testimonial that documents the psychological impact of COVID-19 on a group of young adults working in the hospitality industry, as well as the healthcare workers tirelessly fighting the virus on the frontline.

A singer's flashback of a love story from when he was 18 years old. He daydreams about how his love got dressed up before their date.

The third part of the internationally award-winning MeTube short film series. This time the intergalactic music nerds August and Elfi conquer the opera stage and orchestrate their final adventure in an opulent manner.

A dimension-shifting mime player is disturbed in his peace by a student fraternity. His response is unexpected: by using the fourth wall, he turns their world on its head; literally. However, his powers are useless to achieve romance.

The lives of four lively Arctic hares take a turn after discovering a strange new creature

Alma W. Thomas broke color barriers on and off the canvas, yet did not receive national attention until she was 80. Born a generation after slavery, Alma Woodsey Thomas grew up in the South, in a home where education was a priority. At 16, with racial tensions high and no further schooling options, her family moved to Washington, DC, where she started her incredible life of firsts: the first Fine Arts graduate from Howard University (1924), the first African-American Woman to mount a solo show at the Whitney Museum of American Art (1972), and the first African-American woman to exhibit her paintings in the White House (2009).

A suicidal man from Milwaukee is given a second chance at life in NYC, working as a drag MC while learning courage from the caring LGBTQ+ community in order to pursue his dreams, including a relationship with a tap-dancing single mom.

The Oscar-nominated actor, best known for his role of Mr. Miyagi, left behind a painfully revealing autobiographical record of his much-too-brief time here on earth. More Than Miyagi traces his journey from being bed-bound as a boy to the bright lights and discrimination of Hollywood. Deep inside that sweet, generous, multi-talented performer seethed an army of demons that even alcohol and drugs couldn't mask.

Mahmoud is a very very short man, just one meter tall, who wishes to play a two meter tall instrument like a Contrabass. He finds he cannot reach until ...