American Cinematheque Presents 2nd Annual Proof Film Festival (October 18-20)

46 proof-of-concept shorts screened, the PROOF Pitch Deck Show & Tell, and panel conversations with special guests such as Carlos López Estrada, Danny Madden, Margaret Cho, Sean Wang, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Morgan Cooper, Valerie Bush, Karen Maine, and more…

The American Cinematheque announced the lineup of panels and special events for the 2^nd Annual PROOF Film Festival, taking place October 18-20. The innovative film festival will present thematically curated programs featuring 46 official selections, as well industry panels, special screenings, centerpiece conversations, and the PROOF Pitch Deck Show & Tell – all taking place at the Culver Theater (9500 Culver Blvd.). (The film lineup, previously announced, is included below.)

PROOF is also teaming up with Callo, a new platform that matches experienced, above-the-line professionals in film, television, and audio for effective project collaboration, to schedule meetings between selected festival filmmakers and industry partners in the film festival’s Callo Lounge. Additionally, Callo will provide exclusive access to badge holders of the festival to the Callo platform.

The festival, programmed and produced by the American Cinematheque, PROOF is dedicated solely to the presentation of proof-of-concept short films, looking to be expanded into feature-length productions or series, and empowering the next generation of cinematic storytellers.

“We received great feedback for the inaugural edition of PROOF Film Festival last year, and we’re so excited for how our partnerships and resources offered have grown for this second year,” said PROOF Film Festival founder and American Cinematheque programmer, Imani Davis. “We’re excited to have everyone join us for the festival this October in Culver City at the beautiful Culver Theater and celebrate these fantastic filmmakers together.”

The in-person panel lineup this year presents a variety of topics aimed at providing education on timely film industry topics. ShotDeck, the largest searchable cinematic image library, will present a live Shot Talk with a cinematographer guest, hosted by founder Lawrence Sher, ASC. Antigravity Academy will present The Making of DÌDI (弟弟), with filmmaker Sean Wang and producers Carlos López Estrada and Valerie Bush in person to discuss the making of the new hit indie film.

PROOF is bringing back its popular “Represented: A Conversation with Agents and Managers” co-presented by viral meme page Assistants vs. Agents. They are also bringing back the “Next Steps: From a Short to a Feature or Series” panel with all new guests to speak about their journey. Angle on Producers will co-present “Forging Your Own Path: Actor/Producers in Conversation” featuring multi-hyphenate talents Margaret Cho and Darrell Britt-Gibson, moderated by Carolina Groppa, producer and host of the hit podcast Angle on Producers.

PROOF will host the Los Angeles premiere of the festival hit feature film Sew Torn, which is adapted from the 2019 short film of the same name, directed by Freddy Macdonald. Film Independent will co-present a free local filmmakers’ mixer at the festival. Other panel topics include “What’s Happening in Hollywood?”, “Producer’s Panel: Championing First Time Filmmakers”, and “All About Labs, Fellowships, and Incubators”. More panelists to be announced.

This year, PROOF Film Festival opened submissions for the PROOF Pitch Deck Show & Tell the general public. Receiving over 100 submissions for feature film and series pitches, the festival has chosen eight participants to present their pitch decks live in front of a panel of industry professionals at the festival:

“Eat the Children” from Andrew Merrill
Logline: “A college freshman house-sits for an older couple, only for them to abduct him and force him to be their long dead son.”

“The Lambing” from Jillian Corsie
Logline: “An American teen visits her grandmother in Scotland for the summer, where her uneasiness about the town reaches a boiling point when she discovers a dark secret.”

“Photocopy” from Mike Klubeck
Logline: “An aspiring photographer begins to lose his grip on reality as he fears he is being replaced by a ghostly doppelgänger.”

“Silver Spoon” from Lucy Porter
Logline: “The dysfunctional family behind a midwestern restaurant chain struggle to reconcile their egos to maintain their declining comfort food empire.”

“Poppyfields” from Maria Belafonte
Logline: “In the heart of Los Angeles, 9-year-old Maria discovers the complexities of adulthood, family, and fame as she spends a transformative week at a hotel in Beverly Hills with her grandfather, Harry Belafonte, a fading pop star, ahead of his final show.”

“House of Dixie” from Netta Walker
Logline: “After a group of self-proclaimed Patriots overthrow the South Carolina House of Representatives on a major voting day, a renegade group of military trained femmes fight to save the women trapped in their new fascist colony.”

“Paul Ruins a Wedding and Destroys an Entire Community” from Brad Roelandt
Logline: “A clueless man’s attempt to reconnect with a lost love goes awry when he unwittingly leads a town’s violent insurrection.”

“She Lies in Pieces” from Joaquin I. Dominguez & Mike Cuenca
Logline: “A woman without a past, lost in an urban landscape befriends a family of drug-addled transients. One day, her world is turned upside down when she encounters a group of brutal men forcing her to answer for her long absence.”

After presenting their projects, participants will receive live feedback from the panel of judges who will then decide on a PROOF Pitch Deck Show & Tell winner and runner-up.

Community and Industry partners for this year’s edition of PROOF Film Festival include SAG-AFTRA, the Producers Guild of America, The Black List, Film Independent, The Light Leaks, Film Girlz Brunch, Creative Cypher, The Reel Champions, Not Your Daddy’s Films, Backstage Bar & Grill, The American Film Convention, The Cinegogue, Assistants vs. Agents, Anarchists United, MACRO, HappyBad Bungalow, Antigravity Academy, and Neon. Sustaining Sponsors include ShotDeck and Neon. Other sponsors include Callo, TheWrap, and The Culver Theater. The official spirits sponsor is Hendrick’s Gin. The official beer sponsor is Toña Beer. Water is provided by Liquid Death. The 2024 PROOF Film Festival Media Partner is TheWrap.

The 2024 Proof Film Festival Official Selections (by block):

OPENING NIGHT: BLOCK #1

Classmates
Director: Major Dorfman
Country: USA; Running Time: 18:57 minutes
Codie is dropped off to work on a school project with classmate Shane. The boys begin their assignment, but it’s not long before Codie coerces Shane into taking his mom’s car out for a joyride. Codie then discovers that Shane has been living in the car with his mom. They drive around a field and the car gets stuck in a ditch. The boys fight and Codie flees, leaving the mess behind.

Computer Love
Director: Joseph Picozzi
Country: USA; Running Time: 15:25 minutes
It’s the year 2100: Quinn, a sheltered teenage girl, begins cheating on her dating-app-arranged boyfriend with her family’s new robot houseboy, Michael. They quickly fall in love and exchange fantasies of running away together. After her parents catch them, they announce they’re turning Michael in for a new model. Quinn must decide whether she should abandon her family and everything she’s ever known to pursue her love with a machine.

Cousins
Director: Karina Dandashi
Country: USA; Running Time: 13:00 minutes
Two cousins born in separate countries reunite in Brooklyn when a run-in with an ex makes the night even more chaotic. Cousins explores cultural disconnect between family members and identity within oneself.

Loveland
Director: Sofia Bonami
Country: USA; Running Time: 11:00 minutes
When a woman mysteriously disappears from the production of America’s favorite dating show Loveland, one contestant becomes obsessed with uncovering what happened to her — jeopardizing the one thing she came for: happily ever after.

Seeking Sasquatch
Director: Thomas Thomas
Country: USA; Running Time: 4:00 minutes
Seeking Sasquatch begins with a hostile and skeptical scientist joining the Bigfoot Investigation Bureau. With him, the BIB must face new and outlandish predicaments each week to find proof of a ‘Squatch. To succeed, they must unite, muster their strengths, and overcome their many differences. While proof might remain elusive, who knows? They might discover themselves along the way.

UNLIKELY FRIENDSHIPS: BLOCK #2

Bathroom Attendant
Director: Gabriella Mykal
Country: USA; Running Time: 5:21 minutes
Two black women share a moment of connection in a club bathroom.

Broken Toilets
Director: Jesse Toledano
Country: USA; Running Time: 22:35 minutes
When a Hasidic property manager discovers one of his tenants is an aspiring Hip Hop producer, he ventures to make music with her, exploring a passion that he must keep alive or else fall back into a rut that threatens his marriage, happiness, and way of life.

Henry Gets a Shot
Director: Brendan Kirk
Country: USA; Running Time: 9:21 minutes
Danny is fed up with his teenage roommate Henry lazing about the apartment. Even if it’s his friend’s kid – enough is enough! It’s time Henry goes to see Karlo about that job at the pizzeria.

Seoul Switch
Director: Liann Kaye
Country: USA; Running Time: 13:00 minutes
When an insecure, Korean American boy meets an International K-Pop Star who looks just like him, they decide to switch identities.

ONE BAD NIGHT: BLOCK #3

Enter By Fire
Director: Luke Wildwood
Country: USA; Running Time: 13:26 minutes
While taking pictures alone, a woman discovers something evil behind her in a photo, descending her into a fire of madness.

Iron Lung
Director: Andrew Reid
Country: USA; Running Time: 12:20 minutes
When a storm knocks out the power to her iron lung, a polio survivor and her caretaker sister find themselves in a race against time to find a new way for her to breathe.

Rat!
Director: Neal Suresh Mulani
Country: USA; Running Time: 16:48 minutes
When a chronically online music journalist encounters a global pop star’s latest effort at queerbaiting, he seizes the moment, turns on his camera, and expresses some choice words for the vapid musician and their fans. But as his social capital rises and the internet is set ablaze, he unknowingly traces a bold-faced arrowhead to his front doorstep, where the pop star’s overzealous fans show up to wreak havoc and seek retribution.

Shadow
Director: Kamell Allaway
Country: USA; Running Time: 12:00 minutes
A young mother’s shadow takes on a life of its own, terrorizing her and her daughter over the course of one night.

Water Dog
Director: Christina Kelly Holmes
Country: USA; Running Time: 10:52 minutes
Guy, a disillusioned millennial man, bumps into Dan, an old classmate, and meets his new wife. But there’s something off about her. However, no one, including Guy’s girlfriend he dragged out, says anything. Sucked into an awkward dinner followed by a pregnancy announcement, Guy wonders how Dan has gotten further in life than him.

AN EXAMINATION OF LEARNING: BLOCK #4

F*ck That Guy
Director: Hanna Gray Organschi
Country: USA; Running Time: 17:23 minutes
1992 Connecticut. Desperate to keep the attention of her intoxicating older best friend, Frankie sets out to prove that sex is no big deal.

Grown
Director: Alfonso Elkanah Morgan-Terrero
Country: USA; Running Time: 9:05 minutes
With their mother missing for three days, it is Emmanuel’s job to pick up his little brother Alex after school. One evening, as they make their way back home, Alex’s reluctance to listen to his older sets their night on a course that alters their lives forever.

Playground
Director: Yaxing Lin
Country: USA/China; Running Time: 16:21 minutes
After a year apart, Jiajia reunites with her mother Lin, who works as a performer at an adult nightclub. Jiajia’s innocent curiosity leads to tricky situations.

IN SEARCH OF INDEPENDENCE: BLOCK #5

The Captives
Director: Talia Light Rake
Country: USA; Running Time: 13:30 minutes
Jolie, a Juilliard graduate, gives up on her dreams and moves back home when her mother, Emmilene, is diagnosed with cancer. Ten years later, when her life is at a standstill, her mother’s health is declining, and an old flame resurfaces in her life, Emmilene gives Jolie an ultimatum where she is suddenly forced to face who she is and who she wants to ultimately become.

Carpeteo
Director: Adriana González-Vega
Country: Puerto Rico; Running Time: 9:33 minutes
A psychological thriller inspired by real events in Puerto Rican history. Amidst the turbulent backdrop of 1970s political upheaval at the University of Puerto Rico, a young college student finds herself grappling not only with her shifting beliefs and allegiances, but also with the complex dynamics of her relationship with her older brother, forcing her to confront the very essence of her identity and convictions.

Peas
Director: Maky Rupert
Country: USA; Running Time: 12:06 minutes
A drolly coming-of-age story following a young girl as she witnesses her mother go on a date for the first time since her father’s death.

Top Shot
Director: Alexander Hagani
Country: USA; Running Time: 15:17 minutes
A tale about growing up, basketball, and trading cards. 11-year-old Alexander adjusts to life with his new stepdad, Ian, while navigating the aftermath of his parent’s divorce and escaping into basketball daydreams.

ADVENTURES IN NATURE: BLOCK #6

A Family Guide to Hunting
Director: Zao Wang
Country: USA; Running Time: 14:07 minutes
A Family Guide to Hunting is a dark comedy about an Asian-American family on a hunting trip gone wrong. The wilderness turns the temperature up on their dysfunctional family dynamics, as well as their unique brand of Asian-American sacrifice, love, and filial piety.

Brain Freeze
Director: Kelsey Comeau
Country: USA; Running Time: 14:36 minutes
A snapshot of lifelong friends Carrie (Sofia Hublitz, Ozark) and Rae, Madison Hu (Brother’s Sun, Boogeyman) as their relationship crumbles at the seams. In their safe bubble of Northern New Jersey, the friends have hit their breaking point on Rae’s eighteenth birthday. Crossing paths years later, in the queer paradise that is Fire Island Pines, the friends are no longer. Dealing with themes of adulthood, queer identity, female friendship and mortality, Brain Freezetackles two formative moments in adolescence otherwise overlooked: the friends who fade away.

Mt. Mystic Rangers
Directors: Jeremiah Dunlap. Cory Quintard
Country: USA; Running Time: 23:47 minutes
Mt. Mystic Rangers is a half-hour mockumentary comedy/sci-fi/adventure series that combines a workplace comedy with the intrigue of a supernatural mystery. Through the lens of a ragtag documentary crew, the series follows a unit of misfit Park Rangers at Mt. Mystic State Park as they navigate their daily duties, encounter the paranormal, and deal with visitors from all walks of life.

KIN: BLOCK #7

Good Grief
Director: Megan Chumbley
Country: USA; Running Time: 11:57 minutes
Good Grief is a dark comedy, set in Salt Lake City Utah at a Mormon Mortuary. We follow Avery, the estranged daughter of the deceased, as she navigates the egocentric personalities of her dysfunctional family. Numb to her own feelings, Avery’s attempts to connect with her deceased father get side-lined by her annoying cousin, erupting a series of even bigger problems simmering under the surface.

Take Me Home
Director: Liz Sargent
Country: USA; Running Time: 15:00 minutes
When Emily is reunited with her sister Anna after their mother’s passing, she struggles to reconnect to their Florida life. Anna’s Cognitive Disability makes communication challenging, and the tragedy makes rebuilding their home and relationship urgent. Their growth as sisters in Take Me Home creates a touching story on family, and the care that we all require from one another.

The Weight of a Dog
Director: Lucy Sandler
Country: USA; Running Time: 15:37 minutes
The Weight of a Dog follows new retiree Dawn’s trip to chaperone her adult daughter’s abortion and explores Dawn’s unexpected revelations around her own life and its next phase that this experience brings up for her.

BUMP IN THE NIGHT: BLOCK #8

Alma Mater
Director: Matthew P. Higgins
Country: USA; Running Time: 5:40 minutes
As Arthur (30s) turns the pages of his late father’s 1973 high school yearbook, he receives a phone call. The caller knows Arthur is reading the yearbook—and tells him to burn it immediately. The reason: a teacher from the high school murdered their friends and classmates. The student body decided to burn all the yearbooks…or so they thought. The tension reaches a boiling point when a menacing, silhouetted spirit suddenly lurks behind Arthur…

Fishmonger
Director: Neil Ferron
Country: USA; Running Time: 23:00 minutes
In this supernatural dark comedy, a pathetic Irish fishmonger must survive a sex pact with an ancient fish creature in order to save his mother’s soul from burning in hell.

Manny Wolfe
Director: Trevor Neuhoff
Country: USA; Running Time: 14:50 minutes
It’s 1947. Manny Wolf is an actor exhausted by Tinseltown. He also happens to be a real werewolf. After nonstop rejection, Manny gets a job. Unfortunately, he’s been typecast in a creature feature. Will Manny choose the big Hollywood role at the price of his own dignity and artistic integrity? He thinks that’s his only choice until he receives an unexpected offer from a fellow monster outcast.

The Thaw
Directors: Sarah Wisner. Sean Temple
Country: USA; Running Time: 16:32 minutes
The Thaw is set in the late 19th century in the challenging Vermont hills. Ruth and her aging parents, Alma and Timothy, struggle to subsist on a failing farm after Ruth is abandoned by her unfaithful husband. They turn to a remedy as old as the hills, a sleeping tea that allows the elderly and infirm to sleep out the winter months while frozen and packed in snow, to be safely revived in the spring. But when a storm blows in an early thaw, the ritual is broken, and the sleepers wake too soon – to horrifying results.

NOT AS THEY APPEAR: BLOCK #9

Fishers of Men
Director: Chris Capel
Country: USA; Running Time: 20:07 minutes
A young Mormon missionary at the start of his two years of service is shown the ropes by his well-meaning trainer, who comes to terms with his own failures.

Flattened
Directors: Julia Friedland-Godfrey, Will Abbot
Country: USA; Running Time: 11:25 minutes
Two young women living in the idyllic suburbs of Ohio try and have a good day.

The Musical
Director: Giselle Bonilla
Country: USA; Running Time: 12:00 minutes
Doug Lebowitz, a middle school theater director, decides to take down his ex-girlfriend’s new boyfriend – Principal Brady – by secretly producing a musical about 9/11 to ruin the principal’s school’s precious reputation.

Vintage Lamp Shade
Directors: Gordy De St. Jeor, Jillian Moray
Country: USA; Running Time: 5:52 minutes
Two girls navigate the balance between romantic and platonic nature within female friendship.

AGE OF CHANGE: BLOCK #10

The Bluest Hour
Director: Logan Jackson
Country: USA; Running Time: 14:28 minutes
A young couple spends their first night as parents dealing with the aftermath of a difficult birth.

Hema
Director: Ritvik Dhavale
Country: USA; Running Time: 16:25 minutes
Having recently arrived in America with her husband and son, Hema finds herself culturally displaced and must redefine her identity as a dependent mother. An encounter with a young Marathi man threatens to upend her already fragile existence.

Ripe!
Director: Tusk
Country: USA; Running Time: 18:10 minutes
Nothing says “it’s complicated” like breaking your crush’s arm.

FACADES: BLOCK #11

Hypocrite
Director: Brett Maline
Country: USA; Running Time: 11:05 minutes
A messy, disabled job recruiter in his thirties is constantly between not wanting the extra attention society gives him because of his disability and taking full advantage of it. I mean ya gotta make lemonade out of when you get a titanium rod and eight screws rammed up your back in second grade, am I right, gang? So, while he’s giving advice to his clients to be their best selves, he’s making all the bad decisions as he leans into people’s misplaced perceptions of him.

Ronnie California: The King of Artesia
Director: Adi Kalidindi
Country: USA; Running Time: 17 minutes
Ronnie California, an Indian immigrant who operates an illegal gambling ring out of the back of his failing saree shop, must face the music when the community exposes his shady dealings. Hit with the prospect of losing his business to the IRS, Ronnie goes to great lengths to make ends meet.

Vial
Director: Alexandre Jerard Davis
Country: USA; Running Time: 14:14 minutes
Ken, a parolee on the cusp of reconnecting with his family, finds his future in jeopardy when an impromptu drug test threatens to send him back to prison. Desperate to pass the test, Ken finds an unlikely solution with some help from his dealer: a prosthetic penis able to conceal clean urine. But there’s only one problem: he still needs to find the piss.

THE TROUBLE WITH TECH: BLOCK #12

(Dis)Connected
Director: Karl Stelter
Country: USA; Running Time: 6:32 minutes
2071 – When a network glitch causes Mina to experience conflicting memories, she begs a hacker (Cole) to remove the standardized implant from her neck. Failing the diagnostic, Mina shares that she’d used the implant to rewrite the memory of her daughter’s death, and desperately wants to come to terms with her grief.

Jackpot
Director: Chance Thomas Garcia
Country: USA; Running Time: 9:34 minutes
Jackpot takes place in a dystopian future shaped by vintage American TV culture. The story unfolds as a family—father, mother, and son—watches the government’s nightly lottery game show during dinner. The game’s deadly reality is unveiled when a government official arrives, fatally shooting the father at their doorstep. As the official hands the son a check, it’s revealed that he deliberately chose his father’s name to win the deadly jackpot.

Marvin Is Sorry
Director: Clint Pang
Showrunners: Brett Morrow, Alex Gehrlein, Jack Gacek
Country: USA; Running Time: 24 minutes
After accidentally killing one of his fans during the filming of a YouTube video, famed YouTuber Marvin Weaver must save his career by teaming up with Tag Taggart, an alt-right news anchor bent on cultural domination.

The Pitch is Wac
Director: Stephen Reis
Country: USA; Running Time: 2:10 minutes
Our main character Elika, an Asian-American gamer, game designer, streamer, and gaming industry insider, faces a high-pressure pitch at Wactivision, where her creativity is tested in a head-to-head battle with AI.

Retro-Futuristic Anthology: Ep. “Moscow 33”
Directors: Ashot Gevorkyan, Matvey Stavitsky
Country: Russia; Running Time: 5:30 minutes
In a futuristic Soviet Union an accomplished scientist, who created an AI device that can change the world, is threatened by the government, that is set to get rid of him and use his discovery to control the people.

Individual tickets for the full lineup of screenings and panels for the 2024 PROOF Film Festival are now on sale via americancinematheque.com. Visit the PROOF Film Festival page at americancinematheque.com for more details.

ABOUT PROOF FILM FESTIVAL
PROOF is a short film festival in Los Angeles dedicated to showcasing the best in proof-of-concepts. Providing a highly competitive and unique festival experience, as well as opening the door for fruitful future filmmaking opportunities, PROOF is a one-stop-shop for the newest emerging talent.

ABOUT AMERICAN CINEMATHEQUE
The American Cinematheque believes that cinema is a communal experience with the power to entertain, enlighten and inspire. The organization builds a diverse and engaged film community through immersive film curation, conversation, and presentation. The American Cinematheque works to bridge the filmmaker to the audience and film history to its future. Since it began screening films to the public in 1985, the American Cinematheque has provided diverse film programming and immersive in-person discussions and events with thousands of filmmakers and luminaries, presenting new and repertory cinema to Los Angeles.

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