SHORT FILM – Gjon Mili Video Art Festival

Dizzy Cavalry

admin — Sun, 10 May 2026 16:02:32 +0000

An 8mm reel of a Hollywood western flickers to life once more. As the first call of the bugle rings out, the cavalry charges—swift and chaotic—while the film strains to keep pace. It ripples, trembles and tangles, caught in the chaos of gunfire and the thunder of galloping hooves.

Director Biography – Patrick Doyon

Patrick Doyon is a director based in Montreal, Canada. Its first professional film Sunday (2011) garnered honours on the international festival circuit as well as being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Animated Short. He studied graphic design and he is sharing his time between illustration and animation. Many of his works have been awarded in various competitions: Art Directors Club, Society of Illustrators, Communication Arts, Applied Arts and Arte Laguna Prize have all highlighted the quality of his artwork. In 2015, he received the prestigious Governor General’s Literary Award for his illustrated book “Le Voleur de sandwichs”. Alongside his artistic practice, he teaches animation at UQAM School of Design.

Director Statement

Dizzy Calvary is an experimental short film animated frame by frame under the camera. The 8mm reel becomes both subject and surface — reacting to and interacting with the moving images previously inscribed on it. The chaos of the battlefield disrupts the projection’s stability and clarity, blurring the line between medium and message.
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Cavalerie étourdie est un court métrage expérimental, animé image par image sous la caméra. La pellicule 8mm devient à la fois sujet et surface — réagissant et interagissant avec les images en mouvement qui y ont été inscrites. Le chaos du champ de bataille perturbe la stabilité et la clarté de la projection, brouillant la frontière entre médium et message.

Né una né due

admin — Sun, 10 May 2026 16:00:14 +0000

A girl called Elena finds after a long time the notebook of her maternal grandmother, Laura. She flips through it for the first time and through those pages she sees her grandmother’s life again. Once she reaches the end, Elena recalls a childhood episode in which Laura had revealed to her that if one has a great desire it must be confided to the paper of a notebook to make it come true. As a child she had believed that story and immediately had done so. Now 25 years old, Elena no longer remembers her past wish but now has a new one, to remember Laura.

Director Biography – Lucia Catalini

Lucia Catalini was born in Rimini on 5 May 1998. She studied scenography at the Brera Academy of Fine Arts in Milan where she graduated in 2021. She then attended the illustration course at ISIA Urbino where she graduated in 2024, making an animated short film entitled Né una né due. During the animation course at ISIA she made her first short film entitled Cotone in 2023.

The Couch

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 11:03:31 +0000

Aura is an aging Albanian woman living with her husband, while their daughter studies abroad. Her world is held together by routines, suspicions, and one object she trusts more than anything: her couch.
When it is sold behind her back, Aura treats it as a rupture in reality itself and sets out to fix it. The couch now sits with an old Roma man who has chosen it as the place to die and refuses to move.
None of them is willing to let it go. Aura’s husband arrives, a chainsaw appears, and the couch is split in two. Buried money spills out, mostly worthless. Things spiral quickly out of control.

Director Biography – Enxhi Rista

Enxhi Rista was born in Albania. She studied Film and TV Directing at UNATC in Bucharest; then she followed the master’s degree in Film Production, and in 2023 she completed her PHD thesis called “Poetics and aesthetics in Albanian and Balkan cinematography”.
Short films directed by her: “He loves my eyes” awarded with Gopo Award for Best Short Documentary in 2020 in Romania, “Padre”, “Capoeira”, “Dry water”, “Realscope”.

Director Statement

The Couch is about our attachment to the past and the illusion of safety it promises. At its center is Aura, but the film unfolds as an ensemble, where her daughter, her husband, a conspiracy theorist, an uneasy historical past, and the local Roma community all carry equal weight in shaping the film world and its conflicting perspectives.
Through this structure, the film looks at personal, generational and community dynamics and the ways fear and events we didn’t choose shape how we move through the present. Aura channels her anxieties and desires into the couch, an ordinary object that becomes both a source of comfort and an emotional trap.
Absurdity sits at the core of the film, entangled with a dark humor that grows out of paranoia and a constant sense of threat. Conspiracy thinking becomes a filter through which reality shifts, pushing characters further apart and intensifying their conflicts.
The camera stays close to the tension between the characters, allowing the absurd to build gradually within a recognizable reality. The tone moves along the edge between dark comedy and drama, where the familiar begins to feel slightly off without losing its sense of truth.
The Couch is about how far we’re willing to go to hold things together, and what happens when we finally stop being afraid to let go.

Film Noir

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 10:53:03 +0000

After calling Emergency saying she doesn’t remember where she is, a woman roams through the São Paulo night in search of fragments of her memory, as reality and recollection merge in a whirlwind of confusion and fear.

Director Biography – RODRIGO PIRES

Rodrigo Pires is a São Paulo–based filmmaker, writer, art director, and photographer. He holds degrees in Film Directing (Academia Internacional de Cinema) and Photography (SENAC) and is currently specializing in Screenwriting (SENAC).

Rodrigo has been working in film since 2016. His photographic work has been exhibited in group shows such as Tempo (Galeria Plexi, 2019) and the Tiradentes Photography Festival Projection (2024). In 2020, he released the independent zine Filmes Que Nunca Existirão Vol. 1, blending experimental analog photography with literary poetry.

Rodrigo served as assistant director for the short film A Natureza (The Nature, Rodrigo Ribeyro), selected for the Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival 2024. He was also the production designer for the independent short film and manifesto Ode Ao Skate (2026).

He has worked as an art assistant, set decorator, and prop master for several music videos, TV commercials, short films, and other audiovisual productions, especially while working at famous MTV-born video production company and clothing brand Bolovo Productions®. Rodrigo has been involved in works with Havana Club, Jeep, McDonald’s, Chevrolet, Jägermeister, Brazilian telecommunication giant Vivo, etc.

In 2025, he worked in content production and still photography for Boiler Hub, a São Paulo–based group of film production companies specialized in advertising and commercials. In 2026, he will release his first short film, Film Noir, for which he is credited with production, screenwriting, direction, and additional editing.

Director Statement

Film Noir started as an advertisement for a film developing Laboratory. The client wanted a clip that could show the latitude and the possibilities of developing and scanning super 8 film in their store. I was invited because of my experience in film photography and writing. The plot came from a short story I wrote in college, under the influence of lots of Brazilian cinema marginal, French neo-noirs, Italian giallos, American thrillers, etc. The research and pre-production of the short film took about 10 months, which led the client to quit.

The film explores the unfortunately timeless story of a woman in danger. FILM NOIR is a night film shot on Super 8 Kodak Film on the streets of São Paulo with absolutely no funding other than a raffle I put together selling some photography equipment, which paid for the film rolls and processing. Brazilian motion picture film supplier and only official Kodak re-seller Runner Filmes has supported the film paying for the shipping of the rolls. The rest was paid from my personal account, including a symbolic fee of R$200 per member of the crew.

I wanted to make FILM NOIR my first film because it is a love letter to independent filmmaking and genre films. It also brings a narrative I wish was more popular, empowering women, showing them as the noirs used to – as dangerous.

The film comes forward in a time of feminist rebellion against a wave of so-called passionate crime feminicides in Brazil. The movement was named Mulheres Vivas (Alive Women).

It also refflects on the crime of roofying (date rape drug), sexual abuse and violence, crimes of which Ms. Gisele Pelicot was an emblemmatic victim and became a hero as she shared her story with the world. In November 2024 a Telegram ‘rape chat groups’ with up to 70k members was uncovered in Europe, where men would exchange information on how to drug women, where to buy the drugs, etc. This was only in one group that happened to be discovered. Women and minorities are still in danger in the year 2026. What is expected for the next generations to come in a time of incels, redpills, 4chan, MAGA (let’s not forget “your body my choice” going viral when Trump was reelected)?

Andrea Dworkin once wrote: “Women must harden their hearts, and learn to kill”. As women in social media use to say here, “da cadeia, você sai. Do caixão, não.” (You can get out of jail but you can’t get out of a coffin.)

The film is dedicated to Gisele Pelicot and all victims of abuse of any kind.

ANIMA

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 02:03:43 +0000

ANIMA – Synopsis

In a world stripped of noses and mouths, breath and voice have vanished, and memory dissolves into silence.
A child drifts through shifting visions—between monochrome and color, where faces, flowers, and towering figures transform like living symbols.
Dream merges with waking, reality blurs into imagination, as if searching for a self long forgotten.
ANIMA unfolds as a visual fable of absence and renewal, a poetic ode to perception itself.

Director Biography

启迪（Tyler QDurden），Director’s Biography
Tyler QDurden is a Shanghai-based photographer and cross-media creator. His practice spans photography, short films, and animation, exploring the intersections of reality and illusion, as well as the fluidity of perception and consciousness. Known for a poetic yet experimental visual language, his work seeks to reveal hidden connections between individuals and the world. His representative works include the photography series , the short film , and the animated film .

Dear Kevin

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 01:56:50 +0000

A desire for connection compels a woman to realign with her true self.

Director Biography – Kate Ferguson

Kate Ferguson (USA) is a writer, filmmaker, and analog photographer who has lived and worked in Los Angeles and Mexico City. Her multidisciplinary practice is rooted in an appreciation for the threshold moments where transformation occurs and realities blur.

Atelier Garel

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 01:51:24 +0000

When the artist is not there, his works speak for him. If we sneak in the workshop of French sculptor and painter Philippe Garel, in a stunning Normandy landscape, paintings and sculptures are almost living, and sure have some things to say…

Director Biography – Thomas Lallier

“ Internet of everything ” – (Upian/Eye Steel) – 2020
Webdocumentaire 5×8’ – diffusion Arte.tv
Co-direction episodes 3/5 et 4/5 of the webdocumentary by Brett Gaylor about internet of things.
FIPADOC 2021

“ Motus Corporum Memor ” – (Les Films Jack Fébus) – 2018
Short 10’ – broadcasted on Culture Box (FR)
Choreography by Angelin Preljocaj for Monuments en Mouvements series
On Art – Warsaw, Poland 2019 / San Francisco Dance Film Festival – 2019 / Portland Dance Film Festival – USA 2019 / Thessaloniki Cinedance International – Greece 2019

“ Tour Paris 13 ” – (La Blogothèque/Mirage illimité/L.Bernard) – 2016
Transmedia Project : interactive and collaborative website, documentary 52’ et 74’
52’ version: broadcasted on France Ô/TV Globo / Urban Film Festival – Paris 2015 / Meeting of Styles – Perpignan 2015
75’ version: Festival international du Film de Varsovie – Poland 2016 / Cabo Verde IFF – Cabo Verde 2016 : Best film / Leeds IFF – UK 2016 / Master of Art FF – Sofia, Bulgaria 2017 : Best documentary in contemporary art, intallation art, protest art / Grenoble Street Art Fest – France / Aroha Nui FF – New Zealand 2017

“ Alger, Climat de France ” – (S.Couturier/ T.Lallier/Mirage illimité) – 2016 Experimental documentary 36’ codirected with Stéphane Couturier

“ And We Made The Room Shine ” – (La Blogothèque / T.Lallier / F.Clos) – 2014
Musical experimental documentary 45’ codirected with François Clos
Viennale – Vienne 2013 / Festival du court métrage – Clermont-Ferrand 2014 / Brussels Film Festival – 2014

“ À Laduz ” – (Belleville Board of Filmmakers / Mirage Illimité) – 2014 Documentary short 17’45
Family Film Project – Porto, Portugal 2016

“ Almost China ” – (T.Lallier / A.Mayer / Belleville Board of Filmmakers) – 2013
Documentary essay – 47’
Festival Soleluna – Palermo 2013 / Anthropology UBC FF – Vancouver 2014 / Tripoli FF – Tripoli, Liban 2014 : Best long documentary

“ Controversy (at Alagar Koil) ” – (Belleville Board of Filmmakers) 2013
Documentary short 7’30
Traces de Vies – Clermont-Ferrand 2013 / Lago FF – Lago, Italie 2014 / Roma Cinema Doc – 2016 Shorts Off FF – UK 2016 / NYC Short Documentary FF – USA 2016 / Pune Short FF – Pune, India 2016 MiniMovies FF – USA 2016 / Golden Reel International Underground FF – Ulan Bator, Mongolia 2016

“ Træna, le son du Nørsk ” – (La Blogothèque / Arte Live web / T.Lallier) 2012 Interactive documentary 40′

“ Skateboard Stories ” (No One/Arte) – 2011
TV documentary 52’ – broadcasted on Arte/TV5 Monde/TSR
Public Domaine – Gaîté Lyrique – Paris 2011 / Skate this @rt – Poitiers 2011

“ Bruno Peinado ” (Image et Compagnie) – 2010 TV documentary 26’ – broadcasted on Arte Festival du Livre d’Art et du Film – Perpignan 2011

“ Le bestiaire de Quentin Garel ” (Mirage Illimité) – 2006 Documentary 25’ codirected with Alyssa Verbizh and Myrha Verbizh Festival International du Film sur les Métiers d’Art – Montreuil 2016

“ Propriété privée ” (Mirage Illimité) – 2005
Documentary 54’ – broadcasted on Télésonne/Forum des Images
Aux Écrans du Réel, Le Mans – France 2007 : Prix du public Concours du premier doc / Mois du film documentaire, Villeurbanne – France 2010

HYPATIA OF ALEXANDRIA -the solitary bee-

admin — Thu, 07 May 2026 01:36:27 +0000

A philosopher like Aristotle, Hypatia of Alexandria tried to understand Nature ,in it’s entirely! Too much of a free spirit, she was murdered by christian mob in 415 AD. In the 20 th century she became a Feminist icon and a symbol for women’s rights.

Director Biography – ERWAN LE GAL

Erwan Le Gal . born 12 oct 1968.
Director of short animated film.

The drunken boat ( student film . 1994. 16mm). 3MN . 16mm.
Tears of the Little Prince ( 1996 / 8m, / 16mm).
Flowers and Butterflies ( 1998 . 6mn . 35mm ).
The Poem of the sea ( 2004 . 16mn . 35mm).
A Muscial Lifetime Allegro ( 2014. 3MN . NB. HD).
The forest of the honey bees ( 2024. 20MN . HD).
The Queen of Egypt ( sept 2024 / 6mn 35sec / HD).
Hypatia of Alexandria , the solitary bee ( 2026 . 13mn . HD).

Shards of absence

admin — Wed, 06 May 2026 21:34:52 +0000

A young woman finds the courage to confront the absences preserved within her memory, inhabiting an empty house suspended in time. In this place of loss, the trace of a presence still survives. Through the realm of dreams, she encounters a woman from her past, still alive in her pure essence. By allowing herself to be crossed by the pain of mourning, she returns to her life with renewed awareness. In a symbolic resurrection, she emerges from the cold, no longer alone.

Director Biography – Margherita Bagnara

Born and raised on the Tuscan coast, Margherita Bagnara developed a passion for cinema during high school, watching countless films to escape the boredom of provincial life. She worked as a photographer for a Rome-based film magazine for five years, and in 2021 she decided to combine her background in photography with her love for cinema by attending the Cinematography course at Shot Academy.
Since 2022, she has been working on film sets in the camera department, specializing in analog film. At the same time, she began writing her own screenplays and nurturing a passion for directing, aiming to tell her stories through the expressive power of images as her primary means of communication.

Director Statement

“Shards of Absence” stems from reflections on the complex feeling of losing a loved one who is still physically present but gradually fading away. In 2022 my grandmother, a central figure in my life, developed senile dementia. Little by little, the traits that had defined her personality disappeared, and although she was still there in front of me, something essential seemed to have vanished. This created a profound sense of absence that I experienced not only emotionally but also physically, as a sudden weight in my stomach that returned almost every day.

While thinking again about this feeling in 2025, I remembered a poem from one of my favorite collections, La tigre assenza by Cristina Campo. From there my mind began to wander, and I imagined an allegorical space representing the place in the mind where absence settles. I pictured it as a house that belongs to no one anymore, its furniture covered with white sheets, frozen in time. The only place still alive is the bed—the place where dreams can emerge. In the film, the protagonist lies down and falls asleep. In her dream she encounters the beloved figure she has lost, and the two begin a dance in which their gestures gradually merge. Through this encounter, absence becomes a space that can still contain life, memory, and transformation.

I drew inspiration from silent cinema and experimental films of the 1940s, seeking to create something surreal and slightly feverish, as if it were the record of a dream—like a dusty Super 8 reel forgotten in a drawer and rediscovered by chance. The direction aims to evoke a suspended sense of time, similar to the logic of dreams, where objects and details become symbols through which the unconscious communicates something about ourselves.

The original score was born from a series of improvisations created by the composers while watching the silent film, following its emotional flow. The music contributes to shaping an atmosphere of mystery and emotional intensity, helping to transform the viewing into a sensory experience.

The film was written, shot, developed at home, and edited during an intense creative burst. Created with a small crew of passionate and talented women, the project embraces a handcrafted approach: many stages were carried out manually on physical film, reconnecting with a cinematic practice that I believe is essential to keep alive, human, and pulsating.

Through the making of this film, I attempted to inhabit absence rather than escape it. In doing so, I found a way to transform the first great loss of my life into an image, and perhaps into a small gesture of reconciliation with it.

Three Makes Unicon

admin — Wed, 06 May 2026 15:30:01 +0000

The title comes from a Korean idiom “삼인성호(三人成虎)”, which means that it only takes three men to fabricate false rumour to truth. The film explores how crowd psychology and public opinion can transform suspicion into certainty. Repeated rumors and collective lies transformed accusations about an innocent person into “truth,” ultimately leading to a witch hunt.
The initial victim is a mono-eyed gentleman, Mr. Anyone. Once a man of judgment, he is dragged down and judged by the very crowd he belonged to. Anyone who turns their eye away from truth or conscience can become a target at any time.
The secondary victim is a man who has the golden bell of truth, Mr. Someone. Even within an easily manipulated crowd, there is always someone who questions what is happening. However, he is quickly sacrificed, as he is only a single, vague voice that no one truly listens to. Because only Mr. No-one agreed with him, Mr.Someone, too, became a scapegoat. Someone who dares to disrupts the order of the majority is quickly silenced.
We must question ourselves. Who is the hypocrite, and who is not? Who is guilty and who is innocent?

Director Biography – Hye Gun Lee

Gun Lee is a visual communicator and graphic designer based in Seoul, Korea. Growing up in a family rooted in law and Christianity, she naturally developed a passion for discussing topics such as justice and hegemonic frameworks. Her interests lie in human nature itself. She loves exploring the beauty of the human body and its complex mind, particularly the irrationality of double standards.
Studied BA sculpture in Seoul National University and achieved her MA at the Royal College of Art, UK in experimental visual communication. She is now based in Seoul, teaching as a part-time lecturer at the Kookmin University.

Director Statement

Gun Lee’s paintings are created spontaneously, like a waltz between the artist and the models. She focuses on capturing unrefined emotions with unfiltered lines, using charcoal and traditional Korean oriental ink. The lines are raw and unembellished, resembling a spoken manifesto. Once a stroke is made, it cannot be undone or adjusted. Every breath and stroke flows like a monologue, tracing the body and muscles in motion.