INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION BLOCK 4 - SEAF 2021
Sunday, November 14, 2021 4:30 PM EST | Run Time : 76 minutes

​Trouble with roommates, Buster Keaton in a dream, a chicken in the suitcase, boring conversations, bears in the woods, a surreal dreamscape, an ode to a loved one, microscopic intruders, a spinning room, observations at a retirement home, a giant cat, tension at mealtime, and a goodbye to an apartment complex.
Coffin
Director - Yuanqing Cai, Nathan Crabot, Houzhi Huang, Mikolaj Janiw, Mandimby Lebon, Théo Tran Ngoc (France)
Time - 5:23
A man comes home and wants to go to bed. A bunch of noisy roommates. A crowded city in southern China.
June Night
Director - Mike Maryniuk (Canada)
Time - 4:00
Avant-garde filmmaker Mike Maryniuk composes a surreal ode to rebirth and reinvention. Juxtaposing archival imagery with handcrafted animation, he conjures up a shimmering utopian dreamscape, a post-COVID world shaped by the primordial forces of nature—haunted by the genial spectre of Buster Keaton.
Homebird
Director - Ewa Smyk (United Kingdom)
Time - 9:55
Struggling to make it in a big city, a young artist finds herself retreating into the rose-tinted memories of the village she left behind.
Small Talk
Director - Christopher Rutledge, Thomas Goulet (USA)
Time - 2:15
Two friends fail to pay attention to one another while they have the most boring conversation imaginable. A short commissioned by Dave Hughes for Adult Swim's "Smalls" program.
Tender Parts
Director - Steven Subotnick (USA)
Time - 5:50
I didn’t know which way home was, nor anything about it.
When the Moon Was Gibbous
Director - Erika Grace Strada (Denmark)
Time - 3:41
The life of a colorful ensemble of beasts is abruptly interrupted by the arrival of a small group of humans that are determined to subdue one of them.
I Find Him In The Weather
Director - Mia Zhou Lorentsen (USA)
Time - 3:34
Through the use of rotoscope and abstract animation, this short film recounts the final moments the director had with her father - and his lasting impact on her life through signs in the weather.
Soup
Director - Karolin Twiddy (Germany)
Time - 7:33
Soup takes us into the microcosm – a parallel world with its own beings, laws and possibilities. This world is invaded by a lot of blue particles. While performing their routines, the microcosms’ inhabitants bump into the intruders, that hold a different fate for each of them. When one of the inhabitants investigates the particle’s source, a change of view reveals their origin.
O
Director - Paul Wenninger (Austria)
Time - 5:00
A dancer as filmmaker refrains from superfluous movement in a villa in Brittany, giving way to an individual as well as social state described by the French philosopher Paul Virilio as "polar inertia". Frame by frame by frame, Paul Wenninger makes the rounds standing still, in an initially completely empty salon, with his back perpetually turned to the walls.
Ecorce
Director - Samuel Patthey , Silvain Monney (Switzerland)
Time - 15:00
In a hidden place, the daily routine of a retirement home unfolds as time seems to stand still. The penciled residents come to life on paper. Some are active, others rest or follow a fixed schedule to be repeated each day: medication, meals, games… Around them, machines are flashing, caregivers are busy and some crucifixes remind them of the death that lies in wait. Time fades away and nearby, stretches a forest.
Mulm
Director - Carol Ratajczak, Tobi Trebeljahr (Germany)
Time - 6:51
Visual trip through the distorting perception of the protagonist. Obsessive physicist in a world of backpackers, observes a distant nucleus sending out impulses. Ragged by the constant noise of his neighbor's cat, which distracts him from his work, he slowly drifts off into madness. In a surreal desert he is confronted with the connections between his neighbor, the cat and the nucleus.
DINNER
Director - Diana Yue Gong (USA)
Time - 1:42
Tension simmers in a strange space called home.​
Bye Little Block!
Director - Éva Darabos (Hungary)
Time - 8:42
A young woman learns that soon she will have to move from the blockhouse flat she lives in. After receiving the upsetting news from the owner of the flat she is overwhelmed with emotions. Her teardrop of farewell grows into a concrete monolith. When the drop hits the ground a surreal panorama of the blockhouse area - she used to call home - unfolds...