2014 Red Rock Film Festival

Documentary shorts produced by five different college students. Films include: Last Stop in Santa Rosa (5 min.) + Raising the Bar (21 min.) + Gaia (9min.) + Understated, Overstepped (16 min.) + Unconditional (26 min.)

Gaia
(USA) 9 min. (2013) Experimental Documentary Short
DIR Adam Nawrot CAST Kevin Psarianos, Amos Mincin, Steve  Gadd, Carolyn Psarianos, Buzz Rudderow, Dave Borger, Paul Fourounjian
Beneath our feet, this film follows a group of cavers pursuing primordial truth as they descend into the womb of the earth and traverse her hidden passages. "Gaia" mixes the spoken word with visuals from a seldom seen world to create a meditative non-narrative piece.Gaia is filmed in the caves beneath central Pennsylvania. The work is largely a collaboration with poet Eleanor Wilner (Juniper Prize, two Pushcart Prizes, and fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and the MacArthur Foundation) who's reading of her poem 'Bat Cave' serves as the backbone of the piece.

Last Stop in Santa Rosa
(USA) 5 min. (2014) Collegiate Documentary Short-Short
DIR Elizabeth Lo CAST Gail Pope, Richard Pope
An elderly couple who runs a hospice for dying animals questions the ethics of pet euthanasia. Old animals that would have normally been put down are given a chance to live out the rest of their lives - but they must also endure the trials of aging. Through the struggles of a blind shepherding dog, and a wheelchair-bound Chihuahua, difficult questions come to the fore: were these elderly, disabled animals meant to live? At the brink of death, there are no easy answers.

Raising the Bar
(USA) 21 min. (2013) Collegiate Documentary Short
DIR Lindsey Dumont CAST Jason Sturm
Jason Sturm had a life and career planned in the US military; but everything changed when a combat training accident took his leg. Finding community and rehabilitation in the extreme-intensity world of CrossFit training, Raising the Bar follows Jason as he pursues his dream of going back to school, opening his own gym, and shaping a life committed to helping other adaptive athletes regain fitness and health.

Unconditional
(USA) 26 min. (2014) Collegiate Documentary Short
DIR  Hanna  Teachey, Rhonda Chan Soo, Kelly McKenna CAST Sara and Julie, "Catherine"
"Unconditional" explores how second-parent adoption laws harm children and parents in same-sex families.  A second-parent adoption, for an unmarried couple, allows a 'second parent' to adopt their partner's biological or adoptive child without the legal parent losing their parental rights. The film follows two North Carolina families as they navigate the legal system and fight to obtain legal parental-child bonds. Watch them rise up and persevere against a legal system that fails to protect them.

Understated, Overstepped
(USA) 16 min. (2013) Collegiate Documentary Short
DIR Gabriella Huggins
Is it a term of camaraderie, a slang toward reclamation, or a phrase to be remembered in infamy? As the sound and sense of the 'N-word' changes among young people today, what is happening to our connections to the past, our understanding of the present, and our perceptions of race as we move forward? 'Understated, Overstepped' explores the past and present realities of the 'N-word', discussing the lines blurred.