Updated September 2019 Our 3rd annual film festival event was held July 28th, 3-9 PM, The Bug Theater, 3654 Navajo Street, Denver Colorado 80211. For $5, attendees enjoyed a little over 5 hours’ worth of entertainment. That’s only $1 an hour! Such a deal! Submissions opened July 17, 2019 for #CIAFF2020.
Also, submissions are open for Colorado Intl. SciFi & Fantasy Film Festival #CISFFF2019 and Colorado Intl. Cannabis & Hemp Film Festival #CICHFF2020.. Please note, beginning January 2020, you’ll need to create a free picture profile with AIAFilmmakers in order to become eligible to screen and earn awards. Thanks to our amazing and talented submitters! Here’s the complete 117 Submitters (corrected 8-8-19), PDF. Please note, our judge, Michael, spells his last name with a “c”, Scates. We apologize. If readers encounter the misspelling, please be sure to note this correction.
We screened a sampling of Award, Finalist, Semi-Finalist and Selected shorts & music videos. Also, we screened trailers for some longer selections. Here’s the Event Program, PDF. Here’s the Poster. Here’s an example Awards Certificate, PDF. Learn more. Here’s the current Awards Master (updated 8-11-19) PDF. Here’s INTL Awards, PDF & USA Awards (8-2-19), PDF. Here’s Nominees, PDF. Learn more about Denver’s own totally intimate and eclectic The Bug Theater.
We’re excited to bring to our Denver-based audience some of the magic our team experienced these past months viewing these fantastic creations. As usual, we had to make hard decisions about what to screen this year.
Submitters are automatically enrolled in our “learned society,” Association of International Activist Filmmakers. Your regular donation to AIAFilmmakers can mean the world to so many aspiring activist filmmakers and bring more of these amazing films, music videos and screenplays to Denver!
A big “thank you” to Alex Weimer, Randall Reese, William Briggs, Michael Scates, Edward Neal Chasteen II and Steve Ellmore. Thank you to Scott and Wanda. Thanks to Cory, Russ, Marla, Rene, Cheyenne, Tim, Brett, Marty, Nelda, Diana, Leslie, Chad, Danielle and many more who have helped us over the years. Thanks to everyone we should thank.
Tank Man by Robert Anthony Peters is the story of the iconic gentleman who stood in front of and stopped a line of tanks after the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 4, 1989. All that is known of this man are the images that were recorded of his acts. This film is a speculation of what he went through the day he took his courageous steps 30 years ago.
Blue whales weigh about 300,000 pounds – the approximate weight of plastic that ends up in the ocean every nine minutes! The docshort, Every Nine Minutes, directed by DJ O’Neil & Oliver Hamilton tells the story of how the Monterey Bay Aquarium set out to build a gigantic, 82-foot blue whale out of recycled single-use plastic and display it in front of the Golden Gate Bridge to raise public awareness.
“They commissioned the Building 180 arts consultancy, who brought in Joel Dean Stockdill and Yustina Salnikova to create such a thing. The team had only a vague idea of how to make a life-sized plastic whale, but they said yes.” Read here.
Based on a true story, Hope by Katie Damien explores the tumultuous life of a widow with mental illness who attempts suicide. She survives only to find herself homeless and unable to reconnect with her son. After a year of living in a shelter with no hope of overcoming her situation, she has a chance encounter that changes her life.
For her music video, Daddy’s Home, 80’s rocker Roni Lee draws upon personal experiences and statistics to encourage women to find their voice with this unflinching look at domestic violence. Roni delivers an honest portrayal of a woman in a bad relationship in the video for her new song that re-imagines the lyrics of “Daddy’s Home”
For their music video, LOUD, Felicia Harding and the Salish Sea Singers join with Mark Pedelty and the Hypoxic Punks to raise awareness about noise pollution in, around, and above the Salish Sea of Washington State and British Columbia.
From neuroscience to music to food to blockchain, Nathan Beer is on a never-ending quest to find and facilitate the new frontiers of technology, entertainment, and most importantly social and environmental impact. What happens when a traditional job like fishing stops being sustainable? When trash covers your beaches and chokes local marine life? When primary income sources are threatened? The Bounty for Basura documentary explores one of the key applications for the Ethereum blockchain in redesigning social impact & facilitating the future of work through crowdsourced bounties.
In his documentary short, The Mentor, Dan Holz showcases footage of professional climber Marcus Garcia as he travels from his home in southwest Colorado’s San Juan Mountains to the limestone cliffs and spires of of El Potrero Chico in northern Mexico to revisit his mentor’s final climb. In an emotional and powerful act of closure, he reflects on the accident that took him a decade to talk about—and climbs the route that took his mentor’s life.
From award-winning writer, director, acting teacher, and founder of the international Anthony Meindl’s Actor Workshop (AMAW), with studios in Los Angeles, London, New York, Vancouver, Toronto, Sydney, Santa Fe and Atlanta, Anthony Meindl’s Is This You, Too dramatic short chronicles a woman’s discovery of her unhappiness and existential dread that may come, in part, because of her fear to do anything about changing it.
In Night Light, Jonathan De La Uz and his team of animators bring forward the story of a wide-eyed, newborn sea turtle named Fin who finds himself on the illuminated beaches of Miami.
It is a perilous time to be a hatchling, with hazards of artificial light and debris present at every turn. With the help of Abueluna, his caring, celestial guide, Fin will make the daring trek from his cluttered nest to the open seas.
#CIAFF2019 anticipates submissions from many countries. Activists submit short & feature-length films, screenplays, music/songs, art and photos for consideration by our team of 3-8 judges, which may change seasonally. If you’re interested in helping us rate/judge submissions and/or writing film & music reviews, which we may publish at our websites, please call/text us.
We regret that we are unable to screen all of our official selections. As our festival grows locally in popularity & sponsorship, we hope to invite sponsors, partners, friends and volunteers from the Denver metro and surrounding areas. We hope to screen submissions for up to two weeks at multiple venues. We hope to hold panels and debates.
In bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts by Megan Smith, we first learn from medical doctors about myths surrounding mammography, such as mammograms are “early detection” and “low radiation”.
We hear heart-breaking stories of how this breast cancer diagnostic test helped to tragically change the lives of three female patients. Then we learn the benefits of thermography in conjunction with ultrasound, and how these two painless tests — neither containing radiation — are capable of finding cancer years before a tumor forms, while having up to twice the accuracy of some mammography machines. Finally, we hear from doctors how financial greed played a large part in sending women down this frightful path in the first place.
Colors of Resistance by Areeb Zuaiter is a personal journey that questions the concept of belonging to a place that is struggling to survive, inside and outside its own borders.
A painter, a comedian, a poet, a hip-hop artist and a soul singer have figured out ways to solidify their belonging to Palestine – the very place that is being deprived of its own right to exist. Regardless of their generation, gender or profession, these artists have used their various voices to challenge the annihilation of their identity.
This list (updated 7-23-19), PDF, is not in order of screening. Here’s the screening order, find more in the Event Program, PDF.
1.) 22 Plus One, Sabo – Semi-Finalist 00:04:16, 2.) A House by the Sea, The Heart & the Void – Award 00:04:42, 3.) A Thousand Needs (Trailer) – Award 00:00:35, 4.) Alternative Facts (Trailer) – Award 00:01:58, 5.) Apex Survival Maiden Voyage (Trailer) – Award 00:02:18, 6.) To the Sky, Blue Flamez – Award 00:04:31, 7.) bOObs: The War on Women’s Breasts – Award 00:26:56, 8.) Daddy’s Home, Roni Lee – Award 00:04:59.
The LIST continues: 9.) Different This Year – Award 00:02:28, 10.) Dojo Girl – Finalist 00:12:57, 11.) Euphorium – Semi-Finalist 00:09:53, 12.) Every Nine Minutes – Award 00:04:23, 13.) From Fist to Knee – Finalist 00:05:07, 14.) Gasoline Gasoline, Billiam James – Award 00:02:55, 15.) Grit (Trailer) – Award 0002:06, 16.) High Hopes (Trailer) – Finalist 00:00:34. 17.) What Weee Are Honey Weees – Finalist 00:08:05, 18.) Hope – Award 00:14:23, 19.) I am the Black Woman – Finalist 00:05:08, 20.) Is This You Too? – Award 00:06:22, 21.) Kentucky Windage, Whitewater Ramble – Semi-Finalist 00:05:57, 22.) Legacy: …Black Panthers (Trailer) – Selected 00:03:49, 23.) Loud, Salish Sea Singers & Hypoxic Punks – Award 00:06:18, 24.) Love Them First (Trailer) – Award 00:02:26, 25.) Night Light – Award 00:07:52. 26.) Norman Mineta… (Trailer) Award 00:01:47, 27.) Power Walking, Billiam James – Semi-Finalist 00:01:30, 28.) Second Shot – Award 00:12:04, 29.) Standing Up – Semi-Finalist 00:08:06, 30.) Tank Man – Award 00:14:45, 31.) Teresa: A Story Based on… – Semi-Finalist 00:16:45, 32.) The Bounty for Basura – Award 00:13:22, 33.) The Mentor – Award 00:11:35, 34.) Two Sides – Semi-Finalist 00:09:58, 35.) Uberland (Trailer) – Finalist 00:02:29, 36.) Vigil – Selected 00:08:13. 37.) Waiting Tables, Sakinah Iman – Award 00:03:36, 38.) War Love, Jessica La’Rel – Award 00:05:23, 39.) Warbonnet… – Award 00:12:52, 40.) Crossings…(Trailer) – Semi-Finalist 00:01:04, 41.) The Valley (Trailer) – Award 00:02:24, 42.) The Minds of Men (Trailer) – Award 00:12:52, 43.) Colors of Resistance – Award 00:34:04, 44.) The Truth: Lost at Sea (Trailer) Semi-Finalist 00:02:01.
Plus a few last minute trailers. Thanks for attending our live event on July 28th. Please Donate now to bring more quality activist themes to Denver!
You must be logged in to post a comment.