The 20th Annual HollyShorts Film Festival starts next week on August 8th and runs until August 18th. The festival is Oscar-qualifying, and I will be cheering on our previously featured and festival-selected filmmakers from the sidelines! Below are three video interviews with Jessica Barr (“Tight”), Louisa Connolly-Burnham (“Sister Wives”), and Hanna Gray Organschi (“Merci, Poppy”). I’ve also included some excerpts from my written interview with Andrew Nadkarni about his empowering short “Between Earth & Sky” and the subject of the documentary, biologist Nalini Nadkarni. Learn more about these films and where to get tickets here: https://www.hollyshorts.com/.
Buy tickets to see Jessica’s film “Tight,” as part of the SHOT ON FILM Presented by Kodak program on August 9, at 7:30 PM PDT.
Buy tickets to see Louisa’s film “Sister Wives,” as part of the LGBTQIA+ program on August 9, at 5:00 PM PDT.
Buy tickets to see Hanna’s film “Merci, Poppy,” as part of the STUDENT program on August 13, at 5:00 PM PDT.
Buy tickets to see Andrew’s film “Between Earth & Sky ,” as part of the DOCUMENTARY III program on August 17, at 2:30 PM PDT.
“I started to think about the numerous occasions I had been gaslight within medical settings, when I had advocated my pain and had been told that I didn’t know what I was feeling. My thoughts turned to my Mom, who battled stage 4 breast cancer for 9 years, and the amount of doctors she consulted for a second or third opinion – how crucial it was to get more than one opinion. Contemplating the avenues we navigate during times of crisis and for pleasure, I found myself pondering the significance of being deprived of a coping mechanism – in my case, the role of sex.” – Jessica Barr on “Tight”
Buy tickets to see Jessica’s film “Tight,” as part of the SHOT ON FILM Presented by Kodak program on August 9, at 7:30 PM PDT.
“As research for Sister Wives began, particularly into the community that inspires the film, I couldn’t believe the stories I was reading. Turbulent tales of child marriage, domestic violence, sexual abuse, underage pregnancies; it felt like “The Handmaids Tale”, but real, happening now today in 2024. However, I also read beautiful accounts of forbidden love, brave escapes, families reunited and long
estranged friendships flourishing once more, and to me, love in the most unlikely of places, is love I want to watch.” – Louisa Connolly-Burnham on “Sister Wives”
Buy tickets to see Louisa’s film “Sister Wives,” as part of the LGBTQIA+ program on August 9, at 5:00 PM PDT.
“I approached my film in a spirit of reflection, empathy, and amusement. I was an assistant to strong personalities and my dynamic with each of my bosses was a confluence of respect, frustration, and closeness. I lived for them, which was a frequency of existence that felt at once powerful and self-
shattering. With MERCI, POPPY I sought to give life and depth to Poppy’s subjectivity, to excavate a series of subtle, jolting interactions that force her to see herself. My film poses the very question that it seeks to answer: what is the process by which a young woman becomes herself?” – Hanna Gray Organschi on “Merci, Poppy”
Buy tickets to see Hanna’s film “Merci, Poppy,” as part of the STUDENT program on August 13, at 5:00 PM PDT.
I was so fortunate to speak with world-renowned biologist and epic tree-climber of the rainforests, Nalini Nadkarni. Nalini was brought to my attention through her nephew Andrew Nadkarni’s short film BETWEEN EARTH & SKY. I saw the short during Heartland Film’s Indy Shorts Film Festival this year, and I was blown away by Nalini’s story. Not only was I impressed by her career, I was drawn to her resilience after she took a near-fatal fifty-foot fall out of a tree in 2015. During my interview with Nalini and Andrew, she kept referring to her fall as “the disturbance,” which led me to think of it as an “interruption”. Sometimes we need things in our life to stop us in our tracks so that we can pay more attention to what is around us, and look deeper within ourselves. You could say that COVID was a disturbance to all of our lives, but I also look at it as an interruption. Nalini dubbed her response to “the disturbance” a very hopeful “generative force.” To me, Nalini is living proof of just that, which qualifies her as a superhero in my book. I hope her story will inspire the superhero in all of us.
Read the rest of our interview in THE CALL SHEET here.
Buy tickets to see Andrew’s film “Between Earth & Sky ,” as part of the DOCUMENTARY III program on August 17, at 2:30 PM PDT.
