Film

Urban Exposure Independent Film Project Screening. Come watch these talented group of young artists as they screen their latest project for the first time.

Urban Exposure offers film programs highlighting the fundamentals of film-making, writing, directing, acting for film & editing for local students.

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Urban Exposure Premiere is on the 22nd at the Figge Art Museum.

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The reception starts at 5:30, the films start at 6:30

Coming Out Straight depicts a flipped world in which the norm is to be homosexual. It follows Janelle as she comes out as heterosexual to friends, family, and peers within 24 hours. The story is about acceptance and being true to yourself, no matter how difficult.

Director Biography - Paris Davis
Paris Davis is a high school senior, aspiring film director, and the oldest sibling of three. A proud bookworm, and movie lover who hopes to have a successful directing career one day.

Director Statement
I am a high school senior, aspiring film director, and the oldest sibling of three. I'm proud bookworm and movie lover who hopes to have a successful directing career one day.

Short
Runtime:10 minutes 3 seconds

Hopeless romantic Casey details the events of the twisted, brief, love affair that has distanced her from her "boyfriend" Allen.

Director Biography - Amber Krieg & Caroline Breitbach
Amber Krieg and Caroline Breitbach are currently students at Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa pursuing degrees in Media Studies. A Love Affair (in Brief) is the first short film they have collaborated on.

Short, Student
Runtime:4 minutes 14 seconds

A young dancer is troubled by her own shadow self as she journeys through physical and psychological landscapes.

Director Biography - Seth D. Myers, Sarah Stolar

Seth David Myers is an artist, filmmaker, & educator who lives in Dubuque, Iowa. He received his MFA in New Genres specializing in time-based media from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2003. Myers’ creative work ranges from experimental video to short films to large scale video installations. His work is driven by personal inquiries into social behavior and psychological space. His award winning video work has exhibited and screened internationally at film festivals and venues that include the Museum of Modern Art in Moscow, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Rome, and Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He is currently an Associate Professor of Media Studies at Loras College and considers himself a creative recluse.

Sarah Stolar is an interdisciplinary artist and art educator who lives in the Santa Fe, New Mexico. Working from a strong psychological and female perspective, the breadth of her work includes painting, drawing, multi-media installation, film, video and performance art. Selected visual art and performance exhibitions include Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe; the Donau Festival, Krems, Austria; Anti- Contemporary Art Festival, Kuopio, Finland; 53rd Venice Biennale; and a solo exhibition of drawings at the Bohemian Gallery & Museum of Contemporary Art in Montevideo, Uruguay and the Harwood Museum of Art in Taos. A committed art educator for over a fifteen years, Sarah serves on the AP College Board and other academic committees and is currently the Chairperson of the Art Department at the University of New Mexico - Taos.

John Spencer is an award winning filmmaker, photographer, and freelance videographer who specializes in production and post-production work. Most recently, his documentary “The Art of Living” screened on Iowa Broadcast Television as part of the Film Lounge series and has screened in many national festivals. In addition, he has worked with writers, musicians, brands, and artists delivering dynamic content for multiple platforms. A recent graduate of Loras College receiving a BA in Media Studies, John won numerous awards including student Emmys in journalism, documentary filmmaking, and short film. His most recent works “Curdled” and “The Art of Living” were highlights of the Julien International Film Festival. Fascinated by the correlation between sounds and visuals, he creates immersive environments by incorporating the two seamlessly in his work.

The group's collaborative efforts have garnered immediate attention on an international level. Orientation, a short experimental dance video, was selected to screen at the International Screendance Festival Freiburg in Germany in June 2019. In addition, the video series Ribbons 1-6 was recently won Best Experimental and Best Cinematography at Central States Indy Filmfest in Illinois, and will be part of the single-channel video program at Currents New Media Festival in Santa Fe also in June 2019. 

Experimental, Short
Genres:Dance, experimental
Runtime:18 minutes 27 seconds

'Placenta et al' (the video) begins with my relationship to Gwen's song. 'Unfiltered here' she says. 'Luscious real ness' For me she is calling attention to the real. But a polymorphous real where change is the truth and that change is at once beautiful, raw, savage and cyclical.

In my own work, I am drawn conceptually to ideas about change and particularly, the minutea of change that I see as the process of relationship. Here, I wanted to pull back from that conceptual realist instinct and as I was making continually ask myself; If I step thru that real into the sublime without thinking too much about it... Where will it lead?

Making this video happened during a particularly before/after time in my life. Relationships changed. People I loved died and as I worked on this piece the echo of a before was always reverberating into my new now and I wondered how this now would spill back into and affect that past. It felt very appropriate and very healing to channel those emotions into the work and each frame has a piece of this moment burned into it. I'll always consider the process of making it as a gift I was lucky to have and I'll cherish revisiting that gift over the years.

Director - Charles Borowicz

Music Video
Runtime:5 minutes 10 seconds

A down-on-his-luck man heads out for a bike ride adventure in the woods. His bad luck continues as he finds himself lost with no food, no water, and nothing but himself and the wilderness...until strange things start happening. Is there someone out there with him or is dehydration playing tricks on his mind?

Director Biography - Courtney Grawe

Courtney Grawe was born and raised in the Quad Cities Area of the midwest. She graduated from Pleasant Valley High School, Bettendorf, IA and this is where her passion for film truly began. Courtney currently works in the service industry as a bartender, but on the sidelines she takes on the challenges of the film industry as a director, writer, cinematographer, and more.

Short
Genres:thriller, suspense, horror, slasher, survival
Runtime:17 minutes 34 seconds

Based out of Des Moines, Mike Gustafson makes custom motorcycles as MONNOM Customs. Mike's love for motorcycles paired with his craftsmanship and vision helped to create MONNOM's unique builds. DELINEATION is an exploration of how Mike's love for all types of riding evolved into building and creating custom cafe racers.

Director Biography - Bruce Bales

Bruce James Bales in a native Iowan living and working in Des Moines. As a Cinematographer and Director, Bruce is able to keep a cohesive vision throughout the entirety of a project. Through documentary film, Bruce explores the importance of creativity, community, and balance. DELINEATION is his first documentary as a director/cinematographer, followed by the forth coming GIVE WHAT YOU CAN GIVE.

Director Statement
For DELINEATION we wanted to take a different approach to the world of motorcycles. Focusing on Mike Gustafson's MONNOM Customs, we found it easy to gravitate toward's the stories of Mike's youth growing up in rural Iowa. The freedoms he felt while riding as a kid translate into his design. DELINEATION is a closer look at craftsmanship and how one forms their own style.

Documentary
Runtime:9 minutes 55 seconds

A documentary meeting some of the most infamous Florida Men that make the viral news headlines.

Morgan, a high school student, preparing for college wants to be a writer. However, her parents want her to choose a different path merely for financial security. Morgan wants to be happy, but her parents think she's taking too much of a risk.

Director Biography - Vanessa Banks

Vanessa Banks is a high school senior involved in theater and film. She has worked on over 8 film projects and plans on continuing her passion past her college career. She hopes you like her film as much as she is proud of it.

Short
RT: 7 min 31 seconds

A brief glimpse into the mind of a young woman struggling to move on while still carrying the pain of loss. This non-linear story pieces together fragmented memories in an abstract world of sight and sound as we see Katie delve deep into existential dread and substance abuse.

Director  -  Jonathan Quigley

Experimental, Short, Student

Genres:Abstract, Surreal, Conceptual

Runtime:10 minutes 45 seconds

This video tries to poetize mixed concepts of the biological past, present, and future realities through an animated presentation.

The video is inspired initially by one past exhibition in 2012 in the Wellcome Collection in London. The topic of the exhibition is “Superhuman”, and it explored the extraordinary ways people have sought to improve, adapt and enhance their bodies’ performance. The idea of the video Do Not Drink Water From Electronic Ocean is to imagine how human biology will develop in future, at the same time the past circuits and brings everything back to form a big cycle of lives. The video uses references from different resources. One of the ideas comes from professor Yuval Noah Harari’s assumption: “humans will become God-like cyborgs within 200 years”. The video pictures futuristic scenarios from reproducing historical paintings. And actors in the video have a special makeup to make them look like cyborg humans. 
The title of the video implies a dystopian opinion that the nature of life was polluted by wastes from electronics manufacturing.

Director - Xiaoqing Sun

Director Statement
My recent experiments with 3D digital modeling and computer-generated imageries reveal my understanding of digitalization in artmaking.

I have studied fine art in my undergraduate degree and worked with mixed media including oil paintings, ceramics, metal and etc. Collaging different materials was a way I could visualize abstract ideas and concepts. I use different 3D programs to make digital simulations and graphics in the same way as I did with using oil painting and sculptures. I recreate contemporary scenarios and try to visualize reality in a very philosophical and also visionary style.

This film depicts a process of mimicry, destruction, and recombination that distills form out of void.

Experimental, Music Video, Student
Runtime:5 minutes 56 seconds

When Corey opens a package addressed to his girlfriend, he finds himself in a situation that must be handled with care.

Director Biography - Eric Lang

Eric found his desire to be a filmmaker around the age of 10 when he bought his first camcorder and started making home movies with friends. He then turned his passion into a medium for school projects and continued to throughout his high school career. Working as a movie theatre projectionist, he attended a local community college studying Video/Audio Communications, but later focused on a full-time job and working on local productions as a grip/electrician intern and production assistant. Eric has made three short films to date; The Memory of Martin Fugue (2015), Strange Terrain (2016), and Go (2017). He continues to develop his skills as a filmmaker with future projects of his own and as a freelance videographer in the Omaha area.

Short
Runtime:12 minutes

Set against the Iowa farmlands, KNEE HIGH follows Calvin Melbourne as he struggles to keep hold of the reins to the family farm while still making time for his young son, Avery.

Director Biography - Marissa Vonn

Born and raised in the Midwest, Marissa Vonn used her experiences growing up to shape this film. She has nearly 15 short films and 2 series to her name and plans to keep the momentum going through 2019.

Director Statement
This film was written to be made with a bunch of friends on a little farm in Iowa. We had so much fun making it and can't wait to share it with audiences!

Short
Genres:Drama, Family
Runtime:13 minutes 50 seconds

Age is a look into the lives of three teenagers as they go about their night, killing time. It explores the baggage that comes along with being a teenager, as well as the struggles and pressure that builds when faced with growing up and coming of age.

Short
Runtime:6 minutes 45 seconds

Director - Copper Harrision
 

For many people, young adult life is a time of discovery and exploring who they are. In What Have I Done, Sam has the opposite problem and begins losing herself to partying, and reckless behavior and none of her friends want to help her.

Director - Angel Reighard

Short
RT: 6 min 40 seconds
 

A cyborg woman risks everything to rescue her daughter - her clone - from a dystopian industrial facility. Somewhere between past and future, between truth and artifice, Orchid is a complex and boundary-pushing metacinematic study in the sci-fi genre. An ultra-low-budget film created from scratch by a cast and crew of women of queer and immigrant experience.

Director Biography - Marit Mei-tsan Stafstrom

Marit Mei-tsan Stafstrom is a Brooklyn-based filmmaker and artist. She is currently enrolled in Bard College's MFA program in Film/Video. Her short films Orchid (2019) and The Bridge (2018) have received awards at numerous festivals worldwide. Marit works within and beyond the structures of narrative film, creating cinematic artworks immersed in themes of transformation: of body, consciousness, medium, nature and time.

Director Statement
ORCHID (2018/9, PA, USA) was shot on a minimal crowdfunded budget and completed in the span of only four months. The film's DIY production embraces the defiantly amateur techniques of the French New Wave, deploying the familiar genre tropes of classic sci-fi cinema (from Alphaville to Stalker) to explore much deeper questions involving truth and fiction; immigration and otherness; and the nature of the cinematic apparatus.

The film was written, directed and produced by artist Marit Mei-tsan Stafstrom, and shot with a radical crew consisting of entirely women, queer/trans people, and people of color. 20% of all proceeds from ticket sales and festival awards will be donated to organizations protecting immigrant rights.

Orchid draws critically from 115 years of film history to create an entirely new thesis (or manifesto) on the medium, its genres, its radical possibilities.

Short, Student

Genres: Sci-Fi, Science Fiction, Essay Film, Short Film, Narrative Fiction, Student Film
Runtime:13 minutes 13 seconds

An experimental dance project that explores the relationship between time, space, dance, and music. This was the first of it's kind to combine choreographed dance, hyperlapse presentation, and dramatic camera movement. The piece shows how a person's interpretation of time can affect their perception of movement.

Director Biography - P Sam Kessie, Lane M Wooder

Co-Director P Sam Kessie 
Emerging filmmaker and artist P. Sam Kessie has years of experience working as a director, producer, writer, set designer and photographer on films, documentaries, and music videos, having had her work exhibited across the United States, Europe, and Africa through her production company, Sankofa Pictures.

Her documentary, 'Zoom Zoom: The Professor', which follows the career of renowned Ghanaian world boxing champion Azumah Nelson, screened at the 2011 National Geographic Society's Women Hold Up Half The Sky Film Series. 'Routine' - her short film supported by South African production company Spier Films - was an official selection at the Zanzibar International Film Festival and Carthage Film Festival in 2015.

As an alumna of the 2016 Berlinale Talent and 2012 Durban Talent, Kessie has participated with her directorial debut project, 'Unbalanced', for development at the 2012 1st Produire au Sud Script Studio in Durban, the 2014 Open Doors Co-production Market at Locarno Film Festival, and the 6th Durban FilmMart at the 2015 Durban International Film Festival.

Since 2016 until the present, her experimental works in dance and movement using cinematic tools have been broadcasted on Iowa Public Access Television’s The Film Lounge and screened at the Carthage Museum and Cambodia Film Festival.

Kessie, currently an MFA candidate at the University of Iowa, lives and works across the US, Europe and Africa.

Co-Director Lane M Wooder 
Lane entered the world of film and video production in 2002, where his work ethic, leadership skills, business sense, and understanding of cutting-edge technology made him an asset to a large number of productions. He worked on a wide variety of jobs, from big-budget/scale commercials to corporate videos that took him around the world. Lane worked his way up the ranks to gain the positions of Stage Manager and Assistant Director on TV Shows, Commercials, and many other forms of media. He has also been a Producer on a wide range of media for a variety of clients.

Director Statement
Through choreocinema, this piece works as a dance film and provides a non-conforming narrative experience, giving us the opportunity to design and manipulate movement in a way that has not been addressed before. With this project, we intend to alert the eye of the audience towards the perception values that cinema, when treated as both an art and technical form, can offer something quite different. 

Experimental, Short, Other
Runtime:4 minutes 6 seconds

A nine-to-fiver is sick and tired of his daily routine until a co-worker invites him into a secret club... that turns his world downside up. Student becomes teacher in this short comedy... about depression.

Director Biography - Chris Alan Evans

Writer-Director Chris Alan Evans hails from Shreveport, Louisiana. With a career as a radio personality and broadcast programmer behind him, Chris has a burgeoning career as a filmmaker in front of him. As a Writer/Producer Chris has earned festival honors from all over the world. As an actor, Chris has festival awards in and out of the U.S. He will star in a lead role in his first feature film with the 2018 release of "Fearless Faith." The 2018 short film "Sad Man's Club" marks Chris' directorial debut.

Director Statement
With my films, I strive to entertain, let people laugh; and hopefully, share examinations of the human condition that will perhaps foster empathy and understanding within us.

Short
Runtime:15 minutes 1 second

A lowly beat cop canvasses a barbershop for leads to an unsolved murder and finds the killer -- only he doesn't know it.

Director Biography - Michael E. Berg

Michael has been pursuing the "Hollywood Dream" as a screenwriter for many years. He's had two feature-length screenplays published, but this film marks his directorial debut. (He wants to do more.)

Director Statement
S3RIAL has been a passion project of mine for a long time. The story went through several iterations before moving into production. My goal was to create a modern Hitchcockian Crimedy and knew the linchpin involved an actor who could embody the complex nature of Henry.

Like most independent films, compromises were made to overcome several unforeseen obstacles and work within the availability of cast & locations.

I'm thrilled to finally share the culmination of so many talents involved and truly hope you enjoy it.

PS. Should you be confused by any of Henry's extreme emotional swings or actions, I've attached a couple articles that can better explain his sociopathic tendencies.

Short
Genres:Crime, Thriller
Runtime:23 minutes 7 seconds

Meet Paul. 62-years-young - he's a lover of The Beatles, The Monkees, and The Terminator and he just so happens to be living with Down syndrome. Tracing the trajectory of his 62 years on Earth, Meet Uncle Paul tells the moving history of Paul's life (born into a family as loving as it large) while in the current day he contends with the early stages of dementia. A powerful reminder of the power of decency and compassion, Meet Uncle Paul pays tribute to an unforgettably indomitable spirit.

Documentary, Short
Runtime:13 minutes 40 seconds