Los Angeles Lift-Off Film Festival 2020 - Network Round Features
Tuesday 20th - Friday 6th November
1.
Blurring Man
Dir. Matthew Boman
USA
Logline: When day laborer hero from El Salvador Elmer’s harrowing desert trek into the United States across the Sonoran desert extends to legendary experience festival Burning Man, Elmer finds himself at the center of an allegory for American privilege and excess. As the film progresses, corporate lawyers & shadowy ICE agents threaten to seize not only the film, but so much more.
2.
GRIHALAKSHMI - THE AWAKENING
Dir. Arvind Pandey
India
Logline: The film 'Grihalakshmi The Awakening' belongs to the genre of Spiritual / Awakening / Transformational films. It explores the concept of ‘Sahaja Yoga Meditation’ on the big screen through the story of two young sisters, Sheetal and Samaira, who encounter a deep inner awakening called Self Realization. Their life takes a turn for the better. They experience a life full of happiness and contentment.
3.
Her Name Was Jo
Dir. Joe Duca
USA
Logline: Ten year old Jo spends her days along the Shenandoah River with her best friend Selma, fishing, scrapping for metal—surviving. But when her abusive junkie stepdad dies, Jo decides, Selma in tow, to dump the body, steal the car, and set off across the country in search of her real dad, a legendary folk singer in Los Angeles.
4.
Marcus
Dir. J.R.Poli
USA
Logline: Marcus has a checkered past and an unstable present. As he struggles mightily with mental illness, unexpected news brings a new opportunity for him to right old wrongs and make amends. He leaves his life behind and sets off on an adventure to find purpose, forgiveness and redemption. But Marcus will have to face the consequences of his past life and overcome the greatest obstacle of all in order to find happiness: Himself.
5.
The Last Victims
Dir. Maynard Kraak
South Africa
Logline: A former member of South Africa's infamous death squad must atone for his past when he helps one survivor, search for the bodies of a missing anti-apartheid cell. Unaware that as they hunt for answers, they too are being hunted..
6.
The Making of a Man
Dir. Lo Dagerman
USA
Logline: Lo wants to find out what led her father, legendary Swedish writer Stig Dagerman (who died when she was three) to pen a searing, brutal play about toxic masculinity. The play was inspired by people Stig met during a 1947 visit to Paris, a city reeling in the wake of Nazi occupation. It follows the chilling trail of a young man, bullied for being a coward, who searches for a way to become a ‘real’ man.
7.
Tommy Emmanuel: The Endless Road
Dir. Jeremy Dylan Potts
Australia
Logline: From the Australian outback to Music City USA, a child guitar prodigy dedicates his life to become the world’s greatest acoustic guitarist, even as revelations of dark family secrets send him into a battle with addiction that threatens to destroy his career, his family and his life.
8.
We to Me
Dir. Jade Chase
USA
Logline: We to Me is a documentary film about Vietnam and how their culture of community (we) is being challenged by individualism (me). As the United States leaves Saigon in 1975, North and South Vietnam are united by Vietnam’s Communist Party, based in the northern city of Hanoi. Although the Americans have left, other wars with Cambodia and China take center stage. To accommodate the needs of new conflicts, recover from the American war, and to encourage equality under communism, the party installs the national policy of Bao Cap, which means Subsidy Period.