Toronto Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 - Network Round Shorts
Thursday 2nd September - Thursday 9th September
1.
A Lucid Dream
Dir. Li Yue
China
Logline: Memory eats into his dream. With the disappearance of that batch of wood which comes from the Southwest border, Li Guang, who is at the age of knowing destiny, realizes that this bizarre and motley reality is only built of the extension of memories. As for the kind of freedom he had been pursuing in that crazy age may never exist. After all, all he got in the end was only a siege of mind and body.
2.
Art & Life
Dir. Ethan Godel
Canada
Logline: In the midst of shooting the final scene of a terribly bland film, the world of the characters and the actors playing them begin to converge and unravel.
3.
Bare
Dir.Ronak Kamat
India
Logline: The story of a naked man who frequents apartments to watch women sleep is only told by one woman who no body believes.
4.
Forced To Bend
Dir. Astrid Schäfer
Germany
Logline: After serving a prison sentence, the protagonist meets his friends and his mother again. Torn between their different expectations of him, he struggles to free himself of his previous life and find his own way.
5.
Gigi and the Giants
Dirs. Scott McKinney & Chadwick Harman
USA
Logline: A punk rock band auditions for a musical label.
6.
Give Time
Dir. Luis Oliva
Canada
Logline: Based on a true moment shared between lovers, "Give Time" tells the story of Alice, a young woman grieving the loss of her lover, Leo. As she returns home to her apartment, the place where their relationship began, past and present merge as she is unable to deal with the guilt of living past the one she loved. As she moves through the space, she eventually discovers that the only way forward is through allowing the pain to emerge and beginning the near impossible process of letting go.
7.
Hollow Point
Dir. Phil Piasecki
Canada
Logline: A haunted veteran and his young son begin to form a personal connection on a hunting trip.
8.
LEAVE TO REMAIN
Dir. Rémy Bazerque
UK
Logline: Things get wild at the 'VISA and immigration services' when Karim, a young Iranian father living in the UK is mistakenly threatened with deportation.
9.
MAMAVILLE
Dir. Irmak Karasu
Turkey
Logline: In a small port town, fifteen year-old Ferah is spending the summer at her grandmother’s beach house. The grandmother indulges in watching dating reality shows, while the granddaughter craves her own sexual release. Pressure is palpable, desire doesn't still, and the summer wind blows strong through every opening.
10.
Oh, Brother
Dir. Pierce Csurgo
Canada
Logline: Two university students attempt to bury their anxieties through partying and MDMA, only to contend with the toxic masculinity that stops them from truly connecting.
11.
The Poem
Dir. Matt Handy
Canada
Logline: The lonely young man finds connection with a mysterious stranger by writing alternating lines of a poem on the wall of a subway platform
12.
What Color Do You See As Blue
Dir. Reza Salsany
Canada
Logline: An Afghan refugee woman decides to adopt a Syrian orphan refugee girl where her past trauma conflicts with her today's life.
As a result of displacement 2 generations of refugees facing new challenges in order to utilize in a new life.