* This is an archived site from the 2017 festival *
CONGRATULATIONS to all the 2017 Short Circuit Film Festival award winners:
Best Film
FREEZE
Best Director
Nelicia Low - FREEZE
Best Cinematography
Philip Lanyon - THE ORCHARD
Best Screenplay
Nelicia Low - FREEZE
Best Editing
Manny Mahal - THE LIFT
Best Sound
Manvinder Dhak, Adam Mainella, Megan Hickman - THE LIFT
Best Lead Performance
Emma Hung - FREEZE
Best Supporting Performance
Sacha Horler - KILL YOUR DINNER
Audience Choice
THE ORCHARD + HARVEST: QUYURCIQ (tie)
We also crowned the winner of our inaugural CINESPARK competition!
HER NAME IS DESTINY
Producer: Luke Connor
Writer: Alex Miller
Luke & Alex have won a prize package of cash, equipment, and services worth over $10,000! Watch for their new short film coming soon.
Short Circuit returns May 12-14, 2017 with a showcase of films from around the Pacific Rim!
After a call for short films from all countries, states, and provinces bordering the Pacific Ocean, we received a record number of submissions for our 5th annual festival! This year we present a journey around the Pacific Rim, with 16 films selected to showcase the diversity of stories from around the edge of the water. We've also got panels and pitch events to up your game, and parties to celebrate the films and filmmakers.
Friday May 12, 2017
Friday May 12, 2017
7:00pm
The Vic Theatre 808 Douglas Street
$5 advance / $10 at the door
THE LIFT
Dir. Manny Mahal
7:25
Vancouver
Do you remember that guy that gave up? Neither does anybody else.
MARC CHUNG PROTECTS HIS ADDRESS
Dir. Michael Chan
9:45
California
Marc Chung recounts a story to his friends about purchasing a pellet gun to protect his address.
MY HAGGAN DREAM
Dir. Laura & Rob Sams
8:15
Saipan/Portland
A young island girl dreams of a mysterious haggan, or sea turtle, that sends her on a quest.
ALL THE WORLD IS A STAGE
Dir. Hannes Rall
1:45
Singapore
An animated adaptation of the famous Shakespeare poem.
HARVEST: QUYURCIQ
Dir. Andre Lewis
20:00
Alaska
The respectful hunting and craftwork of otters reconnects young coastal Natives to their subsistence roots.
DARTS
Dir. Peter Faint
7:00
Victoria
A struggling professional darts player, or dartist, meets an old friend to discuss an oddity in his personal life, as it spills into their afternoon.
THE ORCHARD
Dir. Darcy Van Poelgeest
16:45
Vancouver
An unsolved homicide in a small town leaves two former police partners in ruins and unearths a dark secret that’s formed between them.
Friday May 12, 2017
9:00pm
CineVic #102 - 764 Yates Street
FREE ADMISSION
Our popular monthly CineVic Lounge social networking event gets the Short Circuit treatment. Stop by the festival's opening reception to talk shop or just chill out with some friends and filmmakers.
Saturday May 13, 2017
Saturday May 13, 2017
1:00pm
The Vic Theatre 808 Douglas Street
FREE ADMISSION
PANELISTS:
Caisha Lea Thompson is a 22-year-old Kamloops-raised artist in her fourth year of the BFA program in film at Simon Fraser University's School for the Contemporary Arts in Vancouver B.C. Her films exemplify rhythm in both movement and editing and experimentation in sound, influenced by her years of being a concert percussionist and jazz drummer before moving onto filmmaking. She has a focus on writing and directing LGBTQIA+ topics and exploring the complexities of human relationships, especially their dynamics and fragility. 🎬 LET US END WITH IT TOO ▶️ Saturday May 13th @ 7:00pm
John Gardiner is from Nanaimo, British Columbia and is the director of many short films including the award winning Screentest (Winner - Best Film, Best Writing, Infest Film Festival), The Piano Player's Sister (Winner - People's Choice, Vancouver island Short Film Festival) and The First Time We, which is available on Gaia.com's short film streaming service. He loves to write stories, so having the opportunity to bring those stories to life is one of his favourite things. He works as a videographer at Vancouver Island University. Reproductive Cycles is his 8th short film. 🎬 REPRODUCTIVE CYCLES ▶️ Saturday May 13th @ 7:00pm
Darcy lives with his wife and two young children in Vancouver, British Columbia. His career began in editorial but quickly shifted into directing commercial work and is now focused on developing films and graphic novels as a writer/director. Darcy’s short film, CORVUS (2012) screened at festivals worldwide and was nominated for 3 Golden Sheaf Awards, 9 American Maverick Movie Awards, 7 Leo Awards including Best Director, and became the #1 selling short film in Canada on iTunes. His latest short film, The Orchard premiered at Atlantic Film Festival, and Vancouver International Film Festival before going on to win 5 awards at the L.A Shorts Awards including Best Screenplay & Best Director. It was nominated for 4 Leo Awards and won the Audience Choice Award at CineFest Sudbury in 2016. DVP recently completed his first feature length screenplay, The Forty Fathom Bank, as well as a 160 page Graphic Novel, Little Bird, to be released by Glènat Publishing in 2018. 🎬 THE ORCHARD ▶️ Friday May 12th @ 7:00pm
Steven is a filmmaker of Coast Salish (Snuneymuxw) and European descent. His films are centred around cultural and political themes, that reconnect with Indigenous histories that educate himself and others. 🎬 THE RE-NAMING OF PKOLS ▶️ Saturday May 13th @ 7:00pm
Peter Faint is a Canadian filmmaker born in Victoria, BC. He graduated from the University of Guelph in 2015 with a BA in English Literature – a period he cites as one of important creative and social gestation (yes, you seriously just read that, and yes, this is Peter writing in the third-person). Afterwards, Peter returned to Victoria where he delivered pizza for a year – the dream of every university graduate – and completed his first official film “Darts.” Generally speaking, the guy loves movies and art in general – specifically the films of David Lynch. He currently resides in Vancouver and is in post-production on his second film “High Energy.” 🎬 DARTS ▶️ Friday May 12th @ 7:00pm
MODERATOR:
Arnold Lim is an award-winning filmmaker and photojournalist who has won numerous provincial and national awards throughout his decade-long career. Lim produced Godhead (2014) which premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, won the Harold Greenberg Fund’s Shorts to Features grant (2015) and is regularly commissioned internationally. He served as photography manager for several large-scale events including the Pan Am Games and the Olympics and currently participating in the National Screen Institute’s Features First Program in Toronto.
Saturday May 13, 2017
3:00pm
The Vic Theatre 808 Douglas Street
FREE ADMISSION
CINESPARK will provide a total of more than $10,000 in cash and in-kind equipment rentals and services to the production of an outstanding short film script by a writer/filmmaker from Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands. After a call for script submissions, the Top 5 have been chosen and teams will now pitch their projects to a panel of judges who will choose one winner to launch into production.
The Prize Package:
• $1,000 cash grant
• $9,000 in-kind equipment rentals from CineVic
• $100 Modo driving credits toward production van rental
• Production Insurance - 10 consecutive days of coverage ($150 value)
• One-year complimentary CineVic Production Membership ($220 value)
The #CINESPARKTOP5:
A desperate father tries to reclaim his future by treading back through his past.
Luke Connor: "I am a 24 year-old freelance filmmaker born and based out of Victoria, BC. My passion for what I can create with cameras has consumed me since I first peered through a viewfinder over 10 years ago; it is a daily outlet to expand my awareness and document life in a creative manner. When I don’t have a camera pressed up to my face, I can often be found analyzing my surroundings and composing images in my mind, whether I’m on top of a mountain or stuck on a bus. I love good light and appreciate the shadows. My hope is that my work makes you wish you were here."
Under constant pressure from his spartan mother, a gifted young pianist discovers his true passion and develops it behind his mother’s back.
Connor Gaston is an award-winning filmmaker from to Victoria, BC. His work has screened at film festivals around the world, including the Toronto International Film Festival. Gaston recently completed his first feature film, THE DEVOUT, which premiered at the Busan International Film Festival—one of Asia’s premiere film festivals. THE DEVOUT earned him 5 Leo Awards, including Best Picture, and took home the BC Emerging Filmmaker Award at the Vancouver International Film Festival in 2015.
A man attempts to make a change in his life after listening to a voicemail left for him.
Born in Manitoba and raised in BC, Paul's love of film has given him the opportunity to experience the thrills of living in large industry markets such as Los Angeles and Toronto. From acting and performing in plays before hitting double-digits in age, to directing his own short films in high school, to completing many feature screenplays throughout college, all these experiences ultimately led to the completion of his first official festival selected short film "Unrepresented" back in 2012. The film brought Paul a small taste of the bright lights and stars of Hollywood where his time spent down south would soon lead him to an keen interest in improv comedy. Looking to further his skills in this area of performance Paul would spend the next few years at The Second City in Toronto learning this craft before eventually heading back west to act in numerous independent and short films over the past 2 years. Last year Paul directed, wrote, starred and produced his first feature film titled "Big Business". The project is a smash-mouth, in-you-face comedy in the vein of "The Wolf Of Wall Street", "Glengarry Glen Ross" and "The Office". The film is currently in post-production and slated for festival submission later this year.
A woman with Down Syndrome has to care for her caregiver.
Jim Knox is an award winning filmmaker whose intimate, low-budget character dramas have had national television broadcasts and international film festival screenings. His longstanding involvement in the Victoria independent filmmaking community included a half-decade chairing Cinevic's board of directors and multiple teaching roles at Camosun College, Victoria Motion Picture School and Pacific Design Academy.
In the midst of a dying world, a man attempts to bring back the one he loves through the technology of the past.
Denver Jackson is of Chinese descent born in South Africa on November 11th, 1986. He started his career as a visual fx artist during his college years. Denver is self-taught and pushed himself to study the art of animation and visual fx to further better his own work as a filmmaker. He currently works as a freelance artist but still pursues his passion as a filmmaker. His notable shorts include two shorts, 'Cloudrise' and 'The Wishing Jar.'
THE JUDGING PANEL:
Film Producer, Recruitment Specialist and Professional Speaker with expertise in producing, crowdfunding, teaching abroad & living the life of your dreams. In the past 10 years she has helped thousands of teachers make the move to teaching in London, England and produced her first feature length film, LOCKED IN A GARAGE BAND. Her speaking engagements have included McGill University, Ted X Victoria, University of Victoria, Austin Film Festival, Social Media Camp and Screenwriting Expo. Victoria has a Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University, a Bachelor of Arts from Carleton University and a Producers’ Degree from Hollywood Film Institute. She is the recipient of the Honorable Member Award for Self-Published Non-Fiction Ebook from Writer’s Digest, 2010 and listed in the Stanford Who’s Who. She has volunteered in Costa Rica, Guatemala & Bangladesh in forest preservation and health education. Interviews with Victoria have appeared in Macleans, Yahoo News, MSN.Com, MO.com, CUPwire, Business News Daily and Times Colonist. She is a regular guest speaker at McGill University.
Recovering stand up comic and amateur curler. Pharmaceutical rep by day. Screenwriter and Filmmaker by night. Vancouver Film School Grad. Worked as Hospitality Coordinator for the Vancouver International Film Festival. Wrote, directed a musical that aired on Japanese cable called Over the Rainbow. Volunteered on dozens of film projects in various roles from writer to director to crew. Wrote and directed first web series called Oh No The Humanity. Has pitched dozens of executives in Los Angeles, Toronto, Vancouver and Austin. Grew up in Scarborough with Manitoba roots and went to Dalhousie University in Halifax and lived in Nagano Japan for three years and Vancouver for ten and moved to Fernwood in 2013. You can find her at the Oaklands market every Wednesday in the beer garden eating the best food truck food in Victoria.
Award winning writer-director. Her first feature film, LOCKED IN A GARAGE BAND premiered at the Raindance Film Festival in London, England and was distributed world-wide by Double Dutch Media. She is currently directing ELLIOT: THE LITTLEST REINDEER, an animated feature film based on her multi-award winning screenplay, starring Josh Hutcherson, Samantha Bee, Martin Short and John Cleese.
Saturday May 13, 2017
7:00pm
The Vic Theatre 808 Douglas Street
$5 advance / $10 at the door
REPRODUCTIVE CYCLES
Dir. John Gardiner
8:50
Nanaimo
A married couple is trying everything to have a baby, but the husband is starting to have second thoughts.
THE RENAMING OF PKOLS
Dir. Steven Davies
4:00
Victoria
The WSÁNEC First Nations take a revolutionary step to reclaim and re-name PKOLS, a sacred mountain in their traditional territory.
THE OPERA SINGER
Dir. Steve Kahn
3:00
California
A woman is haunted by unfulfilled dreams.
KILL YOUR DINNER
Dir. Bryn Chainey
12:15
Australia
After meeting a new woman and discovering his spiritual side, Lawrence comes up with a plan to reconnect with his son: to kill and eat a cow together.
FREEZE
Dir. Nelicia Low
15:15
Taiwan
When her distant husband cannot give her the love she desires, the lonely and insecure Hui will do anything to feel loved.
SHOUT AT THE GROUND
Dir. Joe Lonie
10:30
New Zealand
A Kiwi rock band succumbs to travel sickness while deconstructing the heist that robbed them of an entire weekend’s door take.
SURF WASTED
Dir. Cliff Kapono
16:00
Hawai‘i
Join surfer-scientist Cliff Kapono as he looks to clean up a wasteful surf industry one surfboard at a time.
LET US END WITH IT TOO
Dir. Caisha Lea Thompson
14:45
Vancouver
The division between intending and departing, as told in four shots.
Saturday May 13, 2017
9:00pm
Ticket Rocket 101-804 Broughton Street
FREE ADMISSION
We'll cap off two nights of Pacific Rim short film screenings with a far-out fan favourite: Psychedelic Soul. Enjoy the groovy sounds of A DJ Called Malice alongside trippy visuals of an Acid Rain Light Show. Don't worry - there'll be plenty of time to sleep it off before Speed Pitching and the Awards Reception on Sunday!
Psychedelic Soul is a collaborative project presented by Acid Rain Light Show and A DJ Called Malice. The concept is a cohesive audio visual presentation that explores a genre of Black American music pioneered by artists like the Temptations, George Clinton, The Chambers Brothers, etc… Combining the emotional realism of Soul with gritty political outlooks and “EXPERIENCE”, expect to move your feet and expand your mind with Psychedelic Soul!
A DJ Called Malice is Victoria DJ, filmmaker, and musician Bryan Skinner. He has curated the music for Psychedelic Soul from his collection of Soul/R&B/Funk vinyl 45s and LPs, and has sought out rare tracks for this project. Avid scooterist and family man, he can be found spinning Northern Soul, R&B, and Modernist classics around Victoria’s pubs and in his garage.
Greg Evans was a motion picture projectionist from the late 70s until 2003, running every commercial format from 16mm to Imax 3-D. His Acid Rain Light Shows started in 1974 when he noticed all the classic psychedelic light shows had begun to disappear. Unwilling to see this distinctly 20th Century art form become extinct, Greg began to collect to gear needed to do them himself. He has worked with luminaries such as Wavy Gravy, The Country Joe Band, and Eric Burden and the Animals.
Sunday May 14, 2017
Sunday May 14, 2017
3:00pm
The Yates Taphouse 759 Yates Street
$5 ADVANCE REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR THIS LIMITED SEATING EVENT
Want to get in on the pitch action too? Ignite your own film ideas at a rapid-fire SPEED PITCHING session! Writers, Directors, Producers, Filmmakers - you’ve got 5 minutes on the timer to pitch (or catch) your projects in a one-on-one round-robin networking event. Please note this is a participatory event with no audience - it's basically back-to-back elevator pitches in a pub environment (minus the elevator). Good luck and... play ball!
Sunday May 14, 2017
5:00pm
The Yates Taphouse 759 Yates Street
FREE ADMISSION
We'll wind down the 2017 Short Circuit: Pacific Rim Film Festival with some appys, awards, and crowning of the CINESPARK winner!
Short Circuit awards up for grabs:
• Best Director
• Best Screenplay
• Best Lead Performance
• Best Supporting Performance
• Best Sound
• Audience Choice
CINESPARK prize package:
• $1,000 cash grant
• $9,000 in-kind equipment rentals from CineVic
• $100 Modo driving credits toward production van rental
• Production Insurance - 10 consecutive days of coverage ($150 value)
• One-year complimentary CineVic Production Membership ($220 value)
CineVic gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance and support of Canada Council for the Arts, Province of British Columbia, British Columbia Arts Council, and the CRD Arts Development Service through the participating municipalities of Esquimalt, Highlands, Metchosin, Oak Bay, Saanich, Sidney, Victoria and View Royal.
Short Circuit and CINE⚡SPARK 2017 sponsors:
