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September 16th 2023

Cinema Chatham
210 West 87th Street
Chicago, IL 60620
 

2017 Award Winners!

Our 2017 Award Winners will be announced at the film festival event and posted here right after!

BEST FILM

SUNSET ROCK

FIRST RUNNER UP

RENEWED

SECOND RUNNER UP

SPARK & KILN

2017 Event Schedule

FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8TH (3PM to 9PM)

04:00PM BLOCK A 120M

  • ANXIETY 6M
  • LOREN THE ROBOT BUTLER: TEACH ME HOW TO DOUGIE! 3M
  • TIME WALL 12M
  • GOD'S WORLD 21M
  • THE CLOWN DIES AT MIDNIGHT 14M
  • DETECT EVIL 56M

06:00PM INTERMISSION 30M
06:30PM BLOCK B 120M

  • DUCK SOUP 2M
  • THE PICKLE 14M
  • ALIEN IMPLANT #420
  • DRUNK ZOMBIES 13M
  • DADDY 20M
  • ANYONE LISTENING - A PODCAST STORY 25M
  • SUMMER FRIEND: A BALLET FILM 4M
  • AUTUMN BLUFFS 28M

09:00PM CLOSE OF DAY 1

SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9TH (10AM - 9PM)

10:00PM BLOCK C 120M

  • TORN CITY 120M

12:00PM INTERMISSION 30M
12:30PM BLOCK D 120M

  • STORM'S-EYE VIEW 2M
  • SCRATCHORAMA 2M
  • WHY WE WENT TOTHE MOON 6M
  • MARIA FERNANDA IN TIME 9M
  • SPARK & KILN 10M
  • IN-KIND 11M
  • THE SWITCH 15M
  • RENEWED 8M
  • FIREWORK 57M

02:30PM INTERMISSION 30M
03:00PM BLOCK E 120M

  • BLASPHEMY 8M
  • THE NIGHT CIRCUS 9M
  • HIS FIRST TIME 6M
  • THE SPELL TUTOR 5M
  • ONE MORE CUP OF COFFEE 3M
  • YOUR SECOND CHANCE 10M
  • NYMPHO'S DIARY 4M
  • BATFISH SOUP 5M
  • THE WEDDING LETTER 5M
  • G.I. HOSPITAL 6M
  • VIP 43M
  • RESTORATION OF HOPE 9M
  • FAMILY VALUES 7M

05:00PM INTERMISSION 30M
05:30PM BLOCK F 165M

  • A WOMAN AND A GUN 8M
  • LUCKY 16M
  • SUNSET ROCK 96M

07:30PM INTERMISSION 15M
07:45PM AWARDS CEREMONY

2017 Official Film Selections!

Check Out Our 2017 Official Film Selections!

THE CLOWN DIES AT MIDNIGHT

A twisted clown with a serious gambling addiction soon finds out that when it comes to debt, the mafia doesn't clown around!


 

HIS FIRST TIME

A young man always remembers his "first time". First time being truthful that is. Watch as he learns a valuable life lesson from his girlfriend....sometimes it is best NOT to tell the truth.

 

STORM'S-EYE VIEW

Drawing/delving into storm as a metaphor for creativity, Storm’s-eye View is an animated drawing of water in its turbulent (and generative) journey through a storm: a small disturbance of colliding molecules in a warm ocean, rising as vapor, condensing as cloud, releasing energy and fueling propulsion, giving way to gravity, and seeping into the ground.

 

IS ANYONE LISTENING - A PODCAST STORY

In a journey to realize her own potential as an artist, Christina Barsi inspires a team of creatives to come together and join her in the two-year-long creation of DIMENSION, a science fiction podcast narrative. Exploring issues of time, space and fractured identity.

DETECT EVIL

A emotionally hurt detective, living in Woodbary, finds out he is more important than he thinks. Heaven and Hell are both counting on him to keep the balance.

FIREWORK

Two slackers embark on a relaxing getaway over the 4th of July weekend only to find the seclusion slowly chipping away at their sanity.

LOREN THE ROBOT BUTLER: TEACH ME HOW TO DOUGIE!

Using Bunraku-style puppetry shot against a bluescreen, this short film tells the story of Loren, a proper British robot and former head butler for a wealthy family. Sadly, he has been replaced with a Roomba and stored in the family's basement. But now the kids program him to teach them stuff! This time, it's how to dance the Dougie!

MARIA FERNANDA IN TIME

An overprotective mother produces an accident with terrible consequences in the space-time continuum in the scientific laboratory where his son works.

TIME WALL

Defected scientist William J. Kessinger must find a way through the Time Wall before the all oppressive authority does. Time Wall is 3 cycles of a potentially endless journey of data, dimensions, and death.

GOD'S WORLD

Who could have known that God is really a compilation of Jesse Ventura, Captain Hook and Quido Sarducci ?

DRUNK ZOMBIES

Two recovering alcoholics, escaping zombie apocalypse, find refuge in a bar. They soon learn zombies don't attack the drunk.

DUCK SOUP

A lost duck gets more than what he bargained for.

ALIEN IMPLANT #420

ALIEN IMPLANT #420 awakes near Area 51 dazed, confused and has no idea he's a recipient of an alien implant deep inside his body.....

BATFISH SOUP

Wacky relatives give way to mounting tensions with broken dolls, boiling stew and a bang.

THE PICKLE

In a small town, a long time feud between two neighbors has reached a fever pitch. The laid back sheriff and his wisecracking sidekick try to keep everything from getting out of hand but this proves harder than they expected.

TORN CITY

In a city torn apart by corruption an unlikely series of events unfolds when a union representative submits to a higher power setting into motion a struggle for survival between an unwavering idealist, a cowardly gambler, and a man intent on learning the truth. Unemployed and down on his luck, Dante begins to question the wrong people leading him down a dark path of reluctant involvement with Sarah, an undaunted school teacher pushing back against city hall. Caught in the middle is Bill, a man attempting to game the system and profit from the chaos but a desperate debtor named Nate could hold the key to changing all of their fates.

THE SWITCH

Set In the small old west town of Copper Canyon, The towns people are going about there everyday business, What they don't know is that the town as they know it is about to change. Follow as the Marshal sets out to find out what is happening to his town.

SUNSET ROCK

Jasey Rae - a Midwest native and NIU Communications student with a passion for online fandom - travels to Los Angeles to research famous YouTube personality known only as Lincoln for her thesis project on social media. The relationship between fan and creator soon becomes a complicated entanglement as the pair begin developing both a new web series and a romantic bond that causes each to examine the way they project themselves online and imagine one another.

All is not as it seems, and as the two spend more and more time together, documenting the cities famous landmarks for their YouTube channel, Jasey and Lincoln begin to unravel secrets about who the other truly is.

AUTUMN BLUFFS

A love letter to 90s teen dramas like Dawson's Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Beverly Hills 90210, Autumn Bluffs is the story of four precocious "teens" coming of age in a quiet autumnal town, dealing with raging hormones, the upcoming Homecoming dance, and a sudden infestation of mummies.

THE WEDDING LETTER

A young man awaits a meeting with his girlfriend at sunset. When she arrives, he believes everything to be normal; however she crushes his heart by breaking up with him on the spot. Extremely distraught the young man returns to his bedroom where he reflects on what just occurred and consciously decides to move on from his heartbreak by writing a letter to his future wife instead of wallowing in self pity.

G.I. HOSPITAL

Antiwar comedy. A group of severely wounded soldiers are cheerful about their injuries. After all, it's not like they lost their arms or legs for nothing. It was "for their country," so that makes it okay. This film uses humor to encourage the viewer to think twice about the personal cost of war.

ONE MORE CUP OF COFFEE

This is a story about an ordinary clerk, who overstayed at work. He decides to have a coffee before leaving, but it seems that this cup may be his last...

IN-KIND

With the inadvertent help of a mother and her young daughter, a homeless man's life is positively changed for a single night. Without a dime to share his gratitude, he repays them in kind.

DADDY

The short film DADDY is a psychological suspense thriller which portrays a mother and her two children trapped in the financial clutches of a maniacal sociopath. Can they escape to a better life or will Daddy have the last laugh?

SUMMER FRIEND: A BALLET FILM

A meditation on transience, connection, longing, love, and loss.

RENEWED

An ex-con restores furniture and works to repair his own life.

THE SPELL TUTOR

The pilot episode of a web series inspired by the works of J.K.Rowling. 
A young student of magic must hone her skills with the help of her tutor.

VIP

"A party of a lifetime..." VIP is a film about two young girls looking for a fix, who end up at an artists private party. The film shows how easy it is, to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time.

FAMILY VALUES

A family is interrupted during dinner to fix a problem at the office.

RESTORATION OF HOPE

Hope, suffering from bi-polar due to her father's abuse, is confined in a medical retreat, soon joined by her friend, Raphael, who is a hallucination. Together, Hope finds renewed strength to overcome the odds, to have hope for her own future.

THE NIGHT CIRCUS

Two men go about their business, removing the departed from local mob hits, when business as usual suddenly becomes rather unusual.

SCRATCHORAMA (CAMERALESS CINERAMA)

Abstract, hand painted cinema (or cameraless animation) combining 16, 35, & 70mm film elements including found footage, custom digitized using an invented process in a home studio. Edited to "Jungelaya" by Los Straightjackets, this film is designed to make your eyes dance.

 

WHY WE WENT TO THE MOON

Said to be culled from NASA archives, and including recently “de-classified” videos, a fictional US government agency reveals for the first time the true nature of the Apollo space voyages. “Why We Went to the Moon” explores the history of man’s fascination with our near-Earth companion - especially the longing for exotic sexual adventures with the women who must live there. These (mostly) suppressed fantasies achieve unstoppable political potency among American men when the shortage of women during the Eisenhower administration becomes an existential crisis. 

One government official (who has asked not to be named) said, “Ha! Very clever...I like it as is.”

 

NYMPHO'S DIARY

Amy is a young female vixen who is unknowingly being controlled by a male acquaintance of hers.

ANXIETY

More than 19 million people around the world suffer from anxiety. The script was written by Kevin Bui in dedication to them. Producer / Director Willy Adkins himself suffers with anxiety disorder. This film is being produced to show support for those with this condition and to give others a peek at what it can be like.

BLASPHEMY

Two young men discuss how they lost their faith: one from an unfortunate incident in elementary school; the other...from being simply unfortunate. Afterwards they prank call a priest with even more unfortunate results.

YOUR SECOND CHANCE

After not paying debt to the mob, a man is given a last day to live.

A WOMAN AND A GUN

Anita Nicole Brown stars in this drama / thriller about a woman who has been pushed to the edge of killing herself by a verbally abusive husband (Willy Adkins). When she finally attempts to pull the trigger the results are not as expected!

LUCKY

Billy thinks he's going to score with a beautiful stranger but she has something else in mind.

SPARK & KILN

SPARK & KILN highlights the work and marriage of local artists Don and Maxine Green. Over the past fifty years, their well-known sculptures have adorned the Western United States. These two inspiring octogenarians remind us that artists don’t retire.