ANNOUNCING THE 2021 Short Film Open Call Winners!
Zach McLane – @____zachary
Megan Bent – @m_e_g_g_i_e_b
Jennifer Hoffer – @jhofoto_
Dafna Steinberg – @dafnasteinbergart
Janeen Lamontagne – @__n33n__
Emma Roberts – @emcatrob
/// Congratulations to all! ///

The film festival will also be featuring artists:

Jason Zuzga – @jasonzuzga 
Sarah Choi – @sarahchoifilms 
Sophia Dell\’Arciprete – @sophsphtos
Ahmed Salvador – @ahmedasadsalvador 
Lila DiMasi, and
Icía Vázquez Rodríguez – @iciavazquez

We are honored that our Short Film Festival is in conjunction with The Free Fringe Philly Fest @freefringephilly – This event will be held outdoors and porch-side at Big Day Film Collective @bigdayfilmcollective and is #weatherpermitting. So stay tuned here for updates. 
– Please BYOBlanket/ lawn chair, snacks, beverages, masks etc… to enjoy the show.
– @melaniekatking\’s exhibition, Ancient Light, will be open and on view during the short film festival.

Thank you to all who submitted. It was a highly competitive year! It goes without saying that we look forward to seeing your entries for next year\’s open call.

Megan Bent
- No Longer Be A Secret
Sarah Choi
- Bird Man Water
Sophia Dell\'Arciprete
- The Landslide
Lila DiMasi
- Call the law offices of Eric A. Shore
- CRAZY EDM WALMART KID DANCE MEME KID DANCE KIDS SING A LONG TUTORIAL LEARN COLORS
Jennifer Hoffer
- At Once
Janeen Lamontagne and Emma C. Roberts
- Phase Red
Zach McLane
- I followed you into the nothing, like a wave, and then was
Dafna Steinberg
- Ego
Icía Vázquez Rodríguez
- WAIT WAIT WAIT
- WARDROBE CLEANING
Ahmed Salvador
- Rainy Season
Jason Zuzga
- Some Queer Pics

About Our Open Call Winners

Jennifer Hoffer is a photographer based in Portland, Maine who was born and raised in the NYC suburb of Maplewood, New Jersey. She believes in non-linear visual storytelling, using photography, video, sound, writing, illustration, and interactive multimedia to depict intangible emotional experiences. She has a working background in documentary, portrait, event, commercial, and food photography, as well as video and video editing. Her other passions include zine-making and other fine arts such as illustration, painting, and embroidery. Her work has been featured in several exhibitions at places like Skidmore College, Maine Media Workshops and the International Center of Photography, publications and online periodicals like Broadstreet Magazine and NYC Photo Community, and Instagram blogs like Lensculture and Feautreshoot. Jennifer has a BA in sociology and studio art from Skidmore College, and just completed the 2021 one-year graduate program at the International Center of Photography as a recipient of the Director’s Fellowship. http://jenniferhoffer.com/

Dafna Steinberg – I am an interdisciplinary artist, whose current focus of practice is photo-based art. My work has spanned a variety of mediums, including photography, video, collage, installation and performance. I work with themes that relate to the experiences of women and the fragmentation of the female body. Previously I have made work about interactions between men and women and how these interactions play out in building relationships and understanding. Through the use of vintage materials, I have also made work in response to the current political and cultural climate regarding the continuous attacks on a woman\’s right to be autonomous. By doing this, I explore how, as much as things change, they still stay very much the same. The work I am submitting examines the stereotype of the artist as seen through the lens of popular television, specifically with a focus on police and crime dramas. My interest in these is to see the interplay between the male artists and the different shows’ police officers. It is interesting to see the role masculinity plays for these characters and how the “artist” is almost always painted as unhelpful, egotistical and even villainous. https://dafnasteinberg.com/

Zach McLane – I’m interested in the materiality of digital videos, their algorithmic bodies, and the forms that appear when manipulating these files. So often videos don’t capture the essence of what they try to represent — and so I try to capture that: the failure to hold on and the shifting forms left over. http://zachmclane.com

Janeen Lamontagne grew up in Upstate New York where they attended The State University of New York at Purchase where they received her BFA in 2013. They currently reside in Philadelphia, Pa. Out-of-date filmmaking technologies, absurdist humor, the queer theory of Michel Foucault, and the highly crafted storytelling of European art cinema from the 60’s and 70’s are all influences on Lamontagne and inform their work today. Their work has been screened at The Jacob Burns Film Center, Scribe Video Center, and Chimeres.Space. They founded and ran the website Queer Moving Image Review from 2018-2020, designed to showcase queer artists working in time-based visual media, www.queermovingimage.com. https://janeenlamontagneblog.wordpress.com/

Emma C. Roberts is a researcher, writer & essayist based in New York City. Her research centers on the moving-image documentation of delegated performances.She is currently enrolled in the Whitney Independent Study Program.

Janeen Lamontagne and Emma C. Roberts collaborated together on the film Phase Red

Megan Bent – No Longer Be A Secret Single Channel Video 4’33” As Beethoven was becoming deaf he revealed in The Heiligenstadt Testament (1802) his fear of social stigma, which led him to retreat into isolation. ”I must live like an exile if I approach near to people a hot terror seizes upon me, a fear that I may be subjected to the danger of letting my condition be observed.” And by 1806 he wrote in the sketches of one of the Opus 59 string quartets: \”Let your deafness no longer be a secret—even in art.” The music he composed during this middle and heroic period, while coming to embrace his disability, revolutionized classical music. Beethoven\’s fears and self-isolation are experiences I deeply connect with. When I first was diagnosed with having a mobility impairment (which I would later learn was due to a progressive autoimmune disease) I spent many years hiding my disability and internalizing shame for having a body that moved differently. This also drove me into isolation. Over time and through art I learned to take pride in my uniqueness. The videos in this piece are from 2011 when I filmed my walking for 79 days (before and after) total hip replacement surgery. In revisiting this video archive I was able to consider my body\’s movement as music, my mobility aids instruments, all my various ways of walking, and tempos as a symphony. All my steps and intervals of movement throughout my life, make me who I am. – http://www.meganbent.com