Letters From Home – 2024
Tuesday, April, 10:00 AM
Untitled, Jackson Heights
Director: Armon Mahdavi, Narrative, USA, 4 min
An Iranian mother living in Queens sends a letter to her far-away daughter.
Testudo Hermanni
Director: G. Anthony Svatek, Experimental, Austria, 7 min
A portrait of my mother, my tortoise, and mild winters.
Donna
Director: Keenan MacWilliam, Documentary, Canada, USA, 18 min
An autobiographical film that documents the search for the filmmaker’s birth mother only to find herself.
Video Funeral
Director: Linh Tran, Narrative, USA, 21 min
A Vietnamese international student, welcomes her younger sister, Phuong, to her Chicago apartment. Phuong brings a DVD of their father’s funeral, which Lam could not attend.
Into the Emerald Sea
Director: Asuka Lin, Narrative, Japan, 22 min
From the ocean, Suzu returns to their quiet seaside town in Japan, where their grandmother has reincarnated into a sea turtle.
Before Me
Director: Penny McCann, Documentary, Canada, UK, 18 min
An incomplete family story leads the filmmaker on a quest to find her mother in the British archives.
Oyu
Director: Atsushi Hirai, Narrative, Japan, 22 min
A man goes to the public bath to retrieve a forgotten object. But once inside, the promise of a hot bath compels him to stay.