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Shorts are traditionally considered as a stepping stone to making a feature film, but they also have their own set of exciting possibilities. Often more affordable, risky and experimental, they can cover stories that can’t be told otherwise.

Curated by Jeffrey Bowers In connection with UnionDocs workshop For Shorts’ Sake, this screening explores the power of short form storytelling. Presenting a variety of forms, subjects and aesthetics, this program is about making connections in the face of difficulty and coming to terms with reality.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between the filmmaker Megan Mylan and Film Curator Jeffrey Bowers. They will discuss the impact of online viewing/distribution on the production and creation of short forms.

Full Program

The Children Next Door by Doug Block (2012)

An award-winning documentary The Children Next Door is the first film to look at domestic violence from the perspective of childhood. It takes us on a young family’s journey to uncover the truth that lies beneath a recurring cycle of violence and the solutions to end it.

New York Times Op-Docs Taller than the Trees by Megan Mylan (2016)

Masami Hayata is a Tokyo man delicately balancing his roles as advertising executive, father, husband and devoted son to his ailing mother.

Field of Vision Speaking Is Difficult by A.J. Schnack (2016)

Five years of an American crisis: Speaking is Difficult tells a cumulative history that is both unbearable and inevitable.

Field of Vision Good Luck with the Wall by Josh Begley (2016)

A voyage across the US-Mexico border, stitched together from 200,000 satellite images.

Field of Vision Project X by Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke (2016)

A top-secret handbook takes viewers on an undercover journey to Titanpointe, the site of a hidden partnership. Narrated by Rami Malek and Michelle Williams, and based on classified NSA documents, Project X reveals the inner workings of a windowless skyscraper in downtown Manhattan.

Total screening duration: about 85 min.

BIOS

Megan Mylan is a New York-based documentary filmmaker who creates intimate cinema vérité films.  She has been recognized with an Academy Award®, an Independent Spirit Award, Emmy-nominations and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her films include: “Lost Boys of Sudan”, “Smile Pinki” and “Raça” as well as short documentaries: “After My Garden Grows”, “My Little Friends” and “Taller Than the Trees”. Megan’s work screens theatrically and on television throughout the world.  Broadcasts include: HBO, PBS, ARTE, BBC, NHK, NDTV, Doordarshan and TV Brasil. Through extensive social action campaigns, her films have raised millions of dollars for charitable causes, motivated thousands of volunteers and informed public policy.  Megan serves on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ Executive Committee for Documentary and was recently guest director of the Documentary program at Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism.  Before beginning in documentary, Megan worked with Ashoka, an international development non-profit, in the U.S. and Brazil. She has a Bachelor’s from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and Masters’ degrees in Journalism and Latin American Studies from the University of California at Berkeley.

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Jeffrey Bowers is a Senior Curator at Vimeo, where his responsibilities include selecting Staff Picks, contributing to the just-announced Staff Pick Premieres program, and running the Vimeo On Demand curation. For the past four years he has curated VICE media’s VICE Shorts and written the column “I’m Short, Not Stupid.” His background includes programming features and shorts for Tribeca Film Festival, Hamptons International Film Festival, Rooftop Films, and the Athens International Film + Video Festival. Because of his broad expertise, he’s served on juries and participated in speaking engagements at places like SXSW, DOC NYC, Palm Springs Shortsfest, Nantucket Film Festival, and IFP.