Trauma Archives - Directors Notes

Amrou Al-Kadhi’s ‘Original Sin’ Stages a Tragic Mother-Son Bloodbath as Hollywood Melodrama in Short Film Form

A Muslim mother and her drag queen son go to war for cinematic immortality in Amrou Al-Kadhi's WePresent commissioned chamber piece.

Live Action

Grace Tan Transforms Trauma Into a Story of Visceral Reclamation Through the Radical Power of Queer Pole Dance

Grace Tan navigates personal grief and the physical vocabulary of pole dance to transform Madison Godfrey’s memoir-in-verse into a triumphant short film.

Live Action

A Bottle to the Head Fractures Reality in Theodore Collatos’s Surreal Slamdance Winning New York Short ‘Palookaville’

Theodore Collatos discusses reflecting the fractured reality suffered following sudden head trauma through the associational editing of his surreal short.

Art & Fashion

Luke White Opens up a Channel Between Past and Present in Hypnotic Emotionally Charged Dance Short ‘Boy Inside’

Luke White discusses using insects and meteorological balloons as metaphors for internal struggle and catharsis in his kinetic films.dance short.

Live Action

The Weight of Horrifc Unspoken Trauma Crushes Small Shoulders in Lado Kvataniya’s Campaign Short ‘Haqqim Bor’

Lado Kvataniya unpacks his visceral, haunting metaphor of childhood trauma where children carry the weight of abuse as literal buildings on their backs.

Animation, Live Action, Premiere

Peter Fellows’ ‘Fluffmeister, a Poodle of Questionable Heritage’ Bears Witness to a Toxic Relationship’s Demise

Peter Fellows shines a comedic light on the self-centred nature of humanity as witnessed by an anxious dog traumatised by his owner's toxic breakup.

Live Action, Premiere

A Veteran’s Hallucinatory Homecoming Unfolds in Suad Gara’s Intimate Portrait of Invisible Battle Wounds ‘Qaragh’

Suad Gara opens up about embedding within a Lezgin community to craft her PTSD meditation short, blending ritual, memory and psychological fragmentation.

Live Action

Chi Thai Transforms Her Personal Refugee Trauma Into a Haunting Meditation on Survivor’s Guilt in ‘Lullaby’

Chi Thai explains why genre filmmaking was the only framework able to hold the horrific weight of her short depicting the trauma of a tragic refugee crossing.

Live Action, Premiere

Gregory Shell Manifests the Destructive Nature of Violence and Trauma in His Emotionally Charged Short ‘Fire’

Gregory Shell explains why he was determined to work with non-actors for his film about a young man struggling with life after returning from military service.

Animation

A Child Navigates a Fantastical Dreamscape to Escape Their Harsh Reality in Leo Metcalf’s ‘A Time Before’

Leo Metcalf breaks down the mixed media approach to the dreamlike, experimental world of his immersive childhood trauma short.

Live Action, Premiere

A Young Woman Reckons With the Questionable Past Behaviour of a Childhood Friend in Hannah Levin’s ‘Golden Child’

Hannah Levin shares how she balanced out the comedic beats, sticking to the story and keeping the narrative moving in her bold, reckoning comedy short debut.

Live Action, Premiere

Jordan Chandler Plunges Us Into a Mother’s Relentless Surreal Nightmare in Her Psychological Wild Ride ‘Brutal’

Jordan Chandler talks about channelling her righteous indignation into her blistering thriller about a mother on a Sisyphean quest to save her missing child.

Trauma Tag Archive

Amrou Al-Kadhi’s ‘Original Sin’ Stages a Tragic Mother-Son Bloodbath as Hollywood Melodrama in Short Film Form

Grace Tan Transforms Trauma Into a Story of Visceral Reclamation Through the Radical Power of Queer Pole Dance

A Bottle to the Head Fractures Reality in Theodore Collatos’s Surreal Slamdance Winning New York Short ‘Palookaville’

Luke White Opens up a Channel Between Past and Present in Hypnotic Emotionally Charged Dance Short ‘Boy Inside’

Peter Fellows’ ‘Fluffmeister, a Poodle of Questionable Heritage’ Bears Witness to a Toxic Relationship’s Demise

A Veteran’s Hallucinatory Homecoming Unfolds in Suad Gara’s Intimate Portrait of Invisible Battle Wounds ‘Qaragh’

Chi Thai Transforms Her Personal Refugee Trauma Into a Haunting Meditation on Survivor’s Guilt in ‘Lullaby’

Gregory Shell Manifests the Destructive Nature of Violence and Trauma in His Emotionally Charged Short ‘Fire’

A Child Navigates a Fantastical Dreamscape to Escape Their Harsh Reality in Leo Metcalf’s ‘A Time Before’

A Young Woman Reckons With the Questionable Past Behaviour of a Childhood Friend in Hannah Levin’s ‘Golden Child’

Jordan Chandler Plunges Us Into a Mother’s Relentless Surreal Nightmare in Her Psychological Wild Ride ‘Brutal’

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