CHICAGO (August 8, 2022) — Haven Chicago is pleased to present its first annual Festival au Cinéma, the company's new platform for visionary and innovative filmmakers and media artists staking their claim in the future of digital storytelling, Whether by defying traditional conventions of genre, style or form, Haven's annual micro film festival spotlights creative media works that intentionally embrace the unorthodox and inspire the next era of filmmaking. Festival au Cinéma will be held Aug. 26-28 at Haven's resident home: The Den Theatre, 1331 N. Milwaukee Ave.
The three-day/three-night festival features more than 20 short films plus a variety of events including talkbacks with the filmmakers, an opening night cocktail mixer, a boozy brunch featuring an iconic movie screening and a closing awards party. Films are presented individually or in curated blocks, based on genre, theme and length. All films are eligible for Haven's filmmaker awards.
The weekend culminates with the Made in Chicago Gala, Haven's second annual fundraising event on Sunday, August 28 from 6 — 10 pm. Enjoy mouth-watering BBQ, cocktails, a silent auction, an exclusive sneak-peek at Haven's inaugural film project and more.
A variety of ticket packages (Day Passes, Weekend Passes, and Silver and Gold packages) are currently available. For tickets and a detailed schedule of films and events, visit havenchi.org/festival-au-cinema.
Festival au Cinéma Film Line-Up and Events:
Quarantine Shorts
Friday, August 26 at 7 pm & Sunday, August 28 at 12 pm (encore)
Feed
Written and directed by Joe Zarrow
Early during the coronavirus quarantine, a man wants to bake some bread, but he's run out of flour.
Freeze
Written and directed by Hart Ginsburg
How can we unfreeze within our disparate fragmented worlds? Can therapy help? Or something else…
Man, I Miss The Circus
Written and directed by Jeffrey Entwistle, Annaleigh Stone and Brooklyn Davis
A circus performer affected by the pandemic finds himself trying to love his craft again.
What's in the Box?
Written and directed by Ruben Carrazana
From shoeboxes to pizza boxes to engagement ring boxes, every box contains a secret. Or a surprise. A mystery. A memory. Inspired by Pablo Neruda's "Ode to Common Things," through a series of short vignettes, What's in the Box? explores that intimate, fleeting moment when a person opens a box for the first time.
I Used To Write With My Left Hand
Written by Luzzo and Farbota, Directed by Luzzo
Shame and violence have tethered the queer relatives of a Chicago Southside Irish Catholic family. As the youngest of the family reckons with his own pain, he works to grab ahold of his inherited narrative in an attempt to redirect it, to stop the pattern.
Chicago Shorts
Friday, August 26 at 8:30 pm & Sunday, August 28 at 1 pm (encore)
The Power of Now
Written and Directed by Collin Quinn Rice and Quinn Hegarty
A reflection on grief, mourning, the inevitability of endings and the present moment.
After (A Love Story)
Written by Alyssa Thordarson and Directed by Clare Cooney
After surviving a violent event, a couple tries to overcome the space trauma created between them.
Pictures Only
Written and Directed by Charles A. Honeywood
Set in 1950s Bronzeville, Louise Parker is facing eviction from her home. Desperate to keep her independence and status, she is introduced to a lucrative performing opportunity. While attempting to keep this new venture a secret, she simultaneously gains popularity, risking being exposed to and disowned by her mother. After being offered a promotion, she is left with two choices, become the headliner, or allow her family to lose everything.
Rough River Lake
Written and Directed by Mary Tilden
A group of queer best friends arrive at the lake for the perfect getaway. Their Gaycation gets interrupted when the group discovers the lake house has been double booked by a bachelor party.
The West Virginian Starfish
Written by Hyten Davidson, Directed by Tommy Martin and Hyten Davidson
After the mysterious exit of her father, Carly is stuck with his old mission — picking up defeated thru-hikers from The Appalachian Trail. One hiker's companionship over the course of a night, however, will set Carly on a new path forever.
Documentary Block
Saturday, August 27 at 1 pm
Solo Mother
Written by Nane Sacramento and Danilo Stael, Directed by Camila de Moraes
Solo Mother is a short documentary film that tells the stories of women, mothers, blacks, residents of communities in the city of Salvador, Brazil, presenting their identities as single mothers, through authorial accounts of their experiences, fleeing from stereotypes that surround black single mother women. The main characters in this documentary are Keisiane Santos, 24, a beautician, and Lucia Batista, 63, a day laborer, both single mothers who live in the outskirts of the city of Salvador, Brazil. Despite having given birth at different times, separated by about 40 years, the characters remember and report similar difficulties about the reality of being a single mother in Brazilian society. The stories of the two solo mothers are linked in this documentary, bringing with them some essential reflections on how the responsibility for raising their children falls on women and exposes the issues surrounding the lack of support and care from the family, the children's parents, of society and the State.
PescAmare
Written and Directed by Andrea Lodovichetti
The life and the soul of fishermen, where the triumph of a lifetime of sacrifices finds its right appreciation in family ties and in the true values we too often tend to ignore or forget they exist.
Womxn Direct!
Saturday, August 27 at 3 pm & Sunday August 28 at 2 pm (encore)
Yours Are Mine
Written and Directed by Brooke Trantor
Evin takes on a new high school student to tutor, Ally, and they quickly develop a close, sisterly relationship. After accidentally discovering Ally's struggle with bulimia, Evin is quickly triggered by her own past battles with eating disorders. Evin tries to confront Ally to help her, and must decide to either fight through Ally's defensive tactics to get the help she needs, or leave her to possibly fight this disease for years to come.
Oh, Baby!
Written by Kate Morgan Chadwick, Directed by Brooke Trantor
Jane is single and looking for one last night of hot sex before her life changes forever.
Naji
Written by Shima Esmaeeli, Directed by Hosein Torkjoosh
Naji is a feisty, young woman from a traditional culture with aspirations to excel in a very different way from what her family expects. She soon discovers that growing up brings with it the pressure of choosing between her duty to her family and her dreams. Will she succumb?
Spotted
Written and Directed by Brandii Champagne
A story about a bird, heavily inspired by the solitude of "pandemic living." It's an art piece that makes a statement on body dysmorphia, perception and the potential lack of existence beyond death.
A Birthday Party
Written and directed by Victoria Thomas
The close relationship between two sisters is broken down irrevocably, when one insists on keeping up with the tradition of the circumcision of her young daughter.
Luteal
Written by Hilary Williams and Jill Oliver, Directed by Hilary Williams
One year after a woman's partner dies of leukemia, she decides to have their child on her own through insemination. But maybe she's not as alone as she thinks.
Solo Film Screenings
Marathon Mindset — Friday, August 26 at 7:30 pm & Sunday, August 28 at 12:30 pm (encore)
Written and Directed by Christopher Michael Carney
Marathon Mindset is a unique META-Mockumentary about an incompetent young man (Chasen, played by Christopher Michael Carney) with a thirst for success and admiration he once felt from his hometown. Chasen hires a documentary crew to film him while he and his two "friends" make a "Cinematic YouTube video" of him running a marathon in a vain attempt to become a viral superstar. *important note: Christopher Michael Carney actually attempts to run a marathon in the movie while playing Chasen. LOL FUNNY.
Even Saints Bleed — Saturday, August 27 at 6:30 pm
Written and Directed by Ricardo Bouyett
Even Saints Bleed follows Alma as she continues to retraumatize herself in order to complete her first novel. As she cycles through different rewrites, she meets a new artist friend named Kia who she quickly latches onto and hires to design her book's cover. While the two bond and collaborate on the design of Alma's work, Kia gets a sense of the inspiration behind the writing and feels compelled to protect her. Fernando, Alma's abusive boyfriend, shows up the next day with the intent to shut down the story she's writing. He fights to maintain his control over Alma after discovering Kia is working alongside her. As tensions rise, Alma's reality shape-shifts into the fiction she's written plunging her and everyone else with her down a path that will force her to choose between healing or continuing her cycle of self-retribution.
The Falling World — Saturday, August 27 at 5 pm
Written and Directed by Jaclyn Bethany
October 1992. A group of law students head to a remote home upstate where a girl disappeared two years earlier.
Folded Map™ Project - The Movie — Friday, August 26 at 10 pm
Created by Tonika Lewis Johnson
Englewood-born artist and activist, Tonika Lewis Johnson, expands her multimedia mapping project into a new film short. Johnson began her Folded Map™ project as a photo series, using the city's grid system to identify and capture residences at corresponding addresses on the North and South Sides in order to explore the visual legacies of segregation, socioeconomic disparities and racial discrimination. The project has since ballooned into a multi-pronged dive into these themes, involving everything from workshops and a stage play, to meet-ups for "map twins" — residents who live at corresponding addresses on different sides of the city. With clear, concise and engaging animations and visuals, watch and listen to Johnson describe her powerful project in depth as well as its inspiration and origins.
Festival Events
Welcome Mixer, Meet the Filmmakers
Friday, August 26 from 6 — 7 pm
The official opening mixer of Haven Chicago's inaugural Festival au Cinema. Stop by the bar for some refreshments and stick around for networking and celebration.
Filmmaker Panels/Talkbacks
Stick around after select screenings for an opportunity to hear from the filmmakers.
Friday, August 26 at 8 pm — Quarantine Shorts and Marathon Mindset)
Friday, August 26 at 9:30 pm — Chicago Shorts, The Folded Map and Even Saints Bleed
Saturday, August 27 at 2:30 pm — Solo Mother and PescAmare
Saturday, August 27 at 4:30 pm — Womxn Direct!
Brunch and Iconic Film Special Event
Saturday, August 27 from 10 am — 12:30 pm
Join Haven for a special brunch-y and booze-y screening of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, complete with drag entertainment, bottomless mimosas, bloody marys, and brunch courtesy of Uvae Chicago.
With this trailblazing musical, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask brought their signature creation from stage to screen for a movie as unclassifiable as its protagonist. Raised a boy in East Berlin, Hedwig (Mitchell) undergoes a traumatic personal transformation in order to emigrate to the U.S., where she reinvents herself as an "internationally ignored" but divinely talented rock diva, characterized by Mitchell as inhabiting a "beautiful gender of one." The film tells Hedwig's story through her music, an eclectic assortment of original punk anthems and power ballads by Trask, matching them with a freewheeling cinematic mosaic of music-video fantasies, animated interludes, and moments of bracing emotional realism. A hard-charging song cycle and a tender character study, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is a tribute to the transcendent power of rock and roll.
Closing Awards Party
Saturday, August 27 from 8 — 9:30 pm
All selected films are eligible for Haven's filmmaker awards, presented to filmmakers exhibiting excellence in the following categories: Best Work, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Performance, Best Technical Art and Best Friend (Audience Favorite).
Made in Chicago Gala
Sunday, August 28 from 6 — 10 pm
Haven's second annual fundraising gala features mouth-watering BBQ, cocktails, a silent auction and an exclusive sneak-peek at Haven's inaugural film project. Special thanks to Gala sponsors Smoke Daddy BBQ, Jeppsons Malort and Bourbon, Goose Island Brewery and Navigant Law.
Ticket Packages
Weekend Pass
Movies
Talkbacks
Welcome Mixer (exclusive to Weekend Pass or Package holders).
Silver Package
Weekend Pass
Welcome Mixer (exclusive to Weekend Pass or Package holders).
Brunch and Iconic Film Special Event
(2) Free Cocktails
Gold Package
Weekend Pass
Welcome Mixer (exclusive to Weekend Pass or Package holders).
Brunch and Iconic Film Special Event
(2) Free Cocktails
Reserved Seating
General Admission to Made in Chicago Gala on Sunday
Swag Bag
VIP Lanyard
