The 2017 SOMA Film Festival takes place March 9-12 at South Orange Performing Arts Center (SOPAC) in South Orange, NJ. The festival kicks off on Thursday, March 9 at 7:00pm with an opening night party in the Loft at SOPAC. Check out the next few pages for a preview of the films screened this year.
Here is a look at the schedule: NOTE: All Films and Scheduling Subject to Change Without Notice
Friday, March 10
6:00 PM - LIMBO / Greece (Director: Ron Dyens) – Narrative Short / 30:00 – In a stark landscape, should the one seen as an outsider to a group of boys be feared or will he become their leader?
HEAR THE SILENCE / Germany (Director: Ed Ehrenberg) – Narrative Feature / 1:31:00 – During WW II in a small village in the Ukraine, a group of women battle a small occupying force of Nazi soldiers.
Friday, March 10
8:15 PM - LAMP: A GHOST STORY / USA (Director: Thomas Southerland) – Documentary Short / 17:30 - A 70 year-old Kentuckian loses sleep after buying a second-hand lamp.
SOLITARY / USA (Director: Kristi Jacobson) – Documentary Feature / 1:30:00 – There are 100,000 US citizens in solitary confinement today and this film offers a rare window into life on both sides of the bars. Filmmaker Q & A to follow.
Saturday, March 11
10:00 AM - CAMERAPERSON / USA (Director: Kristen Johnson) Documentary Feature / 1:43:00 - Cinematographer Kirsten Johnson exposes her many years behind the camera through a memoir made up of decades of footage shot all over the world.
NOON - PITTER PATTER GOES MY HEART / Austria (Director: Christoph Rainer) - Narrative Short / 21:30 – Narrative Short - The hopelessly romantic Lisa takes desperate measures to win her former lover back.
BITCH / Sweden (Director: Csaba Bene Perlenberg) – Narrative Feature / 1:20:00 - A stray dog from the slums New Delhi finds itself transported to Sweden, where she is thrust into a series of interactions with some pretty colorful people, all from her point of view.
Saturday, March 11
2:30 PM - JIMBO / Brazil (Director: Rodrigo Zan) – Narrative Short / 15:18 – A shy sixteen year old cows in the shadow of his controlling father but after their latest heist, the boy decides to take charge of his destiny and break free from his father’s prison.
COLBY / USA (Directors: Jake Fuller & Alex Markman) – Narrative Feature / 1:20:00 - Stranded in a small beach town, a troubled young drifter breaks into a wealthy home and cons her way into the good graces of the family that lives there. Filmmaker Q & A follows.
5:00 PM - SUICIDE HOTLINE / UK (Director: Gannesh Rajah) – Narrative Short / 9:00 – A man is having a Thursday like any other until arriving home from work to answer a cold call from a suicide hotline.
5:00 PM - EMMA INSPIRED / USA (Director: Nicole Machon) – Narrative Short / 12:22 - Emma is a recent college grad and unsure of her next move in life as her friends move on with their own.
THE COMEBACK / USA (Created by Craig Geraghty and Marco Ricci.) – Narrative Short / 7:00 - A washed up superhero makes one last attempt to revive his flagging career.
CUDDLE PARTY / USA (Director: Matthew Epstein) – Narrative Short / 10:00 – An unhappily married couple try some alternative therapy that results in a tragic but happy ending.
PAPERBACK / USA (Director: Adam Bowers) – Narrative Feature / 1:18:00 - A pizza cook who never left his college town meets the woman of his dreams before finding out there’s a huge roadblock.
Saturday, March 11
8:00 PM - AWARD ANNOUNCEMENT – BEST SHORT SCRIPT
8:15 PM - THE WAY OF THE TEA / France (Director: Marc Fouchard) – Narrative Short / 20:00 – Religious intolerance is addressed over an invite for a cup of tea.
FIRE AT SEA / Italy (Director: Gianfranco Rosi) – Documentary Feature / 1:54:00 - Shot on the Sicilian island of Lampedusa during the European migrant crisis, this film sets the migrants’ dangerous Mediterranean crossing against a background of the ordinary life of the islanders.
Sunday, March 12
10:00 AM - BACK STORY / Germany (Director: Joschka Laukeninks) – Narrative Short / 8:00 – An innovative look at how everything we love, everything we learn, everything we build, everything we fear, will one day be gone.
THE BOUQUET / France (Director: Julien Segard) – Narrative Short / 10:27 – A young man makes the unwise decision to steal an elderly woman’s flowers.
SHE, THE SERGEANT MATACHO / Colombia (Director: William Gonzalez) – Narrative Feature / 1:33:00 – After the government assassinates her husband, a woman sets out to exact revenge and becomes a notorious legend of the revolution.
Sunday, March 12
2:30 PM - BEAUTIFUL DREAMER / USA (Director: Steven Kelleher) – Narrative Short / 26:00 - Facing a terminal disease, a mother uses space travel and relativity to stretch her last two years of her own life over the lifetime of her daughter.
CONDEMNED / USA (Director: Steven Biver) – Narrative Short / 13:54 - Life is but a dream. Some believe the victims await their killer in afterlife.
HEAD SPACE / USA (Director: Emma Huibregtse) – Narrative Short / 5:00 - A single mother concerned with her son’s inability to cope, sees the tables turn when faced with danger.
FRAUD / USA (Director: Dean Fleischer-Camp) Narrative Short Feature / 52:00 – A jarring and real firsthand look at the modern American family as they run from their past towards an uncertain future
Sunday, March 12
4:30 PM - LOCAL SHORTS PROGRAM - shorts include:
PROM / Boonton, NJ (Director: Brett Boon)
CASE #5930/ New Brunswick, NJ (Director: William D. Prystauk)
HEAD TO HEAD / Summit, NJ (Director: Lisa Reznik)
FRAME OF REFERENCE / Rahway/South Orange, NJ (Director: Ian J. Keeney)
EXTRA 1104 / Hackettstown, NJ (Director: John General)
GOODSTEIN / Maplewood, NJ) (Director: Lee Navlen)
LIGHT SLEEPER / South Orange, NJ (Director: Robin Sindler)
AQUA POGO – South Orange, NJ (Director: Brian Neff)
DEATH IN BLOOM – Maplewood, NJ (Director: Dael Oates)
SHY GUYS / New Providence, NJ (Director: Fred Lehne)
Filmmakers Q & A TO FOLLOW
7:00 PM - ILYANICA / USA (Director: Scott Cobb) – Narrative Short / 17:30 – 20 years after a traumatic event, two old friends meet in an abandoned detention center in Eastern Europe where a group of radicals are occupying a CIA black site.
THE EXILE / Mexico (Director: Elena García) – Narrative Short / 17:30 - A third generation miner, dreams about a better life for his family in America when an unexpected explosion at the mine suddenly transforms his wish.
ABORTION ROAD TRIP / USA (Directors: Katie Goodman & Soren Kisiel) Documentary Short / 7:34 - Comedian Katie Goodman drives 512 miles through the U.S. examining state abortion restrictions.
HATE CRIME / USA (Director: Steven Esteb) Narrative Feature / 1:24:00 - As a killer is set to be executed for murdering a young gay man, two sets of parents struggle to deal with the consequences of fear and repression.
