Cycles<\/a>,\u201d gets AFS backing for her work currently in production, \u201cHelp is on the Way.\u201d<\/p>\nNarrative shorts dominate the lineup, with only three documentaries listed among the 14 recipients. However, the recipients show that Austin remains a hub for true-life tales, with grants going to Channing Smith for ballroom documentary \u201cI Mean, I Am Somebody,\u201d While Sarah Michelle Kuck looks at the role of older women in households and communities in \u201cGrandma\u2019s House.\u201d Rounding out the trio is Lauren Santucci, whose untitled short doc examines San Antonio\u2019s 2024 weapons exchange program and contrasts it with Australia\u2019s culture-changing 1996 weapons buyback in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.<\/p>\n
Of course, short films are often a stepping stone for filmmakers early in their career before they move into the feature realm, and the AFS grants program is there for them in that leap, too. Applications for the AFS Grant for Feature Films program, for films 40 minutes or longer, will open in April.<\/p>\n
Narrative Shorts<\/p>\n
In Pre-Production<\/p>\n
\u201cPressure Points\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Janelle Lee Austin (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
Lifelong friends Cora and Maya\u2019s marriages face a \u201cdrought\u201d until they both secretly turn to Duong, an elderly Asian man with a knack for pressure-point orgasms, reigniting sparks in their marriages. When Duong dies, they must unite to keep the spark alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Adequate Place to Die\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Yeajoon \u201cJoon\u201d Cho (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
In middle-of-nowhere Texas, a vagrant searches for an adequate place to die.<\/p>\n
\u201cBody Shop\u201d<\/p>\n
Maria Eugenia Mealla (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
In an alternate reality where body shops replace hospitals, a young mechanic discovers a wealthy client pressuring her boss to loan her a Latina body for a night out. Appalled by the request and determined to stop it, she takes measures into her own hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cSi Dios quiere\u201d (God Willing)<\/p>\n
D: Costantino Ciminiello (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
An elderly woman receives a frantic call claiming her granddaughter has been kidnapped and a ransom must be paid \u2026 but as she races to gather the money, her slipping memory blurs the line between crisis and delusion.<\/p>\n
In Production<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Rabbit Story and Tomato\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Elham Doust (Dallas, TX)<\/p>\n
After finishing daily chores, a woman sits alone in front of the television and revisits a long-postponed story idea. She begins to ponder about the story concept but is distracted by tomorrow\u2019s chores. Animated.<\/p>\n
\u201cHelp Is on the Way\u201d<\/p>\n
Chinwe Okorie (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
After her car mysteriously breaks down on an isolated rural Texas road, a Black woman must decide if she can trust the help that comes her way.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Light She Keeps\u201d<\/p>\n
Zariyah Perry (Dallas, TX)<\/p>\n
With a storm behind her eyes, a teenage girl confronts the unspoken tension between herself and the person sitting across the table \u2026 over waffles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree Dollar Bet\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Brittney Rodriguez and Pablo Mejia (Beaumont, TX)<\/p>\n
While waiting for the next bus out of town, a sharp-tongued drifter makes a bet that ends in humiliation by the local pageant queen. Reeling from rejection, she bonds with the runner-up, and their encounter reveals two girls searching for home \u2014 perhaps finding it in each other.<\/p>\n
\u201cSkinFolk\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Shianne Salazar (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
An injury ends Ayra\u2019s tenure as cheer captain just ahead of the homecoming game. Plagued by envy, she enlists dark magic to abduct the body of her replacement \u2014 her best friend Starr, who is secretly in love with her.<\/p>\n
In Post-Production<\/p>\n
\u201cTito Ritmo\u201d<\/p>\n
D: Ulises C\u00f3rdova (El Paso, TX)<\/p>\n
In early 1941, a zoot suit toting mechanic enters a \u201cdance till you drop\u201d competition in order to win a new car. In 2009, the car is now in the family lineage, and his grandson attempts to sell the classic car out of financial desperation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe Skip School\u201d<\/p>\n
Ryan Darbonne (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
September 11, 2001. Grieving their best friend\u2019s suicide, two Black teens ditch school to buy the new Slayer album, unaware of the world falling apart around them.<\/p>\n
Documentary Shorts<\/p>\n
In Production<\/p>\n
\u201cGrandma\u2019s House\u201d<\/p>\n
Sarah Michelle Kuck (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
Grandma\u2019s House is a documentary short that celebrates the voices of Central Texas matriarchs. They have experienced joy and hardship, and they carry wisdom that helps us understand who we are, where we\u2019ve been, and where we\u2019re going as a community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI Mean, I am Somebody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Channing Smith (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
Through rhythm, ritual, and realness, \u201cI Mean, I am Somebody.\u201d holds a mirror to the world of Ballroom \u2014 reflecting identity and refracting the quiet strength behind the spectacle, revealing the power of being seen on one\u2019s own terms.<\/p>\n
In Post-Production<\/p>\n
Untitled Gun Buyback Documentary<\/p>\n
Lauren Santucci (Austin, TX)<\/p>\n
A short documentary exploring the tensions of implementing gun violence prevention in the US through the lens of a 2024 voluntary weapons exchange in San Antonio, Texas, and a 1996 gun buyback initiative in Australia.<\/p>\n
A note to readers:\u00a0Bold and uncensored,\u00a0The Austin Chronicle\u00a0has been Austin\u2019s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community\u2019s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From zoot suits in 1940\u2019s El Paso to the fight against gun violence in modern San Antonio to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":158586,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[65212,132,17644,134,133],"class_list":["post-158585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-afs-grant-for-short-films","tag-austin","tag-austin-film-society","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158585","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=158585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/158585\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/158586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=158585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=158585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=158585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}