SENE Film, Music & Arts Festival 2009

An excerpt from Plato's Republic, the 'Allegory of the Cave' is a classic commentary on the human condition. We have adapted and brought it to life by shooting over 4,000 still photographs of John Grigsby's wonderful claymation. The look was achieved by use of candlelight in a real fire that burned at the back of the set.

Courthouse Girls of Farmland is a story about a small Indiana town and seven senior women who got up from their bridge club table to make a bold statement about historic preservation. Upset about plans to destroy the 130-year-old courthouse, the women threw caution--and their clothes--to the wind by posing for a fundraising calendar that created a firestorm of controversy. Backed by Historic Farmland USA, an organization known for its zany promotions, these 77-to-94 year old card-playing activists brought national attention to historic preservation's role in helping small towns survive. Their daring protest also generated harsh criticism from many in their community. But they proved that the old have beauty and value, whether it's in time-worn buildings or in the people who have called that community home for nearly a century.

After smoking pot for the first time, a young girl tries to deal with the trials and tribulations of adolescent life.

'Crystal' is a music video and a short horror film. A boy is seduced by a beautiful girl named Crystal who leads him into a horror chamber of addiction and torture. 'Crystal' dramatizes the descent into addiction experienced by crystal meth abusers, for whom the effects of addiction are the equivalent of torture - teeth falling out, skin covered in lesions, even bugs crawling on your skin.

Based on an old legend from Norwich, Connecticut... Micah Rood, cherishes his privacy and his precious apple orchard. When a wily peddler stays the night, Rood accuses him of stealing his apples, and commits a violent deed that soon taints the fruit of his orchard with the blood of guilt.

A man is assaulted by thugs in middle of the night. They confiscate a white envelope full of money, tell him never to show his face again and walk off.. Stumbling and half-concious about the streets, the mane finds refuge in a 24 hour laundromat. The only other person here is a lone stranger doing his laundry. The injured man is not sure if the stranger is friend or foe.

"The DVD" is an Asian love story set within the framework of a political sex scandal and the Asian Black-market. It's the story of a young college student who still lives with his widowed mother and whose life is like any below average student. An incident with a college bully causes an accidental meeting with a strange dark savior. The meeting changes his life forever as he moves into a life of crime, falls in love and exploits a DVD copy of a sex tape involving a major political figure. In Cantonese, English and Malay. Subtitled in Cantonese, English, Malay.

Escapism: Noun; The tendency to seek distraction and relief from unpleasant realities, especially, by seeking entertainment or engaging in fantasy (Oxford American Dictionary).