MOBILE PROGRAM
and
BALLOT
TWELVE 1-MINUTE FILMS INSPIRED BY A FAMOUS WORK OF ART CHOSEN AT RANDOM BY EACH DIRECTOR.
1
What's The Worst That Could Happen
FILMMAKER:
Julie Schultz-Wallace
In prehistoric times, a young wolf notices a woman making some food around a campfire and wonders, "what's the worst that could happen" if he took the bone she was offering to him.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
The Ambassadors
Hans Holbein the Younger
I always include my dogs in my short films, and seeing this painting I immediately wondered how I could work a story where they were posed in costume with props recreating "The Ambassadors". I then remembered a meme where a wolf is shown wondering what might happen if he approached a campfire and interacted with the humans...followed up by a hilarious photo of two dachshunds wearing crocheted hats captioned "10,000 years later," and knew this had to be the storyline of my film. So, you could say my film is double art inspired!
2
Define Abstraction
FILMMAKER:
Mishu Hilmy
An artist takes a break from doomscrolling to improve her fine art vocabulary.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Western Dream
Helen Frankenthaler
Honestly, I still struggle to wrap my head around abstract art. I've seen abstract works at museums/galleries, and am sometimes fascinated, moved, and impressed by the techniques and visions. Other times indifferent. So I wanted to blend experimental and figurative abstraction with my literal desire to understand it more.
3
Tiny Things
FILMMAKER:
Katrina Zimmerman
A close look at the tiny details of the world that often get missed, how entertwined they all are, and how much movement is constantly happening around us.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Black Iris
Georgia O'Keffe
I was inspired by Georgia's portrayal of something so small it hardly ever gets noticed. By enlarging the subject, we are able to see details that we never knew exsisted. This film emphasis the small bits of nature that play a crucial role in our world.
4
The Four Graces
FILMMAKER:
Gregg Jaffe
Grace & Michael experience the different cycles of life and the "l word" through the seasons together.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Primavera
Sandro Botticelli
"Primavera" has a LOT going on. There are countless themes and style choices threaded throughout, so I took a maximal approach and grabbed onto many. A few include the themes of love, life cycles, seasons changing, the 3 Graces characterization, birth ... In addition the painting has a very linear right to left style of storytelling so we emulated that approach with our cinematography.
5
The Threadbare
FILMMAKER:
Joshua Tammaro
In Threadbare, we confront an existential crisis in the quiet solitude of Valerie’s loft apartment. As she revisits an old journal and its drawing of a spider web, she Astro projects and reflects on the fragility and complexity of her life. Through this metaphor, she comes to realize what her integration must be.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Maman (Sculpture)
Joshua Tammaro
The inspiration for Threadbare came from the image of a spider, symbolizing the delicate balance between fear and resilience. The film uses the spider web as a metaphor for life’s fragility, reflecting how everything can feel like it's on the verge of unraveling yet somehow stays intact. This idea of tension, both internal and external, drives the film's exploration of existential crisis.
6
The Pleasures of Childhood
FILMMAKER:
Scott Smith
I was looking for a situation where the sense of play was authentic. Then I came upon a group of girls playing on the beach, making up their own rules, until one of them gets mad for having sand thrown on her leg, and stomps away.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Snap the Whip
Winslow Homer
To me, Winslow Homer's, "Snap The Whip," inspires a sense of play, that a lot of times feels lost in our world these days.
7
Merge
FILMMAKER:
Danny McCarthy
A man and his chihuahua go to the park for a nice picnic to watch a Merge - a regular event in which 2 of the various mysterious orbs that appeared in the Earth’s skies years before merge together in a beautiful display. But this Merge will be different, esp for these two.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Spain
Julian Schnabel
The painting depicts a scene featuring a bullfighter in the ring with a bull. But rather than an image of a typical bout between a man with a red cape and a heaving bull, it depicts the two via a somewhat grotesque image of their heads merged together. The painting is also done on broken pieces of ceramic dishes which further inspired the story and visuals.
8
Blind Faith
FILMMAKER:
Jordan Mullins
A sightless and breathless woman uses needle and thread. Saturated in symbolic imagery and an ethereal musical score, the viewer is invited to interpret the film as they’d wish and to witness what the woman cannot.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Washington Crossing the Delaware
Emanuel Leutze
The deep, expansive water in this painting was what first caught my eye, but the grandiose use of idealistic, patriotic imagery inspired me to explore other forms of symbolism.
9
You Say Goodbye, I say "Cheese"
FILMMAKER:
Carmen Jaffe
When Alex and Mabel hired the photographer to take their engagement photos, they didn't expect what happened when the photographer showed up.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
John Lennon; Yoko Ono (Photo)
Annie Leibovitz
I thought of the iconic photo of John and Yoko, and I wondered what the process could've been like to decide on the pose. Was it spontaneous, or well thought out, or maybe even both? I decided to make a film about how I thought this crazy pose came to be.
10
Spark
FILMMAKER:
Isaac White
An avant gaurd depiction of a creative idea forming and taking hold.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Composition VII
Wassily Kandinsky
I have mostly stuck with 'traditional' storytelling when it comes to filmmaking. So when confronted with the spiritual expressionism of Composition VII, I opted to challenge myself by forgoing standard storytelling structure in favor of emotional symbolism through the use of grand ethereal imagery composed entirely of macro cinematography.
11
The P.I.
FILMMAKER:
Elise Jaffe
The life of a Private Investigator has long been parodied and for good reason. They live a life of adventure, hiding in plain sight, sneaking around, danger possibly lurking right around the corner.. The movies may make it out to be a glamorous life but no one would actually want that life… or would they? And who decides if they have what it takes?
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
In the Loge
Mary Cassatt
When looking at the art I couldn't help but notice the man watching the woman. It made me wonder... if he's not watching the opera, he's watching her, what could she be watching? Does she know he's watching her? Is he spying on her? Is she spying on someone else? I wanted to know what the man was hoping to see or notice so I made that decision for him.
12
Grassroots
FILMMAKER:
Jackie Frole
Blades of grass come together to air their various grievances at a town hall.
SYNOPSIS
INSPIRATION:
Joy of Life
Matisse
While I admiring the color and beauty of the painting, I started wondering what it would be like to be hanging out in that park—and then suddenly, a bunch of naked people show up and prance around. That got me thinking about everything this grass must witness, and what it would sound like if they could hold a forum for their complaints.
