2014 Program — Vertical Film Festival

ARCHIVE: 2014 1st VERTICAL FILM FESTIVAL SHOWCASE

It's a wrap! Thank you to everyone who supported and attended the 1st Vertical Film Festival — especially to THE FILMMAKERS! — whose pioneering vertical works below will undoubtedly open the door to others in the future. Enjoy!
(On a mobile device, click on the little icon of four arrows on the bottom right to view full-screen.)

1st VFF TRAILER (SEGMENTS OF ALL FILMS):

Trailer for the 1st Vertical Film Festival, held Friday 17 October 2014 in St Hilda's Church, Katoomba, in Australia's Blue Mountains. Includes a few seconds from all of the films \u2014 both in the \u21E7THIS WAY UP\u21E7 competition for vertical videos under 3 mins, and TALL SHORTS, our out-of-competition section.

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Trailer for the 1st Vertical Film Festival, held Friday 17 October 2014 in St Hilda's Church, Katoomba, in Australia's Blue Mountains. Includes a few seconds from all of the films — both in the ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ competition for vertical videos under 3 mins, and TALL SHORTS, our out-of-competition section.

1ST PRIZE ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ COMPETITION:

On a lonely beach Fish flops desperately, trapped by a yoke of plastic rings. Girl sees him and lovingly releases him. Both are transformed. As time passes they're propelled on a desperate search for their unlikely love. Magic awaits them.
Created by Ana Mar\u00EDa M\u00E9ndez Salgado & Carlos Manrique Clavijo (Karu Karu Studio, Adelaide) (AU)
(Commissioned by 9:16 Film Festival, Adelaide) http://karu-karu.com/girlfish.html Duration 2\u201954

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On a lonely beach Fish flops desperately, trapped by a yoke of plastic rings. Girl sees him and lovingly releases him. Both are transformed. As time passes they're propelled on a desperate search for their unlikely love. Magic awaits them.
Created by Ana María Méndez Salgado & Carlos Manrique Clavijo (Karu Karu Studio, Adelaide) (AU)
(Commissioned by , Adelaide) http://karu-karu.com/girlfish.html Duration 2’54

TALL SHORTS (out of competition)

Set your day in motion. What can you fit in a day in the Blue Mountains?
Director Natasha Sebire (AU) w ww.natashasebire.info Starring Gemma Woldendorp Duration 3’47 Camera Canon C100

Visual impressions from today and daydreams from childhood, evoked by train traveling through space & time. More details.
Director Gregory Gutenko (US) () Duration 4’00 Media 1960s Super-8, HDV, iPhone

February 2 to 14, 2011. The birth, life and death of the huge icicle outside our kitchen window. It peaked at 12 inches in diameter. At the end, I singled out the frame where someone knocked off the ice with a broom handle. 11,280 photos taken at various intervals between 5 seconds and 300 seconds. This is my first tallscreen video.
Director Mike Sanders (US) Duration 1’11
Camera Canon A620

THE THAMES A view from from a bridge in the straining winter sun, The Thames is at once a meditation on the passage of time and the timelessness of the river itself. Shot in a single take and accompanied by a specially composed soundtrack the video draws on the transformative powers of the camera to remind us of the complexities of simply looking. (Video not available). Director Ryszard Dabek (AU) Duration 4’11 — **THE THAMES**
A view from from a bridge in the straining winter sun, The Thames is at once a meditation on the passage of time and the timelessness of the river itself. Shot in a single take and accompanied by a specially composed soundtrack the video draws on the transformative powers of the camera to remind us of the complexities of simply looking. (Video not available).
**Director** Ryszard Dabek (AU) **Duration** 4’11

Friends 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 live in a world where there is no alphabet - only numbers. One day, they decide they want something different from their orderly, black-and-white world. They set out to create each letter of the alphabet and bring colour, creativity and jellybeans to their world.
NB. Embedded here is a 45" teaser for the film, which is currently doing the film festival circuit and has been nominated for an Oscar.
Directors William Joyce & Brandon Oldenburg (US)
Producers Lampton Enochs & Trish Farnsworth-Smith (Moonbot Studios) Duration 11’26

I was traveling into Adelaide city on a bus one day and saw the old Westpac building’s big brass door rising out of the ground as it was closing. It was very impressive. I had always wanted to see it in action again. Here was my opportunity. If I could get footage of that door, I’d make a film about .... um ..... doors. Director Matthew Gray (AU)
Documentary Commissioned for the , Port Adelaide 2014 (where it took out the 'Port Door' award). Duration 12’00

The Future is now! Well at least people told us so in the nineties. We were promised jetpacks, Cities floating in the ocean and with the evolving of Ipads & tablets to be liberated from any kind of fixed video format. (Hilarious article: bit.ly/tallscreen & for real: gizmo.do/tallscreentwo) Since we can’t deliver the rocket backpack we at least bring you the first ever mountainbike tallscreen video. Thanks to Steffi Reisenauer @ Smartriders
Music: The Glitch Mob / We swarm
Shot on La Réunion Island

This is a part of Alicewinks the complete Alice's Adventures, available digitally in a number of places. From \"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland\" by Lewis Carroll Music Lucy Broadwood Imagery Gwenned Hudson, Maria Kirk, A.E. Jackson, W.H. Walker, & Arthur Rackham.
Director David Neal (US) www.alicewinks.com
Animation Brittney Owens & Melissa Guldbrand Dodd Duration 2\u201900

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This is a part of Alicewinks the complete Alice's Adventures, available digitally in a number of places. From "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll Music Lucy Broadwood Imagery Gwenned Hudson, Maria Kirk, A.E. Jackson, W.H. Walker, & Arthur Rackham.
Director David Neal (US) www.alicewinks.com
Animation Brittney Owens & Melissa Guldbrand Dodd Duration 2’00

The Australian Climbing Festival and Vertical Film Festival organisers join up for a spot of canyoning in the Blue Mountains' Tiger Snake Canyon one winter's day.
Directors Adam Sebire & Natasha Sebire (AU) Kalimba Music SaReGaMa Duration 3\u201944
Cameras Canon C100 & 7D, GoPro3

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A game of football turns deadly as an uninvited player joins in Directed by Sam Taylor and Bjorn Aschim for The Line Produced by Fritzi Nicolaus Sound & Music by Box of Toys Audio. This film was made over the last two years in our evenings, weekends and days off. We had no budget but a lot of help from our very talented and generous friends. Find links to their websites and The Line studios here.

⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ (IN COMPETITION)

The movement and of the sea is extraordinary. I explore and document the sea as I recently moved back to Cyprus and aimed to create an audiovisual experience. The chromatic alterations of the water at sunrise/sunset are inspirational illusory forms.
Director Dimitra Karyopouli (CY) dimitrakaryopouli.weebly.com/ Duration 2’30

Deep Water Soloing while on our travels through some of Australia's most remote and beautiful locations: Far North WA & the Kimberley, 2014.
Director Goshen Watts (AU) Duration 2\u201957
Camera Panasonic DMC-GF5x

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Returning from the hospital, Anita narrates the story of why her vision is now vertical. Travelling with her Mum, Dad and brother, getting a call from uncle, they meet with an accident while answering the phone.
Director Eelan Elanko (AU)
Actor Nishitha Sritharan Music Sathish Varshan Duration 2\u201959 Camera Canon 5D mk III

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2ND PRIZE, ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧ :

An experimental video work exploring portraiture in a liminal and uncertain space.
Director Simon Baré (AU) Subjects Pete Conroy, Jenny Leonard, Ron Kelly , Amanda Stephens Lee, Sylvia Griffin, Nikki Walkerden Duration 2’31 Camera Canon 60D

Coming around and going around.
Director & Acting Kuesti Fraun (DE)
Camera Frank Lin Editing Chris Brandl
Production mobtik Duration 2’00 Camera Samsung Note 3

BEST MOUNTAIN FILM, ⇧THIS WAY UP⇧:

Following a shadow of expectancy, making a mountain out of a mountain, shifting balance is found in suspension. Director, Editor & Performance Nikki Walkerden (AU) www.nikkiwalkerden.com Sound Shaun Hay Duration 2’31

ARCHIE & THE CLIMBING FACTORY Video not available due to copyright issues. — **ARCHIE & THE CLIMBING FACTORY**
Video not available due to copyright issues.

A simple tale of everything everyone loves on the internet: time travelling cats, DIY special effects and vertical video.
Directors Miriam Ross & Alfio Leotta (NZ)
miriamruthross.wordpress.com/vertical-media
Duration 1'11

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An innocent climbing adventure turns bad, but can the wombats get themselves out of this scrape? Director Anna Fitzgerald (AU)
Lead climber Walter Wombat Second climber Wally Wombat Duration 2’56 Camera iPhone 5C

This was shown in the Festival out-of-competition as a work-in-progress edit (a montage of rushes material from a larger film about architect J\u00F8rn Utzon's inspirations from the natural world). To be completed in 2015.
Filmed & Edited by Adam S\u00E9bire
Camera Canon C100 Music Elena Kats-Chernin (Licensed from Boosey & Hawkes, London)
Duration 3'21

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This was shown in the Festival out-of-competition as a work-in-progress edit (a montage of rushes material from a larger film about architect Jørn Utzon's inspirations from the natural world). To be completed in 2015.
Filmed & Edited by Adam Sébire
Camera Canon C100 Music Elena Kats-Chernin (Licensed from Boosey & Hawkes, London)
Duration 3'21

Poster for the 1st Edition of the Vertical Film Festival in 2014.