​House Plant
​Writer: Noah Jackson 
​Directors: Noah Jackson, Holly Payne, Brian Hong


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Synopsis:
An eager young woman, cultivating her new suburban life with her husband, must stand her ground when her overbearing sister questions her choices. The two sisters must reconcile with their tumultuous past.

Character Descriptions:
DALIA (29): A determined and well-meaning young woman excited about her new life away from the city. Like her sister, she comes from a well-off family but takes pride in making it on her own. Still, her respect for her sister causes her to bend to Audra’s whims.
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AUDRA (39): Dalia’s confident, overbearing sister from New York. She wears elegant clothes and commands every room. Her wealth only adds to her entitlement. She is skinny in stature but large in demeanor and often tries to get her way.

RICKY (29):  Dalia’s humorous and supportive husband with a fresh face. He is less refined in his manners but is always well intentioned. His working-class background often causes unspoken tension with Audra.

WAITER (20): A slightly clumsy, yet apologetic waiter.
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PIXIE (3): ANIMAL CASTING  Audra’s small, white Maltese dog that never leaves her side.

Slough It Off and Be Free

​Writer: David Gabriel 
Directors: David Gabriel, Yair Stein and Alex Butler



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Synopsis:
SLOUGH IT OFF AND BE FREE begins with the final shiva service memorializing Chaya Buxbaum, a holocaust survivor and single mother of two. The story that follows takes place at the family dinner immediately after the service. It centers TOVAH BUXBAUM, the daughter of the recently deceased, who is initially joined by her boisterous brother, JERRY, and her quiet and supportive son SAM (21). Soon after, her other son AVI (24), whose flight delayed him enough to miss the service entirely, arrives at the house. We track the four of them until they take a walk around the block, signaling the end of the 7 day Jewish mourning period. With this film, we want to explore the notion that grief, infinitely complex as it is, extends beyond sadness to include a range of emotions, realized through individuals in radically different ways. We hope to pose a simple question to our audience: how do we comfort each other in a time of loss? ​
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Character Descriptions:
Tovah Buxbaum (62) is a consummate caregiver in a hippie moon woman dress who has just lost her mother. She herself is a single mother (by choice) to Sam and Avi. Tovah is a boisterous personality, who cares for everyone and everything, but throughout the dinner central to this film, she has to constantly remind herself that it’s ok to, and impossible not to, let go.

Sam Buxbaum (21) is Tovah’s youngest son. He’s a Junior at a college near home, and spends most of his time as a shoulder for the family to lean on. He’s inherited a lot of Tovah’s moderator instincts and not a lot of her adventurous ones. In this time of mourning, Sam’s primary concern is how his mom is doing, and his secondary concern is smoothing out some of the rougher edges from his relationship to his brother.

Avi Buxbaum (24)  is Tovah’s son and Sam’s older brother. He carries a great deal of regret just beneath his vacant, tense exterior. Though he tries to keep himself cobbled together for his family, you can tell by looking at him that he is really struggling to deal with the loss.

Uncle Jerry (65) is the recently departed Chaya Buxbaum’s eldest son, a warm and jovial personality eager to bring joy to the family’s table in a time of grief. He's a what-you-see-is-what-you-get kind of guy, and he wears all of his emotions on his sleeve in incredibly endearing ways.

​Black Briefs
Cyrus Cohen
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Calvin's more popular classmate who recently came out as gay invites him to hangout at his summer home. 

CALVIN - 17, male, lanky, tall, reserved, depressed, just trying to survive high school.
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ANDREW-18, male, athletic, lean, masculine, spoiled, well-liked, selfish, trying to savor the end of his senior year and lose his virginity before college.
***FILMING IN EAST HAMPTON, NY

Eros and Psyche
Annie Hope 
During a blackout in New York City, an apartment building’s power is shut off. Among these apartments, there is only one that has not been illuminated, as the couple inside, seemingly unaware of the power outage and the ensuing chaos, have chosen instead to adapt to the dark. Meanwhile, an electrician and his wife welcome a young woman who has lost her keys into their apartment and the three of them begin to discuss the nature and cause of the blackout. When the electrician and the young woman go upstairs to check on their mysterious neighbors, they hear only strange whispers and watch as dark masses of petals appear under the doorframe. On the other side, the knocking is anxiously perceived as a looming threat. As the couple’s insular intimacy grows in their bedroom, a ghostly nest breeds in a corner of the ceiling. Back in the apartment below, tensions rise as the wife’s health worsens until at last she runs upstairs and opens the door to the mysterious apartment — at the same time, the power violently turns on across the entire city.

JERRY, 50-60, male, short/stocky/wears glasses, know-it-all/talkative but endearing in a bumbling kind of way, old New Yorker type
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 PAULINA , 50-60, female, talkative but also very sensitive and a little neurotic, old New Yorker type