DAVENPORT, IOWA (August 28, 2020) — Event organizers from the Downtown Davenport Partnership (DDP) announced winners and official film selections for Alternating Currents presented by GreenState Credit Union, originally scheduled for August 27-30, 2020. Winners were named in six categories, including Best of Fest, Best Local, Best Fictional Short, Best Narrative Short, Best Experimental, and Best Student Film. A total of 52 films were accepted as official Alternating Currents film-festival selections from more than 90 submitted for consideration.
According to Alternating Currents film festival Producer Harry Walker, the filmmakers stepped up to the challenges presented by the global pandemic, which ultimately led to the cancellation of the 2020 festival. He praised not only the quality but the quantity of submissions as well.
“We had some of the greatest shorts I've seen in a very long time, all at one festival, in our hometown,” Walker said. “Our submissions came across the globe to locally-produced, gut-punching, knock-your-socks-off gold. They were off the charts this year, not only in greatness, but coming in droves.”
Designed to showcase the vibrant culture of our downtown areas, Alternating Currents celebrates film, music, art and comedy. DDP is a division of the Quad Cities Chamber.
Alternating Currents Film Festival winners and selections include:
BEST OF FEST
Out of Stock
Runtime 17:48
In 1973, the host of The Tonight Show, Johnny Carson, made a joke that toilet paper was going out of stock. By the next day, stores across the country were completely sold out. This is the story of the first day of the toilet-paper crisis.
Directed by Bryan Taira
Taira is a Japanese-American film director, born and raised in Carpinteria, California. His imagination for highlighting social and economic issues are portrayed through contradictory genres. As a storyteller and artist, he strives to cultivate a connection between humanity and the natural world through various mediums. Recently graduated from Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts, Bryan looks forward to creating and collaborating on more films.
BEST LOCAL
Family Tree
Run-time 16:41
A newly-wed woman is unwittingly duped into a dark holiday tradition in her new family. Now she is forced to carry out horrible acts in the days leading up to Christmas.
Directed by Patrick Boberg
Boberg is a frenetic filmmaker based in Des Moines, Iowa. Originally finding his love for storytelling with comedy skits, punk rock, and 90s skate videos, Patrick comes from the Robert Rodrigeuz or Mark Duplass mindset of Just Make Something. He believes the essence of filmmaking is divided into two collaborative camps, storytelling and effort. Once you have a story, it doesn’t matter the scale to which you take your effort as long as you actually go for it.
Director Statement:
“This short film was produced by the filmmaking team Tiny Explosions as part of the 100 Hour Film Race. We set out to make a high-level B-Horror film with a concept bent around the unexpected sacrifices of marriage. The tagline is ‘The holidays can be hard; marriage is harder.’”
BEST FICTIONAL SHORT
Deathtrip!
Run-time 8:26
A photojournalist navigates the seedy underworld of political corruption, fetish pornography, and summer camping in an attempt to stop a toxic form of MDMA that melts users from the inside out.
Directed by Josh Stephenson
Stephenson was born in Florida to a school teacher and lawyer. Raised during the Reagan Administration, he is a graduate of the University of Florida's School of Journalism and has a BA in Film Editing from Columbia College Chicago. His experience includes directing a pair of showcase narrative shorts for Kinematic Entertainment and J&R Productions, respectively. In 2015, he worked on the second season of NCIS: New Orleans for CBS. More work on shows and feature films would soon follow including content for AMC, Marvel, Netflix, MTV, and Animal Planet. He works and lives in the city of New Orleans.
BEST NARRATIVE SHORT
The Water Song
Run-time 13:00
A spunky nine-year-old receives a shiny pink bike for her birthday, but her domineering uncle is the only adult in the trailer park willing to teach her how to ride it. The word “quit" however, is not in either of their vocabulary. The Water Song is a parable for standing up for yourself, finding a voice in Trump-era America, and saying "F**K YOU" to the patriarchal way of doing business.
Directed by Dave Jannetta Director
Jannetta is a Philadelphia based filmmaker with experience across a broad spectrum of visual storytelling. In 2015, he released his début documentary feature, Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. At the beginning of his career, Dave served as personal assistant to Peter Jackson through North American production of The Lovely Bones, and spent a year abroad working at Jackson’s WingNut Films in Wellington, New Zealand. He has an MFA from Temple University, is a graduate of Penn State University (Finance/Film Studies; 2005), and is an alumnus of Werner Herzog’s Rogue Film School (winter 2012).
BEST EXPERIMENTAL
The Hermit
Run-time 16:43
A young woman is kidnapped and taken hostage by a mysterious hermit in the forest. When she returns to society, she struggles to revert to her old self.
Directed by Noel Rafizadeh-Kabe
Rafizadeh-Kabe is a filmmaker based in Tokyo and California. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) film with a BA in film-production in 2019. Having worked various jobs professionally (production assistant, grip, sound, and editing) in film, Noel is now applying what he’s learned to his thesis film. Noel is passionate about horror-films, comics, skateboarding, and his family.
BEST STUDENT FILM
Die Autoficker
Run-time 1:12
During a nocturnal car drive in search of sex, the protagonist meets a trans prostitute. But instead of releasing him from his desires, she informs him together with a leather fetish boy about his irresponsibility regarding the climate change.
Directed by Josia Brezing
Brezing is a 22-year-old German director who is currently studying at the Filmakademie Baden‑Wuerttemberg. He lives and works in Berlin and Ludwigsburg.
2020 OFFICIAL FILM SELECTIONS
* Film name, director name listed below
Short Film (Narrative or Documentary)
The Burial, Jack Meggers
Burner of Ships, Leonardo Campaner
Cedar Creek, Dick DeAngelis
Death Offers Life — last moments of Vincent Van Gogh, Saheer Abbas
Domicile, Marissa Vonn
Doors, Caleb Harris
The Foursome, Zack McTee
A Gap in the Past, Todd Boerema
Kill: Norwood, Lexy Anderson
The Neighborhood, Quentin Lareau
No Soliciting, Daniel Tucker
No Trespassing, Courtney Grawe
Not Me, Mahmoud Salimi
Riviera, Jason Fragale
Rutting Season, Wes Worthing
ULTRA, Bruce James Bales
Where There's Tea There's Hope, Lorne Warr
Wilt, Wes Worthing
Experimental
Ancestors, Charles Borowicz
A Brief Account of Time, Stefan Nestoroski
Correspondence II, Lisa J. Maione
Frames, Audrey Seybold
Freytag's Pyramid of Climactic Light, Kai Swanson
Lairs, Emma Penaz Eisner
Lo/ve, Tempest Montgomery
The room paints my portrait, and I paint the room's, Sergey Zanchevskiy
Side View, Tosh Leykum
Student Film
The Annunciation, Rosana Cuellar
Bambiland, Danilo Stanimirović
The Bare Knuckle Gentleman, Nishad Chaughule
Below a Dark Wood, Bill Slovick
Caramel, Shange Zhang
Cargo — Der Transport, Christina Tournatzés
A celebration of the chaos inside me, Davide Vanacore
The Checklist, Lucas Dutra
Crush, Heather Harris
Danke, Aus! — and Cut!, Luca Amhofer
Elephant in the Room, Chanelle Eidenbenz
The Fishman, Leto S Meade
The Hood, Patricia Vidal Delgado
I am Mackenzie, Artemis Anastasiadou
Meidagen — Days of May, Juri Ferri
Offbeat, Myrte Ouwerkerk
Pick Your Poison, Zoe Pham
The Quiet, Radheya Jegatheva
Reprise, Stanley Xu Ruiyang
Rive-Sud — South Shore, Xavier Hamel
The Romantic Movement, Yuhe Lu
Solitaire, Elena Brodach
Sophie, Anna Cangellaris
Synchronicity, Michelle Brand
XY, Anna Karín Lárusdóttir
