PTAFF 2024 Official Selections

Directed by:

Jonathan Bertain​

Originally filmed by a professional all-English crew for a profile segment of a short-lived British youth magazine show, BIG95 is constructed from more than 20 remastered tapes of intimate, 8K footage. Exclusive access to this never-before-seen archive has allowed for its development into an immersive, cinematic return to the summer of 1995. In the passenger seat with one of the greatest rappers to ever live, our London crew invites the audience into the private life of The Notorious BIG and his closest peeps during one of the most transformative weeks of their lives.

The moment this film drops us into: the morning of August 8th, 1995.

Directed by:

Oscar Adan Lopez Parres

The first short film created by artificial intelligence. 🤖

Certified by the Mexican government as the first AI-created short film approved by the National Copyright Institute in Mexico. 📝

Humanity is a remarkable race, brimming with amazing creativity and capable of building great empires and self-destruction. Human beings can create life, and in its eternal solitude, humanity has engendered its own creation. Just as humans seek to create in their image and likeness, so does this film, mirroring the divine process.
The human, like God, will strive for their creation to become the image and likeness of the creator.


🛑 Images generated entirely with artificial intelligence. 🛑

Directed by:

Virgile Novarina

Since his two hammer attacks on Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain urinal in 1993 and 2006, artist Pierre Pinoncelli has been known the world over for this iconoclastic and subversive act. This resounding artistic attack obscured the rest of his career in the eyes of the public. Stopping painting in 1966 to devote himself to happenings, Pinoncelli has never ceased to denounce the contradictions of our society. Pinoncelli is the man who sprayed André Malraux with red paint in 1969, who robbed a bank to protest against apartheid in 1975, who publicly mutilated himself in Colombia to free Ingrid Bétancourt and denounce the violence of the FARCS in 2002. Portrait of an extraordinary artist by Virgile Novarina.

Directed by:

Arielle Nobile

 

Forced into exile in the US in the 70s, after being imprisoned and tortured for their social justice in Argentina and having led prolific careers, Antonio and Alicia defy common misconceptions about those who seek political asylum in the US.
“The Story of Alicia & Antonio" is about the triumph of the human spirit over tyranny, discovering love in unexpected places, and constructing a path of true belonging.

Directed by:

India Anne Mitchell

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Through the compelling interviews of the lead prosecutor, the defense attorney and the police chief, “Guiding Light” tells the story of a young teen (Polly Hannah Klaas) in a small town in America who was kidnapped from her bedroom during a slumber party while her family was in the house. In "Guiding Light", India Mitchell, a teen growing up in the same town thirty years later brings a fresh perspective and highlights the importance of the legacy of this case to the continuing endeavor to keep children safe.

Written by:

Nasim Dehghan nayeri

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Maryam is the last child of the family (the fourth daughter of the family). She is 24 years old and single, who lives with her parents in relative prosperity, but she is not satisfied with her life and because of years of denying the facts (she hates her father because of his views and thoughts) and apparently being strong, she is broken. She is tired and has reached the border of indifference and spends her days aimlessly and without motivation in a swamp of stillness and silence.

Directed by:

Star Htoo

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Refugee Rapper Star2 from San Diego, California was born in a Thai refugee camp - his people fleeing the Burmese Army who destroyed their village and attacked them in the middle of the night. He returns to his homeland in Burma (renamed Myanmar) at age 22, 15 years after leaving with his grandmother to go to the United States from the camp.

Written  by:

Ali Jabarzadeh

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Yahya works as a bike delivery of a restaurant. He has a 10-year-old daughter named Nahal who suffers from SMA disease. These patients need a drug (Spinaraza) which costs about 750 thousand dollars and it is almost impossible to get this drug for Yahya. He knocks on every door to be able to provide medicine for his child, but his efforts are useless and Nahal's disease progresses every day to the point where she can no longer follow her favorite sport.
When Yahya deliveres a customer's order he meets his lifeless body in his house and it is clear that the owner of the house has been murdered. Yahya, who is scared, runs away from the scene of the accident. After some time, the police arrested Yahya as one of the suspects in this incident.

Yahya, who did not commit murder, firmly states that he is innocent. The real killer, since he has a special social position and does not want to be involved in this case, with guidance of his lawyer and considering that he finds out that Yahya is desperately seeking to finance his daughter's treatment, he informs Yahya through intermediaries in the prison that if he is responsible If he takes responsibility for the murder, he will take care of all the expenses of his daughter's treatment. When Yahya sees that even if he is released, he will not be able to cover this cost, and on the other hand, the government is unable to provide and import this medicine, he decides to accept this offer and confesses to commit the murder. The treatment costs for Nahal are paid and Yahya is sentenced to execution.

Directed by:

Saeed Moltaji

A determined female reporter in a war-torn Gaza, facing poor internet conditions, decides to take all her memory cards to her colleague in the news agency building. She hopes he can send the videos. She faces obstacles along the way...

Directed by:

Michael Ross Catania

The Mirror

2029 AD.

Welcome to "The Mirror," a thought-provoking exploration of how our energy is reflected back at us. As Einstein wisely noted, creativity trumps intelligence as it allows us to see beyond the surface and discover the true nature of existence. This film challenges us to be mindful of the energy we put out , as it may shape our reality and ultimately ourselves. Join us on a journey of self-discovery and reflection!

This content is a fictional story with Actors and models. This story is more of a thought experiment in the Science Fiction Genre.. Any person depicted in the content is an Actor or model. All Content is Properly Licensed.

Directed by:

Jon King

A 'proof of concept' short film made on a wing and a prayer and a handful of stale cheese sandwiches, When I’m Famous is a gritty, realist view of Britain's disaffected youth as 19-year-old Noah pinballs hard between his dreams of becoming famous and the mundane reality of the Job Centre, winding up homeless in the process...

Directed by

Vladan Nikolic

 

Through a kaleidoscopic collage of stories, made by filmmakers and actors from around the world, EVERYTHING… is a collaborative narrative film that explores the current moment we are living in and how the Covid pandemic, economic inequality, climate change, wars, migration and societal divisions shape our lives globally. These international stories coalesce in a film-within-a-film, set in New York City, about two disaffected millennials, creating this project, trying to make sense of the world and their place in it, while dealing with their own issues and contradictions.

Directed by:

Maryam Mahani

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A young boy struggles to embrace his newfound life with his stepmother and embarks on a journey leading him to an unexpected encounter ...

Directed by:

Parker Croft

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Academy Award-nominee Abigail Breslin presents:
As Easy As Closing Your Eyes.

The story of a grieving mother who battles her addiction to a black-market drug that gives her life-like dreams about the son she lost.

Directed by:

Maureen Macleod

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Scottish singer Kim Carnie was in a secret same-sex relationship for 6 years, from the ages of 16-22. She is now ready to reflect on the impact those 6 years of secrecy had on her.

She meets other people who have hidden their sexuality as well as activists in the lgbtq+ community to hear their stories and to share her own.

Having always used song-writing as a source of dealing with her feelings and as therapy, Kim draws inspiration from the people that she meets to write songs based on their experiences and her own.

Directed by:

Jamie Burton-Oare

For Eric, it is a normal day in his life/neighborhood. For the world, it’s the day Eric faces the reality of taking his last breath. 

Directed by:

Chico Bennett

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Directed by:

Yelena V. Krivosheyeva 

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A homeless female veteran, Penny, is camping outside of a fancy restaurant on Christmas eve when a kind stranger donates her a gift card to go inside and get a hot meal. After struggling to get a seat, she is finally able to order dinner when an angry patron calls the police.
When the cops try to escort Penny out, it triggers her trauma.

Directed by

Denis rogatyuk

"Bolivia Insumisa" focuses on the events that occurred in Bolivia during November 2019. It is a cinematographic journey through the events surrounding the coup of November 2019, the resistance and Bolivia's fight for democracy and sheds light on the search of justice for the victims of repression and their families, as well as the significance of these events in the history of Bolivia.
The documentary includes:
-Exclusive interviews with former President Evo Morales Ayma, former Vice President Álvaro García Linera, current Vice President David Choquehuanca, Juan Ramón Quintana and other important political leaders.
-Original interviews with the victims of the repression of the Jeanine Añez regime.
-An analysis of Bolivia's history of rebellions, revolutions, military dictatorships, and authoritarian regimes in the run-up to the November 2019 coup

Directed by:

Fang Wen

This is a story about ordinary people trying to approach the secrets of movies.Xiaodai Liu, who loves movies, gathered a group of creators who also love movies.They gathered to  shoot a movie in Wuxi,Jiangsu,a place without movies. So on the shore of the Taihu Lake Lake,a dream lasting for three days began.
After the utumn rain, filming of Twilight Circus finally began.The crew's small world and external events erupted into intertextuality, the crew's director Wei Zhang who suffered from bipolar disorder was admitted to the hospital. Several young college students fled the crew for bizarre reasons, and the constant embarrassment shattered Xiaodai Liu's psychological defense.

Directed by:

Marco Stojanovic

Scout's Pride follows Andrej, an ex-boy scout, as he physically and mentally explores the locale of his last scout outing in order to confront and rid himself of his past traumas.

Directed by:

Saeed Mayahy

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In the following months after the USA withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, a young Kabul couple, have found their way to the dark and dodgy Afghan neighborhood, Zeytinburnu,in Istanbul. Malika - a transgender woman who together with Mohamed, the love of her life, have fled their families honor killing plan and Taliban's fatal punishments to be able to cultivate their forbidden love for each other, in the hope of achieving a new and better life in Turkey.

One day they pass by the young and homeless ”Ilham,” who is sitting on the pavement with nowhere to go, and decide to bring an extra person into their self-made family. Together the three of them are facing poverty, fear of deportation, daily harassment, sexual violence and gender identity crisis. But their self-claimed support towards each other, keeps them fighting for their dreams, whatever it takes. On their tumultuous and challenging journey and transformation through registration for Turkish residency, seeking help in NGOs.

As they obtain residency and move into their own place, their circumstances seem to improve from the outside. But unexpected and darker perspectives surface, revealing a surprising twist of perception, when Ilham runs away and claims they have prostituted him out to other men.

Directed by:

Keegan Connor Tracy

Four siblings return to their childhood home to say goodbye to their mother on the day of her doctor-assisted death after her long and losing battle with cancer.

Directed by:

Elya Randrianaivo

A well-intentioned white woman finds her presumptions questioned by her black foster kid's mom.

Directed by:

Rafael Reis

The only certainty we have in life is that one day we will die. And if we knew we only had a short time to live, we would change our view of many things. Even today, this topic has been taboo for most people, but facing death by treating it in a natural way is what this short film proposes.

Directed by:

Rob More

 

"Echoes of Loss: Eight Days in Israel” is more than a documentary—it's a testament to the strength and spirit of a nation. Mor, an Israeli-American widower, affectionately known as "Dad Bob," navigates his personal grief in parallel with the collective mourning of Israel following the October 7th terrorist attack.

Directed by:

Bunnie Rivera

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This Land Is follows Jesse as he’s rescued from a life of squalor with his mother, to the loving arms of his grandmother – and then back again, by circumstance, to the harsh reality of neglect with his mother.

Directed by:

Sam "Gebar" Gebremiche

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Dive into the captivating narrative of HoodTrophy Bino - a California hip-hop artist from the projects of South Central and Palmdale, discovered by Soulja Boy in jail, and destined to overcome the generational curse of poverty and incarceration plaguing all of the males in his immediate and extended family. Bino opens up about the trials and triumphs that shaped his life - offering insights into the challenges of growing up in a tough environment. From overcoming adversity to pursuing his dreams, Bino shares poignant stories that resonate with authenticity and resilience. Join us as we explore the powerful narrative of self-discovery, perseverance, and breaking free from the chains of the past. Don't miss out on this inspiring tale of transformation into a Trophy!

Directed by:

Bobby Roth

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GOOD MEN is about an immensely important subject that has yet to be explored in depth, cinematically, from a personal perspective: the struggle of men to “do the right thing” in a wounded patriarchy. I want to examine and celebrate men who support women, men who identify as feminists and are for a just and equitable world.

Growing up in a pre-feminist world, I struggled to make sense of the gender roles of the time and the division of labor and psyche in my own home. All my life I was exposed to this conflict and was often supported by “Good men,” as well as “Good women.” I have lived my life wondering why things are as they are and how I became who I am.

What is “the good” is the topic and question of this documentary film, broken into thirteen recognizable chapters of my personal investigation, reasoning that if I want to learn about “men,” others might share my interest.

I began with a short chapter merely posing this question to many of my good friends, men and women. What is WHAT IS A GOOD MAN?