Video short film "A Silent Melody" directed by Prasanth Varma

Watch "Silent Melody" a sweet love story about the love of learning to communicate lovingly.

Cast : Prachi Thaker and Kunal Kaushik

Directed by Prasanth Varma

Cinematography by Vishweshwar SV

Produced by Sundeep Krishan

Music by Shravan

Lyrics by Krishna Kanth

Edited by Srinivas Kumar

Production Design by Kiran Mamidi

Video documentary short "Honor The Earth: Ride for Mother Earth - the Triple Crown of Pipeline Rides"

Watch this short documentary "Honor The Earth: Ride for Mother Earth - the Triple Crown of Pipeline Rides"  In the words of the riders, "We are not protesters, we're protectors. We rode horses from the Headwaters of the Mississippi along the proposed route of a new oil pipeline that would cross the reservation.

It was the third of a series of rides on oil pipeline routes.

Three horseback journeys tracing the paths of imminent pipeline destruction.

Those rides took us on the Alberta Clipper proposed expansion route (from Superior, Wisconsin, to the Red Lake Reservation), and to the proposed Keystone XL route in the Dakotas, where riders from White Earth Reservation joined with the Lakota to ride between Wanbli and Takini on the Cheyenne River Reservation."

The rides were sponsored by Honor the Earth, along with the Horse Spirit Society, with Owe Aku and the White Earth Land Recovery Project. For more info, donating, and image credits please visit the websites.

Read and Learn about "Protect The Sacred" and gatherings to protect the sacred.

Read and learn about Moccasins on the Ground

Read and learn about Idle No More's Teach-Ins

The rides were sponsored by Honor the Earth, 

along with the Horse Spirit Society, 

Owe Aku 

and the White Earth Land Recovery Project. 

For more information, donating and 

image credits please go to these websites.

Read and learn about "Protect The Sacred" 

and gatherings to protect the sacred.

Read and learn about Moccasins on the Ground

Read and learn about Idle No More's Teach-Ins

Article

Video short animation "Love In The Time of Advertising" co-written/directed by David Bokser and Matt Berenty

"Love In The Time of Advertising"an animated musical love story about a young man who lives inside a billboard and is charged with updating the advertisements.

When he falls in love with a beautiful lady living across the highway, he has to use the only method he knows to get his message across - advertising.

"Love In The Time of Advertising" website

Production company:
Wolf & Crow and Obsolete Robot

Music composition and vocals:
Hunter Curra

Image Credits: "Love In The Time of Advertising" website

Video animated short "Borrowed Light" directed and animated by Olivia Huynh

"Borrowed Light" the last patron of an abandoned observatory takes on an impossible task to show the surrounding city something incredible. A short animation about conflicting existences, natural wonders and petty theft on a grand scale.

Olivia Huynh director/animator website + Blog

2014 Official Selection, NYICFF
2014 Official Selection, Beloit Internl Film Fest
2014 Finalist, Film Skillet animation contest
2013 Official Selection, La Scatola Blu
2013 Official Selection, Animation Block Party
2013 Official Selection, Sweaty Eyeballs Festival



2013 Official Selection, Animateka Elephant International Children's Competition
2013 Winner of Best Tactical Urbanism Short Film, New Urbanism Film Festival
2013 Winner of Dark Sky Defender Award (International Dark-Sky Association)

Video short documentary "Dark Side of the Lens" directed by Mickey Smith for Ashtray Films

Watch the short film "Dark Side of the Lens" which offers a surreal, ethereal, passionate and personal glimpse into the life and motivations of an ocean based photographer - working on a magical, yet isolated, frozen and dangerous stretch of the Irish coastline.

The story of the photographer is a tale seldom told. Through poignant, poetic narrative, the film eventually transcends itself as an abstract reflection of one photographer’s ideals, to become a voice for the artform.

Indeed, the film itself becomes a visual poem of sorts, set in a mind blowing environment of epic heavy waves, strange sea life and monolithic stunning cliff lines. 

Land, sea and wavescapes illustrate the grandeur of this environment, and huge explosions of water bring it’s realities home, as the photographer swims through the epicentre of it all.

Through one mans translation of what it takes to create images that inspire, we also gain insight into the unheralded and misunderstood art form of ocean based photography.

The merits of the art form itself come into focus - how it is unique, the risks involved, the challenges faced, the highs and lows of the game.

The narrative delves into the reasoning behind risking your life for a photograph when there are meagre financial rewards, and illustrates what it takes to succeed in a specialist niche that demands such a strange combination of photographic and physical prowess.

The result is a unique, moving, and inspirational understanding of the nomadic lifestyle involved, and the subsequent realities of living it in the brutally cold big wave environment of Ireland. (artist's Facebook)

“The dark side of the lens. An art form unto itself. Silent workhorses of the surfing world…if I only scrape a living, at least it’s a living worth scraping.” 

Cinematography by Allan Wilson 
 Directed by Mickey Smith 
Interview with Mickey Smith "Surf Photographer and Filmmaker"

About Ashtray Films: Nomads and vagabonds. Runaway sons and daughters. Weather the storm together under one roof. Odd ball observers and sharp witted wordsmiths. An eye for natural lines. A knack for the magic in subtleties. We are The Astray - Instinct led, authentic to the teeth.

Winner - Best Cinematography, Rhode Island International Film Festival, 2011
Winner - Action Sports Category, Vimeo Awards 2012
Winner - G-Raid Driven Creativity award - Professional Category
Winner - Best Cinematography, 5Point Film Festival 2011 
Winner - Grand Prize - Chamonix Film Festival 2011 
Winner - Best short - New York Surf Film Festival 2011
Winner - Digital short of the Year, Surfer Poll
Winner - Relentless Short Stories 2011
Winner - Amstel Surf Film Festibal, Peoples Choice award 
Winner - Best short, Sheffield Adventure Film Festival
Winner - Best International Short, Canadian Surf Film Festival
Winner - Best Short, Waimea Ocean Film Festival


All Image Credits and Copyrights:
 "Dark Side of the Lens", Ashtray Films and Mickey Smith

All Image Credits and Copyrights: 

"Dark Side of the Lens", Ashtray Films and Mickey Smith

Video animated short "Shave it" written and directed by Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado created with the artists of "3dar Studios" Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Based on a true story. In the wilderness of the forests where giant bulldozers are tearing apart the woods there is a monkey that accidentally finds a shaving machine and decides to use it.

Spontaneously disguised as a human being, he moves out to the city and starts a career.

After a stunning success in business, he understands the need of gaining political power. Not too long after, he becomes the president. Now he is ready to make a change.

Watch "Shave it", an animated short film by 3dar Studios of Buenos Aires, Argentina.

"Making of" and behind the scenes video for "Shave it"

Video short "Louder, please" by Lena Tsodykovskaya

Watch "Louder, please" Michael believes that people can read his mind. In attempt to reveal the mysterious mind reader, he reveals something completely different. 

Created at New York Columbia University School of the Arts, 2012. "Official Selection" 2014 Science Fiction and Fantasy Short Film Festival. "Offical Selection" 2013 Sci-Fi London Film Festival. "2nd place Audience Awards" 2013 Brooklyn Shorts Film Festival.

"Galaxy" music video by Lena Tsodykovskaya - shot in Moscow, in Russian, with music and lyrics by Jenia Lubich

Video short documentary "The Dirty Maple Leaf" by Alan Gignoux (interviews with residents living in "Peace River Country" now "Tar Sands Country" of Alberta, Canada)

Watch full documentary "The Dirty Maple Leaf" 
"The Three Creeks" and "Reno" areas in the Peace River country (Alberta, Canada) is an agricultural area where the residents are becoming ill and the wildlife is leaving. It is all due to the fast expanding CHOPS (cold heavy oil production with Sand) production in the area.

Residents are leaving their farms as the emissions are making them too ill to work while the animals, wild or domestic, are not reproducing and if they do, their offspring are being born with defects and calves take longer to grow to the desired weight for market, costing the farmer too many dollars and cents to stay competitive.

Other residents have had to leave their homes or farms as the emissions, causing headaches, memory loss and vomiting making it too hard to live in their land. What is the true cost of the dirtiest and most expensive form of oil? The Tar sands spreads across Northern Alberta, encompassing agricultural and wilderness areas. Map

More interview videos and text on Dirty Maple Leaf website

Alan Gignoux is a photo journalist based in London UK, specialising in documentary photography focusing on Political, Environmental & Socio-Economic issues across the globe, including the Middle East, Africa, Russia & Canada. Since leaving the London College of Printing, he has worked with The Associated Press covering the elections in Zimbabwe and the floods in Mozambique, NGO's such as CARE, Oxfam, and the British Council.

The Dirty Maple Leaf has been an on-going project since 2010, with Gignoux interviewing residents throughout the Alberta region to find out how the heavy mining operations in Alberta are affecting their way of life.

Over several years he has been able to track the persistent problems they face from these types of mining on a daily basis, bringing a human element to an otherwise faceless problem. His portraits reveal the real person in an honest way while reportage tries to make life understandable.

on Youtube Channel
on Vimeo Channel