2019 Footcandle Film Festival

2019 Award Winners

Congratulations to the winners of the 2019 Footcandle Film Festival!  The awards were announced at the Closing Ceremony and Dinner on Sunday, September 27th at 6:30pm.

Best Narrative Feature Film

8 SLICES

Directed by Nick Westfall (United States)

Best Documentary Feature Film

KIFARU

Directed by David Hambridge (Keyna)

Best Narrative Short Film

MINOR KEY

Directed by Iván Sáinz-Pardo (Spain)

Best Documentary Short Film

THE TRAFFIC SEPARATING DEVICE

Directed by Johan Palmgren (Sweden)

Audience Favorite Feature Film

KIFARU

Directed by David Hambridge (Kenya)

Audience Favorite Short Film

MOLLY

Directed by Phyllis Jackson (United States)

2019 Footcandle Film Festival:  Complete List of Films

8 Slices

2:15pm Sunday Sept. 29th
(Narrative, United States, 83 min)
A struggling pizza parlor unknowingly hires an undercover YouTube star who’s notorious for his sarcastic viral videos. As he gets to know the staff the situation gets complicated.

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Behind the Bullet

4:30pm Sunday, Sept. 29th
(Documentary, United States, 84 min)
Four individuals share the conflicting emotions and moral injury that comes after a self-defense, accidental, or unintentional shooting, offering a new perspective on gun violence.

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Destination Moon

10:00am Sunday, Sept. 29th
(Narrative, France, 29 minutes)
André is transferred by the authorities from the Reunion Island to France and placed with Jean, a lonesome farmer living in the countryside, while he waits his mother’s return.

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Encounters

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 7 minutes)
After an encounter with an otherworldly entity, Eli quickly learns that you should be careful what you wish for.

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Exit

4:30pm Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Documentary, Israel, 23 minutes)
A film about two women living in Israel who left the ultra-orthodox community and the impact it had on their lives.

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F/11 and Be There

10:00am Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, United States, 84 min)
Burk Uzzle’s vision and dedication led him from a small darkroom on his father’s porch in North Carolina into the company and guidance of the 20th Century’s most important photographers.

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Free Fight

10:00am Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Narrative, Netherlands, Subtitled, 45 min)
The strong bond between two MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) fighter brothers is put under pressure after the sudden passing of their mother.

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Kifaru

12:00pm Sunday, Sept. 29th
(Documentary, Kenya, Subtitled, 81 min)
This film follows the lives of two young Kenyan recruits that join Ol Pejeta Conservancy’s rhino caretaker unit – a group of rangers that protect the last northern white rhino.

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Krisis

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Subtitled, Spain, 15 minutes)
The Galactic Drifter (a superhero who has advised humanity for centuries), visits Professor Kleinman to undergo therapy and regain his lost powers.

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Mahalia Melts in the Rain

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Canada, 11 minutes)
Mahalia’s mother brings her to the hair salon to get her hair straightened for the very first time to help build her confidence.

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Minor Key

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Spain, 11 minutes)
A moving story about a father, his son, and a record player.

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Mixed

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 4 minutes)
Hecklers at a fast food drive-thru meet their match.

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Molly

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 10 minutes)
He’s just your average, middle-aged divorcee looking for his first fix. Today he meets Molly.

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Nursery Rhymes

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Australia, 5 minutes)
On the side of a rural highway, a bizarre encounter with a Metalhead takes a profound turn.

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Ode to Joy

7:15pm Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Narrative, United States, 97 min)
Based on a story from “This American Life”, Charlie struggles with acute narcolepsy brought on anytime he experiences joy. When he falls in love his life becomes extremely complicated.

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On the Bit

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, United States, 14 minutes)
Jenny is tasked with healing a wild American Mustang suffering from debilitating PTSD while also leading a team of fellow veterans into the spotlight of a high-stakes rodeo performance.

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Our Ingredients, Corn

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, Subtitled, United States, 7 minutes)
Three Latinos come together to share flavors of their homeland, all of which include one central ingredient.

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Painted Love

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 15 minutes)
Stuck in her dreary job as a debt collector, an old-fashioned dreamer discovers a magical portal to a new world full of life and color.

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Peggy

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 12 minutes)
Everything seems to work out perfectly for Peggy, but her social graces are put to the test when she is surrounded by admiring and covetous parents at a birthday party for her eight-year-old son. Chaos ensues.

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Penny Press

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, United States, 5 minutes)
Tyler Tyson is a collector and designer of elongated coins, a.k.a pressed pennies. He owns and operates his own penny press machines.

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Reeves: A Home for Music

4:30pm Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Documentary, United States, 40 minutes)
Follows the people of a former tobacco and textile town in North Carolina as they transform an abandoned 1940s movie theater into a new music venue.

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Shattered

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Germany, 14 minutes)
A routine duty turns into a life-threatening act of self-defense for a police officer Kappler when he has to use his gun against a person for the first time.

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Suncatcher

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United States, 12 minutes)
A haunting meditation that captures both the stunning beauty, and perilous isolation, of life on the fringes of Los Angeles’s coastal westside.

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The Cornfield

9:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, Subtitled, France, 20 minutes)
Yves plants an experimental cornfield on his farm. One day he discovers some strange sap flowing down an ear of corn.

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The Dancing Dogs of Dombrova

2:00pm Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Narrative, Canada, 102 min)
Estranged siblings Sarah and Aaron Cotler embark on a quest to fulfil their dying grandmother’s wish – find, dig up, and bring home the bones of her favourite childhood dog from Dombrova, Poland.

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The Last Witness

12:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Narrative, United Kingdom, 93 min.)
An ambitious journalist comes across a disturbing spate of suicides by Polish soldiers in this political thriller based on the harrowing true events of the Katyn Massacre in the Spring of 1940.

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The Rusalka

9:15pm Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Narrative, United States, 79 min)
In a story of myth, passion, and revenge a man searches a North Carolina lake for the monster that murdered his husband. Meanwhile that monster falls in love with an unsuspecting visitor.

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The Traffic Separating Device

6:30pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, Sweden, 15 minutes)
A traffic separating device is installed in the middle of Stockholm. Tragic and funny situations occur and we follow the whole mess of human failures.

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The Transfer

10:00am Sunday, Sept. 29th
(Narrative, Israel, 22 minutes)
Soldiers have been ordered to transfer a prisoner to Megiddo prison. Along the way, a conflict arises that forces a young officer to surpass himself in order to solve the situation.

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Well Groomed

3:00pm Friday, Sept. 27th
(Documentary, United States, 85 min)
Competitive creative dog grooming is the most colorful competition in America and this film captures the hearts, minds, and imaginations of the artists involved.

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While I Breathe, I Hope

11:30am Saturday, Sept. 28th
(Documentary, United States, 75 min)
Exploring what it means to be young, Black, and Democrat in the Southern Republican state of South Carolina through the experiences of politician Bakari Sellers.

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2019 Sponsors

Thank you to all of our 2019 Footcandle Film Festival sponsors!  Please click on the icon for the sponsors to visit their web site and learn more about their organization

This project was supported by the United Arts Council of Catawba County through the North Carolina Arts Council, with funding from the State of North Carolina and the National Endowment for the Arts, which believes that a great nation deserves great art.