Sidewalk Moving Picture Festival 2008

A little girl is writing a letter to her pet hamster in this short cut out animation, stop motion characters are combined with collage backgrounds and cut outs of real hamster to make this fantasy story. Fatty meets lots of animals during her travels and learns about outside world.

On November 5, 2001, Dr. Andrew Bagby was murdered in Pennsylvania by Dr. Shirley Turner, who fled the United States for St. John's, Newfoundland, where she announced that she was pregnant with Andrew's child. She named the little boy Zachary. Filmmaker Kurt Kuenne, Andrew's childhood friend, originally began this film as a way for little Zachary to learn about his father -- until Shirley Turner, whom Canada allowed to walk free on bail while awaiting extradition to the United States, killed again.

A young married woman wants out but her husband isn't ready to let her go. He has one chance to stop her before she boards a train and leaves forever.

East meets West in the Deep South. An overcrowded maximum- security prison — the end of the line in Alabama’s correctional system – is forever changed by the influence of an ancient meditation program. Donaldson Correctional Facility, situated in the Alabama countryside southwest of Birmingham, holds 1500 of the state’s most dangerous criminals. Behind high security towers and a double row of barbed wire and electrical fence, dwells a host of convicts who will never see the light of day. But for some of these men, a spark was ignited. In January 2002, Donaldson Correctional Facility became the first maximum security prison in North America to hold an extended Vipassana retreat, an emotionally and physically demanding course of silent meditation lasting 10 days. The Dhamma Brothers tells a dramatic tale of human potential and transformation as it closely follows and documents the stories of 36 prison inmates who enter into this arduous and intensive program. It challenges assumptions about the nature of prisons as places of punishment rather than rehabilitation and raises the question: is it possible for these men, some of whom have committed horrendous crimes, to change?

Distraxion is a computer animated narrative film that relies on traditional storytelling and animation principles. The film represents a successful creator driven project as well as an accomplishment in the field of online animation education. The majority of the film was developed during the short film curriculum at the online school animationmentor.com. It was then polished by the individual artists working remotely over the course of the following year.

A psychotic man displays questionable behavior around his son while trying to cover his tracks of an unfortunate event.A young man is diving head first into a new world of self gratification due to peer pressure.These two paths collide at a friendly neighborhood restaurant when a 'Fountanier' stumbles upon a distressed father attempting to relieve himself. From there the father is welcomed into the group with open arms but a not so welcoming smile.This all unfolds before the sons eyes who is scared for life after this unspeakable tale concludes. The boy then grows up to give lectures on awareness of the Donkey's Fountain.

Having made the film festival rounds with their award winning short doc 'Stringers,' John Beck and Don R. Lewis return to the short doc format with 'Drag King,' an exciting look into a truly bizaare type of demolition derby. Taking place each summer in the low-end resort town of Lakeport, Ca., huge crowds turn out to witness the 'Fiberglass 500,' a car/boat race by way of demolition derby...all taking place on the local race track. Let us explain...Rather than just take junker cars and smash them up, Lakeport residents have taken the demolition derby concept one step further, incorporating a major component of their community: boats. After a week long celebration where residents decorate boats and cars, all their efforts culminate during a hot August night as the 'Fiberglass 500' commences. When the green flag signals GO, asphalt boat racers attempt to destroy each others boats within the alotted time period. Last boat standing wins. Amazing photography and colorful characters combine to make 'Drag King' a must-see short film.Filmmaker Nathan Zellner said of 'Drag King,' ''No movie has ever made me want to hitch a boat to the back of my car and drive around in traffic. A terrific short film.' Filmmaker and Film Threat founder Chris Gore said, 'very professional work. Great crashes!'

China has become the “factory of the world.” A lesser-known role of China is, it is also the sewage system for a variety of wastes from the rich world. As the US government is turning a blind eye on regulating electronic waste dumping to poorer countries and the electronics industry’s slow pace in phasing out toxic materials from manufacturing, the e-waste trade has been polluting the enrivonment and harming public health in China, India and other developing countries. And years from the first expose of this sad story, publics in the rich world still know too little about this “inconvenient truth.” But viewers may find themselves shocked seeing the horrifying images of pollution that has been happening for years in many e-waste dump towns. That was why I produced this 20-minute documentary film, after a multimedia package on the same issue. Here is the link to view the full film: http://michaelzhao.net. If you want to learn more, go to michaelzhao.net/eDump for multimedia.