2018 Schedule of Films

The Walla Walla Movie Crush is programmed thematically, comprised of short films packaged in hour long blocks.  In each block, you’re likely to find a mix of animation, live action, documentary, and music video.  

Blocks run 45 - 50 minutes total, with a few minutes leftover to enjoy conversation with visiting filmmakers (moderated by WWMC curator Warren Etheredge), transition between blocks, and refill your wine glass.

 Please note that all content is unrated and may not be suitable for younger viewers.

​  *  = member of filmmaking team in attendance

​  **  = 2018 WWMC award finalist

​FRIDAY, JULY 6

​6pm:  WELCOME HOME 

presented by The Red Badge Project

Old soldiers never die, they simply fade away.  Is that because they wish to, or because civilians ignore their stories upon their return home? Perhaps it’s time we do more than thank veterans for their service. Perhaps it’s time to properly welcome them home.

  • THE ATOMIC SOLDIERS    (d. Morgan Knibbe)

  • IT HAPPENED    (d. Cheye Pagel)

  • FINDING SANCTUARY ON THE NORTH UMPQUA: A VETERAN'S LEGACY  (d. John Waller)

  • CRADLE   (d. Devon Manney)

  • HEAR OUR OLYMPICS   (d. Palmer Morse & Matt Mikkelson) *

7pm:  HOME, SWEETS, HOME

Walla Walla is more than wine, onions and summer baseball. It’s also home or been home to some very fine filmmakers. Three new short films by Whitman College graduates take us on an exhilarating journey through space, cyberspace, and the space we hold in our hearts for those we cherish most.

  • CONTACT  (d. Teal Grayhavens)

  • DO NOT PASS GO  (d. Cullen Hoback)

  • HOW TO LOVE AND BE LOVED   (d. Ned Rodat)

8pm:  HOME OF THE BRAVE 

presented by Bonnie & Bill Szuch

Some immigrants survive, some even thrive, but many discover not all welcomes are warm or without sacrifice — even the land of the free comes with an opportunity cost. 

  • YASIN FALAFEL    (d. Mohammed Gorjestani)

  • THE INVADERS   (d. Mateo Marquez) * 

  • THE SECRET HISTORY OF MUSLIMS   (d. Josh Seftel)

  • FIELD SONG   (d.  Brad Bischoff)

  • WHERE ARE YOU FROM?   (d. Xizi Cecilia Hua)

  • PAGG    (d. Nardeep Khurmi) **

  • THE SECRET LIFE OF MUSLIMS: RAIS BHUIYAN   (d. Josh Seftel)

9pm:  HOME

An hour-long tribute to Warren’s beloved hometown: New York City, in all its grit and glory.  

  • OH, WHAT A BEAUTIFUL CITY  (d.  Lucy Walker) **

  • SAUL'S 108th STORY   (d. Joshua Carlon)

  • FACE NEW YORK   (d. Erin Sanger) **

  • THE PUSH   (d. Will Joines)

  • RICHIE'S   (d. Gaspard Nemec)

  • BROOKLYN BREEZE    (d. Alex Budovsky)

  • I [HEART] NY   (d. Andre Andreev)

SATURDAY, JULY 7TH

11am:  STUDENT ORIENTATION

You have to be 21 to drink and 18 to vote, but anyone can start making movies long before then. From the battlefield to Baltimore, the 50s to the fantastic, the Syrians to the sublime, these are some of the best shorts made by filmmakers under the age of eighteen. Indeed, no matter how young, all are ready to graduate to the big time.​

  • THE ART OF WAR   (d. Cal Etcheverry)

  • DENIAL    (d. Alina Foley) **

  • CONFINED    (d. The Zavitsanos Brothers) **

  • REQUIEM FOR MR. CROMWELL    (d. Theo Taplitz) **

  • TWO OF FIVE MILLION    (d. The Zavitsanos Brothers)

  • BOTTLED EMOTIONS   (d.  Zach Boone)

  • THE ART OF MEMORIES   (d.  Kate Graves) * **

  • BEYOND THIS MOMENT    (d. Jayden Becker)

  • POLICY (d. Peter Prudente & Trinity McFetridge) *

  • PHENOMENAL WOMEN    (d. Liv Coron, Peyton Miller, Liliana Miller)

  • FIND A WAY   (d. Tomas Reyes) **

12pm:  ANOTHER MAN’S TREASURE

Maybe instead of reduce, reuse, recycle, we should… reimagine. If one’s man’s trash could become another’s income or art or keepsake, maybe the world could move closer to Zero Waste and absolute joy?

  • A GARBAGE STORY   (d. Olivier Bernier)

  • SCRAP    (d. Chris Filippone)

  • MONDAY    (d. Dinh Thai)

  • STYROFOAM COLLECTOR   (d. Noah Sheldon) **

  • MAURITANIA RAILWAY: THE BACKBONE OF THE SAHARA  (d. Macgregor) **

  • ARNOLD   (d. Riley Hooper)

1pm:  SHUFFLING OFF 

Like taxes and another season of Law & Order: SVU, death is inevitable. (Sorry.) How we approach it impacts how we live as much as how we die. These shorts give us a taste of what to expect when you’re expecting… the end. Never fear, there are some laughs even after life.

  • NOBODY DIES IN LONGYEARBYEN   (d. David Fried)

  • NOT NORMAL  (d.  Vance Malone) *

  • GINEVRA   (d. Tess Martin)

  • SAM DID IT    (d. Dominic Burgess)

  • I WANT YOU    (d. Norton)

  • THE LAST MAN YOU MEET   (d. Chris Bone)

  • THE EULOGY   (d. Jim Simone)

  • EVERY GHOST HAS AN ORCHESTRA   (d. Shayna Connelly)

  • DRAWN & RECORDED: CHEMIROCHA   (d. Drew Christie) * **

2pm:  THE PARENT TRAP 

Is parenting a blessing or a curse?  Is it he hardest, most expensive job one will ever accept or, arguably, one of the most rewarding? Whether you’re mother, father, child or aspirational caregiver, now might be a good time to reconsider the cost and cons of procreating.

  • 3000 MILES  (d.  Sean Wang)

  • CAROLINE   (d. Logan George & Celine Held) **

  • THE SNOW GIRL   (d. Mixtape Club)

  • MAUDE   (d. Anna Margaret Hollyman)

  • DRAWN & RECORDED: THE SHAGGS   (d. Drew Christie) *

  • BROKEN/FIXED  (d.  Joanne Feinberg) *

  • I WANNA PROVE TO YOU   (d. Nick Roney)

  • NEGATIVE SPACE    (d. Max Porter & Ru Kuwahata) **

3pm:  RED, WHITE & BLACK 

Race isn’t binary - it bleeds into all of our lives. You can pretend America is color-blind, or you can embrace our nation’s ideal of treating all equally. In order to do so, best first to start by recognizing black stories, whether they address prejudice, parenthood, police brutality or a cure for all that ails us.

  • THIS IS AMERICA   (d. Hiro Murai)

  • LAZERCISM   (d. Shaka King)

  • HELL YOU TALMBOUT  (d.  Denzel Boyd, Tyler Rabinowtiz, Joseph Webb)

  • BLACK CHICKS   (d. Neil LaBute) * **

  • THE TALK   (d. Malik Vitthal)

  • EMERGENCY   (d. Carey Williams) *

  • ITS ALL RIGHT, ITS OKAY   (d. Jim Cummings)

  • ANYTHING   (d. Mia Ginae)

4pm:  CON JOBS 

What’s the difference between the innocent and the incarcerated? The former haven’t been caught yet. Whether you’re a cook, a chef, a bank robber, a lazybones or a no-good, dirty rat, you may want to prepare for life in the shadow of the hoosegow with this cinematic, criminal primer.

  • DON'T BE A HERO   (d. Pete Lee)

  • BLIND MICE  (d.  Nicholas D'Agostino)

  • PRERECORDED MESSAGE   (d. Aaron Bourget) *

  • SEARED   (d. Ben Gustafson)

  • LAST REQUESTS   (d. Courtenay Johnson) * **

7pm:  AT LONG LAST, LOVE

There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but if your net has holes in it, good luck. But patience has its virtues and, occasionally, its payoffs - and for those who wait, good things come. Of course, if you’re a balloonist, a movie star, a stuttering kid or a pregnant, single mom, you might just want to rig the system.​

  • CHET JACKSON   (d. Liz Wallace)

  • TWO BALLOONS   (d. Mark Smith) * **

  • BLUE MOON    (d. Bianca Poletti)

  • AUDIBLE STATIC    (d. Sai Selvarajan)

  • RADIO    (d. Sarah Megyesy) *

  • TIL DEATH DO US PART   (d. Lindsay Stidham, Amy Ferguson) * **

8pm:  NOW LIE IN IT

You got to first base, then second, then third and you stole home. Congrats! Now, back to the dugout, the doghouse, the dismay. Sleeping with someone may appear easy.  Sleeping well at night, after the fact, may be a lot harder - whether you’re virginal or viral, desperate or dying, a jackass or a bookworm, a shutterbug or a Stepford wife.

  • HAW HEE   (d. Bret Fetzer)

  • IT'S ME    (d. Vance Malone) *

  • LA PETITE MORT    (d. Elizabeth Jaleigh Davis)

  • A LITTLE LOVIN'    (d. Marie Paccou)

  • LOVE IN THE LAST FIVE DAYS   (d. Michael Blieden) *

  • PROPAGATION    (d. Karrie Crouse & Will Joines)

  • THE MANGINA EXIT    (d. Byron Brown) *

  • UNATTENDED BAGGAGE    (d. Roberto Serrini)

9pm: THE RED-EYE 

presented by Leafly

All aboard!  Let the Movie Crush take you higher. This late night flight takes you from Walla Walla to places unknown.  It’s just a short, cinematic hop to exotic destinations that promise relaxation, provocation and melon-freakification.  See a Coke addict, a comic, a hermit, a messiah, a band, a bystander, a patient and a virgin all struggle to make sense o’ millions of unusual experiences.

  • COKE HABIT  (d. Dress Code) **

  • 190 MG    (d. Tom Larochelle & James Skinner)

  • MUMBO JUMBO   (d. Marco Prestini)

  • WINSTON   (d. Aram Sarkisian) **

  • THE SECOND COMING   (d. Joan Gratz) *

  • ALLEN ANDERS: LIVE AT THE COMEDY CASTLE (ca. 1987)  (d. Laura Moss) **

  • *BA DUM TSS*  (d.  Evan Krumholz)

  • OH, HEY!  (d.  Sean Pecknold)

  • WYRM   (d. Christopher Winterbauer) **

SUNDAY, JULY 8TH

12pm:  GAMES PEOPLE PLAY 

Think you got game? Meet a bunch of athletes, even professionals, who play simply for the love of sport - on the court, on the slopes, in the ring, the pool, the ocean. Winners take all.

  • GAME  (d.  Jeannie Donohoe)

  • THE OCEAN DOESN'T CARE   (d. Mikey de Temple)

  • THE CLIMB   (d. Michael Covino)

  • QUATTRO 2  (d.  Candide Thovex)

  • ASHLEY ASHLEY   (d. Ted Sananman)

  • WHY NOT NOW?   (d. Riley Hooper)

1pm:  NEVERTHELESS, SHE PERSISTED 

It took too long for women to have the right to vote.  Would anyone still deny them the right to speak? If men took the time to listen, they just might learn something - whether from an astronaut, an advocate, a victim, a dancer, a model, a model employee, or a veteran.

  • RFLKTR   (d. Matt Turner)

  • TAOBAO   (d. Noah Sheldon)

  • A FOREMAN   (d. Daniel Drummond)

  • SLACK JAW   (d. Saskia Kivilo)

  • LION IN A BOX   (d. Melanie Brown)

  • DISFLUENCY  (d.  Laura Holliday) * **

  • POCKET SIZED FEMINISM   (d. Valerie Schenkman)

2pm:  POLITICS AS UNUSUAL 

"May you live in interesting times."  This may or may not be an old Chinese curse, but most of us can agree we do. Regardless of our left-right leanings, perhaps we can find common ground in the acceptance of the notion: we ain’t ever seen anything like this before.

  • NORMALIZE  (d.  Lizzy Sanford)

  • POUR 585    (d. Patrick Smith)

  • ARRESTED (AGAIN)   (d. Dan Goldes)

  • IDIOT KING    (d. Stephen Lapcevic)

  • BENEATH THE INK   (d. Cy Dodson)

  • MODERN LIVES   (d. Bill Plympton)

  • COUNT TO TEN    (d. Matt Bieler)

  • DESCRIBE WHAT YOU HEARD   (d. Joe Callander, Jason Tippett) **

  • THE DEVIL'S DUE   (d. Ryan La Plante)

  • MY TWO KENTUCKYS   (d. Evan Mather)

​3pm:  CRASS MENAGERIE

Much of the animal kingdom is wild and wondrous, and some of it is just plain weird. From pets to predators, the prophetic to the profane, the creatures captured here will make you rethink captivity and reimagine your own role in our unnatural world.

  • TORTOISE  (d.  Stephen Cervantes)

  • OUR WONDERFUL NATURE: THE COMMON CHAMELEON   (d. Tomar Eshed)

  • WILDLIFE AND THE WALL  (d.  Ben Masters)

  • PET MONKEY   (d. Eric Maira)

  • SEAGULL X EAGLE   (d. Julia & Michael McCoy)

  • BREAKTHRU    (d. Sean Pecknold)

  • THERE'S TOO MANY OF THESE CROWS  (d. Morgan Miller)

  • END OF THE LINE   (d. Jessica Sanders)

4pm:  TRUE GRIT

Resistance may be futile, but resilience is divine. Buddhists might tell you the secret to life is in accepting suffering. Psychologists suggest the trick is to postpone gratification. Either way, all agree: life ain’t always easy. Here, young men, grieving mothers, those on the ascent and those depressed, share their life hacks, for better, worse and ever after.

  • ELDEST   (d. Nathan Firn) *

  • THE CLIMB   (d. Alex Deaton & Preston Gibson)

  • CONTROL  (d.  Kimmy Gatewood) **

  • DRAWN & RECORDED: WAITIN' ROUND TO DIE  (d.  Drew Christie) *

  • MAGIC BULLET  (d.  Amanda Lovejoy Street) * **

  • TOTEM   (d. Alex Cannon)

​7pm:  THE MOVIE CRUSH CHALLENGE

As is Crush tradition, Artistic Director Warren Etheredge has invited ten of his favorite filmmakers/filmmaking teams to create a brand-new short film in response to a single, unifying prompt. The filmmakers are given no constraints other than this year’s prompt ("Second Thoughts"), and the rule that the completed piece may be no longer than seven minutes.  The films can be any genre or style, and are meant to reflect a diverse range of creative expression. No one — including the Crush team — will have seen these films until they hit the Power House screen this evening.

This year’s participants are:

Zelda Adams *

Wenjo Carlton & Anne T Hanson *

Taylor Clark

Rommel Eclarinal

Wally Green

Vance Malone & Kim Viscio *

Ashley Mosher *

Patrick Neary *

Jennifer Prediger

Calvin Reeder

8pm:  AWARDS CEREMONY

Sure, it’s an honor to be nominated, but this is America: we want winners! Jurors have selected and will present the “Best” within six different categories: Performance, Screenplay, Student Short, Animated Short, Documentary Short and Narrative Short.  Additionally, Warren Etheredge will present his annual Curator’s Choice Award, and 2018’s “Iron Ass Jury” will bestow its award for Audience Favorite.

And, just as if this were a Marvel® movie, stick around until the end credits for a special surprise!

​