Clara’s Ghost. 2018. USA. Directed by Bridey Elliott. 92 min.
In her debut feature, writer/director/star Bridey Elliott imitates life through art, blending a voyeuristic peek into the cattiness of a showbiz family and the unsettling elements of a traditional ghost story.
Actor Ted Reynolds and Clara, his scattered, homemaker wife, welcome their twenty-something daughters—a pair of former child stars—back to their Connecticut home so Ted and the girls can do a photo shoot for an in-flight magazine. While celebrating their dog’s birthday with amiable drug dealer Poo Poo, the vodka-loving clan’s banter becomes increasingly bitter and petty, and they devolve into a drunken mess. Meanwhile, a specter only Clara can see urges her to confront her self-centered family.
Elliott enlists her dad and sister (Chris and Abby) to riff on their own identities as a multigenerational acting family, while Elliott’s mom (Paula), in her film debut, brings poignancy to a character who’s finally taking center stage after drifting on the periphery of her egotistical family’s drunken squabbles.
Feathers. 2018. USA. Directed by A. V. Rockwell. 19 min.
Elizier, a dejected new enrollee at The Edward R. Mill School for Lost Boys, must overcome hazing by his peers and memories of a tragic past in order to tackle larger issues dominating his young life.