Gussy. 2022. USA. Directed by Chris Osborn. With Cole Doman, Tyler Knowles, Michael Patrick Nicholson, Christopher Riley. DCP. 19 min.
As children, Miles and Rocky hunted a monster they thought they saw in the woods. Twenty years later, they’re still searching.
Piggy. 2022. Spain. Written and directed by Carlota Pereda. With Laura Galán, Richard Holmes, Carmen Machi. DCP. In Spanish; English subtitles. 99 min.
During a sweltering summer in rural Spain, Sara (future star Laura Galán) carries an extra load of teenage agony due to perpetual bullying from her peers. She’s also an outsider at home—her parents and little brother just don’t understand her—so, feelings internalized, she’s often found buried in her headphones, drowning out her surroundings. One day, Sara’s usual solo dip at the local pool is disrupted by a mysterious stranger in the water and an exceptionally grueling bout of abuse at the hands of three girls. But in a strange twist of fate, Sara witnesses her bloodied tormentors being kidnapped and put in the back of the stranger’s van.
In Carlota Pereda’s strikingly bold, ominous adaptation of her own award-winning 2018 short, Sara must decide whether to cooperate with police and parents’ inquiries into the kidnappings, or to follow her own, unbridled path—while also discovering the power of desire and belonging, and the distinction between revenge and redemption.