Malibu Film Festival 2016

FORGIVENESS

The President of the United States issues an essay contest to the youth of America asking them how they would fix America. An upstart, African American young man enters the contest …See full summary »

Director: Satie Gossett

Writer: Satie Gossett

Stars: Jennifer Fontaine,  Sara’h Gibson,  J.D. Hinton  |See full cast & crew »

THE BENCH

There is more than meets the eye, in this random encounter on a park bench.

Director: Cameron Burnett

Writers: Alonso Alvarez,  Cameron Burnett (story)

Stars: Harwood Gordon,  Judah McFadden

AA

An AA meeting goes awry when the members turn out not to be who they say they are.

Director: Charles Irving Beale

Writers: Charles Irving Beale,  Maia Kazin (dialogue)  |1 more credit »

Stars: Derek Chariton,  Charles Irving Beale,  Dustin Wilfert  |See full cast & crew »

PRETTYFACE

Chatsworth, CA. Summer of 1969. Jenna, a rebellious fifteen-year old girl is abandoned by her deadbeat mom. She steals a horse named Prettyface from her best friend, Marlena’s family and …See full summary »

Director: Jessica Janos

Writer: Jessica Janos

Stars: Karsen Liotta,  Annalise Basso,  Patrick Schwarzenegger  |See full cast & crew »

JON & THE WOLF

A 15-year-old outcast who becomes obsessed with Michelle, his beautiful 22-year-old guitar teacher and, influenced by the legendary metal icon Luke Wolf…See full summary »

Director: Ryan Maples

Writers: Brian Lerner,  Ryan Maples

Stars: Kalama Epstein,  Catherine Parker,  Dave Buzzotta  |See full cast & crew »

DEATH AFTER PANCAKES

Imaginative and innocent 8-year-old Oliver witnesses his grandfather having a heart attack while camping in the backyard. As his grandma calls the rest of the family to spill the shocking …See full summary »

Director: Sofia Garza-Barba

Writers: Sofia Garza-Barba (story),  Sofia Garza-Barba

Stars: Michael Keeley,  Dennis Leski,  Tyler Mazzei  |See full cast & crew »

THE RAVINE

When two teenage girls find themselves in a peculiar circumstance, they face the enchantment and danger of the isolated canyon they call home.

Director: Annabel Graham

Writer: Annabel Graham

Stars: Seth Chalmers,  Augie Duke,  Andrew Ehrlich  |See full cast & crew »

TUNNEL VISION

Tunnel Vision is a biopic film. A survival/underdog story of a modern day American hustler in the world of Hip Hop concert promotions. The subject of the movie Johnny Russo is a White/Italian guy who has been one the biggest Hip Hop promoters for the past 20 years.

Director: Sarah B. Downey

Writers: Sarah B. Downey,  Antonio Servidio

Stars: Jorg Bierekoven,  Claude Duhamel,  Gerald Earl Gillum  |See full cast & crew »

TWO BELLMEN TWO

After saving the day at L.A. LIVE, our two favorite bellmen rode off in search of a new adventure. And they found it at the JW Marriott Marquis Hotel Dubai.

Director: Daniel Malakai Cabrera

Writers: Daniel Malakai Cabrera,  Caine Sinclair  | 1 more credit »

Stars: Ali Al Sayed,  Josue Anthony, Mathymagarasegaran Balakrishnan  | See full cast & crew »

AIRSTREAM

A hitman is hired to kill two young men and retrieve a stolen item, but what awaits all of them is something they would never expect.

Director: Jonathan Yoho

Writer: Jonathan Yoho

Stars: John Vargas,  Brandon Ruiter,  Mitchell Edwards

SOY CUBANA

Documentary

The Vocal Vidas are a female a cappella quartet from Santiago de Cuba–the cradle of Afro-Cuban music. This documentary explores their unique sound and tells the story of crafting a musical career in a society in which artistic merit is not measured solely by economic success.

Directed by Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov
Written by Jeremy Ungar, Ivaylo Getov
Starring Koset Munoz Columbie, Ana Hernandez Rosillo, Maryoris Mena Faez, Annia Del Toro Leyva

THE MOTHER

When a hardened widow receives an unexpected visit, she is given the chance to shed light on her husband’s death.

Director: Paolo Monico

Writer: Paolo Monico (screenplay)

Stars: Michele Hicks,  Boris McGiver,  Mary Testa  | See full cast & crew »

BREATHE

Dr. Filip Kardel is an ambitious Polish neurosurgeon working in America, struggling to cope with the loss of his wife, Ania. As the memories of her untimely death and his neglecting her in favor of his career continue to haunt him, will he be able to escape the prison of his grief and guilt, or will it destroy him?

Director: Paul Kowalski

Writers: Paul Kowalski, Daniel Gentle

Producer: Christina Dow

Starring: Kristof Konrad, Alicja Bachleda

TWINSBURG

Identical brothers reconnect at the world’s largest gathering of twins.

Director: Joe Garrity

Writer: Joe Garrity

Stars: Joe Garrity,  Phil Garrity,  Kate Charlotte Hodges  |See full cast & crew »

STRIPPED

An unconventional mother’s fight to keep her children.

Director: India Dupré

Writer: India Dupré

Stars: Katheryn Winnick,  Boyd Austin,  Melissa Bickerton  |See full cast & crew »

LUCKY DAY

Meet Ted: a successful bank president with a no frills day-to-day and an ideal woman by his side that exudes the term “trophy wife.” Somewhere in between this morning’s coffee and newspaper, though, Ted’s world is flipped upside down when he’s taken hostage by Dean, who just so happens to be his wife’s secret lover. After strapping a bomb to the ill-fated bank president’s chest, Dean forces Ted to clean out his bank’s vault with the intent of financing the nefarious couple’s getaway, but when Dean proves to be more mindless than menacing, what started off in tragedy might turn out to be Ted’s “Lucky Day.”

Director: Janine Sides

Stars: Jerry Mathers,  Tony Dow,  April McCullough  | See full cast & crew »

C.I.T.

Sarah and Lizzie are best friends. They live for their summers at Blackhawk Farm, times filled with hard work, friendship and horses. After ten years as campers, this summer, 18-year-old Lizzie will be a counselor, while 17-year-old Sarah is a C.I.T. (Counselor in Training). Sarah would love to be a counselor, but her late summer birthday seals her fate as a C.I.T. Everything changes when Sarah is told a secret that will change Lizzie’s life forever.

Director: Cara Consilvio

Writer: Cara Consilvio

Stars: Emily Vere Nicoll,  Renée Bang Allen,  Laura Kiser  |See full cast & crew »

THE FOG

Hoping to transition from a soldier to an actor, Daniel settles in Los Angeles and begins taking an acting class. When his teacher pushes him to confront his past, the class becomes an unexpected battle for him. Will Daniel find the resilience to survive one last battle?

Director: Ted Martland

Writer: Nathan Ellis

Stars: Joby Earle, Franc Ross, Leslie Stevens

ENDINGS, INC.

An employee at the ‘digital afterlife’ management firm, ENDINGS, INC. hacks into the confidential files of an intriguing client, and discovers a dark secret and a twisted opportunity.

Director: Emmanuelle Pickett

Writers: Emmanuelle Pickett (story),  Anthony Ragnone II (story) | 1 more credit »

Stars: Joel Flynn,  Elizabeth Gilpin,  Kat Master  |See full cast & crew »

SUGAR

A pizza delivery guy tries to convince a musican that his life would be easier if he gave up on his dreams.

Director:  Stephen J. Anderson

Writer:  Stephen J. Anderson

Stars:  Ben Kurland,  Sean Bolger

AN UNSPOKEN PARTNERSHIP

A short film documentary describing the emotional connection and unspoken partnership that a rider has with her horse. Helen’s zen, her happiness is at it’s strongest when she’s able to be with one of her best friends, her horse – Fabia.

Director:  Sue Keeton

Writer:  Brian J Kronenberg

Stars: Helen Pollock

Lemonade Mafia

Kira’s Organic lemonade dynasty becomes in jeopardy when new comer Shantel Osgood sets up an extremely successful competing pink lemonade stand that encroaches into her territory.

Director: Anya Adams

Writer: Keith Edie

Stars: Yvette Nicole Brown,  Ava Acres,  Marsai Martin  | See full cast & crew »

SANDS OF SILENCE

A 15-year quest to expose the underworld of sexual exploitation and trafficking from Asia to the Americas leads world-reporter Chelo Alvarez-Stehle to the windswept beach where her childhood ended and family secrets began. As she documents the transformation of sex-trafficking survivor Virginia Isaias—a Mexican American woman whose past is engulfed in a cycle of sexual exploitation—into a resilient survivor committed to break that pattern, Chelo undertakes a parallel journey of healing and introspection as she sets out to shatter the silence about abuse in her own life.

Producer/Director/Writer:   Chelo Alvarez-Stehle

Editors: Kate Amend, ACE, Jean-Philippe Boucicaut, Marla Ulloa, María Zeiss