#CIAFF 2018 Colorado International Activism Film Festival

CIAFF 2018: Declare Your Independence at Denver Open Media July 12th!

Sharlenemusic updated July 22nd. The Colorado International Activism Film Festival #CIAFF 2018 was held over three days at Denver Open Media (DOM), 700 Kalamath Street, Denver, Thurs., July 12th, 3-7:30 PM, Friday, 3-7:30 PM, & Sat., 3:30-5:30 PM. Here’s the #CIAFF 2018 Program, PDF. We received 138 submissions this season. Thanks to everyone! We’ll publish some event pics in a few days.

The results are in for #CIAFF 2018 USA & INTL Winners! In upcoming weeks, we’ll continue to organize our website so that folks will be able to find all of their information and details easily. Also, we’ll process our experience this year in order to plan a more robust festival for next year. Please take a moment to watch this very hopeful promo, The Journey. We’re grateful to Launa Buettell for sharing her talent with us!

We’re still narrowing down Award Winners, currently. We had planned originally to announce awards Friday evening 7 -7:30 PM, but it didn’t happen as planned, so we’re still working on it. A few guests took advantage of the $5 ticket deal via FilmFreeway. For folks who were unable to attend Thurs. and/or Friday, we were also at DOM on Saturday. Your donation of any amount is welcome in advance or at the door whenever you attend our live events. Filmmakers, judges & volunteers receive free admission for themselves and a guest. Thanks to our judges this year, especially Tony Marzano, Cheyenne Scott, Rene Lewis, Danielle Paxton and Karen Tostado. Learn more.

At the live event, we successfully livestreamed a number of music videos. We livestreamed some of our best music submissions between 3:30 – 4 PM via Denver Open Media (DOM) and Comcast Channel 57. We also displayed these submissions in Studio A for our live audience. Thursday’s “simulstream” was a little rocky, but Friday’s was pretty much flawless thanks to audio engineer Ed Chasteen.

We’ve been excited to watch and enjoy all of the wonderful films and music videos we received this season. We like the new documentary, Exploring Hope for Better Times, poster, from long-time activist, musician and “hope entrepreneur”, Dr. Lauren Speeth. We showed some of our best shorts in the evening on Friday, to include The Class Analysis by Jim Politano, Webb Pickersgill, and Melissa K. Webb; Puerto Rico: Citizens in Peril by Rich Henrich, Daniel Seymour and Alex Rubenstein; Stay Woke by Langston A. Williams; also, Of a Grateful Nation by Adam J. Reeb and Jonathan Michael Ball. We also showed the very funny comedic short, Make America Black Again, by Leon Robinson, Joel Kipnis, Louis Obioha, Friday evening around 6:30 PM.

We had planned to show the new film from Tom Coleman and filmaker Greg Byers, Pursuit of Justice, but that didn’t happen as planned. Our audience also enjoyed the important new short, Animal, from Canadian director, Daniel Benoit.

At our live event, we showed films including Go Debbie by Jane Wells, Emmanuel Bastien, Francesco Portinari; and The March of Hope by Jim Kroft. We showed or promo’d films, music videos and trailers created by “Colorado & the West” filmmakers & musicians, including Unmarked by Alec Ybarra starring Tamara Hutchins, Alec Ybarra, Darcy Orrok, Kyle Gray and Kevin Durkin. Also, Skating Cuba from Coloradan Matt Jeffery, around 6 PM.

Kevin Sorbo and Casper Van Dien star in One Nation Under God Poster
Kevin Sorbo and Casper Van Dien star in One Nation Under God

We were hoping to promo a trailer for One Nation Under God by Lisa Arnold, Jarred Coates, Nick Thurlow and Jordan Shur, which is in post-production. That didn’t happen as planned. The film stars Kevin Sorbo and the most wonderful Casper Van Dien, of Starship Troopers fame, who also plays Brom Van Brunt in one of my all-time favorite films, Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow (1999). Read more here.

Here’s a partial list of Award Winners. One Nation Under God by Jarred Coates, Permission by Kaye Tuckerman, The Sunrise Storyteller by Kasha Sequoia Slavner, Make America Black Again by Leon Robinson, The Class Analysis by Jim Politano, Namaste by Roman Buchatsky, Stay Woke by Langston Williams, Of a Grateful Nation by Adam Reeb, Tigernut (Homeland of the Wholehearted Women) by Andoni Monforte …

This list is to be continued! Our judges are still looking at Finalists and Semi-Finalists and advancing these to “Award Winner”. Here’s an older list; please know that some of these folks have since moved up to become award winners; therefore, consult the new lists as of July 22.

#CIAFF 2018 Finalists (Film): Skating Cuba by Matt Jeffery, The Dreamer Kid by John Ortiz, Disclosure by Thomas Penton, Dear Country by Jena Richardson, Cashed by Serena Ryen, The March of Hope by Jim Kroft, Where There is Trout by Becky Holt, Puerto Rico: Citizens in Peril by Alex Rubenstein, Animal by Daniel Benoit, Pursuit of Justice by Greg Byers, The Factory aka The Dream…by Paul Ouellette, Locally Grown: America’s Food Revolution, Rally for Rangers by Jeff Colhoun

#CIAFF 2018 Finalists (Screenplay): WWII Diary by Mack Williams

#CIAFF 2018 Finalists (Music Video/Song): My Golden Rule/Melissa Gail Klein by Sally Sherwood, Faded Away/Nite Bites by Clement Oberto, Embrace the Rain/Jahan Nostra by Jamil Hannibal Wilson, Scandal/Kira Skov & Maya Azucena by Pablo Mengin-Lecreuix, Wash It! (Leang Sam Art!) …by Darren Teale, Moogzam/Ivri Lider by Roman Buchatsky, Revolution/Oddity by Maxim Rozkov, What a Beautiful Name/Christafari by Luis Juarez, One/The RealAGE by Hector Quijano, Talkin’ that Mumbo Jumbo by George Wada, Complexion/Ori Dagon by Carlos Coronado, Home/Mahogany Jones by Jayne Marie Smith, Watershed/The Hypoxic Punks by Mark Pedelty, You Have the Right by Neal Fox, The Glass Ceiling by Savannah Hatcher, Till They’re Back/Trevian by Matthew Baquero, Western World/Monty Oblivion by Darwin Serink, The Reapers/A Sound of Thunder by Hector Sunol

#CIAFF 2018 Semi-Finalists (Film): Yank Tug Yank by Maureen Zent, Job 1 by Maureen Zent, What Weee Are – Weedroponics by Alessio De Marchi, Living in Tents by Paul Crane, Topless (subtitled) by Lais Sambugaro, Help! By Benedicte Brunet, La Jungle by Boris De Visscher, 808 by Meilani Wenska, “Illuminate”: a Cinematic Poem … by Nisha Gupta, Un-Inflame Me: Reversing the American Diet…by Angela Lamb, That’s Why I Like It by Sydney South, Go Debbie by Jane Wells, Don’t Frack with Denton by Garrett Graham, War Crime by Gopal Shivakoti, Exploring Hope for Better Times by Lauren Speeth, Zaman by Reza Shokrani, The Sign by Dan O’Hare, Aldea Mundial by Michael Wagner, Final Picture by Michael von Hohenberg, The Snag by Isabelle Desalos, Unmarked by Alec Ybarra, Citizen Animal by Oliver Kyr, Maya Faces in a Smoking Mirror by William Jungels, The Journey by Launa Buettell

#CIAFF 2018 Semi-Finalists (Screenplay): Thank You, Amelia Earhart by Al Mertens, Nyobaywa by 42 Tribes, The Coal Miner’s War by Randall Reese, Execution Day by Mike Reid, The Venus Syndrome by Lynn Vincentnathan

#CIAFF 2018 Semi-Finalists (Music Video/Song): Time and Love and I by The Real TALAI, Hagalaz – A Ritual Mantra by Detlef Schlich, Demons by Lauren Dallas, We Won’t Allow It by Monde Ngcobo, Drama Teacher by Tish Stringer, Working Man Blues by Hermes Mangialardo, How I Feel by Jai Lee, Blame on Both Sides Blues by Judith Lynn Stillman, Self-Portrait by Nacho Recio, Gavnnahallan by Nacho Recio, Be You by Alexi Paraschos

#CIAFF USA/INTL Official Selections (Music Video/Song): Shadows of a Radio in the East by Nacho Recio, I Cherish Women by Judith Lynn Stillman, Live (The Best Things in Life are Free)/Pale White Guy by Anders Sundstedt, Antidote for the Wicked World by Margo Stutts Toombs, This Wicked World by Morgen La Civita, Birds/Folklore Ensemble by Alekseev Evgenly Nikolaevich, We All are Severely Ill by Vladimir Galeev, Hailstorm by Carolyn Downie, Music for 2 Pianos and Tape Recorder by Lilita Grinberga, That’s What’s Up by Jack Butler, Go Steady! By Steve James Garry, Naari Shakti (Women Empowerment) by Vijay Bhutada, The OG The Organic Gardener by Jack Butler, Rough Justice by Lauren Speeth, Rise Up/Rajdulari by Jack Butler, Minerva by Gabriele Schwark.

#CIAFF USA/INTL Official Selections (Film): Migrant by Lawrence Ferrara, Army Manimation by Jack Belhumeur, A Day with Miguel Lopez by Jack Butler, Bini by Erblin Nushi, Me Too- Fuck You…by Paul Ruven, I am the People, the Mob by Landon Hughes, My Forest by Sebastien Pins, Hozho by Gary Cunningham, Steve & Robert by Jose Chalet, Blows with the Wind by Hazhir As’adi, Cali Climate by Kyle McDonald, Beauty of Life by Ashish Kumar, T(he)y by Caroline Callender, Net Neutrality by Jack Butler, Forra by Felipe Mondoni, For Better, For Worse by Tal Greenberg, Khai O Mheetheba (A Kindhearted Man) by Ganesh Gurung

Read more and submit, #CIAFF 2019.

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