Shorts 4: City & State

Chicago and Illinois-based filmmakers experiment with genre, topic, and form in this eclectic program by students, upcoming artists, and established directors.

In Bailey’s Blues, a Chicago-born musician turns up the heat in a confrontational interview.  An ugly Christmas dinner leaves a young woman with one worthwhile family member in Madrina. The ever-mounting pressure of high school debate brings out the best and worst of its overachieving students and wise-cracking judges in Debaters. Your Tomorrow Will Be My Song is a vulnerable re-telling by Suni and Alondra, a real-life couple contemplating their trip back home to the Andes. In Chasing the Party, teenage exploration takes an unexpected turn when suburban best friends Melissa and Stephanie make their way into a bar with the fakest of IDs. The usual anxieties plague upcoming artist Anisa as she dodges gossip from art scene contemporaries, questions the value of her work, and navigates flaring tensions in It’s Just a Fucking Opening. In Make No Mistake: These Are the Glory Days, we witness moments of clarity, belonging, and acceptance as the band HOME IS WHERE tours the U.S. as an openly trans group with an openly trans audience.