City & State Shorts: Homegrown Talent

In this program featuring a selection of shorts from the 62nd Chicago International Film Festival’s City & State shorts program, anxieties, both real and imagined, take center stage in the face of unknown family lineage, romantic longings, career disappointments, and bloody satires. With a varied and profound lineup, this program highlights the immense talents of filmmakers based right here in Chicago.

Back Scratch explores the tension between friends who cross boundaries and are forced to relearn their relationship in the aftermath. In Skin of Olives, we follow the tricky unveiling of an ancestral history via a DNA kit. Closed Mouths explores the emotional realities and stressors of filmmaking as a career. Choke gives us a kitschy, bloody look at a world where authoritarians decide who’s in and who’s out. Structure gives us a voyeuristic look at Chicago life through a parking meter that yearns for life outside its apartment lobby.