MVFF47 - RSVP Guide

Who says that watching Saturday morning cartoons with the family ended with the 20th century? Not us! Join us for this fun frenzy of animated wonders for kids of all ages, presented in collaboration with the Poppy Jasper International Film Festival. Films include: Martha Grant’s Llamas at the Laundromat (Canada 2023, 2 min), a delightful musical starring dancing llamas in fashionable attire; Annastacia Henry-Ramos’ Lunar Power (US 2024, 3 min), in which video game nut Miguel has a cheeky chat with his older, wiser Cousin Amaya; Venus Jones’ Lil Red is Riding the Wrong Way in the Hood (US 2023, 8 min), a rap fairytale filled with valuable life lessons; Paperface’s Think Too Much (UK 2023, 4 min), a musical journey through a landscape of broccoli; Peter Gardner’s Adventures with the Caretaker (US 2022, 25 min), featuring Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Abominable Snowman; Alex Ross’ The Social Chameleon (US 2022, 9 min), an inspiring story about finding your true colors; and Guillermo Gomes’ The Crow and the Squirrel (US 2018, 4 min), a beautiful lesson in communication and compassion.

Age 7+

Expected In Person Guest

How much hero worship is too much? Growing up in the heart of Silicon Valley, budding millennial Claudia Lerner only needs one aspirational model: Steve Jobs, whose products, career, image, and philosophy she idolizes from an early age. So much that at one point her mother (Judy Greer) asks, “Did you join a cult or something?” Viewed throughout her first couple decades of life, our heroine’s relentless drive to excel like guess-who isn’t necessarily a help as she must confront hurdles like her parents’ divorce and mom’s cancer diagnosis. Turns out, “What Would Steve Do?” isn’t a guiding principle that applies to everything in a teenage girl’s existence. In the autobiographically inspired seriocomedy of writer-director Kayci Lacob’s heartfelt debut feature, the irresistible force of Claudia’s ambition meets an unmovable object—reality—and she must learn “to become me,” not the Apple of an icon’s eye.

Expected In Person Guest

Filmmaker Michael Premo follows three impassioned right-wing activists through the 2020 election, the January 6 Capitol riot, and beyond. With unexpected nuance and intimacy, he captures his protagonists’ combustible blend of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat.

An unexpectedly nuanced cinema verité portrait emerges in Michael Premo’s look at three impassioned right-wing activists. Having won their trust in the lead-up to the 2020 election, the Brooklyn filmmaker follows them through election night, the January 6 riot, and beyond. Contradictions abound—Thad (from Texas) attends Trump rallies with Black Lives Matter activist Jacarri; Chris (from New Jersey) participates in a “Back the Blue” march yet charges the line of police defending the Capitol—but their commitment to a particular red, white, and blue vision of America can’t be denied. Each is a combustible mix of delusional cosplayer, stalwart patriot, and potential threat, with the line between blood and bluster further blurred by cameos from Enrique Tarrio and Roger Stone. For all its madness, January 6 isn’t the film’s climax but a turning point in its protagonists’ political and personal evolutions. Yet the chant echoes: “I am a Western chauvinist/And I refuse to apologize/For creating the modern world/We’re all Proud Boys.”

Expected In Person Guest