Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Final Girls Berlin Film Fest Program - June '17
Final Girls Berlin Film Fest Program - June '17
Welcome to the second edition of Final Girls Berlin Film Festival 17!
All of the horror films youll see here were directed, written, and/or produced by women and non-
binary filmmakers.
We believe that horror is a beautiful, messy, and fruitful means of resistance, as well as a visceral
medium for exploring ills and incongruities, whether internal, interpersonal, or societal. The films
were presenting relish in various forms of resistance: deconstructing or decimating traditional
representations of women in film; blurring bodily boundaries; highlighting the perversions lurking
within the nuclear family structure; twisting and contorting the conventions of romance; painting
bloody portraits of revenge Sometimes this resistance takes the form of unbridled and
unapologetic fantasy, no matter how ugly.
These women and non-binary horror-makers are powerful, ass-kicking agents of chaos and
disruption who deserve to be celebrated. Our mission is to bring these filmmakers and their largely
unseen bloody gems to Berlins feminist horror-loving spectators. While youre here, dont forget to
check out the horror talks/workshops and art exhibition in the Moviemento lounge, where well also
be selling our ghastly and much-coveted FGB T-shirts.
We look forward to serving you a tasty array of thrills, chills, kills, ills, and terror-packed film bills!!!
--Sara Neidorf, co-director of Final Girls
Cinema loves to paint mothers as saints, the epitome of womanhood, even as selfless
warriors who would sacrifice themselves for their children. These mommies, on the other
hand, arent handling the pressure so well. We cant all be mother of the year
Childer (18:43)
Written & Directed by Aislinn Clarke, UK, 2016
An introverted mothers worst fears are amplified when she is
seemingly stalked by the feral children living in the woods
surrounding her home.
Postpartum (6:10)
Written & Directed by Izzy Lee, US, 2015
"Not everyone is meant to be a mother." Good intentions lead to
disastrous results when a woman visits a new mom.
(German Premiere)
Friday Mommy Issues
MOMMY (5:00)
Written & Directed by Heidi Moore, US, 2013
They all thought they were so special with their perfect little
babies. They said she could never have one of her own. Well
sweeties; look at her now. (European Premiere)
Leonarda (10:45)
Directed by Luca Brinciotti, Italy, 2016
Based on the True Story of the female Italian serial killer
Leonarda Cianciulli, known as the "Soap-Maker of Correggio".
Leonarda killed three women and boiled their bodies with
caustic soda to make soap and cookies. (German Premiere)
20:15 Feature:
Women Who Kill (1:33:00)
Friday Phantasmagoria
A surreal array of nightmarish figures, fantasies, landscapes, scenarios. This is a program
marked by spectacle, by atmosphere, by apparitions, and by subtle and creeping
hauntings and obsessions.
Earworm (5:06)
Written & Directed by Tara Price, US, 2016
A lonely man battles with a tune that he just cannot get out of his
head. (German Premiere)
Yuletide (4:50)
Written & Directed by Marinah Janello, US, 2016
Krampus seeks revenge on children who spy on him by haunting
their church services and Christmas festivities.
Friday Phantasmagoria
She is the Dark (11:08)
Written & Directed by Hasssan Vahdani, Iran, 2016
A trip into the imagination of a girl who thinks her father blames her
for her mother's death, so she decides to kill her father.
Abjection (10:40)
Directed by Jiyeon Choi, China, 2017
A little girl is forced to separate from her doll. When a boy comes to
rescue her, she realizes a boys stick gives her more power. She
selects a stick instead of her doll and feels like a master of the world.
Phyllis (15:40)
Written & Directed by Zina Saro-Wiwa, Nigeria, 2010
An atmospheric portrait of a lonely woman obsessed with synthetic
Nollywood dramas, that lives in the city of Lagos, Nigeria. The central
device in this short experimental film is the practise and significance
of wig-wearing in Nollywood film; a practise Zina has invested with
deeper psychological as well as science-fiction layers. Underpinning
this central idea, however, is a critique of the unforgiving treatment
of single women in Nollywood and Nigeria and a meditation on
loneliness and mental illness.
When they do play a more significant part in the narrative, they are often one-dimensional
and reduced to racist tropes such as the mythical Black man or the Native American burial
ground motif.
In this workshop, Nine and Nisha invite you to explore and deconstruct the treatment of race
and gender in mainstream US horror and probe its repressed political psychology.
16:00 Shorts Program 3 - Is it Dead?
Saturday Is It Dead?
Horror loves to play with a viewers expectations. A seemingly lifeless body could be
so many possible things dead, comatose, undead, a cyborg at rest, an extended
performance in service to the spectators morbid desire to gaze without
consequence
Thanatopraxia (11:00)
Directed by Victor Palacios, Produced by Elena Albert, Spain, 2014
Mary needs a heart donor for her father. Luckily she works at the
morgue. Monica has an idea: steal it from work.
We all fear our own bodies turning against us, proving to be more fragile than we like
to imagine, more prone to infection or fracture. These shorts feature the body as the site
of crisis, attack, and rebellion.
Innsmouth (10:59)
Directed by Izzy Lee, US, 2015
Detective Diana Olmstead arrives on the scene of a body with a
mysterious egg sac on its back. A clue leads her to Innsmouth,
where she meets a seductive and horrific fate in the form of Alice
Marsh (Tristan Risk: American Mary, The Editor).
(German Premiere)
Revenge can come in many forms, as we all surely know from our daily reveries. We may
wish to release it on a boundary-crossing stranger, or perhaps sometimes even against
those closest to us. These revenge tales are relentless, and range from the psychological
to the bloody and brutal.
Stitched (3:35)
Directed by Heather Taylor, US, 2016
A sheltered woman, reeling from the death of her mother,
shows her sister how far she will go to be heard.
Saturday Sweet Revenge
Watch Me (8:12)
Directed by Briony Kidd, Australia, 2017
A glamorous, attention-seeking actress will do anything to make
sure you never look away. (International Premiere)
Consomm (5:40)
Directed by Catherine Fordham, US, 2016
After a vicious fight, a woman simmers with anger as she heads
home through Brooklyns threatening streets. When shes attacked,
her fiercest self takes over to fight for her life. The following
morning, bruised and beaten, she purges and cleans.
Content Warning: Sexual Abuse
Blame (15:15)
Directed by Kellee Terrell, US, 2015
Haunted by the ghost of a dead rape victim, a young father must
decide to either turn his son into the police or delete the only
evidence of the assault. (German Premiere)
Content Warning: Sexual Abuse
Oedipus (14:03)
Written & Directed by Roxanne Bordeaux, UK, 2016
A young boy named Lily must live out the rest of his unnatural life
in limbo, reliving the same day for eternity. Unfortunately for Lily,
it's with his enamoured grandfather. (German Premiere)
Content Warning: Sexual Abuse
talk, well take a closer look at the horror hag / psycho-biddy / hagsploitation phenomenon
of the 60s and 70s, in which notable Hollywood stars (e.g. Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Katharine
Hepburn, Shelley Winters), having aged out of the glamorous and high-profile roles they were
once known for, appeared in B-horror movies in order to keep their faces on the big screens.
These films capitalized on societys fear of aging, and posited the aging women as a site of
grotesque spectacle and diabolical danger. But before you go pitying these performers falls
Sunday Talk
from grace, you have to behold their unforgettable performances. Well lead you through some
of the most notorious horror hag films, from Baby Jane to Aunt Alice, looking at their tropes, their
potential for subversion, and why these grand dames are such compelling and formidable figures
of horror and enduring cult figures today.
Sunday Dying of Laughter
Heres a program for those of you who like some laughs with your scares. If you were afraid
this fest would be too damn horrific for you, then this is a program to ease you into things,
never taking itself too seriously, and lavishing you with a mix of camp, wit, absurdism, and
dark humor.
Shortcut (4:49)
Directed by Prano Bailey-Bond, UK, 2016
Bad boyfriend. Sleeping girlfriend. Fast car. Full moon. When
Kurt takes a shortcut he enters a supernatural realm and is forced
to sacrifice a little part of himself.
Connie (19:59)
Written & Directed by Cat Davies, UK, 2016
Would-be stand-up Dolly Diggs suffers from stage fright. To
overcome her fear, she plans to become a ventriloquist and
thinks she found just the puppet to help-- the sassy and
sequinned Connie. But Connie is no ordinary puppet
Sunday Dying of Laughter
Murder Springs: Chapter One (4:30)
Written & Directed by Adam van Dyke, Produced by
Margarita Hernandez, Natasha Ramos, and Sam van Dyke,
US, 2016
An elderly couple rekindle their lost spark over a grisly
driving accident. (European Premiere)
Munchies (2:40)
Directed & Animated by Sinead Stoddart, UK, 2016
Zombie Lee has an outrageous hunger that wont be
silenced by food alone. With his growing need to feed
increasing, misjudgment and disaster arise in the kitchen,
until a simple solution is found.
Rotten (14:30)
Directed by Rona Cohen, Israel/ UK, 2016
When six-year-old Little Suzie, who hates tomatoes, is forced
to live with her tomato-obsessed grandma, tensions run
high.
Potholes (3:55)
Directed by Jaclyn Goldstein, US, 2016
When a late night golf cart ride goes awry, what are three
pasta lovers to do?
Teenage Filmmaker
Tampoon (6:46)
Written & Directed by Jeanne Jo, US, 2015
When Miranda makes bad decisions about her love life, a
killer tampon slips in to take care of business.
(European Premiere)
Sunday All in the Family
18:00 Shorts Program 7 - All in the Family
Theres no place like home, that cozy nest for the happy family. Lets not delude
ourselves-- familial relations are often the sickest and most twisted ones we ever know.
Lets peel away these domestic facades and take a look at whats crawling within.
Upr (12:23)
Written & Directed by Laura Rembault, France, 2016
When 8 year old Arthur believes his nanny is a vampire,
everyday life becomes far more dramatic.
Scrawls (10:12)
Directed by Pedro Pacheco Arlandi, Written
and Produced by Maria Dopico, Spain, 2016
Ana, a woman who loves her family above
everything, has decided to resolve her
marital problems at last.
Invasion (6:17)
Written & Directed by Auguste Kuneviciute,
Lithuania, 2016
A little girl who doesnt get along with her
mother finds friends from another planet.
But they are they friendly to everyone?
Restart (15:00)
Directed by Olga Osorio, Spain, 2015
A woman is trapped in a temporal loop. Will she be able
to break it?
Mirror (3:00)
Directed by Sara Eustaquio, US, 2016
Shes young. Shes in trouble. Shes staring at the mirror
looking for answers.
Teenage Filmmaker
Whisper (10:45)
Directed by Jo Lewis, UK, 2015
A young woman heads to an isolated seaside cabin to
battle her addiction, but things quickly spiral out of
control. A hauntingly beautiful ghost story, in which
nothing is as it seems.
Murmur (8:01)
Directed by Aurora Fearnley, UK, 2015
A young woman makes a dawn escape from a commune she has
grown to distrust.