Jeff Kao

Knowing Nothing Cold follows a group of teenagers living in the American midwest of the 1970s as they attempt the impossibility of a graceful enterance into adulthood.

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A look into the lives of two eleven year-olds spending a summer weekend fighting off boredom. Based on Kao's own memories of a cherished childhood in Iowa during the 60s and 70s, when the only structure to his and his friends play was having enough matches for the afternoon, and how to get your bike-chain back on in a hurry.

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After his mom leaves him and his little brother, Aaron is forced to help his abusive step-father with his credit card scam. Set in the East Bay Area, California - this surreal coming of age story follows four young people clumsily learning how to interact with the world around them.

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'Under the Overpass and Far Away' is a musical fantasy set on the streets of Oakland. It follows Dariya, a teenage runaway, and Poki, a down-and-out centaur, as they try to survive daily life on the street. Poki looks to her past as a star circus performer to try and get them both to the land of promise, Sacramento.

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Four interlocking stories with a Jazz theme. Four Women go out to visit the sites of the jazz clubs where Lou, 65 and dying of cancer, claims she once performed as a young singer. It's election night, Nov. 8, 2016 and the women follow the results on their cell phones. It's also opening night for the C Flat jazz club where they end the evening up as their worst fears are realized: Trump has won the election.

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"What do you do when the spark touches down-brief and hot?" So begins award-winning director Rob Nilsson's (Permission to Touch, MVFF 2015; A Bridge to a Border, MVFF 2014) provocative meditation on the Möbius relationship of fiction to reality, and the notion of creative control. In Love Twice, Luz and Ken are star-crossed lovers in screenwriter Sal's script, until their desire takes shape, inscribing itself into a movie of their own design. Risking his sanity to save the screenplay, Sal struggles to regain control of his characters and satisfy the demands of his producer Lester (legendary Velvet Underground founder John Cale), driving a wedge between the lovers with a desperate attempt to seduce Luz.

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A husband-and-wife pair of retired cult deprogrammers experience marital strife when their past catches up with them.

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Traumatized by his recent divorce, lovelorn Stanley takes off cross country to San Francisco, landing at his enterprising sister Nancy's doorstep. Nancy, who makes counterculture cinema-themed t-shirts, lives in "Camille's Castle," a frozen-in-time legacy home for displaced artists and outcasts. Together, they search for the remaining scraps of San Francisco's Summer of Love, and wind up at odds with each other. Countercurrents is an aggressive tribute to the counterculture films of the late 60's, with "easter eggs" in no short supply.

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Knowing Nothing Cold follows a group of teenagers living in the American midwest of the 1970s as they attempt the impossibility of a graceful enterance into adulthood.

Open details →

After his mom leaves him and his little brother, Aaron is forced to help his abusive step-father with his credit card scam. Set in the East Bay Area, California - this surreal coming of age story follows four young people clumsily learning how to interact with the world around them.

Open details →

'Under the Overpass and Far Away' is a musical fantasy set on the streets of Oakland. It follows Dariya, a teenage runaway, and Poki, a down-and-out centaur, as they try to survive daily life on the street. Poki looks to her past as a star circus performer to try and get them both to the land of promise, Sacramento.

Open details →