2020
Official Program
3+ hours. 14 countries. 30+ films.
This is the FFF.
SESSION A(MANITA)
In search of medicine (1:46) – Daniel De Gennaro (Canada)
Trasshrooms (4:47) – Gadget (U.S.A.)
Network (8:38) – Caracara Collective, Natura Studios, Dennis Konoi (Finland / U.K.)
Moonwaker (5:33) – Petra Hermanová (Germany)
Japanese Shiitake Forestry (10:00) – Costa Boutsikaris (Japan)
Touch: an e(rot)ic film (6:21) – Bradley Williams (U.S.A.)
The Michael Jordan of Mycology (7:20) – David Fenster (U.S.A.)
Cycle (7:08) – Santi Salas (U.S.A.)
Bill O’Dea: Fungophelic (5:33) – Al Butler (Ireland)
LA Hikikomori (8:20) – Alex Gomez, Austin Richardson, Josh Hueth (U.S.A.)
Nurse Log (3:28) – Jessica Fraser (Canada)
Fire loving fungi (9:49) – Catherine Marciniak, Stephen Axford (Australia)
Fly Amanita (4:20) – David Fenster (U.S.A.)
ANTHROPOMYCENE: An exploration of our connection with Fungi (4:45) – Leander Beckett (France)
Namai (3:32) – Francesca Pazniokas (U.S.A.)
SESSION B(OLETUS)
Mycelia Messages (9:02) – Georgia Yiapanis (U.K.)
Reishi (3:20) – Death Hags (U.S.A.)
The Dreaman “I” (2:22) – Juris Pikelis (Latvia)
Suklal’s Hunt (9:58) – Hamilton Pevec (U.S.A. / Nepal)
Skirt Steak with Mushrooms and Fennel (2:38) – Tiger in a Jar (U.S.A.)
The Mushroom Speaks (9:59) – Marion Neumann (Switzerland)
Mushroom Dummies (3:24) – Nadežda Pavlović, Bojan Janković (Serbia)
Autumn Aroma (9:59) – Tristan Stoch (U.S.A.)
Fungi Pig (3:20) – Jade Coldiron (U.S.A.)
decomposer (2:03) – Laura Elsener, Bradley Tangonan (U.S.A.)
Sous nos Pieds (9:59) – Axel Cohen (France)
Sum of its Parts (3:18) – Alisa Stern (U.S.A. / U.K.)
Confusão dos contornos (1:36) – Tuane Eggers (Brazil)
The Mushroom Huntress (9:40) – Jim Picariello (U.S.A.)
The Place With the Whales (3:24) – Matthew Pfeffer (U.S.A.)
ANTHROPOMYCENE - An exploration of our connection with Fungi
Leander Beckett
4:45 (France)
With an original fungal soundtrack, this is a poetic exploration of the mystical world of Fungi. It aims to inspire people, and help them connect to their inner fungal realm. This weird, interconnected and ever-present beauty is worth being experienced by all humans!
About the Filmmaker
Having grown up in the beautiful landscape of the south of France, I have always had a deep connection with the natural world. So, with my father and David Attenborough as examples, I slowly explored the arts of film making, photography and music, often using nature as inspiration. About a year ago, I heard a podcast featuring Peter McCoy, and I have been falling deeper and deeper into the fungal rabbit hole ever since.
Autumn Aroma
Tristan Stoch
10:00 (U.S.A.)
"Autumn Aroma" is a documentary about the history of Japanese Americans hunting for Matsutake mushrooms in the Pacific Northwest. This short is an edited version of an episode in an upcoming web series.
About the Filmmaker
Tristan Stoch is a filmmaker and mushroom hunter at home in the Pacific Northwest.
Bill O'Dea: Fungophelic
Al Butler
5:33 (Ireland)
Irish Mushroom expert Bill O'Dea brings us into the seemingly infinite world of Mushrooms and explains their profound impact on the world we live in.
About the Filmmaker
Al Butler is a writer, producer and creative director with The Coop in Dublin, Ireland. He studied film at National Film School, IADT. Since then he has been engaged in the Irish film and television industry as a producer, post-production supervisor, writer, director, and editor. His core background is in commercial production and working with companies like Red Bull producing and creating branded content, TV shows, and events. Today his focus primarily lies in environmental & historical documentaries and a range of commercial content. Al's films have been shown at festivals throughout Ireland and Europe.
Confusão dos contornos / Confusion of contours
Tuane Eggers
1:28 (Brazil)
Esta é uma pequena história sobre contaminação & transformação, envolvendo fungos como agentes criadores. Ao incentivar a proliferação sobre minhas fotografias impressas, reflito sobre narrativas a partir da decomposição, sob um olhar menos antropocêntrico, relacionando diferentes escalas interligadas da existência. Com suas características de transformar a matéria, fungos atuam como organismos de interação entre vida e morte, sendo essenciais aos ciclos do planeta. No contexto em que um microrganismo levou a maioria da população mundial ao confinamento, há que se pensar na coexistência com pequenos seres. O projeto de cocriação reflete sobre a poesia existente no descontrole de imagens vivas e em encontros proporcionados pela contaminação: somos feitos de muitos seres.
This is a short story about contamination & transformation, involving fungi as creative agents. By encouraging the proliferation of my printed photographs, I reflect on narratives based on decomposition, from a less anthropocentric point of view, relating different interconnected scales of existence. With their characteristics of transforming matter, fungi act as organisms of interaction between life and death, being essential to the cycles of the planet. In the context in which a microorganism led the majority of the world population to confinement, it is necessary to think about coexistence with small beings. The co-creation project reflects on the existing poetry in the lack of control of living images and in encounters provided by contamination: we are made up of many beings.
About the Filmmaker
Tuane Eggers is a Brazilian visual artist with work focused on photography, mainly analog photography. The themes are closely related to the flows of nature and the impermanence of life.
Cycle
Santiago Salas
7:08 (U.S.A.)
A man lost in the woods and starving runs across some suspicious looking mushrooms. He knows there is risk of poison but his hunger gets the best of him, and he goes on a peculiar trip.
decomposer
Laura Elsener, Bradley Tangonan
2:03 (U.S.A.)
Decomposer is a part of my Catabolic series, a musical and visual arts experience. Both the song and the music are a product of machine learning. The music is hypnotic and ambient, transporting the listener to an altered state while the visual aspect invites viewers to get lost in the stream of images breaking down before their eyes. Combining the sensory elements of sound and sight in one experience, Decomposer immerses the viewer so fully that one feels emotionally present, but physically distant.
About the Filmmaker
Laura Elsener is an artist and data scientist who navigates the space between humans and artificial intelligence. Her creative coding decisions and artistic vision transform generative machine learning algorithms into singular expressions. Her humanist approach to technology reveals that humans can leverage machine learning algorithms to create unique art that humans or AI alone are incapable of.
Fire loving fungi
Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak – Planet Fungi
9:49 (Australia)
The world looked on in horror as Australia burned in one of the worst bushfire seasons on record. The forest was devastated but surprisingly mushrooms started appearing within days of the fires going through. Fungi obsessives Stephen Axford and Catherine Marciniak documented the fire loving fungi coming up on the Mt Nardi fireground on the north coast of New South Wales and discovered just how vital these mushrooms are to the recovery of the forest.
About the Filmmaker
The hero of fungi lovers across the globe, photographer Stephen Axford and his partner and filmmaker, Catherine Marciniak combine their skills and passion to document the weird and wonderful world of fungi.
Fly Amanita
David Fenster
4:20 (U.S.A.)
The thoughts of an Amanita muscaria (also known as Fly Agaric or Fly Amanita) mushroom on his species' relationship with humans.
About the Filmmaker
David Fenster is a filmmaker based in Tucson, Arizona. His films link the cultural and historical with the ecological and mystical — celebrating the specificity of a particular place. His work has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, the New York Times, HBO, and many other museums, festivals and media outlets.
2020 Award Winner
Funniest Fungi Film
Fungi Pig
Jade Coldiron
3:20 (U.S.A.)
Fungi Pig is about a neglectful pet owner finding magic mushrooms growing in her guinea pig's cage. She eats them and is fated with her karma.
About the Filmmaker
Jade Cullen is a transgender filmmaker from Oklahoma. Her films are often of the experimental comedy variety.
In Search of Medicine
Daniel De Gennaro
1:46 (Canada)
A young mushroom loving creature finds true, eternal love in an all knowing mushroom.
About the Filmmaker
I am a human born in Venezuela. Learned animation and learned that animation is my way of telling stories, at least right now. The films i´ve made were from when I was an animation student. Hopefully soon I will make more personal films that talk about many topics centered on love.
Japanese Shiitake Forestry
Costa Boutsikaris
10:00 (Japan)
Woodlanders is an online film series that seeks to document the work of people who care for and depend on forests for their livelihood and well-being. The Japanese Shiitake Forestry episode features traditional Japanese shiitake growing.
About the Filmmaker
Costa Boutsikaris is a filmmaker and forest farmer in the Hudson Valley of New York. He has an ongoing web series called Woodlanders and two feature films; Inhabit: A Permaculture Perspective and a new forthcoming film Inhabitants: An Indigenous Perspective.
2020 Award Winner
Most Edutaining
LA Hikikomori
Alex Gomez, Austin Richardson and Josh Hueth
8:20 (U.S.A.)
About the Filmmaker
Hi! I'm Alex, this is currently my senior year at California State University Fullerton studying cinema and television arts with an emphasis in production. I've been making short films since my sophomore year of high school with some close friends of mine and this is our most recent project.
Moonwaker
Petra Hermanova
5:33 (Germany)
Lichen is an alien beauty of resilience and fragility which grows incredibly slow from the perspective of a human. The world where the Moonwaker lives is where the stillness is a pulsating, breathing flesh, slithering through & suspended in an endless blackness.
About the Filmmaker
Petra Hermanová is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily with time-based media. Currently she explores moving image through animation techniques developed in desire to embed and fold time onto itself in a distorted visual bacchanalia.
Mushroom Dummies
Nadežda Pavlović, Bojan Janković
3:24 (Serbia)
Mushroom dummies is a short film that introduces us to the kingdom of mushrooms in a humorous way. The girl who jogs decides to turn into the forest where she encounters different types of mushrooms in an unexpected way.
About the Filmmaker
Nadezda and Bojan are directing duo from Serbia. In their work they deal with new media such as GIF, photography, video art ...
Mycelia Messages
Georgia Yiapanis
9:02 (UK)
''Mycelia Messages' is a short documentary from Reflections Small School (Worthing, UK). It follows the factual and fantastical journeys of a group of 4-7 year old children, as they discover and become obsessed with fungi. You'll see the children become expert mushroom hunters, recorders, identifiers and Museum makers; mushroom milliners, clothes designers, fabricators and embroiderers. With the technical help of a DJ parent an original soundtrack is laid down, including sounds made by actual mushrooms! All is brought together, back in the forest, in a brilliant 'Fungi Fashion' finale, with the children transformed into their favourite species.
About the Filmmaker
Georgia Yiapanis is an Artist and Teacher who works as an Atelierista at Reflections Small School in Worthing, UK. This film was created in collaboration with the children aged 4-7 at Small School who were the creative masterminds behind the Fungi Fashion project.
Namai
Francesca Pazniokas
3:24 (U.S.A.)
NAMAI is a film about home, heritage, memory and mushrooms. It uses home videos from my father's childhood, as well as supplemental found footage.
About the Filmmaker
Francesca Pazniokas is a Brooklyn-based playwright and filmmaker whose work frequently explores memory and fable, trauma and identity, obsession and the occult.
2020 Award Winner
Best of the Fest
Network
Caracara Collective (Aleksi Vesaluoma, Aleksi Puustinen), Natura Studios (Ashley Granter, Francesco Verderosa, Aurelie Fontan), Dennis Konoi
8:38 (Finland/UK)
The short movie tells a story of how fungi can encourage collaboration and self-sufficiency during these times of isolation, and become the key ingredient of environmentally friendly design. What happens when fungi are extracted from a forest in England, cloned, and shipped to Finland, where two artists are spending their quarantines at a lakeside cabin?
About the Filmmaker
The project is a collaboration between Caracara (Finland), Natura Design Studios (UK) and Dennis Konoi (Finland). Caracara is a studio in Helsinki that creates vibrant art and design installations and collections using biowaste generated by our society. Natura is a biodesign studio based in the UK, who work with natural processes and living beings such as fungi to grow materials and textiles. Dennis Konoi is a Helsinki based ambitious photographer, whose work explores themes of documentary, landscape, portraiture, and architectural photography.
Nurse Log
Jessica Fraser
3:28 (Canada)
Nurse Log is an experimental film about the transition of a woman into a mother paralleled with the process of a tree becoming a nurse log. It is about the natural way that we take in nutrients and knowledge as we grow, only to share them with the next generation.
About the Filmmaker
Jessica Fraser is a filmmaker and dancer from Vancouver, BC. She currently attends UBC and makes short films for YouTube ranging from dramas to fantasy/genre pieces, music videos, and stop-motion animations.
Reishi
Death Hags
3:20 (U.S.A.)
This is an experimental, glitched-out music video for the Death Hags song Reishi, released in September 2020. The song and video are about self-knowledge and ascending to a higher consciousness.
About the Filmmaker
L.A. Musician Lola G. aka DEATH HAGS takes the listener on a journey through hypnotic electronics, psych and dream pop. Following the release of four singles in 2018/2019, including Earthbound, recorded with Tomas Dolas (Mr. Elevator/Oh Sees), Death Hags toured extensively in North America and Europe, playing festivals such as SXSW, Pop Montreal and Night Owl. In December 2019, she embarked on an epic multimedia project called BIG GREY SUN. a kaleidoscopic multiverse and inner journey spanning 7 albums, a radio show and more. Lola makes her own music videos, composed of digital manipulation, vintage footage and other experiments.
Skirt Steak with Mushrooms and Fennel
Tiger in a Jar
2:38 (U.S.A.)
A simple recipe film that adds fungi for flavor!
About the Filmmaker
Matt and Julie Walker started Tiger in a Jar as a film production company to make films to show the beauty in the simple things in life.
Sous nos pieds
Axel Cohen
9:58 (France)
A farmworker, a winemaker, an object designer, and two head chefs all share one passion: mushrooms. From mycelium in the soil to chanterelles in haute cuisine, in this documentary, these five Frenchmen explore what fungi mean to them and how they can change the way we harvest, eat, and live.
About the Filmmaker
I was born in France but raised in California until I was 11 and when I came back to France I knew I wanted to work in the film industry. After a few years of film studies and amateur film projects I became a professional film editor based in Paris. As an editor, I've always seen cinema as a universal language and one of the best mediums to fully experience a story. I had the will to go further in my career and to tell my own stories: I then became a filmmaker.
Suklal’s Hunt
Hamilton Pevec
9:56 (U.S.A./Nepal)
Suklal's Hunt is a snap shot of the culture and economics of the caterpillar fungus also known as Ophiocordyceps Sinensis. The film Follows Suklal on his annual hunt for this rare and precious mushroom.
About the Filmmaker
Hamilton is a filmmaker based out of Colorado, and spends half his life In Nepal.
Sum of its Parts
Alisa Stern
3:18 (U.S.A./UK)
Sum of its Parts follows the journey of mysterious forest creatures that move to the beat of music. The film is an exploration of stop motion animation made in a natural setting. It was animated entirely outdoors in the Hudson Valley of New York.
About the Filmmaker
Alisa is an animator and filmmaker residing in Brooklyn, New York. She has over a decade of experience in the animation industry and has worked on commercials, preschool TV, social media, and also created a YouTube series called Doctor Puppet. She also loves hiking and the outdoors.
The Dreaman “I”
Juris Pikelis
2:22 (Latvia)
In his sleep "the Dreaman" has mystical experience which reveals the truth of his own being. At the core he is no other than the universal Self, the "I", the infinite fractal, the beautiful unknowable mystery.
About the Filmmaker
My work mainly revolves around using digital medium to animate various subjects that I find relevant to me personally. My main interests in animating are spirituality, metaphysics, nature and phantasy with little touch of mystery.
The Michael Jordan of Mycology
David Fenster
7:20 (U.S.A.)
"All That the Rain Promises and More" is one of the most unique and eccentric field guides ever written. This film is a portrait of that book and the mushroom obsessed man who wrote it, David Arora.
About the Filmmaker
David Fenster is a filmmaker based in Tucson, Arizona. His films link the cultural and historical with the ecological and mystical — celebrating the specificity of a particular place. His work has shown at the Museum of Modern Art, Sundance Film Festival, the New York Times, HBO, and many other museums, festivals and media outlets.
The Mushroom Huntress
Director: Jim Picariello
Kyle Lamont, Lynne Williams, Luke Carquillat
9:40 (U.S.A.)
The Mushroom Huntress: After Leigh is cut off from her cold, wealthy mother, and witnesses the arrest of her loving-yet-scheming father, she attempts to support herself by capitalizing on her love of wild mushrooms. But while foraging along the forest floor she discovers a shocking family secret.
About the Filmmaker
Jim Picariello is a screenwriter and award-winning filmmaker trying to break into the industry from rural, coastal Maine. It's a surefire plan!
The Mushroom Speaks
Marion Neumann
10:00 (France/Switzerland)
What if the fungus would cure and radically change society? An essay that explores possible alliances with the fungal reign. While tracing the outlines of a mysterious being, the film reveals the fungus as a true immune system of the planet and, by extension, of ourselves. As if in an uprising of spores, the encounters address the theme of renewal, and question what connects us when the world seems to fall apart.
About the Filmmaker
Marion Neuman is a German filmmaker, living and working in Geneva. Inspired by the fungal spirits she works mostly in collectives, and is engaged to produce singular ways of story telling between fiction and documentary. Since 2016 she works on her actual feature documentary „the mushroom speaks“, produced by Intermezzo films in Geneva, that has it's international cinema release in 2021.
The Place With the Whales
Matthew Pfeffer
3:24 (U.S.A.)
An expression of some of my more absurd fears and an exploration of why they scare me. A place that I spend a lot of time mentally.
About the Filmmaker
Matthew Pfeffer is a sound designer, screenwriter and filmmaker based in Detroit, Michigan. He grew up in the suburbs of Detroit before moving to the city proper to attend College for Creative Studies, where he graduated in the winter of 2018. His films have been screened in local and international festivals as well as being displayed in local galleries.
2020 Award Winner
Most Original
Touch: an e(rot)ic film
Bradley Williams
6:21 (U.S.A.)
Touch: an E(rot)ic Film features fungi in every shot, up close and personal, large and small, wet and dry, tasty and deadly, young and old. It's about how fungi touch our lives and how they may like us to touch theirs.
About the Filmmaker
Bradley is a father, friend, and family member, a filmmaker, a puppeteer, and an amateur mycology enthusiast who loves learning about, growing, finding, eating, seeing, talking about, filming, and touching fungi (among other things).
2020 Award Winner
Audience Choice
Trasshrooms
Gadgēt
4:47 (U.S.A.)
Ever out searching for mushrooms but never seem to find what you're looking for? Until it hits you, fungi are everywhere.
About the Filmmaker
Gadget's Film Debut. Seeking the ways of the Mysterious Funji and the realization of The Future Is Now. May Gadget's present be ever-connected with passion and a desire to keep on creating.