SATURDAY 12:00 // DRAMEDY

$15.00
sold out

Saturday August 23, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:15* PM
Main Theatre

Whenever we can pull together a legitimate dramedy program, we don’t pass up the chance. These short films ride that wonderful light wave of comedy but know exactly when to dive deeper, unafraid to face those things we sometimes must face. 

*Run time includes 15+ minute filmmaker Q&A after screening

Saturday August 23, 2025
12:00 PM - 1:15* PM
Main Theatre

Whenever we can pull together a legitimate dramedy program, we don’t pass up the chance. These short films ride that wonderful light wave of comedy but know exactly when to dive deeper, unafraid to face those things we sometimes must face. 

*Run time includes 15+ minute filmmaker Q&A after screening

Want to attend multiple screenings at Defy? The Weekend and Day Passes are the biggest bang for your buck!

A limited number of individual tickets will be available online for each screening the week of the festival.

FILMS IN THIS PROGRAM (ALPHABETICAL ORDER):

Featured
City Bird
City Bird

Director: Sunny Rae Keller

Country of Origin: France / USA

Synopsis: After witnessing a tragic accident, a metropolitan pigeon spends the rest of the day questioning her life in the city.

Ephemera
Ephemera

Director: Cici Clancy

Country of Origin: Canada

Synopsis: Trapped in a digital void of endless porn, ROBIN, a lonely gas station worker discovers salvation in shadflies - creatures born purely to mate, a carnal pleasure she can no longer access. Her porn cravings grow more extreme. She used to be able to make love – now she can't even maintain friendships. Her best friend, GAIA, sees through her digital haze. As a modern witch, Gaia knows there's only one way to pull Robin back: strip naked in the forest and learn to love her body again. In nature's purest act of sacred eroticism, Robin might finally wake up.

Trailer | Website

Hang On, Little Tomato
Hang On, Little Tomato

Director: Shalyn Grow and Asya Hildenbrand

Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis: Hazel returns to her childhood home after her estranged mother has died. As she enters the repast looking for her younger sister, Hanna, it is clear that presence causes a stir amongst her family. She has an awkward run in with an uncle and a slightly hostile exchange with her mother's best friend and Hazel's aunt, Cindy. Hazel convinces Hanna to sneak away with her to the local park to get away from the repast and the two smoke cigarettes and discuss their feelings on the death of their abusive mother.

Trailer | Website

PONYTAILHEAD
PONYTAILHEAD

Director: Brent Michal

Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis: a tipsy young woman calls her ex over to kill a bug.

Website

Shelly Belly
Shelly Belly

Director: Stephanie Mishelle Ard

Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis: Belly—Shelly’s Belly—embarks a comical journey to embrace its uniqueness, challenge norms, and uncover its dreams amidst a world struggling with body insecurities. An intimate and odd exploration of what our bodies might reveal… if they could talk.

The Split
The Split

Director: The Sisters Kent

Country of Origin: United States

WORLD PREMIERE

Synopsis: After a psychedelic experience renders her 'enlightened', a woman is horrified to discover her incessant, annoying ego has transformed into her doppelganger.

Trailer | Website

The Wake
The Wake

Director: Dave Coleman

Country of Origin: United States

Synopsis: "Every LOVE STORY is a GHOST STORY waiting to happen"

Developed from the never before seen play ""The Wake"" by legendary playwright and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, and starring comedian Nicole Byer and PJ Adzima (Book of Mormon, Broadway), The Wake is a dark comedy that centers around Randy, a good natured man from Iowa who has never seen a dead body.

When Randy discovers his husband isn't going to attend his own father's wake, he leaves the comfort of his rural home to attend the service in the big city. When he arrives...no one is there. No one except a strange Frenchman named Guy. And Guy has a strange axe to grind with the man in casket, whether he's alive...or not!

Trailer