2017

2017 FILMS

Ma : Celia Rowlson-Hall
Mary’s Passion : Yael Messing & Asaf Geva
The Man Who Forgot To Breathe : Saman Hosseinpuor
Nathan Loves Ricky Martin : Steven Arriagada
Object Love : Ayala Netzer
Our Own Private Universe : Ben Balcom
Painting Catfights : Kirsten Johnson
Panic Attack! : Eileen O’Meara
The Panty Symphonic : Zach Strum
The Parcel : Wilke Weermann
Princess : Karsten Dahlem
Rosie, OH : Andy Koeger
See You Yesterday : Stefon Bristol
Side By Side : Jesse Budd
Similar : Florent Agostini
The Simon’s Way : Edgar Baghdasaryan
Sisak : Faraz Arif Ansari
Sleepwalker : Behnam Afiat
Spaghetti Junction : Noor Tadjer
Spirit Of The Insects : Kathy Rose
Staycation : Zach Fleming
The Story Of A Satellite : Sonia and Miriam Albert-Sobrino
Tales From Jellyfish Nebula IC 443 : Julian Olariu
Thank You : Scott Palazzo
Tick Tock : Kelsy Gossett
Truthful Innards : Maret Polzine
Vacancy : Urte Zintler
The Very Private Work Of Sister K : Johan Liedgren
We Did Not Fall From The Sky : Tabs Breese & Georgia Oakley
Whoever Was Using This Bed : Andrew Kotatko
Witness : Michael O’Donnell
Worst Of Two : Mragendra Singh

4 Bed, 4 ½ Bath : Amanda Katz
A Share Of A Share : Kaveh Jahed
Aftermath (Nachspiel) : Ralf Beyerle
Appelation : Tracy Mathewson
And The Moon Stands Still : Yulia Ruditskaya
Blood Letting : William S. Davis
Building No. 13 : Amir Gholami
Charlie Vs Goliath : Reed Lindsay
Cold Breath : Anbas Raziji
Color Field : Diego Chavez & Daniel Stanush
Compression Diary : Ryan Kendrick
Earworm : Tara Price
Emerald Ice : Jesseca Ynez Simmons
Enhanced Interrogation : Farraz Khan
Falling From Time : Ian Quintana
Fetishes : Oskar Peacock
For Better, For Worse : Tal Greenberg
The Forever Woods : John Jamilkowski
Garbage : Tayler Robinson
Goodbye Mother Earth : Greg Penn
Hermetica Komhata HK320: Ricardo Salvador
I Like It Better When You Do It : Michelle Sutherland
The Interview : Marc Gurung
Katzen : Moritz Gerber
Kill Jar : Brian K. Landis
Knowing Nothing Cold : Jeff Kao
Kobalt Elektra : Leigh Anthony Dehaney
Light Sight : Seyed M. Tabatabaei
Limbo : Konstantina Kotzamani
Lingua Absentia : Kate Raney & Jeremy Bessoff
Longshoreman : William S. Davis
Lunch time : Alireza Ghasemi

Best of 2017:

BEST OF FEST - FEATURE: Story of a Satellite
EXCELLENCE IN FEATURE FILM: Know Nothing Cold
BEST OF FEST - SHORT: Princess
EXCELLENCE IN SHORT FILM: Limbo
EXCELLENCE IN SHORT FILM: See You Yesterday

2017 Press:

Nashville Arts Magazine

Native Magazine

The East Nashvillian

Judges:

SHANE O'NEILL, FILMMAKER

Shane O'Neill is a writer, performer and video maker living in Brooklyn, NY. His writing and videos have been featured in the New York Times, The Huffington Post, Refinery29 and ARTnews. He works in the video department at the New York Times, where his editing work on the POV collaboration Who, Me? Biased? earned him an Emmy nomination and an Online Journalism Award. He is also a member of the Upright Citizens Brigade's "Characters Welcome" house team and appeared this fall in the fashion label Opening Ceremony's dance story Changers, directed by Spike Jonze. He has a boyfriend named Dusty, a cat named Wanda, and a lovely family—both chosen and by blood—in the great Midwest, all of whom he loves a great deal.

Shane traveled to Nashville for the first ever Defy Film Festival to share the documentary Sisters of the Wicked Wig.

BENJAMIN KAPLAN, ARTIST

Benjamin Kaplan is a St. Louis-based multidisciplinary artist who works in film, sound, light, installation, performance, and flat stuff on paper. His latest collaborative project is That Fatal Gift of Beauty, a re-imagination and reconstruction of all of Beethoven's nine symphonies. Currents, his collaboration with sculptor Jill Downen, is part of the permanent collection of the Center for Creative Arts in St. Louis, and his dual-channel video installation Living Like Kings was recently exhibited at the World Chess Hall of Fame.

Living Like Kings played in the headphone room at the first year of Defy Film Festival, and Ben traveled to Nashville to discuss the film. In 2017, Ben came back to Nashville to moderate the Q&A for the closing film of the festival.

TRISTAN SCOTT-BEHRENDS, FILMMAKER

Tristan Scott-Behrends's film Curtain Down made its World Premiere at the inaugural Defy Film Festival in 2016. The Los Angeles resident has been working in the film industry for the past decade as an actor, producer, writer, director and wardrobe stylist, appearing in feature films such as Electric Slide and Pester. Most recently, the short he produced, Parker, premiered at the prestigious Outfest Film Festival.