American University in Bulgaria /AUBG/ is a small liberal arts uni-versity in Bulgaria where students come to pursue their dreams far away from home. We have students from 40 countries and a culture of lov-ing documentaries and film, nurtured by our professor/filmmaker Melody Gilbert. Every Monday night, we gather around in our auditorium, courtesy of AUBG Documentary Club, to watch reality unfold in front of our eyes, sometimes we have the filmmakers with us and sometimes via skype. We see unbelievable stories that often leave us in shock or in tears. We also make our documentaries in our filmmaking classes. That is why we decided to have this film festival. We wanted to show the films that other students make and be inspired by THEM. We have given birth to the small hub of inspiration at AUBG, and we hope that AUBGisff will continue to inspire students from our region as well as give an op-portunity for students from around the world to shine. Thanks for joining us! This year’s edition includes a diverse selection of short fiction, non-fiction and animation films. The subjects range from everyday life to homelessness, from invasive species to bizarre wedding traditions, from abandoned buildings to monsters of different forms. The films selected share intimacy, drive, awareness of social problems and redolent memories. But above everything else the films share the extraordinary determination to tell compelling stories being those either about reality itself or the fictionalized version of it. We hope AUBGisff will continue to make you inquisitive about the stories around you and will prove to be an indispensable informative outlet on how people interpret the world around them.

Welcome to AUBGInternational

Student Film Festival

Dumitrita PacicovschiProgrammer/OrganizerAUBGisff 2015

Melody GilbertProfessor/Faculty Advisor/

Filmmaker

NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITYMFA in Documentary Media

Evanston, IL, US

ParticlesDirector: Rafie Drencheva, Jesseca SimmonsTime: 05:49 minThe creative process of stain glass window making is captured through silent surreal poetry.

Ride. Fast. NowDirector: Carlos CovaTime: 09:18 minLeigh Thompson describes her motivations, and also her inner struggles as an obsessively competi-tive person, in the road of becoming World Champion in the female Time Trial Competition.

The Healing SongDirector: Deborah LibbyTime: 11:52 minHow can Chinese gongs, Himalayan singing bowls, tuning forks, and percus-sive instrumentsguide students through a powerful healing experi-ence for mind and body.

SkyeDirector: JoAo Queiroga, Shuhan FanTime: 13:32 minA 62-year-old transwoman moves into Chicago’s first LGBTQ affordable sen-ior housing and seizes the opportunity to relive the dreams of her youth in a place that she calls home for the first time.

EscalatorDirector: Shuhan FanTime: 04:07 minA young Chinese woman recounts her traumatic en-counter with an escalator

Stanford UniversityMFA Documentary Film Program

California, US

TERMS OF INTIMACYDirector: Melissa LangerTime: 08:37 minIn a suburban strip mall in California, the first retail location selling platonic touch opened in Febru-ary, 2014. This experimen-tal documentary provides a glimpse into the emerging industry of professional cuddling and the lives of the clients that use this service.

State of DroughtDirector: Reid DavenportTime: 03:15 minWith no end in sight for the already historic drought gripping Califor-nia, a water witch uses his tools to locate un-derground relief for some of the state’s desperate farmers.

White EarthDirector: J. Christian JensenTime: 19:30 minThis Oscar nominated short is set against the backdrop of a cruel North Dakota winter, White Earth is a tale of an oil boom that has drawn thousands to America’s Northern Plains in search of work. Told from the perspective of three children and an immigrant mother whose lives are touched by the oil boom, each story intertwines with the others – exploring themes of innocence, home, and the American Dream.

Hotel 22Director: Elizabeth LoTime: 08:39 minEach night in Silicon Val-ley, a public bus trans-forms into an unofficial shelter for the homeless. Hotel 22 captures a single, dramatic night on the Line 22 route.

University of South WalesDocumentary Film and Television

Newport, UK

Cardboard LoveDirector: Annileena RaasuTime: 11:23 minAnni’s growing collec-tion of old postcards and photographs and the stories within them.

Powder Rooms of The Female KindDirector: Natasha HortonTime: 11:24 minExplosions of color, take you on a journey explor-ing the landscape of the female face and into the minds of 12 young women from Britain.

PORTERSDirector: Dan Ridgeon, Max Cutting, Jamie DouganTime: 12:10 minPorters tells the story of those who work in one of the most unnoticed sec-tors of the British National Health Service.

EIGHTY EIGHTDirector: Josh Bamford, Seb FeehanTime: 11:24 minRalph Settle is a pensioner like no other, he refuses to let old age get the better of him.

Together we are beautiful Director: Natasha Haw-thornthwaite Time: 04:20 minA short experimental docu-mentary following a couple and their everyday life.

HalbDirector: Rabea GornyTime: 14:26 minA family split - two halves of the story.

Letters to AngolaDirector: Lauren Muchan and Joseph SharpTime: 14:49 minthe story of the relation-ship between a young Brit-ish woman and an American Black PantheR.

THAT’S THATDirector: Santa Aumeistere, Zak Campbell and Simon Pax McDowell Time: 15:37 min “This is not a film about crazy people, this is a film about their relationships and love.”

AMERICAN UNIVERSITY IN BULGARIA Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

I do, the Roma WayDirector: Dimitria Vitanova and Heidi PullyardTime: 08:20 minA Roma couple hosts a three-day wedding that combines cultural and religious traditions and celebrates virginity, love and fertility.

Buzludzha: Memories in the DustDirector: Anton Georgiev, Alexander KhambirTime: 34:00 minTwo men. An abandoned communist building. A jour-ney through their memories.

Born That WayDirector: Alina ChebesTime: 09:26 minWhat does it take to share your deepest secret with your family, friends and strangers?

Rise. Face the Sun. ThankDirector: Anton GeorgievTime: 09:58 minA man spends his time in the mountains searching for clues to determine if God is Bulgarian

PART 1

Documentary Filmmaking Class 2013-2014

PART 2

Memories of Lost Jewish LegendsDirector: Radina RoussevTime: 36:22 minRecounts from the last Jewish men who live in Dupnitsa, Bulgaria, once the home of the largest Jewish community in the country.

Miss AUBGDirector: Angel IvanovTime: 30:34 minWhat makes a beautiful and smart college stu-dent in the Balkans pose in her bikini in front of a hundreds of cheering and sometimes leering crowd?

The Sounds of BulgariaDirector: Sofya Volkhons-kayaTime: 07:28 minCan you hear the sounds of Bulgaria, what are they telling you?

Painted in White: A Pomak WeddingDirector: Rafie DrenchevaTime: 09:46 minA small Pomak village lo-cated in the snowy moun-tains of Bulgaria has kept a bizarre wedding ceremony for centuries, even if many other villages slowly watched the custom die away with time.

Life through the LensDirector: Igor MyakotinTime: 07:05 minA self-portrait documen-tary that explores the way I see the world through my dad’s film camera.

George Washington UniversitySchool of Media and Public Affairs

The Documentary CenterWashington, DC, /USA/

Unsettled2014 Institute of Documen-tary FilmmakingTime: 23:54 minThe story of two women and their journey from life without a home to the fight to keep their dreamsand hopes alive in a city that is tacitly pushing them out.

The New Normal 2014 Institute of Documen-tary FilmmakingTime: 21:05 minThe documentary that peers into the lives of Type 1 diabetics and shows how their struggle for balanceis a struggle for life.

INVASIVEDirector: Ethan OserTime: 08:59 minThe Northern Snakehead is a monster and it has invaded the Potomac River, but Maryland and Virginiahave very different ways of dealing with this inva-sive species. Do we leave them be or eat them untilthey are all gone?

South West “Neofit Rilski”Faculty of Arts

Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

Sunshine through the Rain /fiction/ Director: Hristo SimeonovTime: 10:12 minSunshine through the rain - time when the bears get married...

DePaul UniversitySchool of Cinematic Arts

Chicago, IL /USA/

JAX /documentary/ Director: Rita CiolekTime: 06:43 minAn intimate portrait of a young woman with stage IV cancer, whose story is a fight against all odds thatleads to self-empowerment and healing.

I’m not a Hacker /fiction/ Director: Andrew StegmeyerTime: 13:29 mina delusional IT Techni-cian ventures further into a world of loneliness and insanity.

Me vs. the Tooth Fairy /fiction/ Director: Gregory DixonTime: 08:43 minAfter first hearing about the Tooth Fairy, a young boy stands guard in his big sister’s room, determinedto protect her from this molar-stealing monster

Suspect Fowl Play /animation/| Director: Iain CollinsTime: 03:08 minA hard-boiled duck is on a mission to kill an octoge-narian, but his assassination attempts are foiledrepeatedly by two rowdy teens.

KOFN /animation/ Director: Shawn SpearTime: 03:24 minA man undergoes treatment in a strange and terrifying hospital.

Dumb Day /animation/ Director: Kevin EskewTime: 09:40 minFlower sniffing, carpet calisthenics, and other restless leisure-time activities. Domestic life can be tough.Finally, the day breaks.

Drifting /animation/ Director: Joel BenjaminTime: 07:16 minSurviving in the middle of the ocean on an airplane wing.

Una Mujer Sin Precio, 1961 /fiction/ Director: Alaric RochaTime: 15:40 minWhen a scientist loses his wife to a car accident, he builds a robotic version to replace her.

CREW AND STAFF

Organizer/Programmer Dumitrita Pacicovschi

Adviser Melody Gilbert

Graphic Design Ani Devdariani

Booklet Design Ivan Dzhambov

Tech support Bojan Mircheski

Videographers Igor Myakotin

Bojan Mircheski

Photographers Nataliia Filimonova

Nikoleta Ilieva

Interpreter Dimitria Vitanova

Program Distribution: AUBG Documentary

Club Team

SPONSORS