With nearly 50 films on four screens this Labor Day weekend, we’re proud to present a program that includes the inspired work of everyone from first-time filmmakers to established arthouse auteurs. Every year our selections shine a light on new independent work by filmmakers and talent that are going places.
The Intro
The complete film program for the 2022 Tallahassee Film Festival is below. Films are listed in alphabetical order. To see the full schedule of films and their times, visit the Film Schedule page.
Short films are grouped into 90 min programs. Tickets to feature films or shorts programs are $10 at the show. (Lost Highway $15). An All-Access pass is your best bargain if you plan to see more than a few films.
The Venues
Theater #1 = Residence Inn & Suites β Seminole Room
Theater #2 = Cap City Video Lounge
Theater #3 = Hyatt House β Gathering Room
Theater #4 = Challenger Learning Center IMAX
All films, times, guests and venues are subject to change. Films are unrated and may contain mature content. Viewer discretion is advised.
The Legend
π = A Freshly Squeezed Florida Film
𦩠= In competition for the Florida Filmmaker Award
π = In competition for Audience Favorite Awards
π¬ = First-time filmmaker
βοΈ = Student filmmaker
π = TFF alum
Award winners will be announced at the Awards Ceremony on Sunday, 9/4 at 8:00 PM at Cap City Video Lounge.
Spotlight selections
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want To See Titanic
a film by Teemu Nikki
Petri Poikolainen in

Did you say the pandemic sucked? It sucked worse for Jaakko. As played by actor Petri Poikolainen in his first role, the titular The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See βTitanic,β this gentle, buoyant, witty soul is making the best of a crappy situation. He is blind, but heβs also confined to a wheelchair by MS, and often stuck in his apartment, dependent on visits from an assistant to handle some essential details. All that goes out the door, literally, when Jaakko must urgently reach his online girlfriend Sirpa in another city. No spoilers here, but suffice to say heβs got his reasons. Transit by cab and train shouldnβt be too complicated, right? Instead, the comic tone turns thriller in the hands of Finnish writer-director Teemu Nikki. If you take Jaakka as a blackly humorous superhero (and the kick-ass Paikolainen sure plays him that way), you wonβt be wrong. Heβs named his legs βRockyβ and βRambo.β A big favorite at this yearβs SXSW film festival, Blind Man is both an unlikely crowd-pleaser and a pandemic parable.
Saturday, 9/3 at 11:15 AM at Theater #1
**We are proud to present this film along with a professional live transcription (courtesy of blindCAN.org) for the blind and visually impaired. Contact us for details.
the integrity of Joseph chambers
a film by Robert Machoian
Clayne Crawford | Jordana Brewster | Jeffrey Dean Morgan

Writer-director Robert Machoian (2010 TFF alum) and actor Clayne Crawford, who together, previously made The Killing of Two Lovers, have a way with dark Americana and the perils of masculinity. They double down in The Integrity of Joseph Chambers, in which a would-be Rambo marches off on a solo hunting expedition that Variety likened to a βone-man Deliverance: No group of buddies on a weekend canoe trip. No dueling banjos. No hillbilly-inflicted sexual humiliation. Just a guy with a rifle in the woods, determined to prove something to the world about his capacity for self-reliance β a capacity that is very much in question with nearly every decision he makes.β What could possibly go wrong?
Sunday, 9/4 at 6:00 PM at Theater #2
**Preceding the film will be the nonfiction short The Last Days of August, co-written with its director, and Machoianβs partner on such acclaimed films as God Bless the Child, Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck.
4K Restoration!
lost highway
a film by David Lynch
Patricia Arquette | Bill Pullman | Robert Blake | Balthazar Getty

“We’ve met before, haven’t we?β Join us for a special repertory screening of David Lynchβs 1997 hallucinogenic neo-noir, underappreciated contemporary classic, presented in a newly restored 4K version. The film, which stars Bill Pullman and Patricia Arquette, and a wild cast of supporting characters, is a surreal journey into madness, certain to feel even more intense and hypnotic on the 5-story-high IMAX screen.
Lost Highway is presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1. Supervised by director David Lynch, this new digital transfer was created in 4K resolution on a Scanity film scanner from the 35 mm original camera negative. The near-field remaster of the original 5.1 soundtrack was made from the 35 mm magnetic track and mix supervised by Lynch and rerecording mixer Ronald Eng.
Sunday, 9/4 at 1:30 PM at Theater #4
Preceded by a screening of a short film, The Lake, by Tyler Hubby.
quantum cowboys
a film by Geoff Marslett
Lily Gladstone | David Arquette | Kiowa Gordon | Neko Case | Alex Cox

Renegade auteur Geoff Marslett, whose work veers from experimental animation to documentary to indie drama, delivers his most ambitious project yet in Quantum Cowboys. The fantasy feature combines the filmmakerβs love of physics with his passion for animation, in this case a whole shopping cartβs worth of styles and processes that include stop-motion, hand-drawn digital rotoscoping, acrylic painting combined with live action characters, digital collage, CGI 3D animation, and old-school hand-drawn animation (a mere 2D). If thatβs enough, the all-star cast acts in front of 8k digital and 16mm film cameras, and then itβs all stitched together into a rootinβ-tootinβ hybrid thingamajigger youβve never, ever seen before. Marslettβs time-and-space cowboys (Kiowa Gordon and John Way) traverse a cosmic terrain (also known as Arizona) populated with the likes of David Arquette, Frank Mosley, Gary Farmer, Alex Cox, the late French New Wave goddess Anna Karina; musicians Neko Case, John Doe and Howe Gelb (who also composed the soundtrack); and the actress Lily Gladstone in the lead role of Linde, whose characterβs arc takes her through a dozen different multiverses. Gladstone, who also stars in another TFF highlight, The Unknown Country, acknowledged the filmβs creative risks to Variety magazine, and had no regrets. βJust trusting the process, trusting the story and trusting your intuition and instincts about things is a very hard thing for all of us to do, but I think we got a pretty big payoff.”
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:30 PM at Theater #2
Riotsville, U.S.A.
a film by Sierra Pettengill

Welcome to Riotsville, a fictional town built by the U.S. military. Meticulously conceived and masterfully constructed, filmmaker Sierra Pettengillβs documentary exclusively utilizes archival footage shot by the media and the government to excavate the racist governmental crackdown on Black Americans in the late β60s. The filmβs centerpiece is the astonishing, unsettling footage of police and National Guardsmen being trained in fake towns known as Riotsvilles, constructed on military bases and populated by participants βplayingβ rioters. Buoyed and complicated by philosophical voiceover narration written by critic Tobi Haslett, and precisely edited by Nels Bangerter, Pettengillβs film is a trancelike yet politically urgent work of historical recordβresetting, using a tumultuous era not to wall off the past, but to clarify how little has changed in terms of the political scapegoating and violence the U.S. government uses against its Black citizens.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:15 PM at Theater #3
that kind of summer
Un Γ©tΓ© comme Γ§a
a film by Denis CΓ΄tΓ©
Larissa Corriveau | Violaine EstΓ©rez | Laure Giappiconi

The Tallahassee Film Festival is proud to present the work of one of North Americaβs most original and daringly creative filmmakers, Montrealβs Denis CΓ΄tΓ©. The writer-director slips fluidly between genres, with both documentary (A Skin So Soft, Bestiaire) and fictional features (Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, Curling) lighting up a prolific career full of Berlin and Locarno film festival prize-winners. That Kind of Summer, his 15th feature in nearly as many years, shares with the others an inquisitive and unflinching approach to human (and/or animal) nature, and the processes and accidents by which the elements of self (the good, the bad and the ugly) are exposed, and engage a kind of chemical reaction. In Summer, three women (played by a remarkable trio of actresses: Larissa Corriveau, Laure Giappiconi and Aude Mathieu) enter a one-month program at a country retreat for sex addiction where they exorcise their demons and recount past traumas. βSometimes at a discreet distance, at others transgressively close, the camera swirls around the protagonists in this dance of trauma and lust. Norms are deconstructed, the present becomes tangible and the future conceivable. Cinema is β vibration.β (Berlinale 2022).
Sunday, 9/4 at 1:15 PM at Theater #2
the unknown country
a film by Morrisa Maltz
Lily Gladstone | Raymond Lee | Richard Ray Whitman

A sweeping cinematic embrace of the skies and horizons of the great American West, The Unknown Country tracks a Native American woman (Lily Gladstone, soon to star opposite Leonardo DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon) and her odyssey from Minnesota to Texas, on a quest for family and self-discovery after the death of her grandmother. Along the way, she accepts the kindness of rank strangers and the gentle arms of kinfolk close and distant, measuring the miles in hugs, gatherings, family revelations and cigarette butts. Director Morrisa Maltz, who previously made documentaries and short films, conjures a touch of hybrid magic as the film blurs fiction and non-fiction elements (including non-professional cast, an actual wedding, and sweet interludes with some of the actual characters Gladstoneβs Tana meets on the way). Fans of Terrence Malick and Paris, Texas wonβt miss the filmβs affinity for their vibe, but in this loose, sprawling and sometimes anxiously heartfelt excursion, Maltz offers a vital glimpse of an overlooked America.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:15 PM at Theater #3
Preceded by a screening of a short film, Dugout Dick, by Harrod Blank.
Official Selections – Features
Midnight Movie!
all jacked up and full of worms
a film by Alex Phillips
Betsey Brown | Phillip Botello | Trevor Dawkins

Two strangers bond over addictive hallucinogenic worms leading them on a psychotic bender full of murder and perversity through the back alleys of Chicago.
Saturday, 9/3 at 11:59 PM at Theater #2
Southeast Premiere!
freedom’s path
a film by Brett Smith
RJ Cyler | Gerran Howell | Ewen Bremner

The directorial debut of Brett Smith is a film 11+ years in the making. Freedomβs Path is like Glory meets Dances with Wolves. When a soldier deserts from battle, he soon discovers the true cost of war through a young heroic black man, who teaches him the real meaning of Freedom.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:00 PM at Theater #1
naked gardens
a film by Ivete Raquel Lucas, Patrick Xavier Bresnan

An immersive narrative documentary that unveils the complex and hidden world of a family nudist resort in the Florida Everglades, as its aging owner Morley prepares his fringe community for the largest gathering of nudists in the US, the Mid Winter Festival.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:30 PM at Theater #2
Southeast Premiere!
provo
a film by Emma Thatcher
Emma Thatcher | Hunter Bryant

A self-destructive ex-Mormon finds out her abusive father is on his deathbed and road trips to Utah to reckon with her past.
Saturday, 9/3 at 6:45 PM at Theater #3
**A producer is expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
relative
a film by Michael Glover Smith
Wendy Robie | Francis Guinan | Claire Cooney | Cameron Roberts

As members of the Frank family come together for a college graduation party in Chicago, they find their bonds being tested β and strengthened β in surprising ways.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:30 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmaker is expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
yelling fire in an empty theater
a film by Justin Zuckerman
Isadora Leiva | Michael Patrick Nicholson | Kelly Cooper | Ryan Martin Brown

Yelling Fire in an Empty Theater follows Lisa, a recent college graduate, as she struggles to “make it” in New York. Filled with conviction that the best plan is no plan at all, she decides to move to the city and figure out the why after. Shot entirely in MiniDV format, and like a lovesong to the Y2K era, the film is steeped in nostalgia and cinematic nuance.
Saturday, 9/3 at 10:30 PM at Theater #2
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
official selections – shorts
always for the first time
a film by John Caliendo, Victoria Meade

The film is loosely based on the first meeting of surrealist writer Andre Breton and surrealist artist Elisa Latte Elena Bindhoff Enet.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
a beacon, a warning (fowey rocks)
a film by Dave Rodriguez

A short film that pays tribute to the Fowey Rocks Lighthouse, the last operational lighthouse in the Florida Straits located off the coast of Miami.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
**Be sure to also check out filmmaker Dave Rodriguez’s live video performance with music by Joe Kalicki at the TFF 2022 Saturday night Giallo Disco party at The Bark.
by way of water
a film by Alexander Spenser

A day in the life of two runaways as they navigate their world and face an uncertain future.
This film screens as part of the Spare Me The Meet Cute shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:15 PM at Theater #3
choose the right
a film by Mitchell Cole

Days after being ordered to carry out his first hit, Todd Alexander receives an unexpected visitor.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
a cartoon of a cat sleeping
a film by Randall Christopher

A 7-minute comedy which unfolds entirely in one shot with no edits, cuts, or camera movements.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
coffee, community, culture
a film by Kerry French

A short documentary about three coffee shops in New Orleans, Atlanta, and Tallahassee, and how they are using their stores as a gateway to fight crime through literacy while exposing gentrification, empowering entrepreneurship, influencing generational wealth, and supporting nonprofit organizations.
This film screens as part of the Tallahassee Doc shorts program, “Brew The Right Thing.” Fresh brewed coffee by an Ology Coffee Co. pop-up will also be available at this screening!
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:00 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
cold brew
a film by David Kennedy

A young woman is imprisoned by her inner thoughts in a caffeine-fueled assessment of her co-dependent relationship.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
dress up
a film by Sara Chia-Jewell

A mixed-race woman applies for a job as a costume wearer, only to find nothing fits.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
drive thru n chill
a film by Sean M.F. Ahern

A young music producer struggles to keep himself entertained during shifts at a 24-hour drive-thru donut shop. He finds solace in making music during the long overnight hours alone, while waiting for a call that could change everything.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
dugout dick
a film by Harrod Blank & Joanne Shen

A heartwarming portrait of an Idaho hermit, Richard βDugout Dickβ Zimmerman, who lived in caves that he dug on the banks of the Salmon River.
This film screens as a special engagement preceding The Unknown Country on Saturday, 9/3 at 3:15 PM at Theater #3.
en suite
a film by Geoffrey Cantor

An emotional glimpse into the personal lives of a seemingly happily married couple following a radical bi-lateral mastectomy and reconstruction.
This film screens as part of the Spare Me The Meet Cute shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:15 PM at Theater #3
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
essentials
a film by Allison Torem

Shocked and fatigued by the screeching halt of daily life in early quarantine 2020, Vivian muscles her way home with too many groceries until she is interrupted by a senior citizen who makes a corny joke on his nightly walk.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
fire in the meadows
a film by April Cluess

A short documentary examining the impact to residents of a Tallahassee mobile home park when an investor buys the park, raises the rent, and tries to evict low-income tenants.
This film screens as part of the Tallahassee Doc shorts program, “Brew The Right Thing.”
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:00 PM at Theater #1
forever yours
a film by Martin Elia Hermena

In a world full of technology to communicate with each other, D and A, hopeless lovers, have only the sea to send their letters through.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
how do i tell you this
a film by Chad Hill

Two long-time internet friends – Ted, the hometown artist, and Liz, a globe-hopping humanitarian – finally meet in person and explore the possibility of a future together.
This film screens as part of the Spare Me The Meet Cute shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:15 PM at Theater #3
the kind of love that hurts
a film by Michael Curtis Johnson

A young woman. A married man. This is the way the world ends.
This film screens as part of the Spare Me The Meet Cute shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:15 PM at Theater #3
last days of august
a film by Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck, Robert Machoian

Using the photo book aesthetic, filmmakers Rodrigo Ojeda-Beck and Robert Machoian explore prairie towns in Nebraska meditating on the longing for permanence, asking the question: do miracles really happen?
This film screens exclusively preceding the feature The Integrity of Joseph Chambers by Robert Machoian on Sunday, 9/4 at 6:00 PM at Theater #2.
the lake
a film by Tyler Hubby

One of the most notorious lakes in Los Angeles has a strange and gruesome history. This meditation on misfortune features an original score by Australian death pop duo, VOWWS.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
lioness
a film by Molly E. Smith

Barricaded in a motel room, a mother’s determination and primal instincts kick in to protect her child’s innocence.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmaker is expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
listen to my voice
a film by Ryan Hiosvany Muina

Three women share their stories of abuse as they all hope to raise awareness on the ongoing issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.
This film screens as part of the Tallahassee Doc shorts program, “Brew The Right Thing.”
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:00 PM at Theater #1
living in a bubble
a film by Natalie MacMahon, Nikola Drvoshanov

When two strangers feel isolated in the big city, they soon realise that their imagination is able to bring them anywhere they would like to go, despite all the obstacles of modern society.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
maid
a film by Rose Caltrider

Ina has two lives: the one that people see and the one she lives at home. The nightmare that is her abusive home is only the tip of the iceberg as Ina begins to believe she is slowly turning into a mermaid.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
nothing’s changed except for everything
a film by Joanna Kotze, Ryan Seaton, Chris Cameron

Initiated from a solo movement that Joanna Kotze (Brooklyn NY-based dancer and choreographer) had been working on since 2018, this cinematic performance piece tells a story of personal and collective loss and isolation, and the human bodyβs potential for persistence, resistance, and power through one specific body.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
Once I passed
a film by Martin Gerigk

Walt Whitman is one of the most important poets in American literature. In 1860, he published his poem “Once I Passed Through a Populous City”, an aphoristic account of a romantic relationship with an unknown woman.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
pest
a film by Nicholas Long

You wake up to the sound of knocking from inside of your closet.
This film screens as part of the Visual Poetry shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 5:45 PM at Theater #2
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
recovery of the fallen
RecuperaciΓ³n de los CaΓdos
a film by Curtis James Matzke

A lone man wanders a barren landscape on a foreign planet, salvaging items off of bodies that have fallen to the surface. Made under the tutelage of Werner Herzog.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
roadkill
a film by Justin T. Malone

A Southern Gothic thriller that follows a homeless woman and a young, upper-middle class girl as their lives tragically intertwine.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
sex & other memories
a film by Jack Dunphy

Jack takes his high school sweetheart, Sara, to dinner in hopes of rekindling a connection, only to find she has become cold and cynical. After a night of emotional bruising, Jack gets a phone call from the 18 year old version of Sara. She implores him to meet her in his basement, despite the fact that his childhood home was sold years ago. Jack accommodates her, and in the process steps into the past.
This film screens as part of the Spare Me The Meet Cute shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:15 PM at Theater #3
smart ass
a film by Ella Genovese

Chip, a zoophile, has controlled and hidden away his half-animal half-man son, Smart Ass, for the entire fifteen years of his life. The father and son soon face difficulty with their old way of life and must learn to let one another go.
This film screens as part of the Transcending Terror shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 3:00 PM at Theater #1
starbucks workers united: tallahassee, fl
a film by Autumn Love, Alyce Rogers, Bana Habash, Ben Eacker

With a wave of national unionization taking form in one of the largest corporations in the U.S., this short documentary follows the desires of starting a union in Tallahassee.
This film screens as part of the Tallahassee Doc shorts program, “Brew The Right Thing.”
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:00 PM at Theater #1
**The filmmakers are expected to be present at the screening for a post-film discussion.
sweat of his cow
a film by John Stuart Wildman, Alan Smithee

From the depths of someone’s lost VHS tapes is this story of an impossibly gorgeous doctor lawyer who runs out of gas next to a barn where an impossibly sweaty man is milking a cow. A sexy relationship ensues where they learn that gas is just the beginning, milk is always the end.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
sweet nothings
a film by Christian Klein

A young man of the near future wistfully searches for love on a dating app, only to find that it has been corrupted by a seductive new marketing system.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
tap twice
a film by Julia Bell Mandler

After a housewife is tasked with watching her neighbor’s paralyzed son, his silent observation of her domestic routine forces her to grapple with her role as wife and mother.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
to live and die
a film by Isabella Nemcik

In Tallahassee, Florida, an experimental band and their fans ruminate on the relationship that is cultivated during a live performance.
This film screens as part of the Tallahassee Doc shorts program, “Brew The Right Thing.”
Saturday, 9/3 at 1:00 PM at Theater #1
voicemails to slurrie
a film by Jason Stelios Chimonides

Wayne Bickers, a meditating North Florida Dad leaves multiple voice mail messages for his old friend, Stephen Lurie (nickname: “Slurrie”)
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2
wild card
a film by Tipper Newton

Two strangers are brought together by a video dating service.
This film screens as part of the Something’s Funny Here shorts program.
Saturday, 9/3 at 8:15 PM at Theater #2