This year’s West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival runs March 5–8.
Written by Gerald Habarth
If you love independent short films, you know they cover the range of human storytelling—everything from folk traditions to bold animations and intimate revelations to experimental works. The 100-plus films in this year’s West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival have all that and more, from close to home and around the world, and you can see them all for free at the WVU Canady Creative Arts Center this weekend, March 5–8. Here’s a brief rundown of the screenings. The festival includes workshops, video art exhibits, and an award ceremony, too, so check out the full schedule for more details.
Thursday, March 5
The festival kicks off at 8 p.m. with student films and animations: more than 30 works from WVU, regional, and global student artists, including personal expressions, artistic experimentation, and young voices engaging in social and political critiques. This screening is not to be missed!
Friday, March 6
This year’s opening film showcase begins at 6:30 p.m. and features 12 outstanding works covering a wide range of ideas and interests—from zany humor to political expressions of contempt.
The opening showcase is followed at 8:45 p.m. by a thematic screening titled Time. Eight films explore topics such as memory, community, and personal challenges through the conceptual lens of time and how we mark its passage. This screening was purposefully timed to coincide with this weekend’s shift to daylight savings.
Saturday, March 7
Saturday’s day-long program of six film screenings, a live musical performance of folk music of the Southern West Virginia coalfields, and an award ceremony. The day begins at noon with a screening titled Integrating,a selection of diverse works centered on reconciliation, restoration, synthesis, and finding balance between past and present. A real standout in this selection is the experimental work Noli me tangere by Iranian filmmaker Mahda Purmehdi, who currently resides in the U.S. It’s a moving and poignant experimental animation that combines old photographs, stop-motion animation techniques, and Google maps to excavate personal histories and memory and connect past and present, despite historical traumas.
At 2 p.m., the festival presents Landscape Convergences: 10 short films that describe a range of human encounters in relation to the natural environment. It includes deeply personal and poetic works such as the film Fjord Time by Columbus, Ohio, artist Jonathan Johnson and collaborator Carleen Maur, which follows “two young sisters through a meditation on time, play, and nature‚ using the present moment as a spell against acceleration.”
A screening of the short documentary film Voices Faintly Heard by WVU Professor Chis Haddox, a deep dive into the folk music traditions of the southern West Virginia coalfields, starts at 4:30 p.m. The film will be followed by a live performance by Haddox.
A narrative film selection follows at 6:30 p.m. Ranging from gut-busting humor and quirky anecdotes to dramas that draw attention to societal ills and tragic consequences, this collection includes the hilarious Pandora’s Greenhouse by Mexican–American filmmaker Adrian Pijoan, about an experiment in a botany lab that goes horribly wrong when two researchers try to communicate with plants.
The experimental showcase, a cornerstone of the festival, follows at 9:15 p.m. This segment features works that challenge boundaries—aesthetic, formal, technological, or even ethical—head-on. A highlight from this eclectic, visually beautiful, and at times mind-bending program is CosmonautOpReMix by Baltimore-based artist and composer Timothy Nohe, a “vibrant and kinetic journey into Soviet-era spaceflight” that combines public domain footage with hypnotic video and musical synthesis.
Sunday, March 8
One last day of short film fun starts at 1:30 p.m. with a compilation of short films by young filmmakers. Then, at 3 p.m., in the program Defining Self & Purpose, six remarkable films document the lives and stories of six equally remarkable individuals. Hailing from countries as diverse as Germany, Indonesia, and Egypt, we see them negotiating challenges to find their right place, their right community, or a higher purpose in the world. Among them is the moving On Camera by Pittsburgh-based filmmaker Jackie Mishol, an experimental documentary that explores legacy, women in film, and the connection of an artist to their maternal muse—a heartwarming and uplifting ending at a time when the world needs such stories more than ever.
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