EROTIC ANGST Shorts Program (86 min)
Trying something new, whether its sharing a fantasy with a trusted partner or “going all the way” for the first time can be anxiety inducing experiences. This collection of short films explores this with drama, humor, and affection.
Craig Downing (director, What We Want) scheduled to attend and Skyler Braeden Fox (director, The 36-Year-Old Virgin) join the post-film discussion via Skype.
Sunday, September 9 – 4:30 pm – Grand Illusion Cinema
A LITTLE JIG 
Directed by Sara Cortijo
Mexico, 2016 (15 min)
Eva tries to reconcile her uber conservative upbringing with her liberal desires about sex. Her forays into sexual pleasure are wrought with agony when she convinces herself she’s pregnant as holy punishment for her actions.
Director Bio:
Sara Cortijo studied Theatre at the Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático in Sevilla, Spain. She got her BTEC in Dramatic Arts from Westminster College in London and attended a theatre workshop at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California. In Mexico, she graduated from the film university AMCI, specialised in script-writing and directing. She lives in Mexico City where she works as Producer, Manager and Production Coordinator for the production company, Manivela Films. Her third project, 3 Puntos de Cruz, which she wrote, produced and directed was selected for some of the top festivals, including Mórbido Film Festival 2012, Guanajuato International Film Festival, GIFF 2012 and the Short Film Corner at the Cannes Festival 2013. She is currently preparing her next production, Oquedades del Corazón, to be filmed towards the end of 2016.
WHAT WE WANT ** World Premiere **
Directed by Craig Downing
USA, 2017 (3 min)
The exploration of your partner’s desires can be a quirky road to intimacy.
Director Bio:
Craig was the director of the film department at Iceland’s Saga Film. Craig has also produced documentaries for NGOs in Haiti and throughout Central America. Craig also served as the founding festival director for Couch Fest Films and was a programmer at the Seattle International Film Festival.
Most recently, Craig has produced commercial content for Amazon, Lonely Planet, The Discovery Channel, and the Seattle Department of Transportation
SPANKO
Directed by Melanie Zoey Weinstein
USA, 2018 (12 min)
A misfit second grade teacher finally explores her taboo fetish.
Director Bio:
Melanie Zoey Weinstein is a Los Angeles based filmmaker and actor, who creates content at the intersection of sexuality, religion and modern life. Melanie is director of WHY I DANCE, a pole dance film about women who come together to reclaim their bodies through movement. WHY I DANCE went viral with nearly 2 million views worldwide on vimeo, and was featured in Vogue, Refinery29, Upworthy, Buzzfeed, HuffPo and more. WHY I DANCE screened internationally in Berlin, London, Kosovo and at Vienna International Shorts, winning best cinematography and best editing at Women’s Indie Fest. Melanie is co-producer and dialogue writer of A24’s MENASHE, the Yiddish film that premiered in Sundance NEXT 2017, and was nominated for Best First Feature in the 2018 Film Independent Spirit Awards. She is developing her feature debut, DIRTY PICTURES, and is currently in post-production of the short film version, SPANKO, about a misfit teacher with a spanking fetish who starts a revolution of self-acceptance.
Ericka Naegel of Lena Dunham’s A Casual Romance called SPANKO “frank, funny and triumphant,” and Kristen Murtha of Sundance hit BAND-AID called SPANKO “contagious.” Melanie’s coming-of-age comedy SEX AND THE HOLY LAND, about a young woman’s quest to find her orgasm in Israel while combating the Jewish mothers in her mind premiered in The New York International Fringe Festival. SEX AND THE HOLY LAND sold-out and was chosen from two hundred plays for an extended run in The Fringe Encore Series.
CRABGIRL 
Directed by Sergiy Pudich
Ukraine, 2017 (19 min)
Struggling with his identity as a virgin, a young man gives his girlfriend, who is also a virgin, an ultimatum. He soon finds out the incredible truth in her reluctance to consummate their relationship.
Director Bio:
Sergiy Pudich is an Ukrainian film and commercials director who always tries new techniques and ways to tell stories. His career began in 2010 when he won a student video contest, after which he received several awards in different festivals and competitions. In 2016 and 2017 Sergiy became “Director of the year” during the “Creative youth of Odessa” award.
BIRTHDAY
Directed by Shine Louise Houston
USA, 2018 (7 min)
A night out, an old friend, and a special treat coalesce in this poetic narrative about a queer relationship.
Director Bio:
Shine Louise Houston has always had unique vision. Graduating from San Francisco Arts Institute with a Bachelors in Fine Art Film, her works have become the new gold standard of queer adult cinema, screening internationally from Amsterdam to New Zealand.
Houston’s work has been profiled on NPR, the BBC, HBO, Rollingstone Magazine, COSMO, Allure, The Village Voice, NY Times, and at academic and art institutions such as Princeton, Stanford, American Studies Conference, and the Tate Modern Museum, among others.
THE 36-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN 
Directed by Skyler Braeden Fox
Canada, 2017 (30 min)
From celibate teenage bible thumper to post-teen lesbian, Skyler, now trans masculine and nearing middle age, feels he missed out on something during his youth. Sex. Not the queer kind he’s been having. But something a bit more… standard. A sweet coming-of-middle-age sex documentary about fulfilling a long-standing fantasy and losing your virginity.
Director Bio:
Social worker by day, filmmaker by night:
Skyler Braeden Fox screened his debut short film Hello Titty at queer film festivals worldwide and won an honourable mention at Good For Her’s annual Feminist Porn Awards for the film in 2015. The 36-year-old Virgin is Skyler’s second film, a short sex documentary filmed in 2016. Skyler also raps in a band called Peanut Envy, and a lot his work, both in film and in music, focuses on queer and trans sexuality. A self-identified “emotional exhibitionist,” Skyler’s work is both revealing and provocative.
