Join us Saturday Nov 7 for a whole day of films and events!
First event starts at 8:30am.
Last screening starts at 6:30pm.
SATURDAY MORNING | 8:30 am
OUR LAST TIME
Documentary, directed by Jiayang Liu (pictured).
After a college student returns to China and his grandparents, he begins exploring the idea of death in an introspective journey to understand what it means to exist.
KATIE MAY
Music Video, directed by Rudy Strukoff (pictured).
🌵 Local artist Rudy Strukoff.
A lonely guy in a post-apocalyptic setting sings about being rescued from the desert after meeting the woman who would become his wife.
The film setting is a ruined gas station and garage in Mecca, California, loaded with crazy graffiti. Skater/punk transitions, a desolate location and performer costume enhance this look. The song is an original from performer Rudy Strukoff and was written about the events surrounding how he and his wife met, their whirlwind courtship, and saying vows four months after they met. A true sorry, every word.
NAME TAG
Short Film, directed by Kent Kay (pictured).
🌵 Local artists Kent Kay, Crystal Harrell.
🏆 Kent ay is a 5x Emmy Award Winner.
An emerging poet fights with her inner demons of self-doubt and self-criticism.
EGGNOG
Short Film, directed by Heather Hillstrom (pictured).
🏆 Heather garnered da previous official selection at the Austin Film Festival.
🟥 Desert Premiere
He just wants to spend Christmas alone, but his son’s girlfriend is determined to make him some holiday spirit(s).
What starts as a recipe for disaster becomes a sweet way for them to bond over a shared loss.
SIGNAL
Short Film, directed by Riley Vitale (pictured).
🟥 Socal Premiere
An astronaut on a rescue mission discovers a strange signal coming from the planet Neptune that slowly starts to alter his sense of reality.
PUNK ROCK LOVE SONG
Music Video, directed by Jeremy Christensen (pictured).
🌵 Local artists: Ruby James, Eddie Spaghetti.
🟥 Festival Premiere
Shot among Joshua Trees in the natural beauty of Landers, CA, “Punk Rock Love Song” is not merely a cover, but a heartbreaking reimagining of a Supersuckers’ rock anthem.
Singer-songwriter Ruby James reclaims the narrative in her rendition and responds to the original with a duet featuring a vulnerable performance from songwriter and producer, Eddie Spaghetti.
RAM’S HEAD
Short Film, directed by Casey Lee Ball (pictured).
🌵 Local artists: Casey Lee Ball.
A new father is forced to choose between his love of music and lifelong gear collection and doing what is right for his family.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON | 1 pm
A WALK INTO THE AFTERLIFE
Short Film, directed by Jiyun Jeong (pictured).
🟥 Desert Premiere
In a small village during 18th century Korea, a small cat begins on a journey. The cat walks across the neighbourhood still asleep in the early morning, to the front of the village. A sacred tree stands, a gateway for the cat to transition into the afterlife.
The cat ventures through the fantastical and eerie landscape of the afterlife, gets past a scary guardian, and sneaks into a glowing lotus garden. The cat arrives in front of a lotus bud, glowing a different colour from the rest of the bloomed flowers.
GUARDIAN’S LAMENT
Short Film, directed by Phoebe Chou (pictured).
Guardian’s Lament is a 3D animated short film about a dilapidated Robot who resides within a magical forest.
Content in his solitude, the ancient guardian undergoes a meticulous routine tending to the Forest Heart: the embodiment of the forest’s wellbeing and the Robot’s life source.
When his peaceful sanctuary is breached by a restless Creature, chaos and destruction follow suit. Will the two manage to set aside their differences and work together to save the forest they call home?
PROUT
Short Film, directed by Marc-Henri Wajnberg (pictured).
🏆 Previously selected at Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Fantasia Festival, Busan, Flickerfest.
🟥 Desert Premiere
Obsolete household appliances and waste of all kinds are sent to the planet Prout, Earth’s dumping ground.
Bean and Spaghet, two little emergency workers from this strange planet, go on an emergency mission to save one of their friends who has been crushed by debris falling from the sky.
REACHING FOR THE STARS (The Smurfs Season 3)
Short Film, directed by William Renaud (pictured).
🙋♂️ YVFF Alumnus
🟥 Desert Premiere
Having broken Papa Smurf’s telescope, Monkey wants to repair the damage he’s done and goes in search of a star.
LEGENDARY
Short Film, directed by Lucas Victor Silberman (pictured).
🟥 Desert Premiere
When a small-town sheriff is captured by outlaws, his imaginative seven-year-old daughter sets out on a daring rescue with the help of the monsters from her stories.
A GAME OF CHANCE
Short Film, directed by Gordon LePage (pictured).
A young mouse, lonely for a friend, takes up a board game with the wind.
CARDBOARD
Short Film, directed by J.P. Vine.
🟥 Desert Premiere
When an overwhelmed single dad pig moves his piglets into a trailer park, he fears he’s failed his family.
But soon his kids create a wildly imaginative game, and Dad has a choice between dwell on the past or join them on their adventure.
SATURDAY AFTERNOON | 2 pm
SAM & QUINN
Short Film, directed by Kali Veach.
🏆 Selected at the Catalina Film Festival.
🙋♀️ YVFF Alumnus
🟥 Desert Premiere
While working in a community garden, a health scare forces two sisters to confront the rising tension and shifting dynamics in their relationship.
VINYL THIEF
Short Film, directed by Azwan Badruzaman (pictured).
🟥 Desert Premiere
A chance encounter with a famed music producer sends Chico, a musician on a journey to retrieve an obscure vinyl record.
The only person in his way is his estranged brother Vernon.
HOT HOOD
Short Film, directed by Ting-Li Tsai (pictured).
🌵 Local artists, cast and crew.
🟥 Festival Premiere
A workplace comedy and family drama about a diner in the desert where everything is cooked on the hot hood of a broken down car.
WHAT THE CROWS SAW
Short Film, directed by Gina East (pictured).
🌵 Local artist
🟥 Desert Premiere
🏆 Recipient of the Native American Writers Accelerator Grant in partnership with NETFLIX.
A determined Pueblo woman must confront the mysterious inhabitants of a strange tavern as she searches for her missing sister.
FEATHERS
Documentary, directed by Zach Marks (pictured).
🟥 Desert Premiere
In the wake of the Eaton Canyon Fire, a vibrant community of artists was left devastated, losing homes, studios, and entire lifetimes of work.
The film captures a community grappling with loss while searching for ways to rebuild. Each artist confronts displacement differently, redefining their relationship to art, identity, and home.
Feathers, in collaboration with Descanso Gardens, follows three artists–Laura Parker, Delbar Shahbaz, and Robert J. Lang–featured in the exhibition Searching for Serenity as they navigate the emotional and creative aftermath of the disaster.
FATALE
Dance film, directed by John-David Minjares.
Choreography by Samantha Bell, John-David Minjares.
Lured down a darkened street by a stranger’s gaze, a man follows her into a hypnotic dance — convinced he is the hunter, until her body speaks a language older than desire.
WATER AFTER WILDFIRE
Documentary, directed by Ev Durán (pictured).
🏆 Previous YVFF Winner, 5x Emmy Award Winner
🙋♂️ YVFF Alumnus
🟥 Festival World Premiere
This documentary centers on Paradise Irrigation District and their efforts to protect their community from contaminated drinking water following the devastation of the Camp Fire.
The film highlights the difficult, high-stakes decisions required to safeguard public health — including shutting down portions of the system, addressing widespread contamination, and committing to a full-scale rebuild rather than temporary fixes — while navigating uncertainty and intense public concern.
It emphasizes the importance of listening to the community through transparent communication and direct engagement, showing how resident input shaped recovery efforts and helped rebuild trust.
Beyond Paradise, the documentary serves as a case study for utilities worldwide, sharing critical lessons on wildfire impacts to water systems, early contamination detection, and the need to prioritize long-term safety and resilience over short-term restoration.
SATURDAY EVENING | 6:30 pm
THE LAST EIGHT
Documentary, directed by Bryanna Reynolds.
🏆 Winner Woman Documentary Award, Angeles Documentary Film Festival, August 2026.
A story of community where thousands of volunteers work tirelessly in Burbank, California, to build a Pirate ship at the Pasadena Rose Parade.
THE LONG CON
Short Film, directed by Aitch Alberto (pictured).
⭐ Starring Nava Mau, Oliver Stark.
🟥 Desert Premiere
🌵 Local artist: Aitch Alberto.
🏆Previous achievements: Private Screening at Sundance Adobe House.
The Long Con is a desert-set crime romance about a runaway bride and her grifter lover reunited at a roadside motel after a con goes sideways.
With stolen cash, sirens on the horizon, and betrayal simmering between them, their love plays out as foreplay, power struggle, and survival tactic.
Violent, tender, and darkly funny, the film builds toward a single truth: no matter how badly they hurt each other, running alone was never an option—they were always destined to choose each other.
HELLO UNIVERSE
Music Video, directed by Tommy Slack (pictured), Ross Addy.
🟥 World Premiere.
🌵 Shot in Amboy and Wonder Valley
Scottish rock ‘n’ roll band Miracle Glass Company hit the road across California, taking their music into the vast, otherworldly landscapes of the American desert.
The Hello Universe music video captures the band against endless highways, stark desert terrain and wide-open skies – a visual journey that mirrors the song’s sense of freedom, isolation and discovery.
The title track from the feature documentary Hello Universe, the video is a snapshot of a Scottish band chasing the horizon on the other side of the world.
LONG LIVE KORONEBURG
Documentary, directed by Jake Villadolid.
🙋♂️ YVFF Alumni
🟥 World Premiere.
After its most successful year to date, the Koroneburg Renaissance Faire was forced to close its doors.
In an effort to further memorialize the magic of such a special place, host Janey Hann returns to the Koroneburg site to witness the demolition and give voice to a community forced to tear down their own home.
H.A.G.S
Short Film, directed by Matt Mazany (pictured).
🙋♂️ YVFF Alumnus
🏆 3x Emmy Nominee
🟥 Desert Premiere
Vivian and her friends return to school for their 10-year reunion, only to be sent on a nostalgic photo scavenger hunt that quickly turns deadly.
As the group splits up and gets picked off one by one, a hilariously petty villain with a decade-long grudge proves the past never stays in the yearbook.
LIFE IS (A) SHORT
Short Film, directed by Brooke Dooley.
⭐ Starring Chelsea London Lloyd (pictured).
🙋♂️ YVFF Alumnus
🏆 3x Emmy Nominee
🟥 Desert Premiere
On the ten-year anniversary of her dad’s death, Frankie reflects on the absurdity of content creation.
She would rather end her life than make a short film about death. But is she serious?
A twisted look at why we make art through the lens of grief.
GOLDEN HOUR
Drone Film, directed by Patrick Thies (pictured).
🟥 World Premiere.
An aerial showcase of Southern California from dusk till dawn.
RUN, JAMIE
Short Film, directed by Tyler Baker (pictured).
🟥 Desert Premiere.
Following a little league softball game, a family of four’s journey home is interrupted by disaster — Mark, the family patriarch, has to shit.
NOTE: The movie Nukini Reforestation Dreams has been disqualified. The movie does not appear in the program anymore and will not be part of the film festival.