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Artless Media Films

Russell Sheaffer

Really Big Feelings

Locked in a wooden cocoon of a house, something is brewing just beneath the surface of our paper-thin skin.

Narrative Short
2027
Alice Voena

Heaven Above Rowen

A luscious journey through the mind of a queer cult leader consumed by psychedelic visions of a prophesied doomsday

Narrative Feature
2026
Russell Sheaffer

I Really Wanted to Love Today

A parent and child’s camping trip to an uninhabited, seagull-ridden island turns into a tense, metaphysical journey

Narrative Short
2024
Russell Sheaffer

Decomp Disco

Through repetition and degradation, this found footage film reclaims and reimagines a campy piece of film history straight from the dust bin.

Experimental Narrative Short
2024
Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith

Cabrillo

Life wedged between sandy cracks

Experimental Documentary Short
2024
Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith

Anacapa

To the [exhale] lighthouse.

Experimental Documentary Short
2024
Georden West

Playland

A raucous work of queer fantasy and history, conjuring a time-bending night in Boston’s oldest and most notorious gay bar.

Narrative Feature
2023
Grace Byron, Aaron Michael Smith

Étude 3a: Nocturne

nocturne: n. a work of art dealing with evening or night

Experimental Short
2023
Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith

No Input

A conjuring. Something from nothing. A nonexistent cable and a blank tape. Witches in the Mojave.

Experimental Short
2022
Eric Zobel

BERTOLT BRECHT BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES (AN HISTORICAL ENCOUNTER)

A fragmented and fractured performance record of Bertolt’s Brecht’s testimony delivered before the House Un-American Activities Committee

Experimental Documentary Feature
2022
Russell Sheaffer

An Imagined Violet

A rumination on parenting, razor blades, facial hair, Jell-o shots, Coyote Ugly, and Russell Crowe.

Experimental Documentary Short
2022
Geoff Marslett

Quantum Cowboys

A rotoscoped time travel western

Narrative Feature
2022
Jefferson Stein

Burros

While traveling through the Tohono O’odham tribal lands into the United States, a six-year-old indigenous girl (Amaya Juan) discovers a Hispanic migrant her age who has lost her father.

Narrative Short
2021
Hannah McSwiggen, Russell Sheaffer

Dick Pics! A Documentary

A stop-motion documentary that asks men one of the most crucial questions of our era: "What compels you to send pictures of your penis to non-consenting others?"

Documentary Short
2019
Laura Ivins, Benjamin J. Penwell

Étude 2a: Overtones (I)

Exploring the musical concept of "overtones," this film is a playful, feminist study in the plurality of visual and auditory meanings of the term.

Experimental Short
2019
Grace Byron

Trans Monogamist

A trans nonbinary dating columnist works to make their peace with monogamy in Brooklyn while their friends stir up their own intimate exploits.

Web Series
2019
Lauren Sotolongo, Samantha Sobash, Russell Sheaffer

I Taste Blood

Film is body. Movement is language. Words are blood.

Experimental Short
2018
Daniel Laabs

Jules of Light and Dark

Two young lovers, Maya and Jules, are found wrecked on the side of the road after a party by a loner roughneck, Freddy. During rehab, their relationship falls apart, and Maya forms an unlikely friendship with Freddy.

Narrative Feature
2018
Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith

Étude 1a: Release (I)

A haunting found-footage study in the plurality of visual and auditory meanings of the musical concept “release.”

Experimental Short
2017
Jared Callahan, Russell Sheaffer

Saltwater Baptism

What do you do when your relationship conflicts with your religion?

Documentary Short
2017
Grace Byron

Idle Cosmopolitan

A meditation on not getting married at 21, eating potato chips in bed while writing, and authentic arguments Byron has had with their exes; it includes gay ghosts for the nonlinear-haunted folx.

Web Series
2017
Pulkit Datta

Wishful Whiskers

Stuck in her dad’s boring lunch meeting, little Ella suddenly discovers the curious case of all the mustaches.

Narrative Short
2017
Lindsey Phillips

My Name is Marc, and you Can Count on It

Everyone has that local commercial. You know the one. Late at night. Weird. Hilarious. Legendary.

Documentary Short
2017
Russell Sheaffer, Aaron Michael Smith

it's so easy (the mechanism of power)

A dystopian landscape that explores the repercussions of disproportionate access to moments in others' lives

Experimental Short
2016
Russell Sheaffer

On Surgery

The process of bone surgery replicated on the body of 16mm film stock

Experimental Documentary Short
2016
Russell Sheaffer

Hydrocodone

Self-portrait and direct animation merge in this meditation on post-surgical healing

Experimental Short
2015
Barton Girdwood

M4M: Seeks Love

Bob Metcalf wants to find a boyfriend, but at 70 years old he’s finding that’s easier said than done.

Documentary Short
2014
Barton Girdwood

We'll Be All Right

Another story continues after

Documentary Short
2013
Russell Sheaffer

Masculinity/Femininity

An experimental, feature-length documentary that challenges normative notions of gender, sexuality and performance.

Experimental Documentary Feature
2014
Russell Sheaffer

Blood on the Window

A series of meditations on photographs in which the filmmaker tries to grapple with his current psychological and physical state after a serious car accident that left him without a memory of the trauma.

Experimental Documentary Short
2014
Russell Sheaffer

Acetate Diary

Light, color, and sound are the ingredients of Acetate Diary a handmade, camera-less film on 16mm that is at once a document of serious bodily trauma and a beautiful series of abstract patterns.

Experimental Short
2014
Josephine Decker

Thou Wast Mild and Lovely

Everything else was a surprise

Narrative Feature
2014
Russell Sheaffer

Monotony

A disenchanted young man as he goes about his morning routine.

Narrative Short
2014
Russell Sheaffer

Memory of Objects

There are spaces in this world wherein so many memories have soaked into the walls that it is hard to place these sites within a definite point in time.

Experimental Short
2013
Russell Sheaffer

Broken Jaw

A mediation on physical and psychological trauma with a self portrait locked on repeat.

Experimental Short
2013
Russell Sheaffer

Polysemy

polysemy, n. The fact of having several meanings; the possession of multiple meanings, senses, or connotations.

Experimental Short
2013
Hannah McSwiggen, Russell Sheaffer

Arthur and the Unicorn

A young man's libido interrupts his studies.

Narrative Short
2013
Jordache A. Ellapen

Cane/Cain

A captivating story of migration, desire and sexuality and their intersections in urban Johannesburg.

Narrative Short
2011
Hildegard Elisabeth Keller

Der Ozean im Fingerhut

Great cosmological images deal with the relationship between the creator and the creation, but also the creativity of human beings.

Experimental Documentary Feature
2011
Russell Sheaffer

The Forgetting Game

During the height of political tensions in 1960s Berlin, a little girl is peacefully transferred from East to West Berlin by her family's effort and love.

Documentary Feature
2011
James Franco, Russell Sheaffer

Masculinity & Me

A no-budget production, focused on the perverse candour of young sexuality

Experimental Documentary Short
2010
Russell Sheaffer

Alone.

Two men go in search of connection with each other

Experimental Short
2010
Russell Sheaffer

Intimacy

A woman assaults her husband with kitchen items

Experimental Short
2010
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