Sun Pass Film Festival Returns to Spotlight Emerging Filmmakers

Between Gov. Ron DeSantis' brutal budget cuts to the arts and the censorship of artists by various Miami art organizations, creating and sharing art in South Florida might feel somewhat futile.

Fear not, Sun Pass Film Festival remains pure of heart and is returning for its fourth year. Created by filmmaker Chris Molina in 2021 as a showcase for "short films made by, for, and in Florida," the latest incarnation of the festival takes place Saturday, July 20, at Villain Theater in Little Haiti.

The festival's growth parallels Molina's own as a filmmaker. From shorts like Is That All There Is?, which made him a finalist of the Sundance Ignite program in 2020, and I Wonder If I'm Growing to his first feature film, Fallen Fruit, he's focused on semi-autobiographical and confessional cinema. A product of the now-defunct Borscht Corp and its celebrated film festival, Molina's Sun Pass Film Festival picks up where it left off by providing independent artists a place to share their work and connect to make more.

This year's festival is divided into two blocks. The original Sun Pass Film Festival features emerging and established filmmakers working in animation, documentary, and narrative fiction filmmaking. The second is Sun Pass After Dark, in partnership with Christian Meola of Midnight Movies in Texas, which promises a collection of "cinematic oddities." Both reinforce the Sun Pass Film Festival's mission to "explore and expand the Floridan cinematic landscape."
One of the charms of the Sun Pass Film Festival is the diversity of its programming and finding the common threads that emerge. In such a divisive time in the world, the country, and Florida, Sun Pass appears to propose an antidote. A common thread connecting the program is people seeking connection: familial, romantic, and with the self. Anthony Romaguera's Adios Abuelita and Angel Garcia's Yellow examine strained family relationships and the sense of disconnection and displacement they can cause. A Swan Story, a poignant tale by Harrison Hahne-Lum, utilizes stop motion to tell the story of an origami swan searching for true love after adopting a child. Likewise, The Returning Case of Unresolved Love, directed by Cesar Sanchez, and Joshua "Jestic" Felipe's Ghoulish explore complicated love stories. The former finds Danny recovering from a breakup and entering a new relationship to discover it may not be what it seems. The latter explores societal and familial pressures exerted on romantic relationships in a metaphoric tale that spotlights the love between a young ghoul and a zombie.

The documentary selection boasts fascinating true tales of eccentric individuals and their compelling experiences. In El Soldador, filmmaker Alexandra Martinez charts the journey of one houseless welder as he meets a team of caregivers at Miami Street Medicine. Another tale of community, Jellyfish Jam, by Noelia Solange and Yulia Safonkina, explores a dance group exploring healing and self-discovery through movement. André Heizer's Keeper of Disks continues the theme of community connection via the last video rental store in Tallahassee and Kevin Cole, the man who runs it. Likewise, Lunes Oña's Growth...Routine is a timely survey of gender dysphoria using an analysis of teenage haircuts and pharmacy phone calls.
The After Dark program, featuring weirder and darker films, nearly defies explanation. It is a collection of eclectic films from Eric Corbin's Rex about a dog who hates whistling to Katelyn Douglass' Heart Race, which follows one girl's quest for love at a NASCAR race. Another duo of films put the South Floridian landscape front and center: Ola, directed by Clara Kill, finds a grieving chonga's tough exterior softened by Key Biscayne, while Kristina Tokar's LGBTQ comedy skit We're at the Beach, was filmed in Broward. The collection can go to the extreme, as in Kalil Haddad's Muscle Monsters and Perry Feder's The Brother Sister Duo, which are quasi-sociopathic character studies. Finally, After Dark also questions reality with a trio of films, including Allen Sowersby's Will Build My House on You, Parker Foreman's What You're About to See Is Real, inspired by The Blair Witch Project, and the psychedelic animated film This Edible Ain't Shit by Frank Volk.

This year's edition falls in a busy year for Molina. He premiered Fallen Fruit at the 2023 Miami Film Festival, selling out screenings before doing the same at the Outshine Film Festival. The film was also awarded "Best Movie Shot on Location" by New Times. After all the hometown support, he's currently taking the film around the country at festivals like Frameline in San Francisco. Now he's back home for the fourth Sun Pass Film Festival to provide a platform for other independent Floridan filmmakers.

Sun Pass Film Festival. 1 to 3 p.m. and 5 to 7 p.m. Saturday, July 20, at Villain Theater, 5865 NE Second Ave., Miami; 786-391-2241; villaintheater.com. Tickets cost $15 via eventbrite.com.