Smodcastle Film Festival 2023 - Block 11

poster for Smodcastle Film Festival 2023 - Block 11 Cameo - A graduate student questions her reality after she receives a mysterious necklace.

DRAGON FRUIT - DRAGON FRUIT stars Yvonne Chapman as The Mother, a lone woman forced to make ends meet while caring for her son in an awful, dystopian world. Told largely without dialogue, the film follows her as she struggles to grow a small plant sprout into a fully-ripened dragon fruit. If she can sell it for enough money, and if she can survive, she might be able to afford a better life for her and her son... But honestly, at this point, she’d settle for a small vacation. Produced over the course of the pandemic, writer-director J.Brown created all the props, costumes, set pieces and visual effects on his own, building a uniquely bleak portrait of a future that feels all too familiar.

Curiosity - CURIOSITY is a quirky dramedy about a bored, small town janitor, Bob Cooke, who has a not-so-secret double life of spying on people and impulsively getting into their business. When he witnesses the girl of his dreams being kidnapped, it sends him into a hyper stealth mode, working alongside his younger, skeptical friend Dustin – a cop wannabe.

Love and Hunger - Former lovers Olivia and Hector meet at a bar after 30 years. They discuss memories of being stranded on an island while exiling to the States, on a raft, from Cuba. As they argue over the truth of events leading to a horrific act, we flashback to the island in a Rashomon-style debate.

In the Night I Remember Your Name - Gay rights activist. Pastor. Grandmother. My mother Joyce Speegle was all of these. And then in 2005 she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. But even in the midst of the disease she clung to her desire to make a difference. She asked me to make a film about her experience that might be a message of hope to others battling the disease. “In the Night I Remember Your Name” is a daughter’s intimate chronicle of her mother’s struggle with Alzheimer’s. It is the story of a grandmother’s grief as she begins losing the very abilities that her new granddaughter is learning. It is the story of a pastor’s relationship with God as she questions what is happening to her. It is a journey from anguish to acceptance. And in the end, it is a story of joy.



RUN TIME: 120 min