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First here’s a quick recap on what this is all about, for those who missed last week’s announcement:

The 2014 Sundance Film Festival titles have been announced in the various categories, and so we now know who made the cut. But what about those many thousands who submitted their films and didn’t get in? If you’re one of them, here’s a chance for you to let us know who you are.

For the 2014 Sundance Film Festival, 118 feature-length films were selected, representing 37 countries and 54 first-time filmmakers, including 34 in competition. These films were selected from 12,218 submissions (72 more than for 2013), including 4,057 feature-length films and 8,161 short films. Of the feature film submissions, 2,014 were from the U.S. and 2,043 were international. 97 feature films at the Festival will be world premieres.

So really somewhere between 1% and 3% of total submissions were selected. Those are minuscule numbers. So that also means that there are roughly 97% of you remaining, with projects that didn’t get into the festival. And YOU are the folks we want to hear from!

Of interest to those of us on this blog (see the name and tagline of the blog at the top of page if you’re new here) are films by and/or about people of African descent. So, if you or your film fit the bill, we’d love to hear from you!

At the very least, it’ll be great just to know you exist, so that we can become familiar with you and your work, and track from here-on.

So, if you agree, feel free to send me an email to obensont@gmail.com, with all the vitals about you and your film, and we’ll go from there.

We posted the above last week, and since then, I’ve received several emails in response, which I began highlighting earlier this week (see the first piece HERE; and the second HERE; and the third piece HERE).
Today’s submission comes from actress and writer Ayesha Antoine. Titled Frayed, here’s what Ayesha had to say about the short film in her email to me:
‘Frayed’ – A dynamic mix of live action and animation, in which we meet Freya, a Londoner, seeking serenity and inner-calm. A neurotic product of her surroundings. Another urbanite feeling cripplingly lonely in a crowd of loners. Plagued by terrors, Freya uses her powerful imagination to escape. But where do you run, when your own imagination turns on you?
We completed in May and have been doing the festival rounds since then, taking in New York, Berlin, Cornwall and London on the way. Georgia Oakley (http://www.georgiaoakley.com/HOME) directed it with great skill and has been an avid supporter of the film from the moment she saw the script which was introduced to her by Irresistible Films.
I am not a seasoned filmmaker, in fact this is only the second script I’ve finished. My first completed script was a feature-length from which the short was extracted and In reaction to the positive feedback we’ve received, I’m now working on a new draft of that feature with an eye to gathering the team and funds in 2014.
We had a great team working on this project – 70 people of varying experience and overwhelming generosity contributed to its birth. It was conceived by the artistic frustrations of an actress (myself), a CGI/ graphic designer (animator), a photographer and a nurse (executive producer), none of whom had made a film before. Understandably we were all exceedingly proud of completing the project and, speaking for myself and the animator, when we had our first cast and crew screening at BAFTA, we had completely forgotten to consider whether anybody else would find it interesting. A world premiere in New York and three festivals later, that pride has turned into a steely determination to get Frayed, the feature, made. We’re all desperate to delve ever deeper into Freya’s horrifying psyche, and the creative haven of independent film-making.
And based on the trailer she sent me for Frayed, the short film, I’m definitely interested in seeing the completed short, as well as the feature. I’m surprised it wasn’t accepted by Sundance, especially since it was selected by other top-tier film festivals like the New York Film Festival, Berlin and London Film Festival, cementing its place as a film of a certain caliber. Or I suppose it could be because it had already screened at a handful of top festivals that Sundance passed on it. Although I don’t believe short films have to be premieres at Sundance. I know that they definitely prefer premieres when it comes to feature films.
No matter, I’m intrigued by what I see in this teaser. It seems to fit nicely into that atypical “black cinema box” that we often champion on this site, with what looks like a wild mix of live action and animation. And when I eventually see the full short film, I’ll update this post with my thoughts.
In the meantime, here’s the teaser for Frayed:

FRAYED Trailer from Irresistible Films on Vimeo.