From Team Sizzle Films, “sisters.” is a nicely nuanced look at discord between siblings and the sometimes uncomfortable yet comfortably familiar family quirks and qualms that bind them. We’re taken on a tense lunch appointment with two sisters (played by Dionne Audain and Tanya Diallo Welsh) who are patently aware of the complexity of their relationship, yet still make the effort to struggle through the funk of familial friction to love each other regardless. It delivers an authentic love-hate dynamic fuelled with a healthy does of drama but without resorting to the antics of high melodrama and/or schmaltzy feel-goodness.

Written and directed by Monica Mingo who describes it as their “little film that could” the film was shot in one weekend for under $8,000. It premiered at ABFF 2010 and went on to the Martha’s Vineyard African American Film Festival, Chicago International Film Festival, and won the Best Short Film 2010 accolade at International Black Film Festival Nashville.

Team Sizzle Films is made up of Mingo (Creative Director), Tarik Dickens (Managing Director) and Terrell Suggs who, when not playing lineback for NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, is Team Sizzle Films’ CEO. They are also the same team behind When Beautiful People Do Ugly Things, which will screen in The Short Film Corner at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, so you can expect to see more from them. In the meantime, here’s their short little film that did. sisters.