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This new online film festival spotlights the realities of lockdown life in Miami

Close Quarters Commissions is an online, micro-film festival that features Miami’s filmmakers in trying times and tight spaces

Virginia Gil
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Virginia Gil
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Life in lockdown can drive you to do things you never thought you would. For a dozen filmmakers in Miami, that meant chronicling their life at home on film.

The good, the bad and the weird footage from their months-long project premiere on July 15 as part of the Close Quarter Commissions. Oolite Arts, a Miami-based visual arts space and community resource center, commissioned the works for this micro-film festival that features short works by 12 Miami filmmakers while in quarantine.

With limited resources and only their homes and immediate surroundings as a backdrop, each moviemaker tackled of-the-moment topics in three-minute vignettes. From documenting the realities of working from home with kids and giving birth at home (!) to the hardships of unemployment, these folks kept it real as they captured the essence of our current times. 

The film festival kicks off Wednesday, July 15, at 7pm and it’s free to watch online until July 22. Two filmmakers will receive a $1,000 prize, the Jury Award and the Audience Award—so make sure to tune in and vote for your favorite. The full festival lineup and trailer are below: 

  • Ronald Baez, “Buscando” (Searching)
  • Rachel Benjamin, “Day in Life”
  • Valerie Brooks, “Never Eat Soggy Waffles”
  • Alexa Caravia, “Nagasaki”
  • Juan Castaneda, “Echo Chamber”
  • Avram Dodson, “Mommy, Will You Play with Me?”
  • Anton Forbes, “Mad Chef Disease”
  • Pamela Longsword, “Kairi During COVID”
  • Christopher Lopez, “LOL_onlymiami”
  • Frantzy Moreau, “New Normal”
  • Carmen Pelaez, “Caridad y Gallo”
  • Gabriela Serra, “Lil Haiti 115 NE 76 Calle”

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