Break Any Spell impacted me more than nearly any other film I’ve watched at Chattanooga, as it made me think about the deteriorating mental condition of my father and how lost we become thanks to dementia and Alzheimer’s and just plain age.

Directed by Anton Jøsef, who co-wrote the film with Lisi Purr, some will watch this and laugh at the Live Action Role Playing (LARP) that the heroine falls in love with, but it seems like that’s her tether to keep her going in the world, as her mother begins to disappear and become someone else due to early stage Alzheimer’s.

The moment when the magic spell she’s been saving and all the work of her team means nothing in the face of a big man from out of nowhere with a sword? That’s life. That’s exactly how this life feels.

This movie feels like it needs more, that it could be part of a longer tale, but for what it is now, it is supremely powerful.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

Nearly 2,200 days into a drought, a man and woman meet at a benefit show and go on a date of sorts that starts well and ends up a bloody mess.

Directed, written and starring Hannah Heller, this movie has a wood panel ramshackle aesthetic that serves it well. The meet cute scene in the beginning has so many odd closeups and so much strangeness that I laughed loud and hard, rewound it and ended up laughing even harder the second time.

We better start watching this and learning how we’re all going to date in a few years when it gets dry like the world of Ursula, huh?

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

Written and directed by Adam Park, The Drowned stars Ellora Torchia as a woman who wakes up on an empty coastline and is followed by a glowing orb as she searches for civilization, people, food or shelter. Everything is deserted and she begins to wonder if she’s truly alone in a world that she does not understand.

This is a gorgeous short that feels like the proof of concept for something bigger. Whatever that is, I want to see it.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

54 Miles to Home stealth snuck up between genre films and arty shorts to teach me about three black farming families who risked their lives in 1965 when they opened up their land to thousands of voting rights protesters during the Selma to Montgomery March.

Six decades later, the Halls, Steeles and Gardners explain exactly how much their parents and grandparents risked, as well as share stories of the rural and agricultural roots of the civil rights movement.

Protesting has been on everyone’s mind as of late, but these days, the dissent seems online and impersonal. These were people fighting for their ways of life, working as one to overcome.

This was directed by Claire Haughe, who says that she is pursuing “stories that address the intersection of environmental justice, income equality, and community.” Documentaries like this are why I love watching movies, as I learned so much about part of my country’s history that I never knew about. I urge you to do the same.

To support the preservation of these historic homes, visit the Alabama Rivers Alliance.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

Directed and written by Karsten Runquist, this is a movie about how a man found a bag of dirt, became introduced to the world of dirt culture, met more dirt collectors, then nearly killed a young girl when the bag of dirt he’s desperate to give away gives her a peanut allergy. By the end, I worried that he’d developed a new addiction to plants, because my mom and wife have that.

You have to make a pretty great movie to keep my attention if it’s about bags or dirt for eleven minutes. Guess what? This one did exactly that.

Also: do not pick up lone bags of dirt.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

Daniel (Billy Flynn) and Toni (Tipper Newton, who directed and wrote this short) have been matched by a video dating service that feels inspired by the Found Footage Festival Videomate videos. The date is awkward, as every time Daniel seems to impress Toni or gain ground, she tears him down, builds him up and then cuts him down all again, sometimes in the same moment.

So how does he make it back to her place? And if he’s the first date from the service she’s been on, why are there so many videotapes everywhere? And who is that threatening her on the answering machine?

Wild Card gets exciting right when it ends, right at the moment that it has been teasing and it demands that you watch more. I loved it and it got me — so please, give us that second date.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

A young woman tries to grow and use the time of the COVID-19 lockdown to grow and change, yet as she struggles to be productive, time becomes obsessive and she loses touch with reality.

Directed, written and produced by Laura Sheperd and starring Harley Davies, this feels like a time and place that we’ve all been in over the past two and a half years. I actually can’t think of the last time I sat in a bathtub. Maybe that’s a guy thing to just take showers, huh?

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.

Fed-up prosecutor Lott (Lance Henriksen!) has given up on the justice system and devoted what’s left of his life to leading a team of criminals who work to pardon other lawbreakers by destroying crime scene evidence. In this twelve-minute short, his team is protecting a murderer named Melissa (Tasha Guevara) from going to jail by cleaning up the scene of the crime, including sawing the victim’s feet off to it him in a special sarcophagus.

The team believes that by allowing people to atone for their crimes in the real world, they will actually become better people than if they had gone to prison. Driven by his faith in the healing power of unconditional forgiveness, Lott and his team of vigilantes intercept 911 calls and fix things before the cops get there.

Working with Bangs (Scott Allen Perry), Wylie (Michael Schnick), Donna (Clara Francesca Pagone) and Missy (director and writer Polaris Banks), they find their mission tested when a killer returns to the scene of this crime, as Melissa as been set up.

At one point Lott tells Melissa, “Punishment without love behind it, you’ll come out worse. Everything you need for rehabilitation is out here.” It’s an intriguing idea and begs for way more than a short. I love the look of all of this, from the strange eye-covered lens the team wears to the shock ending. And I want so much more.

You can learn more about Rekaw at the official website and Facebook and Twitter pages.

The Chattanooga Film Fest ends tomorrow at 11:59 PM EDT. To get a Last Gasp Pass for just $32, visit the official site now.