SHORTS BLOCK 12: Whimsey
19 min -- “Teal's Legacy” by Guy Baker: A young girl seeks to unearth the hidden truth in a family myth. Teal's belief will be tested if she is to discover the key to what will save her family's legacy.
10 min -- “Casey” by Miguel Duran: “Casey” is about a young girl who struggles with her mother's misguided attempts to show love. She finds escape as an MC in an underground hip-hop club and must decide between taking a stand against her mother, or watching her owns dreams drift away.
13 min -- “Somebody's Mother” by Mandy Fabian: Maggie is perfectly fine with the fact that her mother, Alice, has started dating again. A lot. In front of her. And in front of her two small children. But when Alice springs her latest boy-toy on the family Christmas morning, Maggie's most wonderful time of the year turns into her worst nightmare, and she's left to wonder: who is the mother here?
19 min -- “The Box” by Christen Kimbell: A young boy, Michael, awakes to find an angel who hands Michael a beautiful wooden box and asks him to watch over it. Michael does, even though it means he has to spend more and more time alone. He keeps it safe from some bullies who try to take it. Eventually he starts to draw, then paint, the angel. His paintings make him famous, but he is still alone. When he is very old, the angel returns to him and takes the box away.
15 min -- “The House at the Edge of the Galaxy” by Gleb Osatinski: A young boy is visited by a travel-weary cosmonaut and awakens to the magic waiting to be discovered in an old, abandoned house.
15 min -- “Safe Word” by Todd Lillethun: Greg and Billy are a couple who engage in a role-playing fantasy to spice up their relationship, but end up pushing each others buttons. Greg, the expert, plays a sailor whose boat is hijacked by pirates, and he is bound to a chair. Billy, the novice, plays a reluctant buccaneer who must overcome his squeamishness to extort from Greg the location of hidden treasure. When a surprise guest changes the stakes, the fantasy turns into a twisted endgame with shocking results.
13 min -- “A Time in a Dark Cloud” by Rebecca Sgan-Cohen: Emily Lively is spending the weekend at her mother's. Her first night home, she decides to go out to the local bar. She meets a good-looking stranger and goes home with him. The encounter causes her to reflect on her choices as well as her mother's.
