Big Apple Film Fest 2023 tackles pedophilia, incarceration and death

When Actor Mike Gerbi lost a loved one during COVID, he became inspired to write a screenplay about the grieving process.

“It took about about six or seven months to flesh it out,” he said. “I wanted to do something expressive.”

The result, Missing Her, was one of six shorts that premiered the afternoon of Nov. 4 at the 20th Annual Big Apple Film Festival (BAFF) Fall Edition at the Cinema Village movie theatre on East 12 Street in Manhattan.

In Missing Her, Gerbi portrays a man trapped in a dystopian world in which he is forced by authorities to dispose of his deceased wife's ashes within a certain timeframe.

Director Karl Shefelman was selected out of some 12 directors to helm the tear jerker.

“There was a Facebook post looking for a director,” Shefelman said during the Q&A. “What really drew me to it was how the first half of the movie there is no dialogue. It’s all visual storytelling.”

Other heart-breaking films paired with Missing Her were Inhuman Tethers, starring George Anthony Richardson, and Order My Steps, directed by Augusta Palmer and written by Kathryn Grant.

In Order My Steps, Carla Brandberg portrays an incarcerated mother named Peg Rivers who struggles to rebuild a relationship over Zoom with the daughter, Dorian, she lost 20 years ago to Child Protective Services due to an addiction to heroin.

Dorian refuses to give her mother the pleasure of seeing her face by teleconferencing without video during a prison visit.

“I felt like Dorian was intentionally withholding herself and I wanted viewers to see the effect she has on her mother when the light comes out of the computer,” Palmer said after the screening. “A future screenplay will allow audiences to see more of Dorian.”

In the short, Inhuman Tethers, directed by George Anthony Richardson, a young man haunted by child sexual abuse memories is suddenly faced with the prospect of care-taking his dying pedophile uncle who molested him.

“My onus in writing it was not only an exploration of me and my connection with my family and my history but also our connection and our tether to grace,” Richardson told the standing room only audience.

BAFF continues through Nov. 9. Tickets can be purchased on the BAFF website.