Jon Moritsugu

30/30 Vision: Three Decades of Strand Releasing

Over 30 filmmakers and friends of Strand Releasing have come together to honor the company’s indelible contribution to independent cinema over the past thirty years. The participating filmmakers have each created a short film for the project, all shot on iPhones.

Martini Shot

Commissioned for the 2019 30th Anniversary shorts omnibus, 30/30 Vision: 3 Decades of Strand Releasing.

Pig Death Machine

A very special shipment of tainted pork arrives in Santa Fe, N.M., transforming anyone who eats it into a brilliant, but psychotic, braniac -- including a dimwitted bimbo and a punk botanist who can now hear her beloved plants.

The Endless Possibility of Sky

Sex and drugs-getting hooked and getting off –can be addicting. For Drew (Brad Hallowell), eking out a mundane life in Waterville, Maine, it is resisting the illicit pleasure in New York; for Mistress Datina (Philly), it means operating a sex and drug den to cope with her life. In his visually and sexually stimulating film, director Verow introduces multiple characters and overlapping narratives that portray the physical and emotional faces of addiction. For Rob (newcomer Rob Ordonez), drugs and sex are means of finding a bed to sleep in every night – while they provide Christian (Michael Vaccaro) a means of dealing with his helplessness and loss. A writer records these characters and their unforgettable stories. The themes are universal, but the possibilities are endless.

Scumrock

A pretentious underground filmmaker struggles with his masterpiece while a scuzzy punkoid chick tries to keep her band from fading into obscurity.

Fame Whore

A narcissistic tennis pro, a talentless socialite and an animal rights activist discover the troubles of “fame”.

Mod Fuck Explosion

Teenage London is trying to find meaning in the world, or a leather jacket of her own. Unaccepted by neither the Mods or the Asian biker gang, she tries to find her own path. Meanwhile, the two gangs maintain a mutual vendetta sure to erupt in a smorgasbord of violence.

Cruel

Del Valle's first film poignantly portrays the angst of a breakup complicated by feelings of betrayal as a Latina woman leaves her lover of the same cultural background for a white woman.

Terminal USA

In a Japanese-American family, the mother is stealing the terminally ill grandpa's morphine, the airhead sister is having sex with the family lawyer, one brother gets perfect grades but is hiding a secret gay love of skinheads, and the other brother is a junkie. Over the course of one evening, the family falls apart due to their bizarre behaviour.