WHEN: August 9, 2025
WHERE: LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes
501 N Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
COST: Free to the public.
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BLOCK 2: MONSTER AS METAPHOR
This block took a dark take on the LOMA experience. Question and answer with filmmakers was after the screening. The films screened were:
Latine twentysomething, Gema, is forced to confront the looming threat of gentrification head-on—after having no choice but to let an overeager stranger move in or risk being evicted. The uneasy peace soon turns sinister, exposing her to something far more invasive.
White Gaze, which received the Blumhouse Studios/Seed&Spark Patrons Circle grant, is a micro-budget social drama/horror featurette, which has several wins and nominations, including ‘Best Director’ at Arthouse Film Festival, LA Live Film Festival, and New York Odyssey Film Festival.
Director Biography – ETA
ETA is a nonbinary, first-gen Vietnamese-American filmmaker raised in Tustin, CA by refugees of the American War in Vietnam. Their work centers on amplifying marginalized voices on both sides of the camera, addressing colorism in onscreen representation, and racial and social equity issues. Currently, they’re in preproduction for their next short film, Menstrual, a meditative sci-fi road trip movie about a wormhole in the Pacific Ocean.
White Gaze, their micro-budget gentrification horror short, was a Blumhouse Studios Patrons Circle pledge recipient and has won and been nominated for numerous awards, including “Best Director” at Arthouse Film Festival, LA Live Film Festival, and New York Odyssey Film Festival. Confluence: A Meditation in Documentary Form, their documentary short exploring ancestry and identity through first-person testimonies and live musical performances, has screened around the US and abroad, including several Oscar-qualifying film festivals, being hailed by Film Threat as “a powerful and entrancing music documentary [that’ll] blow your mind”. Their debut, Stockton 2 Malone, premiered via AFROPUNK and was lauded for infusing “intersectional, diverse identities into the mumblecore subgenre.”
In 2016, they founded moonroom, a collective which celebrated the Asian American diaspora during AAPI Heritage Month with art and music showcases highlighting queer, independent API and Desi American artists throughout Southern California, and today, centers on providing resources for black and brown filmmakers.
The Ballad of Fred Fort
A lonely man spends his days searching for a mythical
animal his late mother once photographed.
Director – Bruno Mattos Rubeiz
I am a Brazilian filmmaker born and raised in the tropical city of Salvador in the state of Bahia. I recently finished this movie shot in upstate NY while I was living in New York City as a graduate film student. This is my thesis film from my MFA at Columbia University!
Twilight Time
After the death of her best friend, Violet begins to experience sleep paralysis. As the nights go by, her nightmare begins to turn into something very familiar and equally sinister.
Director Biography – Marciel Delgado
Marciel Delgado is an award-winning writer & filmmaker from Buena Park, California. Focusing on narrative genre for the short films Dear Hearts & Gentle People, Twilight Time, and The Cynic & The Fool. He is also the founding editor of Pretty Much Geek (PMG), a production company that analyzes pop culture.
