BIND
“Over the years I have watched so many shorts about sexual exploitation that didn't have anything to say and felt oddly exploitative themselves, so it was really great to see a short like BIND that evolved beyond that. A gut punch of a short… Also, stellar first shot.” - Levin Menekse, Writer & Producer
A teenage girl comes to terms with her father whose for-your-own-good tough love hides a need for control. BIND is Inka Rusi’s Thesis Film from California Institute of the Arts.
Director & Writer Inka Rusi. Producers Sara Fenton & Tanja Rusi. DoP Richard Van
Executive Producers Nina Menkes, Tomi Alapaattikoski, Lauri Markkanen and Jolyon Neubert
CAST: Emma Halleen, Tim Cummings and Nick Marini
This film was made with the generous help of The Markkanen Family Foundation, The Finnish Cultural Foundation, The Alison Doerner Fund for Women Pioneers in Filmmaking, Oskar Öflunds Foundation, The CalArts Thesis Grant, Tomi Alapaattikoski and Jolyon Neubert
The film has been selected to the 2021 CAA Moebius Showcase, 2021 Florida Film Festival, 2021 CalArts Showcase, Helsinki International Film Festival National Competition , 2021 Nordic Talents & the 2021 Tacoma Film Festival
SHORT FILM | 13' | USA/ FINLAND | 2021 | Directed by Inka Rusi
FOUL
In an impressionistic meditation on exclusion, on learning where you rank in the hierarchy and what you're going to do about it, FOUL focuses on one moment, totally formative yet totally ordinary, between three brothers as they fight for their place in line.
The film asks you to question the game, to wonder what happens when you grow up in a rubric where dominance is rewarded, where you're enabled to exclude and taught only to consider yourself embraced once somebody else is alienated.
Director & Writer Inka Rusi, DoP Kasimir Lehto
CAST: Oliver Ingman, Kristian Lehto, Jesim Arbib, Jenni Ingman
Selected for and shown at the CalArts Showcase 2019