Event

About ELEMENTS: A Short Anthology

ELEMENTS is an anthology of four different Bay Area residents and their intersecting lives on the same day, and includes the following short films:

Lunch Lady [12 min | 2019 | NR | English]: When a lunch lady is bullied by a high school student, she takes matters into her own hands.

Sharks & Minnows [11 min | 2019 | NR | English]: While Ben rehearses a dance with Shayne for their high school's show choir, he discovers Shayne has more on his mind than jazz hands.

Across [12 min | 2019 | NR | English]: A grieving father’s journey over the San Francisco/Oakland Bay Bridge goes awry when he picks up a homeless veteran.

Median [2021 | NR | English]: A gay activist rallies the queer community after he and a trans activist are assaulted by a group of religious extremists.

A Q&A with filmmaker Matthew Riutta will follow the screening.

Matthew Riutta is an award-winning filmmaker, working in the San Francisco Bay Area’s film and television community for the past 20 years. He has written, directed, and produced several award-winning short films including I Don’t, Lunch Lady, Sharks & Minnows, Across (Jury Award/Best Short Film at 2022 SF IndieFest, Audience Award/2021 Bay Area Short Films Festival), and Median (Director’s Choice Award/2022 Cinema Diverse, Audience Award/2021 SF Queer Film Fest). Matthew was a fellow with SFFilm’s Film House where he further developed his feature film projects Lucky Star and Man Up Above.

As a location manager, Matthew has worked on productions such as HBO’s Looking and Insecure, the Netflix series Sense8 and Tales of the City, and the films Milk, The Master, and Fruitvale Station (2013 Sundance Film Festival’s Audience and Grand Jury Awards). He is a co-recipient of the California On-Location Award for Fruitvale Station, Moneyball, and Memoirs of a Geisha.

Raised in rural Indiana and now residing in Oakland, CA, Matthew graduated from Indiana University with a bachelor’s degree in Broadcast Journalism and Business. You can learn more about Matthew at his website.

Any film screened at IU Cinema may contain content that viewers find sensitive or upsetting. Visit our Audience Advisories page to learn more.