Students Kathy Esquenazi-Mitrani and Aliza Brugger Make Waves At Festivals

Film students Kathy Esquenazi-Mitrani and Aliza Brugger are currently on a strong, respective festival run. Buzzkill, a short film written and directed by Esquenazi-Mitrani and co-produced by Brugger and student Manqing Cang, will have its world premiere at the Chicago International Film Festival, where it will screen digitally from October 14-25 as part of the Shorts 5 program. 

Meanwhile, Brugger’s Roadkill, a short film which she wrote and directed and Esquenazi-Mitrani produced, just screened virtually at the Queer Screen Film Fest, and at the Harvey Milk Fabulous Independent Film Festival. Last month, it also screened at the Last Frame Queer Womxn Fest.

Buzzkill follows an adolescent girl as she desperately tries to fit in with a group of South Florida teenagers.

In Brugger’s Roadkill, Tillie's lonely life as a roadkill removal worker is destabilized when Wanda, a lively stranger, comes to town.

Colombian writer and director Kathy Esquenazi-Mitrani is currently based in New York. Her previous short film, Rozada, premiered at Palm Springs International Short Film Festival 2020, will screen at AFI Fest 2020 in mid October and was chosen as a Vimeo Staff Pick. 

Aliza Brugger is a New York City based producer, director and screenwriter originally from Nebraska. She has written, directed and produced several features, TV pilots and short films that have screened in festivals all over the world. Brugger enjoys exploring themes of sexuality, female connection, nature and dystopia. Her goal as a filmmaker is to create stories that connect viewers to the image, to each other and to the world.