Tag: HollyShorts Film Festival 2026

“It’s Complicated” Screens at HollyShorts Film Festival 2026

On August 16, 2026

Iman Karram as Yara in “It’s Complicated,” screening at the HollyShorts Film Festival.

The 17’ 42” short “It’s Complicated”, executive produced by Zoe Saldana, is an Iman Karram one-woman show. Written, produced by and starring Iman Karram, It’s Complicated follows Yara, “a Palestinian-American screenwriter in Los Angeles, whose online Arabic lessons with Hana (Dina Shuhaiber), a poet and teacher living in Gaza, blossom into a profound friendship built on shared ambition, humor, and sisterhood. Mainly, we learn about Hana as she attempts to tutor Yara via Zoom, helping her to master speaking Arabic.”

CAST

Besides Iman Karram and Dina Schuhaiber as the pregnant tutor from afar, Liz Charky was the Director of Photography and Tarek Yamani contributed an original score. Darine Hotait co-wrote with Iman Karram. Amongst those thanked as supporters, in addition to Zoe Saldana, were Charlie Day, Alison Brie, Pedro Pascal, the Arab Film and Media Institute and the Islamic Scholarship Fund.

IMAN KARRAM

“Iman Karram is an Arab American actress, writer, and producer from Washington, D.C. …She spent her early years dancing competitively, interning on Capitol Hill, and performing in regional theater before earning degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Film at UCLA.

She recently starred opposite Michael Angarano and Michael Cera in the Tribeca-premiering feature “Sacramento”. Her project “Like The Tide”, was written, produced, and led by Iman. Celebrated for both her comedic instincts and her athletic background, recognized by LeBron James and the LA Rams, Iman brings a dynamic physicality and emotional intelligence to every role she takes on.”

Writer/Director/Actress Iman Karram of “It’s Complicated” at HollyShorts Film Festival.

The above 2 paragraphs, quoted from IMDBPRO, explain who Iman Karram is. I did not notice any “dynamic physicality” in her role as Yara. Yara’s conversations with the distant Hana, who is pregnant and awaiting the birth of a child, were not very dramatic, given Hana’s situation. We hear Yara attempting to master Arabic and cooking. While interesting, it seemed to skirt the very real life-and-death issues enveloping the Gaza Strip.

THE BACKDROP

With all the recent publicity involving Israel and Palestine and the Gaza Strip, a great deal of drama was omitted from this short that could have informed us about the ongoing Gaza Strip situation. That message was not driven home with any forcefulness. We see Iman cooking and chatting with Hana, but the short is largely lifeless regarding the visceral issues laid bare after the assault on Israel by 6,000 Hamas warriors on October 7, 2023, leading to the deaths of 1,200 Jewish civilians and the abduction of 251 hostages to Gaza (what has been dubbed “the deadliest single day for Jews since the Holocaust.”)

THRUST/COUNTER-THRUST

That invasion of Israel by Hamas triggered the right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike back at Gaza. There are estimates of 73,000 direct deaths, 463 famine death, and 10,000 presumed buried under rubble in the Gaza Strip, according to Wikipedia.

At least 173,900 Palestinian Arabs have been injured. Gaza now has the most child amputees, per capita, of any nation in the world, with more than 21,000 children disabled and 50% of casualties being women and children.

As of May, 2024, 84% of Gaza’s health centers had been destroyed or damaged, as had all 12 of Gaza’s universities. Eighty-five per cent of Gaza’s population were forcibly displaced and the government of South Africa instituted proceedings at the International Court of Justice alleging a violation of the Genocide Convention.

CONCLUSION

There was definitely an engrossing story that could have been told to add to the viewer’s knowledge of what is going on in the Gaza Strip.

This wasn’t it.

Michael Keaton & Kyra Sedgewick in “Sweetwater” at HollyShorts 2026

By Connie Wilson

On August 14, 2026

In Best Paranormal Stories Online to Read | Paranormal Podcast, Movies, Music, Of Local (Quad Cities') Interest, Pop Culture, Reviews

Michael Keaton in “Sweetwater,” a HollyShorts offering.

Michael Keaton directed and starred in a 20’ 52” Holly Shorts short entitled “Sweetwater” that also featured veteran actress Kyra Sedgewick. It was a stroll down memory lane into the past for main character Robert (Bobby), who is returning to the home once occupied by his now-deceased mother, a former Hollywood singer/actress.

The mysterious gift-giver of what appears to be a black 8-ball that Michael Keaton’s character (Robert/Bobby) rolls across the floor of his mother’s house after entering summons an apparition of Mom during life. The disembodied voice says it is “a token of appreciation” and “something that your incredible mother deserved.” The gift allows Robert (Keaton) to interact with Mom one more time, from beyond the grave—but not in a spooky or scary fashion.

DENOUEMENT

Michael Keaton’s character of Robert/Bobby is the son of the dead woman who is now able to show up and give him, one last time, a tour of the house where she lived during life with her Teddy Bear of a husband for 42 years.

The interesting thing, for me, was seeing Michael Keaton again, credited as Michael Keaton Douglas. The 75-year-old has not been as present on our movie screens since his Oscar-nod in “Birdman” in 2014, 12 years ago. Keaton’s real name is and was Michael Douglas; he merely adopted Keaton to cut down on the confusion with the other Michael Douglas and has never legally changed his name.

FAMILY CONNECTIONS

The script was written by Sean Douglas, who also composed the music. Cinematography was by Christopher Ripley. The special effects were as good as those used on the TV show “Ghosts,” a UK import. In that series, a couple inherits a house that they hope to turn into a bed-and-breakfast,only to learn that it is inhabited by ghosts. One of the new owners develops the ability to see the ghosts, which leads to humorous situations.

Here, humor is missing, conflict is missing, and it’s as if Jackie Kennedy rose from the dead to take us on another of her tours of the White House. It was kind of an odd dispirited tour when Jackie was alive (yes, I’m old enough to remember it) with Jackie speaking in that Marilyn Monroe-like Little Girl voice. If Jackie O. had led us on that tour as a spectre or a wraith it would have been even stranger , but not necessarily any more engrossing or entertaining. Just….odder.

This short led me to think that, like “Chop Cheese” that featured Christopher Meloni helping launch his daughter Sophia’s directorial career, Michael Keaton (Douglas) is trying to help a family member (son Sean) get a start on a larger career in Hollywood. Or maybe it marks a new chapter for the 75-year-old Oscar-nominated Keaton himself, who is already a producer. He’s been somewhat quiescent since his 2014 Oscar-nomination for “Birdman,” (although he did suit up for “The Flash” in 2023 and was in “Morbius” in 2022), so maybe he’s going in a new direction?

SEAN DOUGLAS

Sean Douglas Michael’s son, is the 43-year-old father of two (married in 2014), who attended Washington University in St. Louis. He has already established a strong career as a songwriter. A Grammy Award-nominee,^[5] he co-wrote Thomas Rhett’s “Die a Happy Man“, which won the ACM Award for Single of the Year,^[6] the Billboard Music Award for Top Country Song,^[7] the CMA Award for Single of the Year^[8] and the BMI Award for Song of the Year.^[9] The song, released in 2016, was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Country Song.^[10] Douglas also worked on Lizzo’s “Like A Girl” and “Soulmate” from her Grammy-winning album Cuz I Love You.

The music is solid and Kyra Sedgewick gets to sing, which she does well.

Kyra Sedgewick in the HollyShorts film “Sweetwater,” directed by Michael Keaton Douglas.

CONFLICT

For me—a genre fiction writer and University of Iowa grad—there should be some conflict in a story—even a short one— to hold the reader’s interest. Here there is none. The deceased Mom seems to have had a lovely life and a great career and takes us on a pleasant tour of her former home. Michael Keaton just stands around or walks around the now-empty house. (Jackie Kennedy Onassis does not chime in with commentary, which would have been an interesting, if inexplicable, turn the plot might have taken just to keep us interested.) The film was the equivalent of sitting down with your grandmother to leaf through her photo albums, which, as we all know, is the favorite thing for Generation Z movie-goers—who are rushing off to see “Obsession” at the theater—to do.

With old pros like these two involved, the end product is okay. But, for me, it was not riveting storytelling and I’m not sure that a longer version of this would attract today’s audiences.