AGORA
Mahogany Ellis-Crutchfield and Payton Von Eschen, in a scene from Agora.
At a running time of just under eight minutes, Agora tells the simple tale of a young girl lost at the Fair. Separated from her mother, the girl must find the courage to help a stranger despite daunting circumstances and bizarre surroundings. The young heroine is portrayed by eight-year-old Mahogany Ellis-Crutchfield, while her new companion is played by four-year-old Payton Von Eschen.
Agora was invited to premiere at the 50th Melbourne International Film Festival, competing as a finalist in the International Short Films Competition. Agora was subsequently acquired for the Exemplary Works Collection at the new Australian Centre for the Moving Image. The film made its stateside debut at the Palm Springs International Festival of Short Films, and accepted the Grand Jury Prize for Best Short Film at the 2002 Minneapolis-St. Paul International Film Festival. In the past two years, Agora has added three more film fest awards to its list of accolades.
The film has received significant exposure with more than fifty film festival and special event screenings, television broadcasts at a number of outlets around the country, and a 2004 theatrical presentation at Anthology Film Archives in New York City. In December of 2005, Agora will celebrate its most noteworthy honor to date when it appears on the New Years national broadcast of the prestigious PBS series, "Independent Lens."
