EXCLUSIVE: Switchboard, a platform that mixes distributing documentary and live-action shorts with longform journalism, is preparing for its first Oscar campaign after picking up four titles.
The operation, launched by Celia Aniskovich, who has produced documentaries including Max’s Call Me Cleo and Beanie Mania, earlier this year, has acquired André Robert Lee and Tim Kirkman’s Freeman Vines, Harris Doran and Akbar Hamid’s Poreless, Jared and Carly Jakins’ Rat Rod, and Adam Oppenheim and Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian’s Saving Superman.
Switchboard will premiere all four projects on November 10 on its site and YouTube channel and will promote all four collectively to spotlight short-form filmmaking during the awards season.
The three documentaries and one comedy have screened at more than 100 film festivals worldwide including Tribeca, HotDocs,Woodstock, and Palm Springs.
“We’ve spent the past year searching for the most compelling shorts on the festival circuit, and we’re honored to be the new home for these films and the filmmakers behind them,” said Aniskovich. “What moved us most was seeing how eager they were to lift each other up — a spirit of collaboration that reflects exactly what Switchboard was founded to champion. We’re excited to see how far these projects can go, and how powerfully their messages resonate.”
Freeman Vines is a portrait of Freeman Vines, who has spent his life hand carving guitars. Vines died earlier this year at 82 after battling multiple myeloma, but right up to his death he was desperately trying to make a guitar that can reproduce an elusive sound the instrument made decades ago. His instruments—ranging from traditional to boldly abstract—were sculpted from woods with layered histories, including timber from trees once used in the lynching of Black men. Working from a modest storefront in Fountain, North Carolina, and while battling multiple myeloma and diabetes, Vines continued to create, each guitar becoming a reflection of his artistry and his lifelong confrontation with the racism embedded in his environment.
Lee and Kirkman directed and Gill Holland produced. “When I first met Freeman Vines in North Carolina, we had an instant connection that felt centuries old,” said André Robert Lee. “I am the descendant of refugees from the Jim Crow South. Returning to the state that is part of my family’s origin story was scary and powerful. My time with Freeman made me feel like a return to a home I did not even know I had and needed. I poured my heart into this film and now present it with a deep intention to honor Freeman Vines as a recent ancestor.”
Poreless is a camp-infused comedy that follows Akram, a queer Muslim beauty entrepreneur on the verge of his big break. When a smoothie-induced allergic reaction leaves his face in crisis on the eve of a career-defining pitch, Akram must navigate ambition, identity, and family while confronting the impossible pressure to stay flawless. Akbar Hamid plays Akram and produces with Harris Doran directing from a script he and Fawzia Mirza wrote. Allyce Beasley, Parvesh Cheena, Gia Crovatin, Diane Guerrero, Lucy Owen, Sophie Von Haselberg, Sureni Weerasekera with Jillian Gottlieb, Joel Perez and Joey Zauzig also star.
Akbar Hamid said, “Poreless is my love letter to being unapologetically yourself. As a queer Muslim, I’ve lived the tension of a world that tells you to hide, and I’ve also lived the joy of laughing through it. Comedy is the great connector; it breaks down walls and reminds us that our differences are what make us extraordinary.”
Rat Rod follows a haunted mechanic, who muses on his experiences as an immigrant in rural America as he resurrects cars. Jared Jakins and Carly Jakins direct, Carly Jakins, H.B. Phillips and Kelyn Ikegami produce.
“This film is part of an ongoing body of work exploring the lived experiences of rural communities in the contemporary American West. In the early 1990s, Jorge Ramirez moved from Mexico to a small Mormon town in central Utah. Around the same time, Jared’s family immigrated from South Africa to that very town. Over the years, Jorge became a close family friend. Jorge’s story of immigration, in many ways, is revealing of so many other young immigrants. We set out to capture the subtle, often ineffable experience of encountering — and learning to live within — a rural community. It’s a reflection on what it means to embrace both life and death in a place that can feel, at times, haunting to those seen as outsiders,” said Jared Jakins.
Finally, Saving Superman is the story of small town hero, Jonathan Charbonneau, a 57-year-old man with autism spectrum disorder facing eviction. Charbonneau is a revered member of the Glen Ellyn, Illinois community and has been a staple in the 4th of July Parade for nearly 30 years. When Jonathan’s living circumstances are threatened by a new building owner, the townspeople spring into action after his best friend Julie starts a fundraiser to save his home.
Adam Oppenheim and Samuel-Ali Mirpoorian direct and produce with Julie Spiller also producing.
“The heart of Saving Superman lies in how ordinary heroism can quietly ripple through a community. Jonathan has never claimed a cape, but for decades he’s stood as a silent guardian for the people around him—anchoring his identity in kindness, loyalty, and connection. When his home is threatened, we saw more than just a house at risk; we saw the strength of community, the value of belonging, and how one person—loved, respected, and vulnerable—can become the catalyst for collective care,” said Oppenheim and Mirpoorian.