The Stranger

My Penguin Friend

A lost penguin rescued from an oil spill transforms the life of a heartbroken fisherman. They become unlikely friends, so bonded that even the vast ocean cannot divide them.

Two Belles in Love

She smells her fragrance, she sees her talent... The ancient love story of Cui Jianyun and Cao Yuhua. The plight of these two women is told as they fall in love due to the admiration for each other's stunning beauty and literary craft. Adapted from the Kunqu opera & story by Li Yu, "Fragrant Companion/Lianxiang Companion", this short film includes a parallel between the play and "reality." The ending has been altered from the original play.

40 Minutes

Joey's life is turned upside down after his parents discover his secret relationship with another boy and send him to reparative therapy to address the 'unnatural' feelings that threaten their image of a happy life. In a forty-minute hypnotherapy session, Joey's mind is explored by a therapist who is confident that his influence over Joey's thoughts can set him on the right path. At an age with little autonomy or voice in the matters of his own life, Joey struggles to find a way to choose for himself what will lead him to happiness.

A Father's Day

Unexpectedly reunited with his daughter amongst the ruins of the world as they knew it, a father is determined to make this day special, even if they are already dead.

I Am the Doorway

After Saturn XVI crashes back to Earth, ex-astronaut Arthur struggles with an infection. Richard and his friends are blind to it's origin but his victims won't be. The Doorway is open.

Common Causes for a Clinical Condition

María rehearses Antigone the same way as she criticizes the government's actions; Ismene listens fearfully just as Irving reluctantly accepts the official version of a lie. Love only has consciousness in its disappearance; in the end the causes will be known, and only the memory of those who refuse to forget will be left with no consequence.

El almohadón de plumas

Animation short based on a story by Horacio Quiroga.

Lessons in Self-Defense

Ben wants nothing more than to have his estranged 15-year-old daughter, Victoria, back in his life. When Victoria asks to meet with him, Ben eagerly seizes the opportunity, but quickly realizes that her reasons for coming back into his life have nothing to do with reconciliation.

Memorable

Aging painter Louis and his wife Michelle struggle to cope with Louis' advancing dementia.

Paranoid Park

A teenage skateboarder becomes suspected of being connected with a security guard who suffered a brutal death in a skate park called "Paranoid Park".

Typhoon

An escaped convict on his way to Texas strikes a deal with a young misfit.

Sunday

A young man alone on an open road, waits for a ride to nowhere in particular. He encounters a couple of gray nomads in a hearse, who take him on a demented journey towards his destiny.

Echoes of Us

Through the intimate lens of Silo, a Black queer woman, "Echoes of Us" captures the bittersweet journey of revisiting a past love that once felt like "the one." Now in a joyful relationship, Silo is unexpectedly pulled back into old memories, exploring how heartbreak, growth, and healing shape who we become.

Soft

A teenager struggles with his identity after an unresolved family relationship.

The Fountain of Bakhchisaray

Based on the poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin.

The Second Act

Florence wants to introduce David, the man she’s madly in love with, to her father Guillaume. But David isn’t attracted to Florence and wants to throw her into the arms of his friend Willy. The four characters meet in a restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

In the Woods with a Dead Dog

An unemployed, depressed creative-writing teacher attempts to restore his dignity in his daughter's eyes when everything else is lost.

Boosruck

After her friends Hyun-chul and Mi-jin break up, Se-yeong sets out to find out the reason for their breakup and experiences mysterious occurrences.

Yardbird

A young girl who lives in a remote wrecking yard takes on the local bullies when they travel out to torment her father.

7th & Union

Ex-fighter Raymundo forms an unlikely bond with a disgruntled man whose life and relationship with his daughter are unraveling. The men join forces to win a fight that could very well save Raymundo, his wife and their child.

Boiling Point

A head chef balances multiple personal and professional crises at a popular restaurant in London.

Hands of Stone

The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.

Faith Like Potatoes

Frank Rautenbach leads a strong cast as Angus Buchan, a Zambian farmer of Scottish heritage, who leaves his farm in the midst of political unrest and racially charged land reclaims and travels south with his family to start a better life in KwaZulu Natal,South Africa.

Bastard Out of Carolina

A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

El Chicano

A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Starving in Suburbia

When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?

What Maisie Knew

In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.

The Safety of Objects

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

A Corner in Wheat

On a whim, a greedy tycoon decides to corner the world market in wheat. This doubles the price of bread, forcing grain producers into charity lines and others further into poverty. The film contrasts the differences between the lives of those who work to grow the wheat and the life of the man who dabbles in its sale for profit.

Sky

A woman embarks on a journey alone across the United States after fleeing from her violent husband.

The Swan

Two large, ignorant bullies ruthlessly pursue a small, brilliant boy in this young adult Roald Dahl short story.

Farming

Based on the writer/director's childhood, FARMING tells the story of a young Nigerian boy, 'farmed out' by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang.

Normal

A Midwestern husband and father announces his plan to have a sex change operation.

The Girl in the Book

The story of a young writer's transformation when her past invades her present.

Butterfly on a Wheel

A sociopathic kidnapper methodically pushes a desperate pair of parents to their absolute breaking point.

Anuja

When a brilliant nine-year-old working in a sweatshop gets a chance to attend school, she must make a difficult choice for her and her sister's future.

Powder Keg

The Driver is drafted by the UN to rescue a wounded war photographer named Harvey Jacobs from out of hostile territory. While they are leaving Jacobs tells the Driver about the horrors he saw as a photographer, but he regrets his inability to help war victims. Jacobs answers the driver curiosity about why he is a photographer by saying how his mother taught him to see. He gives the Driver the film needed for a New York Times story and also his dog tags to give to his mother. When they reach the border, they are confronted by a guard who begins to draw arms as Jacobs begins taking pictures, trying to get himself killed. The Driver drives through a hail of gunfire to the border, but finds Jacobs killed by a bullet through the seat. The Driver arrives in America to visit Jacobs' mother and share the news of him winning the Pulitzer prize and hand over the dog tags, only to discover that she is blind.