Social & External
The people behind it
Adriano Exacoustos
14 year old Nakamura is sexually abused by her stepfather. She invents a friend who is coming to her rescue when she really needs it.
Luis and Chema are going to buy some drugs to get rid of a debt. The transaction with Jose, the drug dealer, is cut short by an impulse of violence in which they end up stealing the stash. Jose, who cannot afford to lose the pack, will hunt them down. In the final moments, Luis and Chema will have to face their own decisions.
The story of a young woman named Jane 57821, who is living in a totalitarian near-future society where citizens are referred to as 'computers.' 'Dirty Computer' explores humanity and what truly happens to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness when mind and machines merge, and when the government chooses fear over freedom.
The protagonist feels dead in waking life and alive in dreams.
When a high school senior is dumped by her boyfriend, her grades fall drastically...to avoid failing, she begins seducing her male teachers. Thus begins her downward spiral into drug addiction and prostitution, and ultimately assassinations for a kingpin mob boss.
Has Danny's life actually divided into two parallel existences - age 17 and 39? And if so, will he be able to regain the power of choice that was taken away from him, and choose his own path in life?
Four close friends with big dreams who live together in the slums struggle to overcome their lowly circumstances, and realise that the journey to greatness is one that must be bravely fought for.
"Beginnings are rare and fleeting. All we are left with in life is a long and unavoidable journey to the end. Describe the burdens you carry with you on this journey." I sent the above prompt to friends and colleagues and asked for any artistic response. I received numerous poems, songs, short stories, etc. I took all of the responses and stitched together the verses, stories, and emotions into a narrative following the protagonist through a day in his life. My goal was to give a snapshot of the mental health of those around me and remind everyone that they are not alone in their sadness.
The ghost of John Belushi looks back on his troubled life and career.
A few months after their breakup, Alice and Samuel meet at a diner's parking lot to return the last of their belongings. An unexpected confession disrupts their tense reunion. Between rekindled love and the ghosts from the past, where will this night lead them?
A boy revisits his past after taking a bottle of pills in an act of suicide
A man is diagnosed terminally ill and having only a limited time to live he decides to inflict pain and suffering on an ex-girlfriend in an attempt to teach her the value of life.
At a salt lake, Alma sits on a bench, confronted by echoes of the past. As she revisits and reimagines, reality blends with longing, and memory becomes a landscape of its own. Vanishing Pink Remains is a short film about nostalgia, memory, and limerence--the emotional residue of moments lived, missed, or imagined.
A story about two sisters - Małgorzata, who is single by choice, and her younger sister, Łucja, a mother of two and an assistant in Małgorzata's law firm. The women embark on their first first trip in many years. It quickly turns out that one of them is terminally ill and her destination is Switzerland, where euthanasia is possible.
Twenty years old prostitute and drug addict, Jola, by chance meets Andrzej, a "railway station gay". They try to stay together, in spite of numerous diffculties. They both are carriers of the HIV virus. At the end of their travels they find themselves in the Red Palace - formerly the recreation centre for Party dignitaries, now a home for AIDS sufferers - which is run by father Jan. In the nearby small town aggression begins to grow again the unwanted guests; the house have been promised to the local people for housing purposes... The lives and fates of Jola, Andrzej, and father Jan become increasingly intertwined with one another...
The story of Scottish psychiatrist RD Laing and his unique community at Kingsley Hall, East London in the 1960s.
Tarquin's life has spiraled out of control, a well bred public school educated man. Having nothing going for him except his own guilt, regret and destitution; he is his own enemy. The traumas and hardships he's endured have led him to a life of drugs an solicitation. Ready to escape the hell of the urban underworld, he embarks upon a journey to salvation to The Balearic Island of Ibiza. Alive under the scintillating sun, engulfed in the 'culture' and heart-pumping Music that is known to every party goer, Tarquin's hope for regeneration may not be as simple as he thinks.
After losing the people and purpose that once kept him going, Rio drifts through life with little hope for the future. Everything begins to change when he meets Anna, a cheerful young woman who encourages him to see beauty in the ordinary. When hope finally begins to bloom, an unexpected turn of events challenges everything they have learned about life, loss, and the courage to keep moving forward.
The drug-induced utopias of four Coney Island residents are shattered when their addictions run deep.
A man and woman are drawn together, entangled in the lifecycle of an ageless organism. Identity becomes an illusion as they struggle to assemble the loose fragments of wrecked lives.
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
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.
A mosaic of several intertwined stories questioning the meaning of life, love and hope, set during the last six days in the life of Eluana Englaro, a young woman who spent 17 years in a vegetative state.
Waking up in an unfamiliar city, a man with no memory must confront the mysteries of his own identity. However, his desperate search to uncover the past pits him against a powerful enemy, leading to a showdown that ultimately reveals the truth.
Guido Anselmi, a film director, finds himself creatively barren at the peak of his career. Urged by his doctors to rest, Anselmi heads for a luxurious resort, but a sorry group gathers—his producer, staff, actors, wife, mistress, and relatives—each one begging him to get on with the show. In retreat from their dependency, he fantasizes about past women and dreams of his childhood.
A shy caretaker believes that the father of her teenage charge is falling in love with her, unaware that she is actually the victim of the girl's prank.
Two years after bringing peace to the galaxy, Steven Universe sees his past come back to haunt him in the form of a deranged Gem who wants to destroy the Earth.
Portland, Oregon, 1971. Bob Hughes is the charismatic leader of a peculiar quartet, formed by his wife, Dianne, and another couple, Rick and Nadine, who skillfully steal from drugstores and hospital medicine cabinets in order to appease their insatiable need for drugs. But neither fun nor luck last forever.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
During a solo voyage in the Indian Ocean, a veteran mariner awakes to find his vessel taking on water after a collision with a stray shipping container. With his radio and navigation equipment disabled, he sails unknowingly into a violent storm and barely escapes with his life. With any luck, the ocean currents may carry him into a shipping lane -- but, with supplies dwindling and the sharks circling, the sailor is forced to face his own mortality.
A recent widow invites her husband's troubled best friend to live with her and her two children. As he gradually turns his life around, he helps the family cope and confront their loss.
A man reflects on the lost love of his youth and his long-ago journey from Taiwan to America as he begins to reconnect with his estranged daughter.
Two drifters, one a gentle but slow giant, try to make money working the fields during the Depression so they can fulfill their dreams.
A Pulitzer-winning writer grapples with being a widower and father after a mental breakdown, while, 27 years later, his grown daughter struggles to forge connections of her own.
Dr. Malcolm Sayer, a shy research physician, uses an experimental drug to "awaken" the catatonic victims of a rare disease. Leonard is the first patient to receive the controversial treatment. His awakening, filled with awe and enthusiasm, proves a rebirth for Sayer too, as the exuberant patient reveals life's simple but unutterably sweet pleasures to the introverted doctor.
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?
After having visions of a member of her support group who killed herself, a woman who also suffers with chronic pain seeks out the widower of the suicide.
Three storylines, spanning thousands of years, intersect and reflect on hope, connection, and the circle of life.
