It’s Gotta Be Cake is an experimental exploration of the spectrum of asexuality, and examines discomfort as a response to sexualization in everyday life.
Social & External
The people behind it
Kasie Rayner
Inside a bathroom, a woman dissolves. Not into water—but into identity. Set in an oneiric, liminal space, this experimental short dissects the most banal of routines—eliminate, change, wash—and refracts them through the prism of identity. What do we flush away, what do we conceal with powder and polish, what residue do we scrub from the self? The film doesn't offer answers. It exists in the space between viewer and image, where meaning is slippery and selfhood runs down the drain.
Vera is an experimental film that combines drawn-on-film and digital animation. The images unfold to the rhythm of music played by Vera Guilaroff, a pianist from Quebec that has now been forgotten by history. Guilaroff accompanied numerous silent films in Montreal movie theaters during the 1910s and 1920s. To our knowledge, this is the first time in nearly 100 years that her music has been used again in a film.
By a riverside tree, a man mercilessly beats a mysterious sack. Black fluid seeps, flames rise, and a grotesque meal follows. No matter how hard he scrubs, the stains remain. As guilt resurfaces, he comes face to face with the hell he thought he had buried.
After the mysterious disappearance of a mayor in the El Retiro neighborhood, east of Mexico City, Miguel Ángel "el Apá", a retired resident, wanders the streets with a video camera interviewing locals about what happened, with the intention to make a documentary film to uncover the truth.
The restaurant opens. Customers eat. The restaurant closes. For one employee, this daily routine becomes his personal hell.
A socially awkward, neurodivergent youth struggles to adapt at a social gathering that quickly takes a turn into the uncanny and surreal.
A meditation on the Moon as a series of spheres melting away. The audio-visuals are synchronized via a repeated glitch process: the same values that databent the visuals are also used to change the base audio samples, creating a translation between a visual glitch and an audible one, even though in the final presentation they seem entirely different.
pottymouth paz is a piece of junk, a total nitwit, and a real good time. narrated by grandma.
The Greek word for mayfly (its order in biological systematics) - ephemeroptera - can be split and translated as having short-lived wings. The oldest fossil found depicting a winged creature is that of a mayfly, over three hundred million years old.
Of chaos and change and adaptation and resurrection.
A quiet and fragmental look at loneliness.
A videographic fantasia on the films of Alfred Hitchcock that quickly veers into controlled insanity. Through fervor and mania, this unconventional cinematic homage re-imagines the influence of the master of suspense. A "murdergame" means to will a dream into existence, and fall victim to obsession.
This four-volume boxset released by Image Forum compiles the breadth of Shuji Terayama's experimental short film work into an extensive DVD collection. Originally released by Image Forum on VHS in 1995, this upgraded DVD boxset stands as the definitive collection for Terayama's experimental work in the highest quality possible.
Undergrowth (Maleza) is a brief exploration of one of the most destructive consequences of rural depopulation and abandonment: forest fires. It does so, specifically, by focusing on the destructive power of the undergrowth—a suffocating thicket of ‘weeds’ caused by the rural exodus—which, as the story unfolds, takes over the image itself to destroy it completely.
A poetic examination of the wetlands, forests, and ecosystems of the Niagara Escarpment World Biosphere.
On a day in the field, a young woman questions her relationship when she catches a man taking photos of her.
Perennial Stream is a portrayal of growth and decay. It is done on a single sheet of paper. Graphite marks are drawn, erased, then re-drawn, leaving behind a map of remains. A single, drawn line acts as a seed, which then propagates into larger forms, gathering to create a cyclic flow of movement and stillness within an abstracted ecosystem.
A love story recounted not by them, but by their belongings and surroundings.
A short video about the processing of matter, using found footage, all food-related, as its material. A comparatively unobtrusive soundtrack, though one which underlines the seriousness of the subject, has been added.
A melodic singer, a man in his underwear, and two people with telekinesis abilities with a saint.
In Los Angeles, a colorful assortment of bohemians try to make sense of their intersecting lives. The moody Dark Smith, his bisexual girlfriend, her lesbian lover and their shy gay friend plan on attending the wildest party of the year. But they'll only make it if they can survive the drug trips, suicides, trysts, mutilations and alien abductions that occur as one surreal day unfolds.
A comedy film that looks into the loosely connected lives of people with strange sexual fantasies.
A collection of seven vignettes, which each address a question concerning human sexuality. From aphrodisiacs to sexual perversion to the mystery of the male orgasm, characters like a court jester, a doctor, a queen and a journalist adventure through lab experiments and game shows, all seeking answers to common questions that many would never ask.
A veteran call girl and a runaway prostitute witness a murder which sends them on an out-of-control roller coaster ride through the twilight zone of sex-for-sale.
Veronica is a white-bread beauty searching for a good man in Los Angeles. While slam dancing at a Halloween rave, she meets Abel, a sensitive poet. Then she meets Zed, a supersexy tattooed drummer with incredible biceps. Who will she choose? Does she go for true love or cheap sex? She can't decide so she chooses both. But after managing to nurture a picture-perfect threesome, along comes Ernest, a rich movie director with deep baby blues that sweep Veronica off her feet. What's a girl to do now?
Luke, a young man insecure about his masculinity, discovers he's a Zerophiliac, with the ability to change sex at will. Join Luke as he journeys into the extraordinary world of Zerophilia where so many crazy questions arise, only one question matters: "Whom do you love?"
When a wounded Christian Grey tries to entice a cautious Ana Steele back into his life, she demands a new arrangement before she will give him another chance. As the two begin to build trust and find stability, shadowy figures from Christian’s past start to circle the couple, determined to destroy their hopes for a future together.
A fidgety, wisecracking video store clerk develops a fixation on a particularly reclusive customer, a frequent visitor to the pornography section of Cinefile, the video store where he works in Los Angeles. After multiple failures to impress her during their brief daily transactions, he finds her street address in the store's database, drives to her apartment building and initiates an unconventional campaign to win her affections.
While her free-living bestie urges her to embrace singlehood, a commitment-craving social media expert can't stop following the life of a former love.
Brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, a young woman runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents. Free from the prejudices of her times, she grows steadfast in her purpose to stand for equality and liberation.
On a Tuesday night, five couples have separate sexual adventures. Matt and Kris, friends for years, want to have an only-once, no-strings good time. Abby and Andrew, married, celebrate his birthday, but it's marred by angst and miscommunication. Mia and Eric are exes, making sure they are over each other. Jaime and Ken work together and this is a first date. Inez and Gord invite his roommate, Dave, to join them. By the time each couple has gone through a prelude, foreplay, sex, an interlude, orgasm, and afterglow, they've answered basic questions: can sex be anonymous, are we bored, is our marriage really finished, does anyone tell the truth, and how do we make someone happy?
Believing they have left behind shadowy figures from their past, newlyweds Christian and Ana fully embrace an inextricable connection and shared life of luxury. But just as she steps into her role as Mrs. Grey and he relaxes into an unfamiliar stability, new threats could jeopardize their happy ending before it even begins.
New York sportswriter Mack has spent years devising successful hook-up "plays" with her friends, but when she unexpectedly falls for one of her targets, she must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.
Neil, a self-proclaimed film geek and owner of Gumshoe video, has always been content to live vicariously through his favorite films noir. But when he meets Violet, a real-life femme fatale, his mundane world gets turned upside down and the line between reality and the movies quickly begins to blur.
Christopher is an ambitious college freshman, striving to become a writer. Through a computer fault he's assigned the same room as Alex, a real party freak and... a girl! He's annoyed and tries to get a different room as soon as possible, but when he learns to know her, he also starts to like her. She not only improves his sexual life, but also his writing skills
Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.
In a climate change-ravaged world, a utopian society optimizes life, including parenthood assessments. A successful couple faces scrutiny by an evaluator over seven days to determine their fitness for childbearing.
Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.
Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton, who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family's sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.
A mentally ill young woman finds love with an eccentric man who models himself after Buster Keaton.