Social & External
The people behind it
Yasser Monção Andrella
Fumante
Paulo Gaiger
Viciado
El wakes to her Mother's voice and begins to see her body separating from herself, as through cascading visions of El’s past and future, she walks towards a memory of her Mother that seeps in from her dreams and calls her back into a place she is afraid to return to.
On the London Underground, a young man relives past traumas as he endures the sensory overload of rush hour, only to look up and see a young woman at the end of the carriage going through the same PTSD symptoms. Their recognition of each other's condition allows them a moment of peace before the train jolts them back into reality and she disappears at the next platform.
In 1986 Terri had a hit record. Still touring - same tune, same band - she longs for new material, but Paul her guitarist and boyfriend, can't see it. When teenage musician Jack can, she flees her gig on Canvey Island for a one night adventure, and finds her voice at last.
In the everyday life of the bus, the world still hopes to find warmth.
Rubber Duckie is the story of Jesse and Daniel, who on a blazing summer afternoon, are consumed with boredom and push their own limits and boundaries. This leaves us begging the question; is it simple boredom or insatiable innate appetite for more?
A chemical analyst, finds himself under unbearable pressure from the environment he chose to live in. Which leads him to a drastic change, for self-acceptance.
Val is a century old vampire, but in human terms, she can barely pass for twenty. After what feels like an eternity spent at her family home in the northern reaches of the UK, she’s now ready to embark on a new chapter at university. However, the long trip down south soon turns frosty as grieving mother Vera struggles to come to terms with her little girl flying the nest.
Moody, edgy and unrelieved: the duplicity of desiring one’s double.
"Sugar" is an elegiac short film directed by filmmaker, Michael Patti. Michael sought to tell a story of grief, patience, the overwhelming aspects of parenthood and the understanding that we are all connected. "Sugar" a stirring, wistful visual meditation on relationships.
Confused, in a haze of consciousness and intolerance, five fragile souls enter an eerie dimension. This journey forces an artist, junkie, an unapologetic queer, a racist cop and a forged reverend to confront their own demons. In the waiting room, a trickster deity illuminates the shadows hiding within each subject. Piece by piece, each person realizes the darkness they've left behind.
A TV decorator returns to his small Arizona town for his 20 year class reunion with his boyfriend in tow and discovers that his former classmates are not exactly as they seem.
Cracks are starting to burst in Marina's frozen life, leading towards finding refuge in dangerous places.
Bebhínn lives the high life in London while her parents retire in rural Ireland to work the family farm. On a visit to Co Kerry, Bebhínn sees her father working hard as a sheep farmer with very little monetary reward - - Bebhínn struggles with his recent choices in life until one night her eyes are opened to another way of life.
Yan Hao, a violinist, gets into an accident causing her to be temporarily blind. Frustrated and shocked, a blessing comes as a woman suddenly tries to help Yan Hao navigate life again.
A seaman finds himself out of work and stranded in a distant port. He shares a cheap room. They take turns sleeping, some in the morning, some at night. Grief! When he will go back to sea? And there! The scent of woman drifts up to seduce him! He realizes he had shared his bed with a lady of the night.
A story about a dysfunctional father and son who are still coping with a loss, the other with a highly-stigmatized illness who are compelled to talk to one another to make ends meet and heal the wounds of their relationship.
Writes Ando, "Oh! My Mother was the first work I made using a newly bought 16mm camera I had purchased with the writer Shuji Terayama in Paris. This piece was selected for the Oberhausen International Film Festival. In 1969, there were, of course, no video cameras like ones we see now, and color TVs were only found at broadcast television studios. I had just been employed at the TBS (Tokyo Broadcasting System), and I often snuck into the studios after hours to experiment with the equipment. Oh! My Mother was made using the feedback effect, which is produced by infinitely expanding the image by looping the video."
While a music box plays, a young woman is consumed by anxiety and fear of being judged for a decision she made.
MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in one championship against the brutal champion Xavier Grau.
The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
A nobleman vows to avenge the death of his father by the hands of pirates. To this end, he infiltrates the pirate band; Acting in character, he single-handedly captures a merchant vessel, but things are complicated when he finds that there is a beautiful young woman of royal blood aboard.
When 13-year-old Tracy befriends Evie, the most popular girl in school, her life is turned upside down as Evie introduces her to a world of sex, drugs, and money. But it isn’t long before Tracy’s new lifestyle begins to take a heavy toll on her and her family.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
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.
An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
Aspiring bodybuilder Killian Maddox struggles to find human connection in an exploration of celebrity and violence. Nothing deters him from his fiercely protected dream of superstardom, not even the doctors who warn him of the permanent damage he causes to himself with his quest.
When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.
Brenda, vivacious leader of the "Satins", a fun-loving group of pretty high school girls, searches for deadly vengeance against the gang members who assaulted her deaf-mute sister.
Two large, ignorant bullies ruthlessly pursue a small, brilliant boy in this young adult Roald Dahl short story.
After a failed bank robbery, two heavily armed men hold the Los Angeles Police Department at bay for 44 minutes.
After several behavior problems, teenager John is admitted to a psychiatric clinic by his family. There he meets Judith, for who he soon falls in love. The problem is that she does not have long to live and they know it. This shall not prevent the emergence of a great romance in the clinic.
Genndy Tartakovsky's Primal: Tales of Savagery features a caveman and a dinosaur on the brink of extinction. Bonded by tragedy, this unlikely friendship becomes the only hope of survival.
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
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.
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
In a world with no guns, a mysterious drifter, a bartender and a young samurai plot revenge against a ruthless leader and his army of thugs, headed by nine diverse and deadly assassins.
