What to Film...

After spending a few months in quarantine, a young filmmaker struggles to find inspiration.

Memorie

Women in Film: BBC Introducing Arts

Cultural historian Janina Ramirez presents a collection of intriguing and exciting short films by emerging women directors and artists. Each film gives a female perspective on modern-day topics from body image and new love to grief and belonging. Expect honest and refreshing storytelling that will make you laugh, make you cry and make you think. In a Room Full of Sisters; Blood Stains; Bridging the Gap; Cake; Ding-Ding, Next; Fruity; In Perpetuum; Owulide; White Dwarf; Cosmic Domestic; The Dead Are Jewels to Me; The Presence of Absence

Three Musketeers

A child, a young businessman and a homeless man happen to build an unlikely friendship.

Creating a Scene: BBC Introducing Arts

Actor, writer and producer Chizzy Akudolu presents a collection of dramatic short films from the best of new British film-makers. Reflecting modern Britain, subjects range from speed dating, the climate emergency and school friendships to spotting UFOs. Aisle 17; Swiped; Muriid; A Conversation with My Enemy; Money Up; Blue Corridor 15; Desert Town Landings; Pub Kid; Cardiff, I Love You; Dinah; This Camera Is Broken

Remy & Arletta

Remy attempts to balance her relationship with her alcoholic mother and her longtime best friend, Arletta. While Remy leans on her best friend as a coping mechanism, she learns that their co-dependent friendship is more than she realized.

The Last Ramen

Bend It Like Beckham

Jess Bhamra, the daughter of a strict Indian couple in London, is not permitted to play organized soccer, even though she is 18. When Jess is playing for fun one day, her impressive skills are seen by Jules Paxton, who then convinces Jess to play for her semi-pro team. Jess uses elaborate excuses to hide her matches from her family while also dealing with her romantic feelings for her coach, Joe.

The Mystery of the Night before the 25th

A private investigator is invited to come to an address. He realizes that it is a trap and take some precautions before going there. Once in place, he is overpowered and tied to a chair with a time bomb.

I'm an actrice

Baba, a preteen from Belleville, Paris, must deal with her mother's determination to turn her into an actress.

Torrid Wave

A Hong Kong drama that explores the complexities of a same-sex relationship between two young escort women. Living openly and embracing their sexuality, they navigate their love without concern for societal judgment. However, their environment soon challenges their bond, introducing external influences that test their commitment to each other.

Ape

To take control of his life, Travis Wilker must conquer the hallucinations that plagued his childhood.

No Brakes

Johan sits on a small jetty by the lake, deep in thought - he is struggling to find the words to say, or the actions to take. Joined by friends Anton and Julie, the trio cycle through the Swedish countryside, and as the sun begins to set, more friends enter the fray, bottles of beer are opened and guitars thrum as the group party into the night. But Johan is still deep in thought. When the sun eventually rises, Johan's fears have long since faded away.

Cadillac Blues

Cadillac Blues is the story of three days in the life of two Lebanese brothers, Omar and Ryan. They are very close. They live together, sharing the living space, the mobile phone, and a huge old Cadillac. We don’t know where their parents are. But they are present only in the boys’ conversations. Through a series of dreams and hallucinations, we get a glimpse into Ryan’s mental state before his brother does. We are given the opportunity to see the world through the eyes of a young man struggling with his sexuality in the stuffy environment of the margins. He is down with the Cadillac blues.

Canis Majoris

Canis Majoris is a short science fiction gay film about affection and adolescence that takes place in the peripheral cities of the Federal District, in Brazil. Icaro is a Brazilian teenager who tries to fill his time to kill boredom on vacation. During the summer vacation, returning from a football match, he meets Joao. Together they witness the appearance of a new star in the sky, which makes the nights on Earth red and hot. Trying to cope with the fact that they are growing, with the tedium and the extra heat this summer, Icaro and Joao begin to spend nights together in the streets of the city and discover that, in addition to the star, something is emerging between them.

Oh! My Mother

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."

Curricán

Xan Currican guides us through the streets of Vilanova de Arousa, a village full of picturesque portraits and endless epiphanies.

Red Velvet

A New York gay professor is haunted and lost. A tale of cultural politics in dystopian scenario that is relevant to today's social climate, commenting on meanings attached to gender, phobia, and trauma.

Bones and Names

Boris and Jonathan have been a couple for many years. But their relationship has reached a point where they might as well spend their evenings together separately: One lies in bed reading, the other works at a desk in the next room. While actor Boris digs deeper into rehearsals for a new film with an ambitious director and begins to mix real and fictional characters, Jonathan tries to redefine his voice as a writer. Ghosting through these days of wrestling with distance, closeness, trust, desire and fear of loss is Jonathans' young niece Josie, who is trying to deal with the approaching end of her childhood in her own idiosyncratic way. BONES AND NAMES, the feature debut of Fabian Stumm, portrays people searching for their place in life in different ways. A sensitive and humorous reflection on the dissonances in relationships that both connect and distance us from each other.

The Place Between Us

At a hilltop cottage, Giorgio and Matteo are hosting a dinner party for Giorgio's artistic friends from the city. As the group discuss art, cinema and gossip, Matteo becomes withdrawn. He goes inside and turns on his video camera, and through its lens he sees for the first time what his and Giorgio's relationship really is.

Palm Trees and Power Lines

A disconnected teenage girl enters a relationship with a man twice her age. She sees him as the solution to all her problems, but his intentions are not what they seem.

My Brother the Devil

Fourteen-year-old Mo is a lonely, sensitive boy whose hunger for the rant and banter of buddies makes him prone to tread dangerous territories. He idolizes his handsome older brother, Rashid, a charismatic, well-respected member of a local gang, whose drug dealing enables “Rash” to provide for his family. Aching to be seen as a tough guy himself, Mo takes a job that unlocks a fateful turn of events and forces the brothers to confront their inner demons. It turns out that hate is easy. It is love and understanding that take real courage.

From Straight A's to XXX

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.

Pimp

An urban love story set on the hard streets of the Bronx. A struggling female pimp, named Wednesday, grows up learning the game from her dad. Once he's gone she's left to look out for her prostitute mother and girlfriend Nikki.

Mammal

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

Where the Day Takes You

King is a young man, but he's already a veteran of life on the streets of Los Angeles. The de facto leader of a group of teenage runaways, King acts as a mentor to troubled kids such as gay hustler Little J and junkie Greg. When Heather, a beautiful girl from Chicago, starts hanging out with King and his crew, it changes the dynamic of the gang. However, it seems as though nothing will alter their dangerous lifestyle.

Magazine Dreams

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.

Pretty Boy

Sean is taken to a motel and is given a prostitute for his 18th birthday by his father. He must sleep with her to "fix" his questionable homosexuality. "Pretty Boy" is a coming of age story of a young bullied teen, Sean, struggling with his sexuality and the hardships of high school. After his father finds some questionable magazines in his room, this devout Christian will go to any lengths to get his son to find the light and "perform" the way a man should. Sean is introduced to Katie, a prostitute that understands the stigmas of modern society and helps him see the true light that is within him.

Killer's Kiss

Davey Gordon, a New York City boxer at the end of his career, falls for dancer Gloria Price. However, their budding relationship is interrupted by Gloria's violent boss, Vincent Rapallo, who has eyes for Gloria. The two decide to skip town, but before they can, Vincent and his thugs abduct Gloria, and Davey is forced to search for her among the most squalid corners of the city, with his enemy hiding in the shadows.

Mikey and Nicky

Nick is desperate, holed up in a cheap hotel, suffering from an ulcer and convinced that a local mob boss wants him killed. Terrified, he calls Mikey, his friend since childhood and a fellow gangster. So begins a long night…

Shank

Teenage gang member Cal, hides his sexuality from his fellow gang members despite their often violent dislike of anyone that isn't the same as them, be they unsuspecting shoppers, foreign students, gays, etc. When his world collides with Olivier, a student he rescues from a pointless beating, he encounters a lifestyle that presents as many new experiences as it does obstacles.

The Cut

A retired boxer intends to return to the ring for one last shot at the title, but first he must make the weight. Holed up in a room in Las Vegas with an unscrupulous trainer, he embarks on an intensive and illegal weight-cutting program.

Hungry Hearts

The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

Hardball

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.

Pink Narcissus

An outrageous erotic poem focusing on the daydreams of a beautiful boy prostitute who, from the seclusion of his ultra-kitsch apartment, conceives a series of interlinked narcissistic fantasies populated by matadors, dancing boys, slaves, and leather-clad bikers.

Welcome to Sudden Death

Jesse Freeman is a former special forces officer and explosives expert now working a regular job as a security guard in a state-of-the-art basketball arena. Trouble erupts when a tech-savvy cadre of terrorists kidnap the team's owner and Jesse's daughter during opening night. Facing a ticking clock and impossible odds, it's up to Jesse to not only save them but also a full house of fans in this highly charged action thriller.

The Giver

In a seemingly perfect community, without war, pain, suffering, differences or choice, a young boy is chosen to learn from an elderly man about the true pain and pleasure of the "real" world.

No Night Is Too Long

A chance meeting, a stolen kiss and a sudden flare of passion sets a handsome young university student on a journey of betrayal, heartbreak and murder.

Embattled

The eldest son of a ruthlessly tough MMA champion must fight his way out of the abusive cycle his father has continued.

Beast

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.