"Love Is The Device"
A lonely New Yorker serendipitously meets a mysterious foreigner and sparks ignite. A meditation on life and love in the digital age.
Social & External
The people behind it
Timothy Ryan Hickernell
American
Lucio Nieto
Foreigner
Joshua Cruz
Old Friend
Mariel Matero
New Friend
Joshua Warr
Vogue
Elly Han
Sidekick
Anthony DeWitt
Bartender
A man on the brink of death, has a conversation with a stranger. The pair philosophize about the meaning of a life well lived.
In the window of the house, where some say the sweetness dwells, is reflected, every night, a delicious story.
After traveling hundreds of miles, a woman must wait another twenty-four hours before she can get an abortion.
Simmons, best-known for her photographs of miniature rooms populated by dolls and of oversized objects—such as a house, birthday cake, and pistol—balanced on female legs, both human and fake, brings these characters to life in a three-act mini-musical. The film is inspired by three distinct periods of Simmons’s photographic work: vintage hand puppets, ventriloquist dummies and walking objects enact tales of ambition, disappointment, love, loss, and regret. Working with composer Michael Rohaytn ("Personal Velocity") and cameraman Ed Lachman ("The Virgin Suicides" and "Far From Heaven"), Simmons’s puppets come to life in miniature domestic scenes that echo real life.
Lester Burnham, a depressed suburban father in a mid-life crisis, decides to turn his hectic life around after developing an infatuation with his daughter's attractive friend.
After meeting in a chat room, Fede arrives at a down- town building to have an intimate encounter with a gay couple older than him. As the night unfolds, Fede has an intense and telling experience. The next morning finds him different, as if suddenly he had found a new possible way to love.
Jack and Mary (and their dog, Rags) are walking down the street when a talking car stops them and begins lecturing them about traffic safety.
A woman reflects on her most recent visit to her father in prison, where he recounts the tale of the Cyclops—a cursed being that, from the moment of its birth, is aware of the precise day of your death.
When Jacob's ex-girlfriend Polly comes to visit, the pair can barely contain their excitement. Since their teenage days when they were an item, Jacob has long since been out of the closet and in a happy relationship with boyfriend Nicholas, so both he and Polly have a lot of catching up to do. Sure enough, Polly's visit extends into a long stay as the trio relish each other's company. However, all good things must, eventually, come to an end.
Su-yeon has been harassed and bullied by the class president, Hyun-ji for a long time. When she consults this matter with the school’s reverend, she is advised to collect evidence of her harassment and bullying. Religion is the only thing Su-yeon can count on, but the school reverend cannot protect her. This film makes us ponder about the bullying problem in schools, the role of religion, and the teacher and reverend’s duplicity.
Once a woman can't stop crying, she gets hired as a weeping woman in the funeral.
A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.
Plagued by feelings of guilt, the meeting of two brothers confronts them with feelings that should not be experienced.
Questions how we as individuals are psychologically relying on our inhabit spaces and how we as society are influencing and being influenced by our surroundings.
Maja and Alen live in a dilapidated apartment on the outskirts of the city. Even if they wanted more from life, they don't have much hope because the company Maja works for is in debt and doesn't pay their salaries, while Alen, who works from home, has less and less work. That is why they start their own business whose survival is put in question when Maja discovers that security cameras will soon be installed in her company.
Life walks in a sunset under a vineyard. Alfonso watches it. Who is the prisoner of whom?
A deeply religious young woman spends one powerful evening reconnecting with a long-lost parent, who now makes a living as a sex worker in Jakarta.
Tranquility is a silent short film centering feelings of emptiness and the search for fulfillment.
A man has his wallet stolen by an athletic thief in Swindon. A chase ensues.
A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.
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.
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.
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.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
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.
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.
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
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 aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
At a birthday party in 1968 New York, a surprise guest and a drunken game leave seven gay friends reckoning with unspoken feelings and buried truths.
A successful "house tuner" in New York City, who calibrates the sound in people's homes in order to adjust their moods, meets a client with a problem he can't solve.
A nightmarish evening unfolds for neighbors David and Robert when they accidentally hit a woman on her bike and flee the scene. While David is increasingly plagued by feelings of guilt, Robert shows no remorse and becomes overbearing and possessive.
After a heartbreaking loss, a grandfather struggling to reclaim his passion for painting finds the inspiration to create again.
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?
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.
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.
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.
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.
