banano, banano
Death arrives in a small town in the south of Guatemala City, with the mission of taking three people with her: a boy lost in a hill, a young woman adrift, and an old writer who always dreamed of being a filmmaker. An essay that presents three short stories about Death and how living in this world makes her more human.
Medea
After escaping from her homeland and now abandoned by the man she loves, Medea must find strength from within to fight against growing injustice - how far is she willing to go?
Cruiser
Jan receives the group patch at the campfire, Herkules brews up some tea in the workshop and Sidney gets a mohawk haircut done by his father. The film shows fragments from an Oberhausen subculture in which symbols and practices of the outlaw motorbiker scene are transferred to cycling.
Herkules
Hercules travels by bicycle from Krefeld on the Lower Rhine to Olympus, the throne of ancient deities. The Hercules myth, as a primal myth of male power, is questioned through biographical reflections and the staging of mythological echoes. The dramaturgical structure of the hero's journey disintegrates in a multi-material perspective into questions about male identity, ideals and remorse.
Fox & Penguin
How do German couples communicate in private? What are they arguing about? Is the way to a man’s heart really through his stomach? This docu-fictional hybrid production discusses such questions with the help of authentic interview snippets that were edited under the staged plot. We get an insight into the life of an animal couple, who experience typical everyday situations on behalf of us humans. At first, our fox is emotionally contained, while the penguin lady may get wild as hell. With a wink, the filmmakers hold up a mirror to the audience in the cinema.
From This Day Forth
On September 27th, 2016, Danish actor Anders Hove suffers a heart attack and survives; Now he does it all again.
Meteor
A mysterious rumble splits the sky and reverberates in the middle of the forest. A man delves into its depths to discover its origin and answer the questions presented by the universe.
Rape Play
RAPE PLAY is an experimental documentary that explores fanfiction writing amongst teenage girls online and the learned narrativization of sexual experiences. Through interviews, lyrical essays, and fantastical reenactment, it touches on internet history, sexual assault discourse, and the magical cultural production happening in the bedrooms of teenage girls worldwide every day.
Promesses
An 8-minute satire on politics featuring the first French presidential election campaign broadcasts from 1965 and The Shadoks.
Wind, Talk to Me
Stefan reunites with his family to celebrate his grandmother's birthday for the first time after his mother's recent passing. This homecoming, driven by his urge to complete a film about his mother and an attempt to make amends by rescuing a stray dog, will ignite an introspective journey for Stefan. Inspired by the director's real-life experiences and starring his actual family members in a mission to complete a lake house and a film, this is an intimate cinematic exploration of the timeless mother-son relationship.
I Am Kevin
A young boy creates a make believe world to escape his truth, a world where, at the water's edge, beneath the shade of an ancient tree, a mother forms a perimeter to protect herself and her child from an unspeakable darkness.
Echoes Within
“Can I be nostalgic about something I’ve never experienced?” asks debut filmmaker Pranami Koch. She has in mind her grandmother, a person she never knew who belonged to the Koches, a people in India with their own culture and traditions. In her search for connection and identity, Pranami travels to the countryside and immerses herself in the Koch community.
Blue Egg
A queer stop-motion animation live-action hybrid film following four women in a surrealist parallel narrative unconstricted to heteronormative space and time.
Blooming
Founded three hundred years ago as a refuge from slave traders, Ganvié, in Benin, has become the largest stilt village in Africa and now attracts thousands of tourists. But the people of the water, who once resisted colonization, are today colonized by a new invader: the water hyacinth. Said to have been introduced to decorate hotels and luxury homes, this plant now spreads at a staggering and uncontrollable rate, suffocating the lake. A small Beninese company has managed to turn this scourge into a resource—but at the cost of exhausting labor. Raw realism and imaginary visions blend together, as if one could only be understood—or endured—through the lens of the other.
The Art of Evil
Vae Victis tells about the life story of painter Valerio De Filippis, a man who has made art his way of being in the world but currently in the grip of the dreaded artist's block in view of a very important exhibition.
Mechanical
Memory is a ghost. Lucio, a printing press worker, takes one last walk around the machines with whom he shared everything. He remembers when his mechanisms used to move and through that mechanical movement he reflects about his own life.
Dissociated Me
Based on true events, "Dissociated Me" tells the story of a woman encouraged by a renowned film editor to turn her chaotic Beverly Hills past - including the death of her mother at 12, teenage addiction, and a stalker ex-best friend - into a script. When unprocessed trauma blocks every word, she becomes desperate to heal: casting actors to play her family and revisiting childhood homes for locations - all without a script. As the film unravels, so does she, into the path of a car going 35 miles per hour. She lets go of the story she thought she had to tell and reclaims her life.
She Sings for the World
A Chinese Canadian son sets out to make a film on his mother, who was once known as the first ever Chinese Opera Singer to have performed Pingju Opera in English in late 1980's China.
Four Lies And One Truth
A group of actors are instructed to tell a love story, the only thing that matters is that the story seems real. Among them, a truth escapes. It is up to the listener to decide which of them is the truth and to ask themselves if that is still considered love.
The Birds Changed Names And The World Turned Into Ice
Migrant families experience violence, but they also keep beautiful memories when they arrive in new lands. Fantastic and intimate stories, recalled from childhood, travel across time and space, magically intermingling with the help of the four elements and breaking the boundaries of cinema.