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ARE YOU PROUD? meets key campaigners and investigates the organisations and events that have contributed to substantial progress within the western LGBTQ+ liberation movement, focusing on the history of Pride in the UK. It celebrates that progress, whilst exploring the controversial questions over the continuing relevance of the Pride march, and highlights the international battles still to be fought.
After an E.M.P. (Electro Magnetic Pulse) weapon is deployed, North America is forced to live in pre industrial conditions. Anything electrical is useless, sending the country into anarchy. An introverted 11 year old girl must fend and fight for herself while trying to find her father.
A company of actors arrive at a castle deep in the Irish countryside and set into motion the story of Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The lives of the actors and their characters intertwine as Prince Hamlet confronts the ghost of his father and seeks revenge on the treacherous Claudius, his uncle and newly appointed king. Hamlet’s pursuit of vengeance scorches the lives of everyone inside the castle walls and lays bare the many contradictions and ambiguities of human existence. At the play’s end, seven days have passed and the actors emerge, leaving the castle and characters behind.
A documentary that investigates the psychological effects of everyday social media use while exploring how our influencers deal with the fame, money, hate and obsession that comes with it.
Hunting for Hedonia explores how the burgeoning technology of Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) will impact human identity and our sense of self. DBS is a revolutionary tool in neuroscience and as a treatment it is crossing over from movement control in Parkinson’s to alleviating mental illness. Trials are underway in depression, OCD, PTSD and eating disorders.
Diagnosed with ovarian cancer, iron-willed journalist Sheng Nan (“Surpass Men” in Chinese) is pressured to make a quick fortune and find mind-blowing sex before the costly surgery numbs her senses. Taking on a businessman’s biography writing job, she hikes into the misty mountains, where a chain of outbursts with her dysfunctional family, grumpy client, misogynistic co-worker and dreamlike romantic interest hilariously unfold. As deeply moving as it is luminously witty, writer-director Teng Congcong’s debut waltzes across the bitterness swallowed by her generation of women born under China’s One Child Policy, unprecedentedly burdened to “surpass men” while trying not to be “leftover women” at the same time. Saluting the 18th-century Chinese literature classic Dream of the Red Chamber in its title, the enchanting gem refreshes the novel’s transcendent contemplation on desire, death and womanhood from a modern cinematic perspective.
Escapes blazes a path through mid-20th-century Hollywood via the experiences of Hampton Fancher – flamenco dancer, actor, and the unlikely producer and screenwriter of the landmark sci-fi classic Blade Runner. Fancher recounts episodes from his life — romantic misadventures with silver-screen stars, wayward acts of chivalry, jealousy, and friendship — matched with a parallel world of film and TV footage wherein Fancher plays cowboys, killers, fops, cads, and the occasional hero. Escapes shows how one man’s personal journey can unexpectedly shape a medium’s future.
A film director confides in his interlocutor. He talks about the working process, about creative blocks, about artistic crises and expressive forces. At some point, the idea takes hold that this conversation could be turned into a film. And this is the very film we’re watching the two of them in.
The ‘Casa do Povo’ cultural centre in São Paulo, an icon of the secular Jewish workers’ movement: a crumbling theatre flanked by staircases, entryways and corridors. Construction noise drones away in the background, clinking crockery, a broom sweeping over tiled floors, an expressive façade of countless adjustable panes of glass covered by a patina. It’s October 2016 and a group of young people are preparing a preview of Bickels [Socialism]. The venue is to form a prologue to the completed film, which tours 22 buildings in Israel designed by Samuel Bickels, most of which for kibbutzim. Dining halls, children’s houses, agricultural buildings, bright structures inserted into the Mediterranean landscape with great ingenuity. An architecture with a sell-by date: That many are now empty or have been repurposed at best is linked to the decline of the socialist ideals they embody.
In this family adventure a brother and sister, Mo and Melody, join up with the brilliant scientist and inventor Professor Shonku and his robot helper Robu to find their missing legendary explorer father. Soon they find themselves deep in the Himalayas followed by the evil Franzotti who is tracking a hidden treasure. Along the way they encounter unicorns and other magical creatures, and uncover a hidden paradise kept away from the world.
An emotive journey of a former school teacher, who writes letters for illiterate people, and a young boy, whose mother has just died, as they search for the father he never knew.
Set in the year 2199, a young woman who has lost everything finds a new life at Earth’s Space Training Academy where she learns to defend the galaxy from intergalactic threats.
Based on the popular book by L. Frank Baum, the beloved author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, comes the incredible story of The Life & Adventures of Santa Claus. Many centuries ago, long before toys had even been invented, a baby abandoned at the edge of an enchanted forest was adopted and raised by a beautiful wood nymph, thus beginning the life story of Santa Claus. From his first truly magical childhood through the discovery of his life’s work of making children happy, discover the origin of every tradition surrounding Santa Claus, from toys, stockings and lighted trees to reindeer and sleigh. Journey back to a time of magic and wonder, and experience this heartwarming tale that will bring joy each holiday season.
While her son, Kichi, is away at war, a woman and her daughter-in-law survive by killing samurai who stray into their swamp, then selling whatever valuables they find. Both are devastated when they learn that Kichi has died, but his wife soon begins an affair with a neighbor who survived the war, Hachi. The mother disapproves and, when she can’t steal Hachi for herself, tries to scare her daughter-in-law with a mysterious mask from a dead samurai.
The film is a comedy about Rasmus and Frederik, two Danish men in their 30s, who head out on a business venture. They know each other from a boarding school back in Denmark and none of them have really been successful in life so far. Now they meet, 15 years later, both keen to set up a dog breeding centre. The two partners have learned that so-called luxury dogs are extremely popular among the Chinese upper class and therefore expect this to be their way into fast and overwhelming wealth in China. A 200 plus lb St. Bernard dog by the name of Dollar travels with them to Chongqing. Here they meet up with the mysterious Mr. Liu who owns the largest bakery in Western China and who believes that dogs are as powerful as humans. Soon, the dog business evolves in unexpected ways, while the friendship between the two Danes grows stronger.
Ailo’s Journey narrates the struggle of a little wild reindeer to survive its first migration. Throughout his journey, the frail and vulnerable wild reindeer will have to overcome the ordeals that mark the first year of his existence. His awakening to the wild world is a true Christmas tale in the heart of the stunning landscapes of Lapland.
One night at a hot-dog stand in Finnish Lapland, a commitment-phobic party animal, Aurora, meets Iranian Darian. Darian suddenly asks her to marry him. Darian needs to marry a Finnish woman to get an asylum for himself and his daughter. Aurora turns him down, as she is busy working as a nail technician and plans to move to Norway, away from her shit life. However, after meeting his sweet daughter, Aurora agrees to help him. As Aurora introduces numerous women to Darian, the two of them grow close. When the perfect wife candidate comes along, Darian and Aurora are faced with a difficult choice: pretend to be happy or to finally stop running.
A reluctant family accompanies their businessman father to a small town. His mission is to repossess a hardware store that is run using “unusual financial practices”. When his son meets a couple of local kids, together they discover a mysterious note that might change everything if they can unravel the mystery in time.
Nard, a high school girl falls in love with Mac, a senior in the same school. They are in a relationship and Nard gets pregnant. Mac’s mom forces him to cut contact with Nard and study abroad while Nard’s mom persuades her to have an abortion. Nard didn’t survive the abortion; however, she isn’t done with this world and starts haunting the apartment complex where she used to live…
John Brock is a down-on-his-luck archaeologist who returns from an expedition to the caves of rural Kentucky after unsuccessfully trying to locate a mysterious relic that his family has sought for generations. Upon his return, John starts to see dream-like visions of a ferocious bird-like creature from ancient folklore. John soon learns that the cave he came into contact with on his last expedition was indeed the cave that contains the relic and also a portal to Hell and a place of worship for the Occult. John discovers that the only way to stop the increasingly realistic visions is to go back to the cave with his family, find the relic once and for all, and destroy it.
Tim Blake Nelson (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs) is a man who’s safe and comfortable and bored to death with his life. In his state of despair, he looks to classic stories for inspiration. Awakened by the tales of yore, he anoints himself as Don Quixote to find adventure, fame and glory that will make his life worthwhile – all while never leaving his one-mile square neighborhood.
Kak Limah is discovered dead by villager. Since then, her ghost has been spotted around Kampung Pisang, making the villagers feel restless. Enter Encik Solihin, who tries to help by shooing her ghost away from the village. Husin, Encik Solihin and other villagers trying to overcome this problem. However, the tragedy behind Kak Limah’s death has yet to be unveiled.
As Cotopaxi spews ash, issuing an eerie penumbra over Quito, a young woman confronts dormant familial conflicts. Desperate for a place to store her things as volcanic disaster looms, Caridad turns to her long-estranged father Galo for help. Galo abandoned Caridad’s mother long ago and is eager to make amends, but questions concerning the nature of his transgressions linger, straining communication between father and daughter and casting grave doubts over the possibility of reconciliation.
Near a coastal village of Thailand, by the sea where thousands of Rohingya refugees have drowned, a local fisherman finds an injured man lying unconscious in the forest. He rescues the stranger, who doesn’t speak a word, offers him his friendship and names him Thongchai. But when the fisherman suddenly disappears at sea, Thongchai slowly begins to take over his friend’s life – his house, his job and his ex-wife…
The story sees Courtney as Cal, a by-the-book police officer who makes ends meet as a Marine Corps reservist along with his rowdy and inseparable group of childhood friends. When Cal’s younger, reckless half-brother Oyster (Wolff) accidentally kills a guy in a bar fight and tries to flee, Cal forces him to face the music. After an unfair sentence, Oyster fights for survival in a dangerous Pennsylvania prison system while Cal and his friends are deployed to fight the lethal insurgency in Iraq. Overseas, Cal’s world is shaken, and after he barely makes it home alive, he resolves to break Oyster out of prison – no matter the cost.
Like many 9-year-old boys, Eli Braverman believes something menacing lives in his basement. When his older sister leaves him home alone one night, Eli discovers if this evil is real or all in his head. What Eli confronts may end up being far more terrifying than even his worst nightmare.
After hearing a young boy’s cry for help, a sister and brother venture into a vast field of tall grass in Kansas but soon discover there may be no way out … and that something evil lurks within.
In 1926 America’s most famous evangelist is a woman. And she’s looking for a way out. Fed up with her own success, she gets swept up in her lover’s daydreams about Mexico and finds herself on a wild road trip towards the border. Based on true events. Mostly made up.
Constructed from over 500 hours of never-before-seen footage, this documentary centers on the career of celebrated football player Diego Maradona who played for SSC Napoli in the 1980s.
An American spy behind the lines during WWII serves as a Nazi propagandist, a role he cannot escape in his future life as he can never reveal his real role in the war.
Casey is attacked at random on the street and enlists in a local dojo led by a charismatic and mysterious Sensei in an effort to learn how to defend himself. What he uncovers is a sinister world of fraternity, violence and hypermasculinity and a woman fighting for her place in it.
Trekking the 3000-mile journey from Shanghai to the Himalayan snowscapes, a group of misfits encounter a young Yeti named Everest, and they set off to reunite the magical creature with his family on the mountain of his namesake.
In a world where immortality is achieved by drinking alcohol, having sex and partying every night, three friends in their hundreds (who don’t look a day over eighteen) try to hold onto their youth in the face of a rapidly changing world.
An impoverished leader of a small religious commune in Miami, is offered cash to save his family from eviction. He has no idea his sponsor works for an FBI agent, who plans to turn him into a criminal by fueling his madcap revolutionary dreams.
Relationship Therapist, Dr. Jill Peterman, had the highest-rated call-in radio show when her world was pulled out from under her following the on-air suicide of a female caller named Alexis. Shaken to her core, Dr. Jill walked away from her show vowing she would never go back. That is until Stuart, the station’s General Manager, pleads with her to reboot the show in an effort to bring followers back to the station. Still haunted by what happened, Jill agrees to help her friend out and believes this will be the perfect remedy to put her year-long anxiety to rest. As Jill starts to settle back into her show, mysterious call-ins start happening forcing her to believe there could be a copy-cat out there. What Jill begins to uncover is a web of secrets and lies stemming from the mysterious voice she has come to know as Alexis.
The surviving crew of a damaged deep-space harvester have minutes to reach the emergency evacuation shuttle. A motion sensor is their only navigation tool leading them to safety while a creature in the shadows terrorizes the crew. However, the greatest threat might have been hiding in plain sight all along. (One of six short films produced to celebrate the 40th anniversary of 1979’s Alien.)
