All Films

Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings

2012 • 54 min

Jake Shimabukuro: Life on Four Strings is a compelling portrait of an inspiring and inventive musician whose virtuoso skills on the ukulele have transformed all previous notions of the instrument’s potential. Through intimate conversations with Shimabukuro (she-ma-BOO-koo-row), Life on Four Strings reveals the cultural and personal influences that have shaped the man and the musician. On the road from Los Angeles to New York to Japan, the film captures the solitary life on tour: the exhilaration of performance, the wonder of newfound fame, the loneliness of separation from home and family.

The Miracle of the Birds

2012 • 47 min • Brazil

Sabô marries Lindolfo Ezequiel in exchange for the life of his brother, who was sworn to death by the captain. The brunette is known as the most desired woman in the region and her husband is reputed to be a killer. One day, Ubaldo Capadócio arrives in the city of Cachoeira, in Bahia, and takes away hearts. The poet is a handsome man, has nine children and is married to three women: Rosecler, Romilda and Valdelice. Rosecler is the most fiery and spendthrift, Romilda abandoned her butcher husband for Ubaldo and Valdelice is the most daring. In Cachoeira, Ubaldo sees Sabô and is attracted by so much beauty. The captain's wife surrenders to the poet's charms, but they are caught by Lindolfo Ezequiel. Then begins the saga of Ubaldo to escape death. That's where the miracle of birds happens.

40 Minutes of Hell

2012 • 48 min

The rise, fall and re-birth of Nolan Richardson, whose intense style of coaching the Arkansas men's basketball team brought a national championship to the school but also led to increased scrutiny.

La Merda

2012 • 52 min • Italy, United Kingdom

La Merda is a poetic stream of consciousness where it is unleashed the bulimic and revolting public confidence of a "young" and "ugly" woman as she struggles with obstinacy, resistance and courage for her own celebrity breakthrough in the society of Thighs and Liberty. La Merda is driven by a desperate attempt to pull ourselves out of the mud, the latest products of the cultural genocide aptly described by Pier Paolo Pasolini since the modern consumer society began taking form. A totalitarianism, according to Pasolini, even more repressive than the one of the Fascist era, for capable of crushing us softly.

The Banquet of the Concubine

2012 • 13 min • Canada, France

Delicately flirting with eroticism, the animated film The Banquet of the Concubine, by young Chinese director Hefang Wei, recounts one of the most famous love stories of Imperial China. In this tale of bitter jealousy, nothing can sweeten the heart of an abandoned mistress, not even the luscious lychee.

Ballet aquatique

2012 • 50 min • France

In one of his very last projects, Raul Ruiz celebrates the films of his historical predecessor Jean Painlevé, a documentary innovator whose work always blended science with surrealism. Ruiz and friends further perfect the art of mystification. Why it is so difficult to count fish in an aquarium? Ruiz, his loyal actor Melvil Poupaud and his producer François Margolin come up with a wide range of hypotheses. With their bone-dry wit, they keep up the tradition of the French pataphysics: the science of imaginary solutions. (IFFR)

Sea Legs

2012 • 4 min • France

The story of a Russian sailor coming back home.

Coffees

2012 • 10 min • United States of America

Love will make you do irrational acts of kindness.

Deep Homar

2012 • 12 min • Italy

A short documentary about Homar Leuci, a great Italian free-diver attempting to set a new world record, a quest that reveals who he is as a man and as an athlete.

Sherlock Holmes and Little Chimney Sweeps

2012 • 34 min • Ukraine

This story tells about a well-known detective Sherlock Holmes and his devoted friend Doctor Watson. They investigate extremely intricate and complicated case about the explosion in the Admiralty and disappearance of the top-secret papers from the safe. You'll meet inspector Lestrade, missis Hudson, head of the secret department Admiral Benbow and mysterious little chimney sweeps.

Something Sweet

2012 • 19 min • Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia

Ena, a 10 year old girl, who lives with her young mother and grandmother, has a constant urge to eat something sweet, and she never actually gets to eat some, by the end of the day ending up having a different “culinary”experience with her friend Ado who is in the eve of moving to Frankfurt.

Distance

2012 • 25 min • Estonia

On a misty sea drifts a lonely boat. While unseen danger lurks in the fog, the boat's motor is out of order and visibility is as clear as the relationship between the two men sitting in the boat. Do they get out of the mist? Or is it already too late?

Oasis

2012 • 30 min • Hong Kong

Fish, an aspiring painter, leaves the safe haven of home and moves into a dwelling unit inside an industrial building. Carrying a mixed bag of ambivalence and possibilities, her new independence shares the upsides and downsides of a subsistence living in the enclave of artists and musicians, where the strains of life – dissatisfaction with the government and an ever-looming threat of eviction – are tempered by a healthy dose of optimism and humour. The habitat of Fish and company may not be the land of la dolce vita but it’s an oasis of dreams in a desert of reality, however transient and haphazard.

Andy X

2012 • 43 min • Australia

In February 1987, American artist Andy Warhol checked himself anonymously into New York Hospital for a routine gall bladder operation. As he lay recovering from this standard procedure, the nurse who was meant to watch over him fell asleep reading a bible. Thus neglected, Andy Warhol died and entered the land of legend. 25 years later film-maker Jim Sharman, writer Stephen Sewell and composer Basil Hogios interweave verse, song and imagery into a unique and dreamlike 40 minute exploration of this great artist's life, death and legacy. With Andy Warhol every yes contained a no and every beginning an end. Welcome to the mysterious and wonderful world of ANDY X.

The Lost Scent in D Minor

2012 • 17 min

Jessica thinks she has lost her own scent and the sense of smell. She puts wasabi under her nose and sniffs to cure, but suffers hallucinations. Dr. Taylor, a hypnotist, visits her to help. He tries to hypnotize her in order to recover her memory because there is actually no medical problem with her sense of smell. Then, Jessica is forced to face a hidden secret in her forgotten memory.

Dharmam

2012 • 7 min • India

A small boy dresses up as a beggar for a fancy dress contest. In the meanwhile, there is a man who joins as a traffic police officer and finds his immediate reporting cop to take money from the poor.

Million Dollar Moon Rock Heist

2012 • 44 min • United Kingdom, United States of America

The incredible story behind the multi-million dollar moon rock heist at NASA - and how it was an inside job. In July 2002 'physics genius' Thad Roberts and three accomplices pulled off perhaps the greatest ever theft in NASA history at the Johnson Space Centre, Houston, Texas. Using their NASA IDs Roberts, and one female partner in crime, slipped into the centre at night stealing a 600lb safe containing moon rocks from every Apollo mission.

A Decent Living

2012 • 17 min • Egypt

Ahmed is a simple man who lives in a village which called Beidif, 200 km from Cairo in Egypt. His job is to make up the sewer system. All houses in Beidif have cesspits to get rid of waste water. A cesspit is a large underground tank to hold sewage. They need to be emptied regularly or the household will face problems. The film shows how Ahmed does his work everyday and how this work affects his life.

Old Harry's Game

2012 • 6 min • United Kingdom

Animation pilot for TV show

Øresund

2012 • 23 min

Buster is a seriously-demanding, frantic child who forces his family to seek treatment and a cure for his manic behavior. During treatment conducted by a naturopath, the father is taken deeper behind his son's motivations, uncovering what seems to be a crucial problem in modern society. One in four children in America is treated with tranquilizing medicine, and in Europe leading doctors and child psychiatrists are calling out to bring attention to this increasing problem. How do we deal with frantic children?

Atocha 70

2012 • 10 min • Spain

Domi, Chon and Grego are three old women who meet one afternoon to chat about their things in front of a sex shop. Atocha 70 is a story about three women over 70 who are curious about sex and life and are willing to catch their last train.

Domestic Fable

2012 • 24 min • Belgium

While visiting an apartment, Adrien feels a twinge of jealousy as he watches Tess, his partner, enjoy herself with another visitor. That very evening, he receives a surprise summons to return for another visit. He must go alone, Tess being otherwise detained at work. He finds himself before a dilapidated old building which already has his name on the doorbell. As soon as Adrien crosses the threshold, the house closes in on him and he is embarked on a guided tour of the twists and turns of his own jealousy.

The Inn

2012 • 25 min • Belgium, France, Switzerland

1862. A high altitude inn at the foot of a glacier in the Swiss Alps Each winter the snow isolates the inn rendering it totally inaccessible.

The Clean Hands

2012 • 11 min • Mexico

A silent glimpse at love, blood, and other stuff that keep you awake at night.