All Films

The Real Place

2009 • 5 min

Puccini's famous aria from the opera Tosca, Vissi d'arte, vissi d'amore ("I lived for art, I lived for love") provides a fitting summation of playwright John Murrell's life and work. Since the age of 13 Murrell has peopled his life with the creations of his own imaginings. "In opera and in Shakespeare, in locations that were both natural and supernatural, I have escaped the limitations of my own mind," he says. Born in Lubbock, Texas, John Murrell became a playwright in, of all places, an Alberta high school.

Il caso Amicizia

2009 • 52 min • Italy

A look at the ufo contacts in Pescara region of Italy

Alfred

2009 • 4 min • Sweden

Going out for a lemonade with Dad is not a bad idea, especially if you happen to invent dynamite afterwards. A short and almost true story about Alfred Nobel.

Hush Baby

2009 • 4 min • Singapore

A curious baby is protected from an environment of temptation.

The Machine Stops

2009 • 7 min

Two people live in a dark technological utopia/dystopia - "the Machine". Kuno and Vashti, have differing opinions about the world which they live in and their interaction and conflict as their society comes to a sudden collapse. The story raises themes of man's role in the midst of a technology-dependent built environment that are seemingly more relevant today than when the original short story was published in 1909.

Inventurers: Edward Leedskalnin

2009 • 57 min • Latvia

A trip through the mystical Coral Castle and the big question - did some regular, unschooled man during the first part of 20th century in Florida seriously discover the secret of levitation and understand the principles by which the Pyramids were built? Or was the Coral Castle, which became the inspiration for Billy Idol's "Sweet Sixteen", created merely as a commemoration for a lost love?

Sparrows

2009 • 12 min • Germany

A man and a woman meet in a bar. They walk through the night without any reason. At dawn they separate again. A long take.

Sunshine Sparkling in My Eyes

2009 • 10 min • France

Raphaël is seventeen years old and in love. It is the story of an awakening, the painful explosion of the adolescence.

Missing

2009 • 12 min • Netherlands

A 7-year old girl is taken to school by her mother. Today is the day that the young girl will go on a school trip with her class. In everything we feel that bringing her daughter to school isn’t a very ordinary occasion for the mother.

Fabelaktige Fiff og Fam

2009 • 28 min • Norway

A feelgood documentary about two friends of 90 years who have known each other since they were five. A nice story about being much older on the outside than the inside.

Monstera Deliciosa

2009 • 1 min • France

A lamplighter is fascinated by the dance of an appearance in the tropical greenhouse where he works.

Shelter in Place

2009 • 47 min

A compelling portrait of a poor and mainly African-American community living in the shadow of the Texan oil industry. With the ongoing release of millions of tons of toxic pollutants into the air from poorly regulated oil refineries and petro-chemical plants, residents are told to "Shelter in Place" by staying in their homes and taping up their windows and doors. Communities living on the fence-line of Texan industry are usually low income and powerless to protest. This film is an intimate portrait of a community battling against environmental pollution and unfettered corporate power.

Circle

2009 • 19 min

Damu(10year old boy) , leaves his home to buy Jagarry .On the way he meets his friend Manya . They stop at a Bioscopewallah. Damu realizes that he is not having enough money and he decides to earn some quick money . This greed takes him to play a game . After the game Damu goes to the shop . But he walk back with tearful eyes.........

Temps mort

2009 • 18 min • France

An exchange of video messages between an artist and an inmate, a surprising and intimate portrait from behind prison walls.

Ruin

2009 • 51 min • Israel

Three teenage murderers escape to a secluded ruin where they must deal with the huge gap between the ideological romance that had planned the act and the dark reality which suddenly engulfs them.

A Kádár-korszak demokratikus ellenzéke

2009 • 51 min

A documentary about the Democratic Opposition of socialist Hungary.

The Breakwater

2009 • 16 min • Latvia

Seagulls and sea, a breakwater and otherwise nothing but wasteland and cold wind. On the concrete, a chic handbag, scattered high heels and long legs in a tight miniskirt. Vika, a famous model, lies shivering on the cold ground after a heavy night drinking, left behind by a guy in a convertible. Little Mika finds her: she also dreams of becoming a model and Vika is her idol.

1x1

2009 • 52 min • Latvia

Since Latvia regained independence in 1991, only a small number of all those who emigrated during the 1940s returned, though many of them had been waiting for the occupation to end. This is about the first generation of Latvian émigrés - those who came back, and those who chose to stay in the West.

Carry Me Home

2009 • 25 min • United States of America

For over two centuries, African-American funeral homes have passed down an untold, elaborate tradition of burying the dead in grand flair. Carry Me Home, a short documentary, witnesses this tradition touch one widow's life and transforms her grief into celebration. After the loss of her husband, Lessie Thompson surrounds herself with her family and prepares for the funeral, opening a window into the rich, vivid history of African-American funeral traditions that span from segregation and slavery all the way back to West Africa. Horse drawn carriages carrying the coffin, brightly colored funeral garments and open expressions of grief and celebration color many African-American funeral services. These stylish and celebratory ceremonies have been passed down through generations old family-run funeral homes, and continue today.

The Fencer

2009 • 16 min • Latvia

A young married housewife's dull routine is enlivened as she spies on the sexual escapades of her fencing instructor neighbour. She too is seduced by him, but the fear of losing her family results in hysteria and an unpredictable climax.

Birds of Passage

2009 • 52 min • United States of America, Uruguay

Birds of Passage presents a lyrical journey through the everyday lives of two young Uruguayan songwriters. Ernesto and Yisela have moved to the capital, leaving behind their respective hometowns on the borders of Brazil and Argentina. After many years of composing songs that reflect their origins, both decide to explore new horizons and each seeks to fulfill the dream of recording a first album. While Yisela struggles to reconcile the emerging possibilities of a career in Uruguay with her plans to move to Argentina, Ernesto confronts personal conflicts that threaten to sabotage his creative passion. The film fuses the arts of documentary film and music, interweaving the songs and stories of these two young composers. With vérité cinematography and an unforgettable soundtrack, Birds of Passage explores the challenges of being a young artist, and the art of searching, inside and outside of oneself.

City of New Lights

2009 • 28 min

City Of New Lights, an independent skateboard video by Jarvis Nigelsky

It Was for You Alfredo Torrisi

2009 • 12 min • France

The war reporter Alfredo Torrisi accidentally steps on a mine and gets stuck. His camera is shooting.

Night

2009 • 7 min

A loner walks in the night