All Films

The Rough River, the Placid Sea

2004 • 60 min • Kazakhstan

A modern parable about three brothers whom life has divided as they each went their separate ways. Of their happy childhood and adolescent years together, only a black-and-white photograph remains, capturing the three young men at a table in front of their family home, and memories of the greenhouse that was their father's pride.

Uma Homenagem a Aluízio Netto

2004 • 9 min • Brazil

In the 1920s, in the city of Cataguazes, Minas Gerais, a gang from the communist party caused chaos in the region's cinemas by swapping the original film cards for others with Marxist content.

De 10 a 14 Anos

2004 • 12 min • Brazil

Marciano tells some of the stories of his adolescence. The first love, the friends and his discoveries are remembered affectionately, as well as his 15th birthday, which seemed the beginning of a different life.

Rain Is Falling

2004 • 15 min • Germany

Far away in a foreign and apparently merciless world, a little girl struggles to carry water pots that are far too heavy for her. Uncomplaining, she hauls the jugs from a distant place to her sick mother in their wretched home.

The Taxman Movie

2004 • 46 min • United States of America

There are some characters society just can't tame, and when the notorious Taxman rises up to battle injustice by taking on the government, the mafia, and anyone else who dares to stand in his way. When the lies of an oppressive society come crumbling down, you can rest assured that it's the Taxman who is swinging the wrecking ball.

Quasar

2004 • 30 min • France

The macrocosm present in QUASAR is a non colonized outer space. A non science-fictionalized outer space. It is a space of fantasized stars and galaxies, black holes and light particles. It is a space of hypnotic contemplation and dissociation of the subject from the self. Immersion into macrocosmic vibrations, rotations, contractions, into slow and curved time patterns. Non linear, non climactic time. Outer-inner skies.

Imprints

2004 • 6 min • Canada

In this non-narrative animated film inspired by composer François Couperin's harpsichord composition "Barricades mystérieuses," Jacques Drouin explores a whole new way of using the pinscreen to create animated images. He pivots the screen and uses low-angled light to capture images in high relief. The result is like a sculpture whose expertly modelled forms are revealed through film. A film without words.

Cowboys in Kosovo

2004 • 24 min • Netherlands

Four men from Kosovo play cowboy like they used to in their childhood and compare this to the war they have just gone through.

Anaconda Targets

2004 • 11 min • United States of America

"Anaconda Targets , a documentation tape of aerial bombings by the American military in Afghanistan, depicts the devastating effect of smart bombs. Not often featured in media reports, the soldiers' voices form the soundtrack that accompanies these chilling images. The document has been appropriated by filmmaker Dominic Angerame as a critique of his government's military aggression." - Susan Oxtoby

Harmony

2004 • 12 min

A male God bestows upon animals the gift of self-awareness, which they promptly use to express guilt for their behavior. This moral breakthrough is somewhat undermined by the appearance of humans, whose invention of magical belief systems degrades the whole of Nature.

Bételgeuse

2004 • 5 min

Invocation to light. The hands probe the surroundings and sink deeper into the abstract space of the projection. They seek contact... In a mixture of pure colors and crystalline sounds, the light responds to the call, imbues the face with clarity and transmits its message.

In Life Only

2004 • 11 min • France

About a young professional poker player and music composer involved in images of a partition filled with life, doubt, friendship and love, around destinies linked by chance up to the last note.

Man Walking

2004 • 3 min • Belgium

Nothing but the feet and legs of a man are shown, inexhaustibly walking through the desert, mud, rivers; over rocks and mountains, over a rooftop where he ultimately loses his balance and drops to the ground. The sequence could be seen as a story, unfolding between life and death.

Binge and Purge

2004 • 3 min • Canada

Nature unleashes its anger (in demon-bear form) on an unsuspecting city.

Home Sweet Home

2004 • 17 min • South Korea

At night it’s raining outside. Mom, Dad and Ji-soo are watching TV with anxious. The news report the fire at the kindergarten, where the little daughter goes to. Her name is on the dead list. The family moans about her death… then the girl appears at the door.

Nightshift

2004 • 6 min • Finland

A bird and a bat are neighbors in a tree. Their different lifestyles lead to conflict between them.

BerlinBeirut

2004 • 23 min

Berlin and Beirut were occupied, destructed, divided, reconstructed and today people still say "East and West" in both cities. Through the whole film Berlin and Beirut become one city. One space. A space where you feel the weight of the past and the lightness of life sharing with Myrna her stories, adventures and memories.

Dixie Queen

2004 • 47 min

The life of a Southern drag queen isn't all wine and roses - just ask Wilmington, NC's own Tara Nicole. Stereotypes of Southern hospitality and redneck homophobia meet in this very revealing exploration of a smalltown farm boy who's grown up to become a drag queen known as the "Bitch Goddess of the Port City." Through fabulous drag performances and interviews with family, friends, and fellow Southern drag queens like The Lady Bunny, Dixie Queen reveals gay life and culture in the South.

Snowblink

2004 • 18 min • Ukraine, United States of America

"Snowblink", inspired by a Gabriel Garcia Marquez short story, portrays the honeymoon of a young French couple who are crossing the Ukraine. The couple's journey through the snow-covered steppes leads them to a face-to-face encounter with the machinery of bureaucracy.

Knochensplitter - The Dark Side of Switzerland

2004 • 26 min • Switzerland

The story of a peasant family in Switzerland in the eighteenth century. The father plunges his family out of jealousy into ruin. The events are hardly noticed by the village population and so he can steal clean from the affair. Nevertheless, his crimes do not go unpunished.

Justice Likes the Bagels

2004 • 5 min • United States of America

Justice McBain is a man who likes a free bagel. When his bagel-eating ways are put in peril, he is forced into action and a rivalry with Hugh Mann is born. Will the forces of greed prevail? Or will Justice be done?

Hemingway in Cuba

2004 • 58 min

The story of Ernest Hemingway's 30-year love affair with the West Indies republic is recounted in HEMINGWAY IN CUBA. Cuba captured Ernest Hemingway's fertile imagination and inspired him to create now-legendary fictional characters: Harry Morgan of To Have and Have Not, Thomas Hudson of Islands in the Stream and Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea. The program travels to Cuba to capture Hemingway's old haunts — many of which remain unchanged — and explores Hemingway's real-life adventures in Cuba, from his passion for marlin fishing and safari hunting, as well as the influence of his wives and lovers on his life and work. HEMINGWAY IN CUBA presents archival footage and includes interviews with Cuban scholars and Hemingway biographers who discuss how Cuba’s culture, religion and even its volatile politics influenced this legendary American author.

Coalition

2004 • 11 min • Iran

An animation based on 40 pieces of oil paintings by Ali Akbar Sadeghi which illustrates an ongoing regional confliction of world powers over Middle-Eastern countries. It has commissioned by the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Iran.

Schubiduu..uh - das pfiffige Gespenst

2004 • 26 min • Germany

The main attraction in Ahrensburg Castle is the smart, popcorn-loving ghost Schubiduu..uh. One day, Schubiduu..uh moves out because the castle administration has issued a popcorn ban. Since then, Schubiduh has been living in the attic of the Krüger family, because the siblings Jenny and Simon are his best friends. But soon the clever ghost is homesick for his old castle. Luckily for Schubiduu..uh, the ban on popcorn in the castle has just been lifted and so the ghost moves back into his old abode. Jenny and Simon visit their friend Schubiduu..uh as often as they can and experience many wonderful adventures...