All Films

Signing Time: Nursery Rhymes

2017 • 35 min

Sign and sing along Emmy-nominated host Rachel Coleman, from the award winning Signing Time television series. Giggle with animated Alex, Leah, and Hopkins! Sign language brings whole-body learning and fun to classic nursery rhymes.

The Amulet of Fear

2017 • 6 min

An ancient amulet which has the ability to conjure up fears of the man who owns!

Abstract feat. Alkama

2017 • 2 min • Japan

Astract stop-motion short film using "lightning doodles" by Tochka.

Healing Hands

2017 • 20 min

Marta bakes a cake for her son's arrival.

☞ ☞ ☞ ✰ the Most Satisfying Video in the World ✰ ☁ ☁ ☁

2017 • 9 min • United States of America

Through meditative recreations of classic ASMR (#iphone-destruction, #knife-cutting, #slime, #kinetic-sand, #squishies), "☞ ☞ ☞ ✰ THE MOST SATISFYING VIDEO IN THE WORLD ✰ ☁ ☁ ☁" is an experimentation in tactility and visual magic while contemplating YouTube as a site for art. How do we delineate the artistic boundaries between internet videos, video art, and film, and who is the authority on these distinctions? What content is considered mindless, therapeutic, smart, pleasureable, or artistic?

Ouali-gara - La commerçante

2017 • 18 min • Central African Republic, France

In the past, Nina was prosperous, with cassava piling up in her house up to the ceiling. But since the crisis, she's been reduced to selling a few vegetables that barely bring in any income. She doesn't even have the few pennies that would allow her to buy merchandise. However, Nina is not one to give up easily. She gathers her courage and embarks on the journey to reclaim her business.

Arturo

2017 • 7 min • Italy

Let the rhythm get into your head.

Weird Housemates

2017 • 12 min

Bok-hui and Mal-ro are not your average housemates. Bok-hui has a crush on Mal-ro. The problem is that Bok-hui is a ghost and Mal-ro is not. Besides, Mal-ro is not attracted to Bok-hui. In order to get rid of Bok-hui, Mal-ro tries to introduce her to a bachelor ghost Sang-won. To Mal-ro's surprise, Sang-won falls for Mal-ro, too!

Business

2017 • 8 min

A young man becomes entangled in an older couples' intimate affairs--but will he make it out alive?

Imps

2017 • 18 min

The talented and autistic maths student Sergei inherits from his grandfather a mysterious album with cryptic formulae. They help Sergei create a smartphone app allowing normal people to use magic – but then a most real imp comes to claim the album...

Marajó das Letras

2017 • 30 min

The Marajó Island, in north of Brazil, gives place to citiesand comunities with singular habits. The boats, so importants to the local population, are ilustrated with decorated types, a kind of art typical of the region.

Alan Saldaña: mi vida de pobre

2017 • 53 min

Mexican comic Alan Saldaña has fun with everything from the pressure of sitting in an exit row to maxing out his credit card in this stand-up special.

Ryan Gander: The Idea of Japan

2017 • 60 min • United Kingdom

Artist Ryan Gander explores Japan's highly sophisticated visual culture, expressed through images and symbols. He makes unexpected connections between everything from geisha to tattoo art.

Moonlight of the Shadow

2017 • 30 min • United Kingdom

Honorable Mention: Experimental Forum A film that explores mental health, our mental states; how we are thrown into chaos. A film that considers that mystical, magical energy that flows; unseen, charging into the Nether-Realm.

Galveston

2017 • 8 min

Lewis’s latest film, Galveston, 2017, newly commissioned by The Contemporary Austin and on view at the Jones Center, takes the city of Galveston, Texas, as both its setting and title. This island off the Gulf Coast has had many lives—as historic immigration port, center for shipping and the petrochemical industry, site of natural disasters, and tourist destination—and this complex, layered history becomes the backdrop and undercurrent for the film. In Galveston, Lewis’s ever-present subject is the iconic white skyscraper of One Moody Tower, visible throughout the southeast Texas city since it was completed in 1972.

Encontro das Águas

2017 • 30 min • Brazil

This short film follows the journey of Rosane Pires and Iara Viana, during the preparations for their wedding, as well as the civil and religious ceremonies.

The Ball

2017 • 7 min

A girl awaits her boyfriend to take her to the town ball when a sinister force stops her departure.

Bb

2017 • 2 min • Italy

An artist begins a piece, his movements emerging from the patches of color still not perfectly absorbed by the paper. BB is a video portrait of Pierpaolo Miccolis, a visual artist from Alberobello (in the Bari area).

The Vietnam War: Personal Reflections

2017 • 56 min

More than a dozen Vietnam War veterans from the central Illinois area recount their tours of duty including ground and air combat, the fighting environment, their living conditions, coping with the loss of friends and health issues including the effects of Agent Orange. They also reflect on the reception they received upon returning home and their opinions of the war.

Struck

2017 • 15 min

On the sand dunes of her local beach a female jogger returns to the scene of a crime looking for closure.

Music is Music/Crazy Girl Crazy

2017 • 21 min • France

In a poetic composition of song, narration, and images, this film follows Canadian soprano and orchestra conductor Barbara Hannigan, accompanied by the Ludwig Orchestra, as she records her album Crazy Girl Crazy. Why did she choose these three pieces, in essence so different, but which intimately resonate with her: Berio’s Sequenza III, Berg’s Lulu Suite, and Gershwin’s Girl Crazy? With this musical voyage peering into a world of precision and sharing, where a passionate woman brings forth a vocal tour de force, Mathieu Amalric, César winner for Best Actor in 2005 and 2008, shows us once more his talent behind the camera with this new opus that goes beyond a mere artist’s portrait.

Panoramic Chronicle

2017 • 3 min

All those silent people on the train. Who are they, anyway? And what are they thinking about? French visual artists and co-directors Lewis Trondheim and Jean Matthieu Tanguy take great delight in speculating on the above, with style, aplomb, and a little help from singer/musician Thomas Fersen, whose narration amusingly adopts the tone of an ad man. Consisting of an impressive tracking shot through the passenger car of a train, Panoramic Chronicle takes a common, humdrum experience and turns it into a captivating journey that’s tinged with some deliciously deadpan humour. A slice of everyday life, courtesy of the Comic Strip Chronicles.

Into the Rainbow

2017 • 15 min

Two lesbian girls who want to escape smuggled from Iran.

From a Great Height

2017 • 17 min • Belarus

While escaping from the army, Belarusian Egor accidentally meets a Syrian refugee on a train to Warsaw. The circumstances make both guys escape from the hostile reality together while scorning the arms and singing of peace.