The Alchemist assembles together a group of people from all walks of life to represent the planets in the solar system. The occult adept's intention is to put his recruits through strange mystical rites and divest them of their worldly baggage before embarking on a trip to Lotus Island. There they ascend the Holy Mountain to displace the immortal gods who secretly rule the universe.
An absent-minded traveler arrives at a Spanish beach where chaos is about to break out. (Followed by Mad in Xpain, 2020.)
An overly anxious man mysteriously finds himself unable to leave a bathroom.
Secchi
“Leda + Swans” depicts an infernal, mythic birth of cinema, dredging the violence and horror from Wallace McCutcheon’s comic short film “Photographing a Female Crook” (1904). Leda, who may or may not be a falsely accused young woman, is brought in for a mugshot by two officers. She first attempts to avoid the camera’s gaze, and, when overpowered and manhandled, contorts her face to ruin the photograph. However, her small rebellion proves futile; she was already being recorded, objectified, mapped, and co-opted by the Godhead of the director. As her body and image are repurposed and transmuted ad infinitum, the filmic universe also explodes into a supernova. What is born out of this suffering and manipulation is another example of our sublime medium and modern muse. She will not be last the Leda, and she may not even be the first. Who is the guilty party here? Is beauty a chimera in traditional cinema? Has the ephemeral cinema of the attractions and distractions era gone anywhere?
A successful mod photographer in London whose world is bounded by fashion, pop music, marijuana, and easy sex, feels his life is boring and despairing. But in the course of a single day he unknowingly captures a death on film.
David Aames has it all: wealth, good looks and gorgeous women on his arm. But just as he begins falling for the warmhearted Sofia, his face is horribly disfigured in a car accident. That's just the beginning of his troubles as the lines between illusion and reality, between life and death, are blurred.
In the questionable town of Deer Meadow, Washington, FBI Agent Desmond inexplicably disappears while hunting for the man who murdered a teen girl. The killer is never apprehended, and, after experiencing dark visions and supernatural encounters, Agent Dale Cooper chillingly predicts that the culprit will claim another life. Meanwhile, in the more cozy town of Twin Peaks, hedonistic beauty Laura Palmer hangs with lowlifes and seems destined for a grisly fate.
Short animation by Isabel Garrett
Across different eras, a poor family, an anxious developer and a fed-up landlady become tied to the same mysterious house in this animated dark comedy.
The story of a sex worker struggling to connect with the people around him. As his world turns increasingly hostile, a descent into isolation brings him face to face with his past.
Daimi is 12 years. It's Christmas, and she has tragically been left in a dark home with her only friend, a pet pig. Daimi's imagination overshadows reality. A reality she realizes with a scream. Daimi is not as alone as she thinks.
When a crown rolled in front of his hooves, Louis, a sheep among other sheep, grabs it, puts it on and becomes king. From then on, he plays through everything that kings do to banish boredom and to demonstrate power. With a lot of humour, historical borrowings and a profound sense, the detailed stop-motion animation drives abuse of power to extremes in order to expose it.
Alchimie au rhodium
Set to a backdrop of desolate snowy mountains, a young boy and his brother stumble into a surreal and twisted journey. Trying to escape their surroundings they are pursued by mysterious figures and have to confront themes of isolation, death and identity.
A series of vaudeville acts inserted in images of reality, meant to demonstrate the ephemeral nature of all things.
Scroll paintings prepared like film strips with successive images.
After two men find the corpse of a woman in their back garden tensions rise as they debate about what exactly they should do next.
During a walk in the woods a man stumbles upon a gate blocked by a guard who refuses to let him through. Gaining entry quickly becomes his obsession and only goal, to the detriment of all else, including his own physical and mental health.
Tired of scaring humans every October 31 with the same old bag of tricks, Jack Skellington, the spindly king of Halloween Town, kidnaps Santa Claus and plans to deliver shrunken heads and other ghoulish gifts to children on Christmas morning. But as Christmas approaches, Jack's rag-doll girlfriend, Sally, tries to foil his misguided plans.