Under the Blaze

While directing an anthology of short films through different regions of Colombia Helena and her director of photography, encounter through intense creative differences.

On a trip, three friends are confronted with problems in their friendship that have never been addressed for years, which suddenly puts the group to the test.

Tess enlists her biological father – a lovable slacker from the wrong side of the tracks – and the charming juvenile delinquent next door to help her come to grips with the death of her little sister.

In a Copenhagen motel, a politician's hookup doesn't go to plan. Meanwhile at a nightclub, a mother and son are connected via song. Whereas in the suburbs, a football team prepares for the big outing - of one of its players. The 5 short films are: Hotel Boy (2018); Poz (2016); Young Man's Dance [Ung mands dans] (2014); Swans [Svans] (2016); Ladyboy (2011).

Jaime Escalante is a mathematics teacher in a school in a hispanic neighbourhood. Convinced that his students have potential, he adopts unconventional teaching methods to try and turn gang members and no-hopers into some of the country's top algebra and calculus students.

In Ethiopia, in a small country school, children have a lesson on the Millennium Development Goals. But one of the pupils, Tiya, is distracted, she doesn’t listen. She is staring at the window. Outside, some children are playing rugby... Abderrahmane Sissako's contribution to 8 (2008).

Aoi is a 17-year-old girl uncertain about her future, but one thing she’s sure of is her pride in being a junior to the legendary actor RYU Chishu, who graduated from her school a century ago. Unfortunately, she’s the only member of her high school’s film club, which now faces closure as her graduation approaches. One summer afternoon, she discovers an old, tattered script in the clubroom, sparking her imagination—who could have written it? As her thoughts run wild, Her strained relationship with her father, a homeroom teacher whose stance remains unclear—friend or foe— and navigates her interactions with a group of eccentric classmates.

Jan, an itinerant male nurse from Denmark, takes a new job with Mrs. A, a terminally ill Manhattan woman raising her parentless thirteen-year-old grandson, Gil. Spending the summer by the shore, the emotionally reserved Jan finds himself oddly cast as a mentor to Gil in having to prepare the sensitive boy for life with his cousins in Florida after his grandmother's death.

It's the last week of school in a small polish town's junior high school. Waiting for the final party, several students pass the time at a city pool, as if anticipating the emotional whirlwind they are about to experience. The action takes place somewhere in Poland, where ‘LGBT free zones’ are a reality in 2020. It’s a story about young people, their problems and romantic endeavours in the era of the Internet and social apps, when creating genuine relationships is unnaturally difficult.

In this dialogue-driven, "second coming of age" comedic drama, Felix has all but given up on his pursuit of becoming a filmmaker when he meets Stella, a down to Earth, chain-smoking cinephile, whose unexpected friendship inspires him to start writing again–and falling for her. Never hesitating to take steps outside of reality through the use of movies within movies, found footage and action sequences, Mountainside is also a love letter to film itself.

Madeline has become an integral part of a prestigious physical theater troupe. When the workshop's ambitious director pushes the teenager to weave her rich interior world and troubled history with her mother into their collective art, the lines between performance and reality begin to blur. The resulting battle between imagination and appropriation rips out of the rehearsal space and through all three women's lives.

"Angel Cake in the Outfield": First, during a ball game, when things don't go Angel Cake's way, she decided to take her ball and go home. Thinking fast, Strawberry and Apple Dumplin teach Angel that the fun of sports... is to have fun! "Win Some, Lose Some": Peppermint Fizz is so determined to win the Nearly Once-A-Yearly Strawberryland Games, she cheats! But when Apple Dumplin' beats her in a race, Peppermint learns that it's not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game that matters.

After opening a chest of memories, a girl narrates events from chilean dictatorship and the murder of Nadia Fuentes Concha through the figure of bread, which is present in chilean everyday life.

A young man coming to terms with his future, as well as the impact he has on those around him. After a devastating break-up, John, begins taking a mysterious drug that allows him to see his ex-girlfriend as though she never left. As time goes on however, he realizes that this imaginary woman has little in common with the person he used to know.

Slavik is 17 years old, a gifted programmer who, despite the pressure from everyone around him, is doing his best to become independent by finding an acting course that is unlike anything he has done before.

A young girl strives to rekindle her parent's dwindling romance at their desert town's annual carnival, and learns hard lessons about love in the process.

Hu Guan-yu is passionate about table tennis. He trains with his best friend Huang Xuan, hoping to make the Olympic national team. When a new coach arrives, the team's atmosphere shifts, and they gradually drift apart. A year later, Guan-yu wins the junior national team qualifier. His opponent in the final: Huang Xuan.

On Christmas Eve, twins Alfie and Elise struggle with the absence of their father. Elise dreams of escape, while Alfie hides from the world. Their mother gives them a mysterious “Wish Watch,” left by their father. That night, they're visited by the enigmatic Wish Collector, who whisks them away to the Land of Sometimes, a magical place where all four seasons pass in one day. But wishes come with consequences. In this musical adventure, the twins meet extraordinary characters and learn that love, family, and friendship matter more than any wish.

On the eve of the admissions cycle for New York City kindergartens, Alex and Greg Wheeler have high hopes for four-year-old Jake. The director of Jake's preschool encourages them to accentuate Jake's gender expansive behavior to help him stand out. As Alex and Greg navigate their roles as parents, a rift grows between them, one that forces them to confront their own concerns about what's best for Jake, and each other.

Kizie and Manny, two ordinary people brought together by a tragic twist, embark on a bittersweet and extraordinary journey into the heart of that crazy little thing called 'life'.