A Dying Tree

Juan Méndez Bernal leaves his house on the 9th of april of 1936 to fight in the imminent Spanish Civil War. 83 years later, his body is still one of the Grass Dwellers. The only thing that he leaves from those years on the front is a collection of 28 letters in his own writing.

Filmmaker and new media artist Tong Xie’s debut short probes the unease, confusion, and obsession experienced by the body as it crosses the urban physiognomy. Set amidst the shadowy loneliness of Paris at night, Absolutely No Sexual Favors je pense à toi 吾想汝顯 depicts the psychological and corporeal marginality of queer identity and desire through perpetually displaced figures.

In the heart of the Caribbean, a mother and daughter confront a malevolent curse erasing identities of all the island's women, propelling them on a daring quest to reclaim their rich cultural heritage and triumph over the encroaching darkness.

Shot in a series of long-takes over several days, the film follows a flower shop attendant (played by Devereaux, then actually employed at a small flower shop by the beach) in fragmented detail. The order of scenes resists chronology: moments recur, shift, or vanish, creating not the passage of a single day but the jumble of many, refracted into a meditation on routine and its quiet abstractions.

A folk singer in 17th-century Kerala discovers a mansion. Inside, he encounters an enigmatic cook and a powerful master, setting in motion a chain of events that changes his life.

Alinur, a student filmmaker, tries to make a film about the apocalypse for his capstone project. The movie itself happens to be about a mercenary named M who inadvertently causes an apocalypse. As he tries to “create” the destruction of this supposed apocalypse through utilizing technical gimmicks that he has enforced onto the production of the film, this supposed effort also creeps in as a force that starts to “destroy” him, piece by piece. The outcome of it tests the sincerity of not only the film itself but also of the performative efforts that Alinur has made as a filmmaker—even this test might not be as sincere as it seems.

The inner mind of Aaliyah Petra, a young black dancer fighting to withstand the immense pressure of being her family and community's “Moneybaby.” Aaliyah battles through the overwhelming pressure to succeed, discovers her own resilience, and realizes the true meaning of Black Excellence.

A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?

As a young woman walks home alone one night, a chance encounter with a missing dog incites the reclamation of her body and self — as she learns to bite as tough as her bark.

"Highway Hypnosis" - alternatively referred to as "white line fever" - is a dazed state in which a driver may travel long stretches of open road in a compliant and normal fashion, yet with little-to-no recollection of how their destination was reached.

Shot in long, contemplative takes, Madrona Marsh lingers on the last remaining vernal freshwater wetland in Los Angeles’s South Bay. Amid Torrance’s dense urban sprawl, the film observes the marsh as an unlikely oasis—home to birds, fish, insects, reptiles, and moments of quiet human presence. Influenced by the rhythms of slow cinema’s great masters, Devereaux shapes stillness and habitat into a meditative portrait of fragile ecology and the persistence of life within an urban environment.

Just another love story. The difference is Gerson.

Concerns a young boy's mystical experiences during his Confirmation. As the ceremony unfolds, figures from religion and mythology appear and impress on him the need to become a soldier of Christ.

A father travels through five stages of grief after discovering that his wife is having an affair. The father is portrayed by five different actors and actresses.

A hearse cruises the streets of Medellín, while a young director tells his story in this city marked by conflicts, violence and paradoxes. He remembers his childhood and the discovery of his sexuality.

Fame driven Ken Dean becomes the subject of a documentary when he attempts to start a pornography company. Following the failure of the company, Ken uses his father's religious music to start a Christian rock band but finds himself trapped in a gay conversion cult.

Daniela (24) is a ghost in pain. Her life ended suddenly and painfully, leaving her friend and roommate, Mónica (22) alone in their shared apartment in Santiago, Chile. Daniela feels her frustration grow within her, as she fears that her time in limbo will never end.

An unknown girl breaks out of her daily grind by undergoing an intense audio-visual trip.

Man is constantly confronted by the one eyed beast. When peeking through the hole in his box, he discovers a truth that transforms his life. Every time the beast observes him and the darkness approaches his box, he becomes an embarrassed being.

A photographer girl enters a street to take street photographs as usual and takes a few photos that she thinks are normal. When she washes the photos and hangs them, she sees that she is actually in one of the photos and goes in search of that person.