The Morning Sea

Like each afternoon, Alicia makes herself a cup of tea and watches VictorGaming, her favorite YouTube channel. Victor, the YouTuber, is just streaming questions from his fans and answering them, but Alicia has something very important to tell him.

Woman aspires to become an elite Renaissance dancer. She spends most of her time training in the galliard form and adopting a 16th century Europe style of living. Woman's family urge her to pursue a more conventional path of life - study for the SAT, go to college, work in finance, etc. Faced with the impending decisions of the future, Woman embarks on a quest to prove her skills to her family and persuade them to let her attend FFCSFF. She decides to search for a student to whom she could teach all that she knows. Despite some initial difficulties, Woman and her new learner Ant develop a strong bond and an amazing routine. Because if she could teach an ant to dance, she could do anything.

After 20 years Moni (38) returns home to her sister Silke who has been attacked by a stranger. Moni is willing to do anything possible to find the attacker and to protect her sister. But is that really what Silke (34) wants? And if so, who is actually the one, to be protected? And above all, protect from who? And which role does the offender René (38) play, who doesn't even understand why he did it. A melancholic film that plays with three different perspectives and constantly reinvents itself while searching for answers.

Uchida Mayu is a high school student in a peaceful town near Tokyo. She suffers from violence from her stepfather and plans to run away to her uncle's home in Tokyo. As she is about to board the last bus to Tokyo, a terrible looking old person causes her to miss the bus. She attempts to walk across a ridge. Meanwhile, Mayu's uncle Uchida Kazuki is a freelancer writer. He chases after the hideous monster Yoshie who attacks people. Kazuki receives a phone call that his niece Mayu ran away. He begins a search for her and finds her cellphone on a mountain path. He sees Yoshie's picture on her cellphone.

Heizo's cousin Senemon Misawa and his son Katsuzo visited Heizo's home. Heizo learns that Senemon has fallen in love with Katsutoshi, a woman who works at the Yamabukiya Tea House, and has asked her to marry him. Heizo decided to visit Yamabukiya, saying "I will try to find out if this woman is a bodhisattva or a demon." After meeting Katsutoshi Heizo, felt embarrassed and ordered Gorozo to inquire about her just in case. Gorozo, in turn, sends secret detective Rihachi to Yamabukiya with the task of keeping an eye on Katsutoshi...

An old thief, Kuhei Sagiwara, used to visit his hometown at the foot of the Kurikara Pass in Kaga Province. Hiding from the rain, he overheard a secret conversation between three men, just like him, hiding from the rain. These three conspired to kill Heizo Hasegawa, the head of the arson and robbery police squad, and the head of these three is the outrageous villain, thief and murderer Jingoro Amikiri...

Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.

After seeing her husband off to work, the young author identified only as Yoshiko sets off to read the large collection of letters she received from other young authors. These are often letters containing samples of their work for critique. One large envelope contains a letter. The letter-writer does not provide his name. The letter is a confession of crimes. The letter-writer has no family or friends, and claims to be "ugly beyond description". He is a chair maker and loves his work and all the chairs he creates, even going so far as to claim some sort of intangible connection to his work.

Okawa Family’s yakuza, Junji, is released from prison, and is told to take over a local radio station by his boss. Junji tries to explain that it is not a yakuza’s job to talk on the radio, but no one listens to him. He reluctantly goes to the radio building, and is met by a young, upbeat girl broadcasting a talk show and playing pop music. Will this seasoned gangster really fit in on such a show?

In the empty corridors of her abandoned Catholic school, a woman must confront the grief of a first love lost too soon, face the truth she has long avoided, and finally learn to forgive herself.

A hybrid short film that merges American Sign Language, contemporary dance, and poetry to tell a deeply personal story about expression, resilience, and the emotional weight of language. Drawing visual inspiration from the experimental dance films of the 1940s, the piece centers a Deaf protagonist whose inner world is revealed not through words, but through movement.

A man and a woman pose as a couple to enter a photography contest.

A grief-stricken ex-boxer is pulled back into East Tennessee’s underground fight scene when his younger brother is brutalized by a former rival with blood ties to his past.

17-year old Eli moves with his family to the isolated farm of reclusive Waylon, a man whose dark past threatens to overtake him. Eli’s family works to restore the desolate fields, while he becomes fascinated with the forests. While on the farm, Eli meets the mysterious Amanda when she gives him an apple. The next day she extracts a promise from him to avoid the deep woods. Reeling from a violent encounter with his father, one night he breaks this promise and finds her body hanging from a tree.

Japan and Russia clash in what comes to be known as the Russo-Japanese War. An attempt by the Japanese fleet and army to take Port Arthur fails, and a Russian fleet bears down on the Sea of Japan. Admiral Heihachiro Togo sends his fleet to confront the Russians, with results which stun both nations. Meanwhile, Major Genjiro Akashi makes secret negotiations with the Bolshevik revolutionaries in Russia, negotiations that have repercussions far beyond the conflict at hand.

A middle-aged man walks up to young man who is sitting under a tree and shoots him. The film then flashes back to 1981, where a young woman steals a car with a baby strapped inside. She decides to raise the child as her own, and teaches him to shoplift from stores while she works as a prostitute. She strikes up a relationship with a convenience-store clerk, and the two eventually settle down together.

A private investigator takes on an audacious local community where they seem to worship an ancient fabled crown and yet are not aware of the deadly horror and consequences that guard its true existence.

The daughter of a preacher becomes the centerpiece for a conservative political campaign but finds herself falling in love with a woman.

In Porto Rotondo, stories circulate about love and jealousy within a group of young people.

In the Meiji period, a schoolteacher tries to hide his lower-class upbringing as he supports a visiting liberal intellectual.