Strong-Thing

"The prevailing stigmatization of the 'villero' universe is fed back by the images. In order to dismantle this stigmatization, other images must be presented or we need to reveal what the existing ones seek to cover up. The slum is usually represented from a limited and deceitful visual panorama. This representation has an intention. Cinema and television are two image-producing devices that strengthen the stereotypes that we have about the people who inhabit these spaces. And what happens in the field of painting? Do clichés reign there too? This visual essay seeks to confront various works by national painters and sculptors, belonging to the Palais collection, with the kinetic images of current cinema and television, to reflect on both the differences and the similarities in the meanings and discourses that both regimes of images can produce." César González

A Última Sala

In this deeply personal video diary, a young researcher tries to make sense of her fascination for the film "The Pain of Others" by Penny Lane. A deep dive into the discomforting world of YouTube and online conspiracies, that challenges traditional notions of what documentary cinema is, or should be.

Dan and Doris both find themselves single in their 70s after their spouses of decades have passed away. After using an online dating service during the pandemic for older singles, they talk on the phone for three months and fall in love before meeting in person. Now living in Austin, Texas, and married for three years, the two wear lavish matching outfits, go out dancing several nights a week, and have an active sexual life rooted in both fantasy and intimacy. With a deep awareness of their mortality guiding their choices, Dan and Doris are not afraid to show up in the world as their true selves, disregarding cultural norms for how older people should look, love, and move through the world.

From the behavior, discourse, and appearance of individual actors, Vachek composes, in the form of a mosaic, a broad and many-layered film-argument about Czechoslovak democracy in the period of its rebirth, all administered with the director’s ini­mitable point of view.

KWAIDAN

This film essay is inspired by Leonid Trauberg's eponymous autobiographical text. It also sheds light on his public condemnation in 1949 as a leader of the "cosmopolitans," accused of "only causing harm to Soviet cinema," as well as his enthusiasm for silent slapstick comedies, the novels of P.G. Wodehouse and G.K. Chesterton, and his fascination with the lost FEKS film, The Adventures of Octobrine.

The mind process behind the film, Transformers the Premake, explained by Kevin B Lee himself.

In an age of chaos, destruction, and decay, the resurrection of nature was the last ray of vitality and a testament to survival. The film ventures into the haunting remnants of humanity, the silent witness of its collective collapse, and the ethereal rebirth of nature in the absence of mankind. The intriguing scenes are experienced through an omnipresent and atemporal perspective.

A snooze alarm clock cannot wake a sleepy person. The bell of the alarm clock hence becomes a hypnotic trigger. Such an ordinary sound is redefined in our drowsy moments, and we are also liberated from the sounds that condition our lives—queue management systems, electric scooters, air raid drills, and public demonstrations. These sounds are released from the soft soil of our consciousness and grow into a new scene. And we sail with those who cannot be awakened on a boat drifting off course into a new realm projected by frequency. This is a film you can watch with your eyes closed.

Filmmakers Sam and Amy journey into rural Australia to explore how the legacy of an American legend has transmitted and warped itself over time, and across the globe, resulting in the 30th annual Parkes Elvis Festival.

Jazz, dreams, and hope. The protagonist of the film is Wiesław Mrzygłód, a musician and artist. He has an extraordinarily positive attitude to the world, life, and music. In the 1980s, together with the Old Dixieland Players, he played at the most important jazz events in Poland and Europe. Despite doctors' opinions, he says, "Someday, I will play again." He refuses to give up. The film was made using analog and combined techniques, based on drawing using oil pastels, prints, and re-filming methods.

In a world bedazzled by intractable images, do we need the essay film now more than ever? Kevin B. Lee weighs up this distinctively self-aware, searching form of cinema through both video and text.

In 2010, an obsessed gamer designed the perfect game of Sim City. Achieved through a repeating pattern of clustered high rises, “Magnasanti” exposes the hellish consequences of top-down civic design. In his new documentary, John Wilson explores how New York City is creeping closer and closer to realising this fictional metropolis.

In The Slit Throat

An experimental short film, shot during the COVID-19 pandemic, made by one person. Using recorded scenes and archival footage, the short presents an unorthodox narrative to explore the themes of self-identification, identity, gender expression and androgyny.

A documentary based on the mutual experiences of a trio of directors, which portrays life in the border village of Bystré during the last year of the millennium. The film concentrates on the exuberant social life of the community, including many bizarre recent customs, as well as on several very intimate moments in the lives of the inhabitants.

Zaniklý svět Karla Pecky

Make Moravia Great Again

This experimental Western horror film set in the Moravian region of Slovácko offers a new take on the legend of Saint Wenceslas. Against the backdrop of a shabby folk festival, the mythical prince Boleslav, a zombie from a wine cellar, battles his brother Wenceslas over the nature of Czech statehood and a plate of tomato soup.