Hand Catching Lead

Mysterium Gotik - Als die Kathedralen in den Himmel wuchsen

Mairy, a thirty-year-old woman from Philippines, works in a village in Cyprus. She takes care of Mr. Michalis, an eigthy-five-year-old man with arteriosclerosis. Mr. Michalis spends his days in front of the television, watching time and again a soap opera with a heroine named Anna. He soon becomes obsessed with this heroine, to the point of calling Mairy 'Anna', despite the remarks of his daughter Melpo. When Mairy finds some old photographs she makes an important discovery...

A short black-and-white silent documentary film featuring one dog jumping through hoops and another dancing in a costume, which was considered lost until footage from an 1896 Fairground Programme was identified as being from this film.

Mostly dark, rejecting images which are repeated. A stone wall, the chamber of a revolver which is, at first not recognizable, a close-up of a cactus. The duration of the takes emphasises the photographic character of the pictures, simultaneously with a crackling, brutal sound. (Hans Scheugl)

El Pintor Sin Cara

Surfing at Waikiki Beach, Hawaii, on the island of Oahu. Most surfers are human, one is a dog. The educational documentary is part of the Bruce Scenic Novelties series.

A man haunted seeks inspiration for his first painting.

A poem about mania written by Omar Zefier. His second film.

The Antwerp Zoo covers a fair extent of ground, and was already in 1910 generally considered as an important one. A large number of views of birds and animals were taken and hand coloured. In those days, the monkey house was in for much attention. People found that the various comic incidents added a touch of whimsicality.

Painter Zdzisław Beksiński, his wife Zofia and their son Tomasz, a well-known radio journalist and translator, were a typical and unconventional family, both at the same time. One of the father’s obsessions was filming himself and his family members. Using archival footage only, shot primarily by Zdzisław, as well many other materials, which have not been presented anywhere so far, the film tells a tragic story of the Beksińskis that has never ceased to fascinate Polish filmmakers.

The story focuses on high school girl Nagisa Yukiai who lives in a seaside town. She has believed her grandmother's story that spirits dwell in words and they are called "kotodama" (word spirit). One day, she strays into a mini FM station that has not been used for years. As an impulse of the moment, she tries to talk like a DJ using the facility. But her voice accidentally broadcasted reaches someone she has never expected.

Simon is a little boy that has to deal with his babysitter, Sonia, a total nuisance. But that same night Simon will receive and unexpected visitor, Timothy, the main character of Simon's favourite show, a visit he will never forget.

Josh Thomas is an artist grieving the loss of his wife, channelling inner turmoil into art. When presented with an opportunity, Josh must decide whether he’s selling art or his emotions.

Embark on the epic ride of Jim Phillips, the genius behind skateboarding and rock culture's electrifying art. Drawing inspiration from his life in Santa Cruz, CA, Jim helped shape the golden era of skateboarding. Jim's story is a profound narrative of resilience, passion, and enduring artistic vision. This documentary explores Jim's dynamic life and career, showcasing his iconic work that has defined an era and secured his place in modern art history.

Follow a day of the life of Big Buck Bunny when he meets three bullying rodents: Frank, Rinky, and Gamera. The rodents amuse themselves by harassing helpless creatures by throwing fruits, nuts and rocks at them. After the deaths of two of Bunny's favorite butterflies, and an offensive attack on Bunny himself, Bunny sets aside his gentle nature and orchestrates a complex plan for revenge.

Created in response to a traumatic hate crime, artist, Venus Patel, explores her emotional journey through several archetypes, each of whom perform with an egg. Using the weapon of the assailant, the egg itself becomes a tool with many psychological and symbolic meanings within it. The power of reincarnation, birth, nature, hope while also pointing to the power it has to utterly humiliate and embarrass if used in a certain way. There is an embrace of the absurdity of these performances while still speaking to the deeper subject matter. By placing the outlandish characters into public spaces, they confront a preconceived notion of pushing true queer expression into only hidden spaces or only at night, into the daylight and into the normal everyday experience.

This ninety-minute film takes audiences on an epic journey across nine countries and over 1,400 years of history. It explores themes such as the Word, Space, Ornament, Color and Water and presents the stories behind many great masterworks of Islamic Art and Architecture. Narrated by Academy Award winning performer Susan Sarandon, this dazzling documentary reveals the variety and diversity of Islamic art. It provides a window into Islamic culture and brings broad insights to the enduring themes that have propelled human history and fueled the rise of world civilization over the centuries

In Unborn we follow the internal monologue of a hybrid pigeon-persona who questions her inevitable cursed fate of parenthood. As a pigeon, she is supposed to build a nest to lay her eggs, but she fundamentally doubts her part in the cycle of life. Several absurd scenes show her struggle with popular belief, and nightmarish fantasies around the trappings of parenthood, and indirectly address reproductive rights without perpetuating the polarising perspective present in ongoing public debate. The spell-like remarks of the crow could be seen as her conscience echoing society’s expectations around reproduction. The presence of the egg as a haunted object with magical properties in this film becomes an unsettling interpretation of (in)fertility as a curse. The video incorporates various digital and hand-made techniques like stop-motion animation, set design, sound design and performance to unfold an uncanny world.

In Bait, awkward parallels are drawn between environmental and sexual violence. Central is a range of anthropomorphous characters voicing their conflicting perspectives on consent and complicity. An adaptation of Millais' Ophelia comes back to life through karaoke. A white male default 3D avatar generates empty buzzwords to apologize for being involved in issues of harassment. A singing ensemble of oysters share their concerns about the abuse of power, allegorically hinting at their gendered, art-historical, and ecological connotations. The Aquatic Apes are depicted as otherworldly mid-evolution creatures with sexualized and animalistic features, and vocalized dolphin-like sounds translated into subtitles. Connecting all characters is the reference to water as a unifying element, exposing its undeniable sexual, biological, and environmental interpretations.

Focusing on the self-narration and visual language of the mounted police, ‘A horse is a horse of course of course’ reflects on how police horses are treated as just another of the many apparatuses police use for the maintenance of social control systems and their legitimation. While undergoing a special domestication process aimed at suppressing their instinctive flight responses to fear, horses become a means to impose disciplinary power in return. Originally a two-channel video, ‘A horse is a horse of course of course’ invites us to question the distorted mainstream cultural definition of policing. To start engaging with an abolitionist practice also requires radically decoding and refusing the oversimplifying language that police speak.