21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.
Karole and Ali love each other and dream of starting a family together. They soon realize it won't be as simple as they'd hoped, and as their enthusiasm falters their love is challenged. In order to overcome the obstacles, they must believe in the power of their desire and support of their loved ones. If they can do that, miracles will happen…
When Terri Hansen (Mary McDonnell) emerges from a fiery car crash as a widow, the local sheriff at first believes her account of the accident. But there's a snag in her story. Namely, a bullet in her dead husband. Just what did happen on that dark desert road? Through a series of telling flashbacks, we and the jury learn the bizarre truth. Randy Quaid and Sam Elliott costar in this riveting drama.
Inspired by the O. Henry short story "Gift of the Magi", Gift for the Living is a story about a grandmother and her granddaughter who, without the other's knowledge, sell their most treasured possession in order to buy the other a birthday gift. In the granddaughter's quest for the perfect gift, she discovers her grandmother's rich and unique history, a history her grandmother never spoke of. Gift for the Living is a story about love, friendship, loss and sacrifice.
An unmarried aristocrat (Jacqueline Bisset) resists the advances of the adventurous man (Peter Weller) whom she actually desires, causing him to turn his attentions to her new ward (Amy Locane) and a young maid (Karen Dwyer).
An unusual visit to a large, empty apartment. But is it empty or not? Maybe a family has lived there or is going to live there. Maybe a young girl is going to escape from there. Maybe some of the old-timers who lived there never left. The walls themselves tell the stories of the time passing by.
"Washington Heights" tells the story of Carlos Ramirez, a young illustrator burning to escape the Latino neighborhood of the same name to make a splash in New York City's commercial downtown comic book scene. When his father, who owns a bodega in the Heights, is shot in a burglary attempt, Carlos is forced to put his dream on hold and run the store. In the process, he comes to understand that if he is to make it as a comic artist, he must engage with the community he comes from, take that experience back out into the world, and put it in his work.
Ely, a young man who can't get over Celine, his past love, meets Mia, a young woman who escaped from a painful past in the Philippines and is trying her luck to rebuild her life in Spain. They meet. They fall in love. But can they overcome the hurt of the past to have a future together?
Sedgewick Blynn is determined to marry a rich woman. One night he saves a child from a fire. Bessie Morgan, an heiress charmed by his act of heroism, promises to marry him, but at the last minute her father forbids it. Soon after, Blynn receives a telegram informing him of the death of his mother, and he realizes that he has wasted his life.
Inmates at a women's mental asylum stage a theatrical production of Herman Melville's 'Moby Dick.'
It is the last night of 14-year-old Astrid's and Issi's holiday by the beach. The mission is clear, especially for Issi: to find a guy and hopefully lose her virginity before the holidays are over.
A single mother and her slacker sister find an unexpected way to turn their lives around in this off-beat dramatic comedy. In order to raise the tuition to send her young son to private school the mom starts an unusual business – a biohazard removal/crime scene clean-up service.
Sidney Young is a down-on-his-luck journalist. Thanks to a stint involving a pig and a glitzy awards ceremony, Sidney turns his fortunes around, attracting the attention of Clayton Harding, editor of New York-based glossy magazine 'Sharps', and landing the holy grail of journalism jobs. The Brit jets off to the Big Apple and moves from one blunder to the next.
Flea was a basketball player, happy with his subtle hustle, until a Dominican connect introduced him to a new way to spread the work and make money.
Ace is an impressionable young man working for a dry cleaning business. His friend, drug dealer Mitch, goes to prison. In an unrelated incident, he finds some cocaine in a pants pocket. Soon, Ace finds himself dealing cocaine for Lulu. Via lucky breaks and solid interpersonal skills, Ace moves to the top of the Harlem drug world. Of course, unfaithful employees and/or rivals conspire to bring about Ace's fall.
Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...
When a sheltered young woman becomes enamored with a struggling writer, she goes to great lengths to become involved in his creative process.
A teenage girl becomes entangled in a volatile relationship with a pair of high-school lovers.
David Storm learned 10 years ago that he has MS. For this reason and without telling her he leaves his girlfriend, Linda. Now he lives alone and only his brother, Anton, has much contact with him.
Taking a short-cut home from work, high-schooler Billie Simms is raped. Not only does the incident cause an unwanted pregnancy that damages her college expectations, but it also outrages her smugly religious father who pressures her to give up the baby.