We’re grading on the curve here, for this entry in Laemmle’s indie series was made on not so much as a shoestring, but more of a frayed thread: $10,000. Still, first-time writer-director Sophie Pegrum has done remarkably well, getting far more than her money’s worth in style and skill onto the screen, abetted by Jaime Reynoso’s photography, amazing for the price. Charles Britton – RAVE Magazine
A bloodstain on a sheet triggers a great transformation in Tina, an eleven-year-old girl. As she spreads out the laundry with her mother, she will have to silently face all those unknown feelings she thought would never come.
During the Civil War, at a Southern girls’ boarding school, young women take in an injured enemy soldier. As they provide refuge and tend to his wounds, the house is taken over with sexual tension and dangerous rivalries, and taboos are broken in an unexpected turn of events.
When stand-up and improvisor Michelle Marcus is over the rat race of Los Angeles, her fellow comedian friends band together and have one last night out on the town. The ladies talk life, career struggles and chasing their dreams.
Felina, a woman capable of becoming a panther, or perhaps a panther capable of becoming a woman, lives in love with a blind pianist.
Tilda's days are strictly structured: she studies, works at the supermarket checkout and looks after her little sister Ida - on some days she also has to look after her alcoholic mother. But this summer brings a change: Tilda receives a promising job offer for a doctorate in Berlin. Viktor also turns up, who, like her, always swims 22 laps in the swimming pool. When Tilda begins to believe that everything could be better, the situation at home spirals out of control.
Luise, called Pünktchen, and Anton are closest of friends. Being the daughter of a wealthy surgeon, young Pünktchen lives in a great house. Her mother, who always travels through the world more for public relation reasons than for the social tasks she pretends to fulfill, is never available to her as a mother. Anton, son of a single and sick mother in financial trouble, does his best to help her out of it by working late. Pünktchen decides to help her only friend (as nobody else would anyway) and starts singing in public places. Trouble arises when Anton can't resist stealing a golden lighter and Pünktchen's secret life is discovered by her parents. Two troubled families finally can see the need for actions to be taken.
After the death of his mother, a young boy calls a radio station in an attempt to set his father up on a date. Talking about his father’s loneliness soon leads to a meeting with a young female journalist, who has flown to Seattle to write a story about the boy and his father.
The film tells the story of a steel worker named Karger who is living in the Saxon town of Riesa. Personal as well as professional changes force him to turn his back on his home town that he had never left in his whole life and to enter unknown territory. On his way into the unknown, Karger has to bid many painful farewells. However, he faces them in his characteristic indifferent manner.
Travelling is a violation of the rules when a player holding the ball moves one or both feet illegally. Fifteen-year-old Justyna, trying to escape her mom's life, falls into a fascination with the new neighbor. A short and intense relationship will push her to grow up quickly.
On the outside, Helen has it all – a loving family and a successful career – but when her suppressed mental illness resurfaces, the world crumbles around her. Crippled by depression, Helen finds solace through her friendship with Mathilda, a kindred spirit struggling with bipolar disorder.
Nackt is the story of three couples, one of which just broke up, one that seems to be about to and one perfectly okay. They are all friends and from time to time they gather to talk about everything.One time they gather for dinner at the second couple's "mansion" - the husband became rich with his business. We see each couple as they prepare themselves for the party and learn a lot about their relationships.At the dinner they get to talking about recognizing each other's peer with closed eyes and decide to try it (thus the title "Nackt"=naked in German).
Esther's life is panning out nicely. She will soon move in with her boyfriend Vincent and she seems set to get a permanent position at the public relations company where she freelances. All would be fine if Esther didn't accidentally discover a piercing curiosity about her own body.
Marie, who works as a successful door-to-door encyclopedia salesperson, has been married to her husband Francois for 12 years and has a two-year-old son. Though she is relatively content with her life, she feels something is wanting. Enter 50-year old African-American Bill. Initially she is annoyed by his insouciance, but she finds that she is irresistibly attracted to him. Soon the two are in the midst of sordid illicit affair. She knows little about her new lover, and he seems uninterested in learning about her, but the long sessions of lovemaking are something else entirely. Feeling out of control, Marie is increasingly repelled by her own actions. Psychologically, she struggles to reconcile her torrid encounters with Bill and mundane domestic chores such as bathing her son. Moreover, she finds herself incapable of hiding her adulterous behavior, rather she comes home with scratches and hickeys all over her body, to the devastation Francois.
On her birthday, Juliette is too upset to worry about the strange cleaner who imitates her every move and lusts after her clothing.
The retelling of France’s iconic but ill-fated queen, Marie Antoinette. From her betrothal and marriage to Louis XVI at 15 to her reign as queen at 19 and ultimately the fall of Versailles.
Starting his new job as an instructor at a New England school for the deaf, James Leeds meets Sarah Norman, a young deaf woman who works at the school as a member of the custodial staff. In spite of Sarah's withdrawn emotional state, a romance slowly develops between the pair.
Or shoulders a lot: she's 17 or 18, a student, works evenings at a restaurant, recycles cans and bottles for cash, and tries to keep her mother Ruthie from returning to streetwalking in Tel Aviv. Ruthie calls Or "my treasure," but Ruthie is a burden. She's just out of hospital, weak, and Or has found her a job as a house cleaner. The call of the quick money on the street is tough for Ruthie to ignore. Or's emotions roil further when the mother of the youth she's in love with comes to the flat to warn her off. With love fading and Ruthie perhaps beyond help, Or's choices narrow.
Fiona and Grant have been married for nearly 50 years. They have to face the fact that Fiona’s absent-mindedness is a symptom of Alzheimer’s disease. She must go to a specialized nursing home, where she slowly forgets Grant and turns her affection to Aubrey, another patient in the home.
Filmmakers from all over the world provide short films – each of which is eleven minutes, nine seconds, and one frame of film in length – that offer differing perspectives on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.