Waking Things

A silly song about killing spiders.

Anna Wunder

Jonny Baptiste is a reckless teen sent to live with her estranged Aunt Hildie. On the event of her eighteenth birthday, she experiences a radical metamorphosis: a family spell that redefines her called Forevering. When several teen girls go missing at her new school, a mythically feral Jonny goes after the Perpetrator.

A 1973 short film set in Chelsea’s Penn South.

This cinema-verite-style documentary interweaves the pregnancy and childbirth of a young woman with the lingering death of a cancer patient to comment on the celebration and tragedy of existence. The tenderness and intimacy of the young couple, and the mystery of birth are contrasted with the dignity of a man who faces his death without deception.

A cinema verite study of the world of the blue-collar worker and the economic and psychological bind in which he is caught.

Profile of choreographer, composer and performer Meredith Monk, recorded on location in her home base, New York City. Monk discusses some ideas underlying her work: her attraction to the eloquence of the human voice, and the direct communication made possible by the abstract qualities of music; her emphasis on the poetic rather than the political; her belief in the power of images; her willingness to take risks. She describes her experiences in working in different media, such as audio recordings, films, and videos, and the challenge of weaving them together.

This short film is an autobiographical portrait of a young Argentine lesbian growing up in a homophobic environment.

Fran likes to think about dying. It brings sensation to her quiet life. When she makes the new guy at work laugh, it leads to more: a date, a slice of pie, a conversation, a spark. The only thing standing in their way is Fran herself.

A character-driven heartfelt story of resilience and the impact of education. The film follows Angel, Moses and Nina from the slums of Kampala, Uganda through a world tour with the Grammy-nominated African Children's Choir; stunningly shot and told through Angel, Moses and Nina's perspectives on their one shot journey from poverty to education.

Welcome to the awkward sexually charged silence of teenage life.

A love story featuring two young Maoris. A story about growing up and an unusual relationship that is simple, moving and tragic. A boy, a girl… and a step too far into a personal abyss of violence and pain. Survival may not bring a happy ending.

Inspired by the Celtic myths of the Selkies - seals in water and enchanting maidens on land - who storm Manhattan when one of their kind falls for a man drowning under the Brooklyn Bridge.

Maria, a competitive woman in her late 30's orders a clone from North Korea under the pretense of getting some help around the house so she can spend more time with her husband and two kids, but mostly to compete with her flawless friend Ari.

The film is set in the near future, in a world of perfect capitalism. Society is sustained by a class of top achievers; meanwhile, so-called minimum recipients live under sedation in Fortresses of Sleep. The great majority of top achievers view themselves as happy. An outsourced agency has been established for the rest: Life Guidance is charged with turning these individuals into optimal people as well. Alexander has internalized the system but one wrong word to his child triggers Life Guidance. He starts to rebel and encounters the horror of the system in all its brightness and affability.

Recy Taylor, a 24-year-old black mother and sharecropper, was gang raped by six white boys in 1944 Alabama. Common in Jim Crow South, few women spoke up in fear for their lives. Not Recy Taylor, who bravely identified her rapists. The NAACP sent its chief rape investigator Rosa Parks, who rallied support and triggered an unprecedented outcry for justice. The film exposes a legacy of physical abuse of black women and reveals Rosa Parks’ intimate role in Recy Taylor’s story.

17-year old Sarah, filled with adolescent angst, is an extreme person who in her rehearsals with a theatre group is transformed until she is almost in a trance, and her performances at home or elsewhere verge on excess. A cold, intellectual father, a timid mother, a younger sister and an older brother who has left home complete the picture: a silent time bomb.

Suellyn thought the Department of Community Services (DOCS) would only remove children in extreme cases, until her own grandchildren were taken in the middle of the night. Hazel decided to take on the DOCS system after her fourth grandchild was taken into state care. Jen Swan expected to continue to care for her grandchildren but DOCS deemed her unsuitable, a shock not just to her but to her sister, Deb, who was, at the time, a DOCS worker. The rate of Indigenous child removal has actually increased since Prime Minister Kevin Rudd delivered the apology to the ‘stolen generations’ in 2008. These four grandmothers find each other and start a national movement to place extended families as a key solution to the rising number of Aboriginal children in out-of-home care. They are not only taking on the system; they are changing it…

How does a traumatic event shape a family? How do you sift through the memories to find hidden clues and unlock a collective grief? Kingdom of Us takes a look at a mother and her seven children, whose father's suicide left them in financial ruin. Through home movies and raw moments, the Shanks family travels the rocky road towards hope.

A group of young friends on a camping trip, deep in the South African countryside wake up to discover they have all swapped bodies.