Bush Mama

Daydream Therapy is set to Nina Simone’s haunting rendition of “Pirate Jenny” and concludes with Archie Shepp’s “Things Have Got to Change.” Filmed in Burton Chace Park in Marina del Rey by activist-turned-filmmaker Bernard Nicolas as his first project at UCLA, this short film poetically envisions the fantasy life of a hotel worker whose daydreams provide an escape from workplace indignities. —Allyson Nadia Field

An African-American man working at a slaughterhouse in the Watts area of Los Angeles leads a dissatisfied and listless existence.

A hitchhiker named Martel Gordone gets in a fight with two bikers over a prostitute, and one of the bikers is killed. Gordone is arrested and sent to prison, where he joins the prison's boxing team in an effort to secure an early parole and to establish his dominance over the prison's toughest gang.

Ashes and Embers is an original screenplay by Haile Gerima, about a Vietnam veteran, who, several years after the war, is struggling to come to terms with his role in the war, and his role as a Black person in America. He survives by working odd jobs in Washington, D.C. and living with his girlfriend and her son. When criticism of his alienated behavior come from her and a father figure too often, he runs to the streets or to his grandmother's rural house in Virginia. Her criticism and his memories of the past both send him fleeing again to Los Angeles, where he is surrounded by superficial people who have forgotten how to be compassionate human beings. It is here that the advice of his friends and grandmother combine to transform him from an embittered ex-soldier to a strong and confident man.

In 1902, a Gullah family on the Sea Islands off South Carolina decide whether to migrate to the mainland, risking their unique cultural heritage.

An enigmatic drifter from the South comes to visit an old acquaintance who now lives in South-Central LA.

A naive young woman moves from the South to stay with her aunt and uncle in Compton. As an outsider, she struggles at first to find her footing, but soon falls into the middle of a community of rebellious youth. She soon becomes more and more aware of the social injustices of the big city.

A young African-American man, living in Los Angeles without direction in his life, reluctantly agrees to be the best man for his brother, an upwardly mobile lawyer.

Eddie Warmack, an African American jazz musician, is released from prison for the killing of a white gangster. Not willing to play for the mobsters who control the music industry, including clubs and recording studios, Warmack searches for his mentor and grandfather, the legendary jazz musician Poppa Harris.

In this meditative film the everyday lives of poor Ethiopian peasants are shown using documentary as well as storytelling techniques, with its drama arising out of the timeless yet persistent issues of their lives.

Charlie Banks, chronically unemployed, struggles to find dignity and a meaning for life in the impoverished Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts.

Filmed in response to the LAPD’s shooting of Eulia Love in 1979, Gidget Meets Hondo opens with stills taken by Bernard Nicolas of a demonstration against Love’s killing. Nicolas’ Gidget is a self-absorbed young white woman who remains clueless to the violence erupting around her, ultimately to her own peril. The film asks whether such police brutality would be tolerated if the victim were a middle-class white woman.

Follows 7-year-old Jackie on a quick but rough trip through her daily life: Typical stuff like dealing with her mom's torments, OCD, and talking to 80s TV star Ricky Schroder in the bathroom.

Years after their break-up, Tanya and Josean meet again at a conference on renewable energy. She has a lot to tell him...

After running away to Jogja to escape her mother’s new marriage, rebellious teen Shanaz finds herself lost in the city's red-light district—until an unlikely friendship with a compassionate prostitute gives her a chance to find her way back.

Twelve is set during a day at a public swimming pool. Tilde announces to Alva that she has just had her first period. This sets off a mounting sense of insecurity in Alva, which only increases when she notices her crush paying Tilde more attention.

FEU-FOLLET

A father stuck in the past. A son searching for an escape. And a family business caught right in the middle, inching ever closer towards oblivion.

In late 18th century Venice, in a convent school for girls, Teresa, a student with prophetic gifts, joins forces with some amazing music-makers. They create a new kind of pop, bright and bold, and challenge the ancient and rigid system.

A sequel to "Vampire Dead Beauty Carving", featuring the same members from the previous work, including scriptwriter Koji Takada, director Hideaki Onishi, and cinematographer Shigehira Suzuki.