A child is born. We see underwater swimmers representing this. He is young, in a jungle setting, with two fanciful "instincts" guiding him as swooping bird-like acrobats initially menace, then delight. As an adolescent, he enters a desert, where a man spins a large cube of metal tubing. He leaves his instinct-guides behind, and enters a garden where two statues dance in a pond. As he watches their sensual acrobatics of love, he becomes a man. He is offered wealth (represented by a golden hat) by a devil figure. In a richly decorated room, a scruffy troupe of a dozen acrobats and a little girl reawaken the old man's youthful nature and love.
Liam Liu unwittingly gets involved with a high school girl. He suddenly has to go to China after learning from his father that he has inherited his grandmother's home in Shanghai. He's not very appreciative of his Chinese roots, and at first, only wants to sell the house and get back to the U.S. as fast as possible. He gets a taste of the Chinese culture and ends up having some big decisions to make.
John J. is a seasoned hit man sent on a job to Argentina. When the General he's sent to kill delays his return to the country, John passes the time with Manuela, a beautiful dancer who becomes his teacher and guide into Argentina's sensual world of the tango.
Trapped and alone, a young man must confront the pain he's ignored when he finds himself face-to-face with consequence.
A heavyset woman who keeps being harassed by her aerobics instructor and her attempts to get even with him on a Body Beautiful contest.
A student at a prestigious music academy struggles to recreate a piece of sheet music stolen by an egocentric professor. After given just 2 hours to complete this task, he experiences the highs and lows of this process as it alters the way he thinks about the creation of art itself.
With a new principal in town and the Spring Fling in jeopardy, Rhyme and the Chicken Girls must band together to save the dance.
an exploration of ennui split between two worlds
On an isolated island in Brittany at the end of the eighteenth century, a female painter is obliged to paint a wedding portrait of a young woman.
Young Cuban Rafael just buried his mother, and comes to Houston to meet his father John for the first time. The difficult part is that John doesn't know he is Rafael's father. John runs a dance studio, and everyone prepares for the World Open Dance championship in Las Vegas. It soon becomes clear Rafael is a very good dancer, and Ruby is the biggest hope for the studio at the championship.
Neelakanthan squanders away the inheritance left by his father. However, his life turns upside down when his mother reveals a terrible secret on her deathbed that changes the course of his life.
After the death of Raya Green's sister, she gets out from her classes at school, and sees a stomp crew practicing. She meets Bishop which is the dance crew leader. She then meets Michelle and does a stomp battle with her. They become enemies then friends later on. Her uptight mom pushes her to pass the test to get into Medical school, but she thinks she failed....
An aspiring DJ, from the South Bronx, and his best friend, a promoter, try to get into show business by exposing people to hip-hop music and culture.
A man reflects on his past through visions of a mysterious figure guiding him through different phases of his life.
In the late 1960s, an aging Dion DiMucci, struggling to stay relevant in a rapidly changing America, meets an ambitious young John Denver who helps reignite his passion for music and reminds him of their place in the cultural spotlight.
In a small Wisconsin lake town, a poverty-stricken felon contracts Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease after ingesting diseased venison. As his descent into madness intensifies, he targets a Chicago musician and a mysterious singer, whose dream of recording an album together is threatened by the felon's violent unraveling.
Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.
Foreign Legion officer Galoup recalls his once glorious life, training troops in the Gulf of Djibouti. His existence there was happy, strict and regimented, until the arrival of a promising young recruit, Sentain, plants the seeds of jealousy in Galoup's mind.
A teenage boy and his mother are on the run. The father is violent and has a history of beating up his wife. They manage to get away from him and drive far away, until they arrive in a small town where they settle down. They rent a house from a nice man and soon they forget everything that has happened in the past, until the boy begins to have bad dreams of his father.
"Vlada Goes to London" is a short student film exploring the strong-willed Vlada on her night shift as a pizza delivery girl in her desperate attempt to book tickets to London and fulfill her dream of being a DJ. The end of the night brings more challenges than she expects.