Painted Gaze

Trapped and alone, a young man must confront the pain he's ignored when he finds himself face-to-face with consequence.

an exploration of ennui split between two worlds

A man reflects on his past through visions of a mysterious figure guiding him through different phases of his life.

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.

Quinn is a grade school teacher who is exploited by a group of memoryless individuals who reeducate his long-term partner Amy.

A movies special effects man is hired by a government agency to help stage the assassination of a well known gangster. When the agency double cross him, he uses his special effects to trap the gangster and the corrupt agents.

A Baltimore teenager who picks up a second-hand camera starts snapping his way to stardom, soon turning into a nationwide sensation, with a fateful choice between his life and his art.

A couple's attitudes are challenged when their daughter brings home a fiancé who is black.

An art dealer murders one of his artists in the hopes of increasing the market value of his work.

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

An electoral campaign is underway in an imaginary country. Two leaders fight over the voters, who cry in exasperation. The first leader is fat and whiny, the second smiling and aloof. A man with a laptop computer and a teenager with a stony face and muscular body look on as the political battle unfolds. An aggressive woman removes herself from the melancholy scene. After the victory of democratic optimism, the two observers kill the leader, who dies with a smile on his lips. Civil war breaks out.

Aspiring artist Ali must rebuild her life after a tragic accident kills her husband and their young child, and leaves her blind. Life in the dark proves to be a daunting task, so, at her doctor's suggestion, she hires a caretaker named Jeff to help her adjust with the transition. Jeff's aid proves to be indispensable, she even meets and quickly befriends her new neighbor, Linda. Before long, she is embroiled in a fight for her life from an obsessive predator. Will she learn to protect herself using her only remaining senses in time to save her life?

The prototype [TEST TYPE • 154] is a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence, which is capable of autonomously acquiring notions from its surroundings and - eventually - developing autonomy of thought. Given the nearly human nature of its learning capabilities, the laboratory that programmed it hires a kindergarten teacher, asking him to instruct the machine as if it were a newborn child. The learning process - which spans 7 days - becomes increasingly insidious in the long run, posing a peculiar yet crucial problem: can there be a form of autonomous thinking that excludes emotions?

Young art gallerist Katarina's dad suddenly goes missing. It turns out that her dad, a prominent art dealer, is kidnapped in Egypt by his former smuggle partner, who has been released due to the Arab spring. To save her father, Katarina has to find the hidden statue that the kidnapper demands as ransom.

Anna comes from a violent past that has left her a recluse in her solitude.When a man knocks at the door her infancy returns....Will Anna open the door to the universe that she has created for herself to let life enter?

Vada Sultenfuss is obsessed with death. Her mother is dead, and her father runs a funeral parlor. She is also in love with her English teacher, and joins a poetry class over the summer just to impress him. Thomas J., her best friend, is "allergic to everything", and sticks with Vada despite her hangups. When Vada's father hires Shelly, and begins to fall for her, things take a turn to the worse...

Losing her lover, mother, and hope for tomorrow, Gisele, the daughter of a crime syndicate, is forced to confront its oppressive leader – her father.

An American writer living in Rome witnesses an attempted murder that is connected to an ongoing killing spree in the city and conducts his own investigation, despite he and his girlfriend being targeted by the killer.

Experimental short movie mostly made of still photos. An old assassin lives on a yacht, in a port city. One day, the sister of a woman he killed appears.

The famous Borgia Pearl, a valuable gem with a history of bringing murder and misfortune to its owner since the days of the Borgias, is brought to London, thanks in part to Sherlock Holmes. But before long the jewel is stolen, due to an error on Holmes' part, and shortly thereafter, a series of horrible murders begin, the murderer leaving his victims with their spines snapped and surrounded by a mass of smashed china.