Roots

Stranded en route to a film festival, cynical Junior and the inscrutable Senior encounter the Stranger spinning a dramatic tale of woe. While Junior sees an obvious con, Senior sees the veil and its beauty. "The Show Man" delves into the ambiguous lines between performance, reality, and perception in the most unexpected of scenery, unravelling between highly conflicted characters.

A self-proclaimed pageant queen as she vies for the crown of the local pageant. Through a series of surreal visions, she reflects on the sacrifices she's made for the sake of her onstage persona.

From the shadows of a Guatemalan neighbourhood scared into silence, two sisters lead a luminous rebellion—unleashing joy, art, and radical truth in a fight for survival.

Unfurl is a minimalist short film composed of six contemplative shots featuring different colored plastic bags placed before a dual-camera setup, presented in split-screen from two contrasting angles. Each sequence begins with Devereaux's hand compressing a bag, then releasing it — allowing the material to slowly expand. The initial release is rapid, but the motion soon settles into a meditative, near-slow-motion unfurling, drawing attention to the subtle behavior of shape, light, and texture. Inspired by a live performance Devereaux witnessed of avant-garde composer Takehisa Kosugi — specifically his act of wrapping a microphone in paper during a performance at the Getty Center's Rajikaru! conference — the film channels a similar spirit of experimental material interaction, silence, and focused perception. Unfurl invites viewers to observe slowness and transformation as a form of quiet performance.

Behind every electrifying performance lies a story of sacrifice and passion. Before the Spotlight journeys behind the scenes of the dynamic Dauntless Movement Crew, diving into the lives of three of its standout members, Sienna, Chris and Manu. In a tough industry defined by fierce competition, fleeting opportunities and constant audition cycles, these performers are faced with uncertainty. To challenge them further, the risk of financial instability is significant in a high demanding economy. Yet, their passion grows stronger, fuelled by the support from the community. But what makes the risk worth it?

Pianowork 2 is an animated recording of me playing Jürg Frey’s ‘Klavierstück 2’ at Mimic Productions in Berlin on 22 June 2023. It was a very hot, early summer’s day. Mimic created a ‘digital double’ of me, scanning my head and hands. It was the first time I’d used a computer-generated figure with my own likeness. I played the piece at an upright piano, wearing a sensor-filled Lycra onesie with a head-mounted rig holding an iPhone a short distance from my face. I tried very hard to do what Frey’s score asks. I counted the beats in the vast rests, the 468 instances of the same fourth, the precisely instructed micro-shifts of tempo. I worried about and tried to depress the keys with the correct pianissimo dynamic to follow the previous decayed chord played 40 seconds prior. This agonising pace makes for a terrific mounting of anxiety.

A clown is confronted with the reality and difficulties of being a street artist in the digital age. In his search for online fame he makes a discovery that radically shifts his perspective about meaningful work and life, forcing him to change his ways.

Vocation is a documentary on artists who knew from a very early age they wanted to be an artist. A decision that for them was instinctual and some may even say it is 'a calling' based on faith and perhaps even fate alone. Artists Andy Jones, Deepa Mehta, Marie Brassard, Christopher Pratt, Brad Peyton and Bif Naked are committed to creating work in theatre, literature, music, film and performance based on an innate desire to succeed while working in the precarious profession of art.

Something is staring at me from the corners of my house.

There are thousands of comedians in New York City, performing every night, working hard for laughs from the world's toughest audience. What happens to them when the city that never sleeps grinds to a halt? When the comedy clubs close and no one is laughing? "Back At It" is a chronicle of the tumultuous summer of 2020 in New York, through the eyes of a diverse group of comedians who hustle to keep their comedy alive and to stand out from the throng. It follows them as they take to the streets, rooftops, and parks to entertain a city ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic. It asks how the art of standup changes when the traditional systems and established hierarchy no longer exist? Who will evolve and raise their voice?

Anxiety frightens, but can it be used to improve ourselves?

東京シンデレラ娘

SEMEFO IN MEMORIAM

Two men lock into a bizarre power play to reassert the hierarchy of appearances.

A documentary from Recife that follows the story of five friends, transforming memories into an audiovisual time capsule. Created as a graduation project in Design by Carlos Pontes (UFPE), the film unfolds as a collective letter seeking to eternalize not only memories, but also the intensity and restlessness of those who find in art, friendship, and acceptance a way of existing.

The Broke People's Baroque Peoples' Theater engages questions of economic inequity, artistic patronage, and a culture of excess (or excess of culture). It is: obsessed with classical allusion, doomed to camp, adorned in costume, engaged in masquerade and surrounded by sculpture. With a queer attitude toward cheap materials, the Broke People's Baroque People's Theater decorates itself in a hyper-feminine aestheticism to undermine class(y) distinctions of taste. A wealth of poverty, the chintzy is rich.

Artist Fabiola Cepeda sacrifices her hair remaking herself into her Abuelo Pedro as a way of reclaiming the hostile space in Southern Carolina called, South of the Border. Hair from artist, Duo eyelash glue, scissors, hand held mirror, reference photo of Abuelo Pedro, and thin metal desk. Total performance run time 8 Minutes; edited for documentation.

A Brazilian performance artist Vanesa Cardoso living in Newfoundland, Canada explores the figures of her Pochinko clown, discovering a desire to expose the comedy of our deepest vulnerabilities - the very ones that make us human. A creative journey through Richard Pochinko's seven masks and six directions, Vanessa reveals her clown while musing on the personal drive and struggles that inspire her art.

This documentary deals with the great injustice and pain caused by anti-personnel mines and demands the urgent need for all the countries involved to sign the demining protocols. The short begins with a 24-hour isolation carried out by the author in a hole/crater in the middle of the desert to empathy with the Saharawi people, from there progressively through their commitment and coexisting for getting close to the reality of the victims of antipersonnel mines and their everyday live. Denunciations and wishes of this people who have suffered a hard exile are verbalized. In parallel, the author is interviewing, listening, sharing and designing an ingenuity that he is building to exploit the mines. The melphas (costume of the Sahrawi woman) make up the sail that moves the wheels that trace with phosphate powder the path with the word FREE and end up exploiting the mine, to show the inhuman damage it cause. A call for peoples to sign demining protocols urgently.

A group of young men waltz in pairs, balancing with a glass between their foreheads. In this captivating setting, director Albert Rask crafts a new code of conduct - an allegory reflecting the experience of growing up. A playful yet poignant exploration that reframes the burdens of responsibility, expectations and the rules of adulthood.