Memory of What You Once Were

A year after Thadd and Shannon gave birth to their son, A Conversation Between Parents highlights a climactic conversation in their lives -- as both young parents grasp at the last threads of their ideal family. On an afternoon off of work, the couple sits on their couch, while their son sleeps in his crib, and the family grapples with their limited options one last time. Dietrich’s camera ties the couple’s painful conversation together with flashbacks of both parents’ precious memories of their first year with Jasper, attempting to find a way to articulate their struggles in the last conversation they have together as a couple.

A gardener working at a resort on the island of La Palma decides to go to the top of the volcano to plant a garden amidst the ruins. Meanwhile, a young girl vacationing at the same hotel feels bored, reflects on utopia, and searches for happiness.

After the closure of US Japanese Internment Camps at the end of World War II, a Japanese American family returns home and must find the strength to rebuild both their house and family amidst the emotional and physical destruction.

This is the first referendum held in Hong Kong and probably the last. Some people want to grasp the chance to directly participate in the democratic process. They try in various ways to push for greater democracy in society so that the people can become emancipated.

This stop-motion animated short film draws us into a post-apocalyptic world through the eyes of a solitary hamster. Wandering through the ruins of once-thriving cities, he scavenges for objects, searches for water, and tries to care for the last surviving plants. One day, he stumbles upon a pair of binoculars. Through them, he spots a strange house covered in flowers, standing in the middle of the urban desert. Intrigued, he sets off to explore and discovers the Giant, a plant-like creature trapped inside its own overgrown sanctuary. Terrified of the outside world, the Giant dares not cross the walls of its home. Petit decides to help. Together, they embark on a journey that’s as simple as it is extraordinary: to make the Earth bloom again.

Searching for life in daily rituals, Losing Touch undertakes a shift in perception and presents the city as an ugly yet ecologically rich landscape. The film depicts the internal dialogue on coping with the grief and fear of ecological degradation, using the local streets of Berlin as a means to materialise and confront these emotions. As both the body and mind begin to wander, encounters with the landscape over a 24 hour period are transformed into an overstimulating and emotionally charged journey. Camcorder footage, film developed in beer and cyanotype create sensational and playful depictions of the surroundings, joining the rats scurrying on the ground and fleeing the night lights with the moths. Creatures of metal and flesh interact within and between the frames, coming together as an ugly yet vibrant community. Subverting the nature-culture dichotomy, a new image of nature is formed, not only as a romantic, distant place, but rather a dirty, omnipresent force.

An animated short about AI and true love.

A traveler discovers a woman running from some men, upon inquire the traveler discovers they were her family; they claim she is unstable. On the insistence of the woman's husband, the traveler agrees to stay that night with the family.

Three moody geraniums take control over their fate and plan their escape from the windowsill they spent their entire boring life on.

Consolation

Grounded and cut off from technology, a rebellious teen steals his dad's convertible for an unforgettable day in LA with his best friend.

An older woman's unique friendship with a young boy inspires her to examine the strained relationship she shares with her married son.

After a routine partial hip replacement operation leaves his mother in a coma with permanent brain damage, what starts as a son's video diary becomes a citizen's investigation into the future of American health care.

Trapped in their frames and monitored by a menacing curator, two paintings long to escape from the art gallery's white walls. As the paintings lock eyes across the room, an unspoken connection between them sets the stage for revolution. With a distinctive blend of live-action and animation, this short film by Evan Bode employs surreal metaphor to explore ideas about power, resistance, queer identity, visibility, and liberation from constructed borders.

Filmed immediately after the end of the civil war in Angola, Há Sempre Alguém Que Te Ama records the return of Pocas Pascoal to the country where she was born, in an attempt to reconstruct the episode that, in 1975, led to the capture of the director along with her mother and sisters. An intimate documentary about memory and self-(re)construction.

When two very unique and diverse families with 7 kids each collide, they find laughs, music, love, and a few answers about what it means to be a not-so-normal American family in the 21st century.

An estranged grandson and his grieving grandfather reconnect through an unfinished bucket list, healing old wounds and rebuilding their bond.

A troubled mortician embarks on an odyssey for truth about life and death.

After the sudden death of her father leaves a teenage girl without a family, she becomes lost in her own anger and sadness. Her family doctor informs her that her father had a secret, that the mother she never knew was alive and well. When she travels to meet her, she befriends a horse trainer and discovers that in caring for the horse, she is able to overcome her hardships and emotional trauma. Together they begin to win many races and upset the favorites, owned by an egocentric mogul . Through the victories and new friendships she forms, she learns to find her way back to happiness.

A reinterpretation of the Greek legend of Penelope, ”the most faithful of wives”, who waited 20 years for her husband Odysseus to return from The Trojan War. In this animation, the two of them are presented in a more modern setting. While Odysseus is busy exploring the universe in his space rocket, Penelope is stuck at home, taking care of the children, showing how traditional gender roles say men should work, while women stay at home.