Mid-Century Loves

A filmmaker talks about his work and love life with an unseen friend behind the camera. We also watch four of his short films.

What is “Slovakia”? How to explain the notion of “Slovakia” of the past 20 years to an unknown stranger, a visitor from another planet? What is the genetic makeup or the software for “Slovakia”? How to use it? How does it change? Slovakia 2.0 is a film about twenty years of independent Slovakia as seen from the perspective of ten film directors. It is composed of ten 10-minute films of different genres ranging from drama, through animation and documentaries, to experimental film. The ten recognised film directors who offer an answer to what is Slovakia include a wide range of generations, views and genres, namely Juraj Herz, Martin Šulík, Peter Kerekes, Zuzana Liová, Mišo Suchý, Ondrej Rudavský, Iveta Grófová, Peter Krištúfek, Viera Čákanyová, and Miro Jelok.

Injustice and the demands of the world can cause stress for many people. Some of them, however, explode. This includes a waitress serving a grouchy loan shark, an altercation between two motorists, an ill-fated wedding reception, and a wealthy businessman who tries to buy his family out of trouble.

In three separate segments, set respectively in 1966, 1911, and 2005, three love stories unfold between three sets of characters, under three different periods of Taiwanese history and governance.

An anthology of four diverse stories about identity and belonging through prism of love and loss, sexuality, marriage and wish to fulfill dreams.

The lives of six individuals across the city change just as the city is reeling under floods. Will they all make it safely to the other side?

Commissioned by South Korea's National Human Rights Commission, If You Were Me is an innovative omnibus film project to promote tolerance and human rights and shed light on the hardships disadvantaged people face in Korea. This third installment continues the If You Were Me tradition. Directors Jeong Yun Cheol (Marathon), Kim Hyeon Pil (Wonderful Day), Lee Mi Yeon (L'Abri), Noh Dong Seok (Boys of Tomorrow), Hong Gi Seon (The Road Taken), and Kim Gok and Kim Sun (Capitalist Manifesto: Working Men of All Countries) participated in If You Were Me 3, creating shorts on human rights issues of their choosing, ranging from labor conditions to gay rights to discrimination.

Get ready for a wildly diverse, star-studded trilogy about life in the big city. One of the most-talked about films in years, New York Stories features the creative collaboration of three of America's most popular directors, Martin Scorsese, Francis Coppola, and Woody Allen.

Four different couples have a romantic week over New Year's Eve. Both coming out of failed marriages, Ji-ho and Hyo-young are not open to the possibility of new love, while Jin-ah heads to the other side of globe and encounters Jae-hun.

Covering only the first 22 chapters of the Book of Genesis, vignettes include: Adam and Eve frolicking in the Garden of Eden until their indulgence in the forbidden fruit sees them driven out; Cain murdering his brother Abel; Noah building an ark to preserve the animals of the world from the coming flood; and Abraham making a covenant with God.

An unexpected love triangle, a seduction trap, and a random encounter are the three episodes, told in three movements to depict three female characters and trace the trajectories between their choices and regrets.

Olivier Assayas, Gus Van Sant, Wes Craven and Alfonso Cuaron are among the 20 distinguished directors who contribute to this collection of 18 stories, each exploring a different aspect of Parisian life. The colourful characters in this drama include a pair of mimes, a husband trying to chose between his wife and his lover, and a married man who turns to a prostitute for advice.

Mind Universe is made up of two episodes that share the same subject matter about a mind-uploaded artificial intelligence. Today Of Tomorrow is about a story of an old woman, meeting her deceased AI husband who has been mind-uploaded. Our Universe is an episode at a virtual online funeral of famous Korean composer Kim Hyung-suk and is about music, love, and family.

A collection of magical tales based upon the actual dreams of director Akira Kurosawa.

A two-part feature directed separately by Shimizu and his colleague Keisuke Toyoshima. Unrelated to each other, both have a common goal: to bring ghosts and aliens together in pure, referential and absurdistic delirium, including neo-Nazi specters, zombie yakuzas and nasty aliens.

As a newly crowned princess, Cinderella quickly learns that life at the Palace - and her royal responsibilities - are more challenging than she had imagined. In three heartwarming tales, Cinderella calls on her animal friends and her Fairy Godmother to help as she brings her own grace and charm to her regal role and discovers that being true to yourself is the best way to make your dreams come true.

Seven episodes, each taking place on a different day of the week, on the theme of suicide and violent death.

New York, I Love You delves into the intimate lives of New Yorkers as they grapple with, delight in and search for love. Journey from the Diamond District in the heart of Manhattan, through Chinatown and the Upper East Side, towards the Village, into Tribeca, and Brooklyn as lovers of all ages try to find romance in the Big Apple.

Four darkly funny tales about Lebanon: Activists planning a protest descend into internal strife. Three sisters and their mother argue while an incompetent plumber destroys their flat. Depressed life coach Malek wants to die and seeks help from a «death coach». A stand-up comedian who jokes about a meteor strike that could put Lebanon out of its misery, is blamed when it appears to come true.

A romantic film composed of seven intertwining love stories. Couples in love offer a glimpse into their intimate private lives as they deal with emotional problems proportional to their age and nature. Teenagers experience their first romantic love; young artists try to cope with the success and fame that has invaded their privacy; a self-destructive bohemian encounters a pure, religious being; an unfaithful husband must make a fateful decision; a lazy cynic unexpectedly falls in love; self-centered seniors with unsuccessful pasts try together to build a better future, and love disrupts even the world of paid private prostitution.