Water's Edge

Luca and his best friend Alberto experience an unforgettable summer on the Italian Riviera. But all the fun is threatened by a deeply-held secret: they are sea monsters from another world just below the water’s surface.

A visual concoction of model photo-shoots, swimming routines, filmmaking, drowning, death and holocaust.

Nabil has to deal with his fear of water caused by a trauma he had, which he tries, day after day, to fight.

The life of a faucet, sometimes it drips, flows. Sometimes it's empty, and lonely. It has become a cycle. Will someone understand what it really feels?

Comme toi

Violeta and Cristian love each other, but they're starting to hate each other. During the pandemic lockdown, they live together in Violeta's mother's luxurious apartment, mired in clutter and a lack of affection. A water cut-off for non-payment forces them to confront the fragility of their privilege and the emotional neglect they endure.

A healing and poetic essay on our intergenerational relationship with water.

Lost Mind is an experimental short film, written and directed by Lucas Donnat, that explores the perception of time and memory through the staging of a man's death. The film questions the boundary between reality and imagination. Here, time is no longer linear: the past becomes the memory of a future, and the future becomes the altered continuation of a past already rewritten. Currently in production.

Two young women retreat to a remote holiday home. While one of them undertakes a medical abortion, the other quietly cares for her. A snake slithers around them, unnoticed.

On the river side, a photographer meets a girl who likes to go there. The discourse on that day becomes a contemplation and release from past events

An isolated young black man leaves reality behind to become a giant Octopus.

Luca, a young man starting his adult life, is struggling with an inner battle after losing his mother. "Beyond Space" evokes strong and delicate emotions that are felt by every person throughout its lifetime.

In a world where water has become a scarce commodity, a young scavenger finds a source to satisfy her thirst.

When tragedy strikes, a spirited young woman turns to wild swimming in search of answers. By swimming each day at dawn and forming an unlikely friendship, she learns to accept her grief and the grief of those around her.

Eight-year-old Elvis’ world begins to sink when his mother marries an immigrant stranger for money.

A group of settlers traveling through the Oregon High Desert in 1845 find themselves stranded in harsh conditions.

He is from Torre del Bierzo, an industrial mining town, where the name El Chispas inherits from, working in the family workshop. She is a city girl who avoids the summers in his village, Sueros de Cepeda. Floating on his skates. In a hot summer of the 90s they bathe together in the Villameca swamp. Everything changes when they discover the open secret under its waters.

Lake

A visual and interpretative journey through the filmography of Andrei Tarkovsky, in search of the hidden meaning behind the recurring presence of water — a central and mysterious element in his work. This video essay analyzes the scenes in which water appears, organizing them by theme: from everyday actions to metaphysical moments. An attempt to understand whether, behind the poetry of natural elements, lies a deeper message from the russian filmmaker.

When a trans Latinx mermaid defies her mother’s warnings, she is forced to confront the violent legacies of colonialism, environmental destruction and the danger of being desired in the human world. The BlackStar Philadelphia Filmmaker Lab is presented with support from Independence Public Media Foundation, William Penn Foundation, and Wyncote Foundation. This project has been supported by The Philadelphia Independent Media Fund administered by Scribe Video Center with funds provided by the Independence Public Media Foundation and the Wyncote Foundation.