After going through a breakup and moving back home, James navigates through a "quarter life crisis" while dealing with mental illness, a spandex wearing superhero, hunting for coyotes and faith healing as he pursues his dream of making a feature film.
Analog celluloid strips are disappearing. Is film dying, or just changing? Are the world's film archives on the brink of a dark age? Renowned filmmakers, museum curators, historians, and engineers help dramatize the future of film and the cinema in the age of digital moving pictures.
Based on a true story, this is a subtle tale of re-affirmation of the identity of the artist following the Armenian Diaspora. It is an encounter with his alter-ego, a dialogue with his own conscience, a gradual dawning of the truth and an authentic glance at life... themes understandable by all. The film is an episode in the life of the director, a life full of surprises, and all the more so for being a cosmopolitan Armenian-American now standing on his native soil, his ultimate source of creative energy and ideas.
It's 1957, and James Whale's heyday as the director of "Frankenstein," "Bride of Frankenstein" and "The Invisible Man" is long behind him. Retired and a semi-recluse, he lives his days accompanied only by images from his past. When his dour housekeeper, Hannah, hires a handsome young gardener, the flamboyant director and simple yard man develop an unlikely friendship, which will change them forever.
While attending a retrospect of his work, a filmmaker recalls his life and his loves: the inspirations for his films.
Déja Vù
A small-time thug who collects debts for the local triad is torn between his criminal aspirations and his devotion to family.
A film crew hijacks their company's current production and improves it behind the director's back.
Nora, an actor, and her sister Agnes, are grieving the loss of their mother when their father Gustav reappears in their lives after a long absence. Gustav, a once-celebrated filmmaker, has written a script for a comeback movie and offered the main part to his daughter Nora, but she categorically refuses the role. During a career retrospective in France, Gustav meets an adoring Hollywood star and offers her the part intended for Nora. When the film starts shooting back home in Norway, Gustav seizes the opportunity to repair his bond with Nora and her sister.
In a hospital on the outskirts of 1920s Los Angeles, an injured stuntman begins to tell a fellow patient, a little girl with a broken arm, a fantastic story about 5 mythical heroes. Thanks to his fractured state of mind and her vivid imagination, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur as the tale advances.
A young filmmaker accidentally claps her idol’s mystical clapperboard, throwing the two on a frantic journey through film genres and beyond.
Mike Todd is a Broadway producer struggling to produce the film. Around the World in 80 Days. In Mexico, Mario Moreno, a young entertainer is struggling to get some respect, and he manages to become a star. A twist of faith makes them partners. Together they won the Oscar for Best Picture.
Tom and Ajani are outsiders in their small conservative village in The Netherlands. Together, they dream of freedom and a new life as film students in Amsterdam, where their relationship no longer has to be a secret. When they finally leave their old life in the countryside behind, they are confronted with the norms and social constructs of the big city that turn out to be completely different than what they imagined. While Ajani thrives in the Amsterdam queer scene, Tom struggles to find his place, putting a strain on their now public relationship. In this new world, freed from always being hated for who they are, who will they become?
Young artist Kyoko wreaks havoc on everyone that she encounters when Japan's oldest major movie studio asks a batch of venerable filmmakers to revive its high-brow soft-core Roman Porno series.
Adrian and Duru get lost in the characters they play in an apocalyptic film and embark on a secret mission to end the world for real. Second entry in Adrian Țofei and Duru Yücel’s trilogy which includes Be My Cat: A Film for Anne and Pure.
When an aspiring filmmaker tries to make a project about Jeddah little does he know what the beloved city means to him until stumbling upon an underrated maven cinematographer living in a country without cinema.
The turbulent life and professional career of vaudeville actor and silent screen horror star Lon Chaney (1883-1930), the man of a thousand faces; bearer of many personal misfortunes that even his great success could not mitigate.
Simon, a well-known French filmmaker, starts shooting his next film. A story about workers fighting to protect their factory from being relocated. But nothing goes as planned... His producer Viviane wants to rewrite the ending and is threatening to cut the budget; his own crew goes on strike; his personal life is in shambles; and to make things worse, his lead actor Alain is an egocentric jerk. Joseph, an extra who wants to get into the film industry, agrees to direct the making of and shoot the behind-the-scenes. He takes his role very seriously and starts following around the crew, capturing all this mess... What follows is proof that the making of can sometimes be far better than the film itself!
Filip buys an 8mm movie camera when his first child is born. Because it's the first camera in town, he's named official photographer by the local Party boss. His horizons widen when he is sent to regional film festivals with his first works but his focus on movie making also leads to domestic strife and philosophical dilemmas.
Marcos, an independent film and video editor, works editing late into the night. On a typical night at work, he has a seizure that causes him to lose consciousness. Upon waking up, he discovers that his way of perceiving life has changed in such a way that he now lives everything and sees it in the same way as a cinematographic montage.