Chasing Wonders

Not everything that happens on a school playground is play. Short film about LGBT effects in school.

16-year-old Marianne will be confirmed. She is reluctant to do this, but her mother is more than happy for her to complete the confirmation. Marianne travels to a rectory in the country where she and a group of other girls will live while they read to the priest. On Midsummer's Eve, she meets by chance one of the other confirmands' fiancés and the feeling arises.

Puberty is an ordeal and a joy. Children become adolescents: how do they react to this development? With the help of four different short films, the Brit Roger Lambert succeeds in wonderfully fathoming this important time. In "Split" (1974), a boy with behavioral difficulties tries to make life bearable with imaginary aliens. In "I Want To Be Famous" (1976), it's Steve, the youngest and smallest in his class, who creates a fantasy world for himself until his best friend Stuart, down-to-earth and clever, forces him to face reality. "Follow You Follow Me" (1979) observes the vulnerable friendship between two boys: shy Joseph and confident Peter. But Joseph's father is Peter's father's employer. With "A Seaside Story" (1986) we meet again two friends, this time they are seventeen, who are vacationing together at the sea: the self-confident Martin and Sam, the dreamer. At a beachfront guesthouse run by an eccentric lady, the two have an unforgettable time.

A young man looks back at his past as he gets ready to leave his childhood apartment.

A small town shortly before the end of the GDR: 15-year-old Ulla lives with her mother in a dilapidated old building where not even the electricity works properly. Economy of scarcity and national bankruptcy are visible everywhere. Only higher party comrades live in the lap of luxury. When Ulla meets Winfried after a summer bathing trip, the two fall in love. Winfried is the son of an influential general director and owns things from West Germany that others only dream of: a computer, a games console, a walkman. On an excursion with her biology class, the high school student discovers that a dacha is being built in the middle of the nature reserve and the creek has been dammed. Winfried's father turns out to be the culprit, but the mayor is on his side. Ulla rebels against this environmental destruction connected to political corruption and organizes a protest. Her activism not only endangers her own future, but also her first great love.

A young girl, Eva, decides to run away from home on her 16th birthday, in hopes of a more accepting life in New York City.

Simon is an intelligent and privileged young man whose family expects him to become a Princeton graduate. Crying out for attention from his reserved and cool hearted family, Simon commits numerous petty crimes and is soon sent away to boarding school where he befriends a "Deadhead," adopts the "hippie" lifestyle and dabbles in many drugs in his search for acceptance.

Young and imaginative Leila is ready to do anything to escape the boredom of everyday life with her father. Her new boyfriend seems to be the key to evasion, but she will soon discover that her fantasies are not just sham.

With his mother dead and his father busy at work, Howie feels adrift in his New York suburb. He and his friend Gary spend their time burglarizing their neighbors' homes — until they make the mistake of robbing the house of Big John, a macho former Marine who is also an unrepentant pedophile. He propositions Howie, who declines, but the two eventually develop an unlikely and dangerous friendship.

Sin and Illy have a plan: on a Greek island they want to get 'clean' on their own. But the intention of the two girls fails already on the way to the airport. Finally Sin realizes she has to go the way out of heroin addiction all alone.

An awkward adolescent boy and his angst-ridden friends try their best to fit in amongst a cast of varied characters.

Lili, a feisty 10-year-old girl, has always swam topless. When her parents force her to wear a bikini top for a trip to the water park, she rebels: why should she hide her flat chest when her friends, all boys, don't have to?

From the confined universe of Brooklyn's BIZARRE cabaret, we set off on a road movie across the American West. We are 7 years later. Lucas and Maurice have never seen each other again and have no contact since the tragic events of the BIZARRE cabaret in New York. Lucas now lives in Denver, Colorado. He is married to a slightly older man who is the father of a 16-year-old child. In the middle of this peaceful life, Maurice will again cross paths with Lucas. As another tragic event takes place in Denver, Maurice and Lucas will have only one solution, to flee towards San Francisco through the American West.

Inspired by true events, two student actresses at Yale delve into dark competition in staging Strindberg's Miss Julie, pushing the envelope of Naturalist authenticity until they lose sight of reality. "Voyeur" explores the extremes of self-inflicted student perfectionism at an elite college through the lens of a dark comedy, asking the questions: How far will one go to reach authenticity? Can the theatre ever disappear completely and become life itself?

Trying to impress, Jules invites some partygoers back to his family’s bowling alley. The anticipated party quickly becomes anything but a party.

EKAJ is a love story between two drifters, a naive teenager and a hustler. Ekaj meets Mecca who takes him under his care. Mecca has AIDS and multiple problems of his own. He is high all day but still manages to be the only voice of reason in Ekaj’s hopeless world. They cruise the city together looking for money and places to stay. Although Ekaj makes some money as a prostitute, he finds himself discarded, and lacking what it takes to survive in the city. Their mutual loneliness leads to genuine friendship.

When the experienced guide Vic accompanies the city boy Alan and his three friends on their first wilderness experience, he not only hopes to teach the four boys lessons about the wilderness, but about themselves. Vic pushes them to the limit. Soon after alienating the boys, Vic finds himself in desperate need of help and must rely on his students in order to survive.

As seniors in high school, Troy and Gabriella struggle with the idea of being separated from one another as college approaches. Along with the rest of the Wildcats, they stage a spring musical to address their experiences, hopes and fears about their future.

When four friends reunite for a night of fun in their hometown, a crisis forces them to confront the consequences of their lifestyles.

When his mom’s handsome friend unexpectedly shows up in the village, Ashish, a teenage boy living in a remote area of Himachal Pradesh, is swept in a whirlwind of desire and vivid fantasy. As he struggles to rein in his strong impulses, he learns about “pashi”, an ancient technique of trapping birds, and begins to practice it.