Our Best Selves (2017)

Ruis

A young man struggles to cope with the effects of hearing damage.

Inertia

During a walk in the woods a man stumbles upon a gate blocked by a guard who refuses to let him through. Gaining entry quickly becomes his obsession and only goal, to the detriment of all else, including his own physical and mental health.

Polly

When Jacob's ex-girlfriend Polly comes to visit, the pair can barely contain their excitement. Since their teenage days when they were an item, Jacob has long since been out of the closet and in a happy relationship with boyfriend Nicholas, so both he and Polly have a lot of catching up to do. Sure enough, Polly's visit extends into a long stay as the trio relish each other's company. However, all good things must, eventually, come to an end.

Tiny Mammals

On a stormy day, 12-year-old twins Sophia and Jacob set out to hawk special bibles, only to be left to fend for themselves when their trailer park is evacuated.

Grotto

Marco is a small town 20-year-old going to college in bustling Manhattan. When he returns to his rural home for the summer, Marco reunites with his best friends at a midnight pool party with intentions to tell them he is gay. But as he tries to hold his ground, an unexpected guest to the party, coupled with an approaching storm, compromise everything Marco anticipated the night to be.

One More Night

A seasoned bouncer is forced to deal with severe consequences after letting two minors slip into the nightclub, he's employed to guard.

Cat Skin

A few weeks before Carnival, slum boys organize huntings for stray cats, whose leather can be used in Samba percussion instruments, like the Tamborim, a small drum.

Golden

A tale of being different and growing up.

Adjustment

Shahrokh, a nine-year-old effeminate boy who is humiliated and pushed away by his family and friends, makes up his mind to adjust himself to his new identity and comes out to the people of the village.

The Expediter

A soulful coming of age story set in 1975 New York City about a young man who is forced to work under a former marine, leading them both through one summer they will never forget. Sometimes the unlikeliest of mentors become our greatest teachers.

The Head Vanishes

Jacqueline has lost her mind a bit, but whatever, for her trip to the seaside, she has decided to take the train by herself, like a big girl!

No Law, No Heaven

A man's life in three vignettes as he grapples with identity amidst tradition in Hong Kong's notorious Kowloon Walled City.

The Difference Between Pipi & Pūpū

When estranged son, Tai, is called home to Aotearoa to his father Putty's deathbed, he is forced to confront a painful past after years of avoiding it. Once inseparable, Tai and Putty would spend hours together fishing and joking around. However, after a family secret is revealed, their relationship falls apart.

Jorge

Tide, today. Vermelhinho, a horse created by the boy Jorge, runs away from the corral where he rested. In the search for his horse, Jorge finds himself.

Fallen Art

Fallen Art presents the story of General A, a self-proclaimed artist. His art, however, consists of a deranged method of stop motion photography, where the individual frames of the movie are created by photographs made by Dr. Johann Friedrich, depicting the bodies of dead soldiers, pushed down by Sergeant Al from a giant springboard onto a slab of concrete.

Plus. Minus.

Told in reverse chronological order, an aspiring drag queen creates a world out of desolated motel rooms with the guy he met online.

Washdays

About a boy who has a bed wetting problem and skips school to try and fix it

Dún Laoghaire

A dance of death between a mother and daughter ignites when the daughter attempts to install a new stove in her mother’s house in Dún Laoghaire, Ireland.

Life After

Based in New York City, “Life After” is about Nisha, a single mother and Indian immigrant living in Queens. After her only child, Zara, passes away unexpectedly, Nisha decides to learn about her daughter’s life in Manhattan. Out of her element, Nisha is forced to examine parts of who her daughter was that she had tried to ignore. Most significantly, Zara’s sexual orientation. Only through meeting her daughter’s partner, does Nisha finally begin to grieve the loss of her child.

Houseplants

As a couple moves in together, full of hope and worry, their day is unexpectedly interrupted by the ghosts of former relationships.

Daddy's Girl

Lo (14) is living alone with her father at his farm. Bored and frustrated she's fantasizing about sexy boys, spying on the hot seasonal workers. Rune (45) is a single parent too busy making ends meet to be paying attention to his child becoming a young woman. When he catches her masturbating in her bedroom, he goes out of his mind thinking she's a victim of male sexuality. Daddy's Girl is about fear of losing and fear of not getting.

Carne

After a dreadful incident coupled with an ungovernable paroxysm of violence, a butcher will fall into a downward spiral that will burn to the ground whatever dignity still remained in him.

Filipiñana

A film about a girl drawn to a golf course.

Genius Loci

One night, Reine, a young loner, sees among the urban chaos a moving oneness that seems alive, like some sort of guide.

Union County

Cody is a recovering opiate addict in rural Ohio, 45 days clean and enlisted in a strictly enforced drug court programme by the county government. Local sober-living facilities are full, so Cody is living in his car on the outskirts of town and working at the nearby lumber mill to save money and keep busy. But his past doesn't want to forget him.

Fedor's Journey Through Moscow at the Turn of the XXI Century

A long time ago, Prometheus was cursed by the God's for bringing fire to mankind. Today, Fedor finds himself in Moscow for the first time and falls in love with Masha.

The Box Man

A man reacts with violence when a pair of eyes spy on him from inside a cardboard box.

Pepper

Today is a big day, it's Pepper's estranged son's birthday. He disowned her 20 years ago for becoming a drag queen. A chance meeting with Charlie, an eight-year-old boy, reminds her the importance of family and doing the right thing.

The Captain

A hungover plane captain wakes up to discover he's done a very bad thing.

Our Secret

A lonely woman seizes an opportunity for intimacy when her epileptic neighbor comes knocking on her door.

When We Lived in Miami

Filmed in Miami during Hurricane Isaac, 'When We Lived in Miami' is a hypnotic short about the lengths one woman will go to keep her family from falling apart.

Platinum

While Felix loses his voice, he believes he needs treatment. But is it really a disease that blocks or rather the feelings he tries to choke?

Nocturne

After ending a very close relationship, Manuel falls into melancholy and begins to rethink his way of loving. Within his thoughts are the social problems that surround him. He realizes that with these comes a rethinking of what love is. An idea that we have been carrying for a long time: the idea that to love is to possess.

Recycling

As the gravedigger prepares for the next funeral, each time he digs a hole he wonders about his own death.

The Human Voice

A woman watches time pass beside the suitcases of her ex-lover (who is supposed to come pick them up but never arrives) and a restless dog who doesn't understand that his master has abandoned him.