Pyre (2023)

The Begotten Cycle

Themes of death, rebirth and mythology combine in this compilation of subversive and surreal experimental US films.

Cormorant

A 16mm experimental short film loosely following a cormorant as it attempts to dry its wings.

A Midsummer Night's Dream

Four young people escape Athens to a forest where the king and queen of the fairies are quarreling, while meanwhile, a troupe of amateur actors rehearses a play. When the fairy Puck uses a magic flower to make people fall in love, the whole thing becomes a little bit confused...

Sunfall

A girl sitting on an autumn leaf-filled sidewalk communicates with a mysterious figure across the street.

A Story of the Forest: Mavka

Mavka, a water nymph, loves Lukash, a country youth. Their brief happiness ends when Lukash is forced to marry the shrewish Kilina. The Spirit of the Forest turns Lukash into a wolf as punishment for his infidelity. The strength of Mavka's love breaks the spell, but Kilina curses the nymph, transforming her into a weeping willow. This beautiful and tragic story is based on a play written in 1912 by Lesya Ukrainka, a Ukrainian poet, writer and political, civil and female activist, and includes mythological characters taken from Ukrainian folklore.

Avatar

In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.

Morning as a Mayfly

After a night of heavy drinking a young man has a dream where an angel tells him the world will end if he doesn't make a sacrifice.

Barbara

Previously lost exploitation film which chronicles the sexual journey of a teenager who introduces her own family to the liberated ways of the free love rebellion.

Pokémon 4Ever

In order to escape a greedy Pokémon hunter, Celebi must use the last of its energy to travel through time to the present day. Celebi brings along Sammy, a boy who had been trying to protect it. Along with Ash, Pikachu, and the rest of the gang, Sammy and Celebi must encounter an enemy far more advanced than the hunter, with the fate of the forest hanging in the balance.

The Scary Movie

Martina and Sonja, cross-dress in vampire capes and werewolf claws, re-enacting familiar horror tropes. A corresponding soundtrack of stock screams and "scary" music suggests that the girls' toying with gender roles and power dynamics may have dire consequences.

Endless

A lonesome man at the threshold of death finds himself trapped in a place called the Endless.

Fossil

An old man's vision of a drowning world is clouded. He decides to take radical actions inflicting damage to his surroundings. Instigating a self-destructive chain of events, coming from the dark abyss of his subconsciousness.

Three Mirrors Creature's Flashes of Flesh

In the aftermath of an emotional shock, a ruthless high-class manager faces her own abyss, becomes pervaded by a sensory spirit and undertakes a purifying voyage.

House

Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip to the countryside to visit her aunt at their ancestral house. She invites her six friends, Prof, Melody, Mac, Fantasy, Kung Fu, and Sweet, to join her. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.

Anglerfish

Amidst apocalyptic darkness and endless war, a young couple's mundane relationship is threatened by the arrival of a mysterious widow and a supernatural force that lurks in the forest around their cabin.

Candle

Confined to an endlessly burning waiting room, a dying sedentary woman experiences herself blurring in and out of her body. In her last remaining fragments she tries to make amends with her spirit before her remaining fragments either decay or create.

A Fugue

A space occupies it, awaiting to be unlocked by a freeing action or notion. What lies ahead is its determination.

WORKING DAYS

Sebastian, an ambitious magazine creator wants to explore the world and document his experiences. During his maladaptive daydreams, reality comes crashing down on him.

Dead Flies And Starless Skies

In this short experimental film, three friends are waiting for their train to arrive.

Enys Men

A wildlife volunteer on an uninhabited island off the British coast descends into a terrifying madness that challenges her grip on reality and pushes her into a living nightmare.

Friend of the World

After a catastrophic global war, a young filmmaker awakens in the carnage and seeks refuge in the only other survivor: an eccentric, ideologically opposed figure of the United States military. Together, they brave the toxic landscape in search of safety... and answers.

In a Violent Nature

The enigmatic resurrection, rampage, and retribution of an undead monster in a remote wilderness unleashes an iconic new killer after a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower that entombed its rotting corpse.

Sirens 77 True Love

Two gay men in Japan discuss the end of their respective relationships.

ZAPPER!

In a surreal universe where bananas fire laser beams and soup cans are used as grenades, a wacky cast of gangsters are thrown into a deadly game to battle it out over a mystical longboard in this trippy take on the Tarantino crime genre.

Midríase

Is the eye the window of the soul? - Mydriasis is a movie that reflects about the early discoveries of queerness and its impact on the self perception of a person.

My Neighbor Wants Me Dead

The Tenant continuously fails to escape his deadly apartment under five minute time limit as his blood-thirsty neighbor threatens to break in and exterminate him.

THE WORLD IS CONSUMING ME AND I CAN'T RUN AWAY FROM THE FALL

Plot unavailable

Leda + Swans

“Leda + Swans” depicts an infernal, mythic birth of cinema, dredging the violence and horror from Wallace McCutcheon’s comic short film “Photographing a Female Crook” (1904). Leda, who may or may not be a falsely accused young woman, is brought in for a mugshot by two officers. She first attempts to avoid the camera’s gaze, and, when overpowered and manhandled, contorts her face to ruin the photograph. However, her small rebellion proves futile; she was already being recorded, objectified, mapped, and co-opted by the Godhead of the director. As her body and image are repurposed and transmuted ad infinitum, the filmic universe also explodes into a supernova. What is born out of this suffering and manipulation is another example of our sublime medium and modern muse. She will not be last the Leda, and she may not even be the first. Who is the guilty party here? Is beauty a chimera in traditional cinema? Has the ephemeral cinema of the attractions and distractions era gone anywhere?

The Source of a River, a Night Stream

A woman slowly fades into darkness waiting to see her son one last time.

Now They Experience It All the Time...

The newest film by SamHel

21-87

This short film from Arthur Lipsett is an abstract collage of snippets from discarded footage found by Lipsett in the editing room of the National Film Board (where he worked as an animator), combined with his own black and white 16mm footage shot on the streets of Montreal and New York City, among other locations. A commentary on a machine-dominated society, it is often cited as an influence on George Lucas's Star Wars and his conceptualization of "The Force."

Foreign Surface

An experimental reinterpretation of 1950s science fiction B movies.

INFRASTRATA

A study on the concept of super-organisms, and the relationship between structure and nature, INFRASTRATA is the solo debut of British filmmaker Ethan Rees.

HOLGER

Described as 'a fairytale with its roots in the worlds of dadaism and surrealism'.