Closer Now (2023)

escape

A dreamlike depiction of fleeting aspirations.

Balkan Baroque

Balkan Baroque is a real and imaginary biography of the Yugoslavian performance artist Marina Abramovic. Rather than a mechanical reproduction of the artist's work, the film tries to create a new reality by translating the performances into cinematographic images that intensify the fictional context of the film. Abramovic plays herself, but ,appearing in multiple forms, blurs her own identity. Memories and fantasies intermingle with day to day rituals. The chronological narrative often breaks to reflect the interior voyage of the protagonist from the present to the past and back to the present. The result is a visually impressive film. Balkan Baroque had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam, 1999.

Maid's Night Out

A millionaire's son works as a milkman for a month to win a bet with his father. While delivering milk he falls in love with a young debutante whom he mistakes for a maid.

Perfect Fit

An aimless young man turns to murder in order to satisfy the desires of his new girlfriend, a narcissistic blue jean fetishist.

Danses Macabres, Skeletons, and Other Fantasies

Two film directors and a writer are in Portugal for an expedition through various images, moments from the history of Western allegorical representation. The writer is Jean-Louis Schefer, and this tale encapsulates his life’s mission.

Brainman

Daniel Tammet has autism. He is also a savant. He can perform mind-boggling mathematical calculations at breakneck speeds. But unlike other savants, who can perform similar feats, Tammet can describe how he does it. He speaks seven languages and is even devising his own language. Now scientists are asking whether his exceptional abilities are the key to unlock the secrets of autism. This documentary follows Daniel as he travels to America to meet the scientists who are convinced he may hold the key to unlocking similar abilities in everyone. He is challenged to learn Icelandic, one of the world’s hardest languages, in just one week. Will Daniel do it? And what can we learn from this prodigious talent?

The Last Fight

The Last Fight is a documentary by Victor Vroegindeweij about Marloes Coenen, a superstar and pioneer in the world of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). Marloes is close to the end of her career, but she feels a great urge to go for the title fight one last time, to become world champion at Bellator MMA.

Mis abuelitas... no más!

Bush-league actor allows two adorable grannies to believe he's their long-lost grandson. Then: complications!

The Circuit

Plot unavailable

Re-belles

Plot unavailable

Sticks and Stones

Leather-Queen George will be there, bragging about his rubber bed sheets. So will The Lavender Guru, a loquacious flower child incessantly babbling hippie-speak. Bobby, who's "new to this whole thing", will be having a panic attack and Bike-Boy Fernando will be showing off his new Prince Albert. Yet despite Peter and Buddy's relationship disintegrating right before our eyes, the party will be a smashing success - especially their inevitable end-of-the-romance tussle on the floor. Described by many as a low-budget version of "The Boys In The Band".

The Falcons

Every year, on a large island just outside of Iceland, there is a huge football tournament for kids. Ten-year-old Jón and his team go to compete, but he will have to grow up faster than expected, both on and off the pitch.

Bloody Mary

The film tells the story of Moira and Letizia, two modern witches who hide a dark secret. Every Blood Moon they perform a ritual with a different man, a fundamental piece of their magic. However, on this occasion, the chosen one threatens to alter the course of events. With their powers and lives at stake, the protagonists are forced to face their inner demons. The relationship between them could be stronger than any spell, perhaps destined to last for eternity.

Different

In the homogenous world of Liberty High School, Justin Meyers has a dark secret: he's straight. In this parallel universe where gay is the norm, Homecoming is only day's away. Bobby, the most popular guy in school, wants Justin to be his date. But will Joanne, a quiet beauty from Biology class, out Justin's true feelings before the dance?

El Ashash

The events take place in a dramatic framework; where a child gets lost from his family, and one of the employees of the shelter adopts him and raises him until he becomes a young man, and then he is accused of a murder case, so he tries to escape to prove his innocence, and his life turns upside down, then he meets the popular dancer (Horeya Farghaly) who helps him escape, and during his journey he gets to know many people who help him prove his innocence.

Three Colors: White

Polish immigrant Karol Karol finds himself out of a marriage, a job and a country when his French wife, Dominique, divorces him after six months due to his impotence. Forced to leave France after losing the business they jointly owned, Karol enlists fellow Polish expatriate Mikołaj to smuggle him back to their homeland.

Preface to a History

A couple, Vlad and Sophy, navigate their relationship as well as their own struggles with mental health in the context of a highly connected, politically uncertain modern world while on a trip to a remote Canadian island in this avant-garde feature film. PREFACE TO A HISTORY, created with a tiny crew of four people, represents an experiment in using minimalist tools to create an overwhelming aesthetic experience in service of a simple, but specifically contemporary, story about two people attempting to navigate a fraying relationship amid all the anxieties and external pressures of modern adulthood in a technologically-interconnected and politically unstable era.

Peckish

A young couple struggling with infertility seeks the aide of a healer with a promised remedy, while unknown forces also work to provide them with what they wish.

Desert Vows

Hunter, a bride-to-be, feels overworked and unappreciated. Her artistic spirit is squelched by the shallow corporate world she’s in and she has had enough. Unfortunately, she feels as if she can’t turn to Ian, her commercial executive fiancé, for solace. As her wedding day approaches, Hunter and her three bridesmaids embark on a road trip to Las Vegas for one last hoorah together. As the girls venture from the city, they decompress and let their personal barriers fall. An impromptu sightseeing excursion into the desert leads to a clash of anxieties and attitudes between Hunter, the bridesmaids, and her fiancé as Hunter searches for the road that’s right for her.

Amelia 2.0

After his wife Amelia suffers an aneurysm that leaves her bedridden and slowly dying, police officer Carter Summerland searches for a way to revive her. He's approached by Wesley Enterprises pioneering a new program to extend life through robotics, they get caught in a public debate over human’s relationship with technology and her right to exist.

Escargots

An adaptation of a children's poem called Chanson des escargots qui vont à l'enterrement by Jacques Prévert, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Filmed in Paris, France and Los Angeles, California.

Echo

A reframing of the classic tale of Narcissus, the director draws on snippets of conversation with a trusted friend to muse on gender and identity. Just as shimmers are difficult to grasp as knowable entities, so does the concept of a gendered self feel unknowable except through reflection. Is it Narcissus that Echo truly longs for, or simply the Knowing he possesses when gazing upon himself?

Cheers,

A bartender takes on the physical form of her imagined alter egos.

Bramayugam

Thevan, a folk singer of the Paanan caste, has a fateful encounter when escaping slavery, leading to discover an ancient tradition altering his destiny.

ART e FACT

In a society where creativity is suppressed, a grieving ex-singer uncovers a comic hero’s hidden truth, sparking a musical journey of defiance and self-discovery against a repressive regime.

Blocked Together

Whilst a boy mourns the passing of his younger brother, hope of unity is found in his grief.

The Grass Dwellers

Juan Méndez Bernal leaves his house on the 9th of april of 1936 to fight in the imminent Spanish Civil War. 83 years later, his body is still one of the Grass Dwellers. The only thing that he leaves from those years on the front is a collection of 28 letters in his own writing.

Anhell69

A funeral car cruises the streets of Medellín, while a young director tells the story of his past in this violent and conservative city. He remembers the pre-production of his first film, a Class-B movie with ghosts. The young queer scene of Medellín is casted for the film, but the main protagonist dies of a heroin overdose at the age of 21, just like many friends of the director. Anhell69 explores the dreams, doubts and fears of an annihilated generation, and the struggle to carry on making cinema.

Ophelia

At night, a woman at different ages loves, suffers and frees herself. She’s called Ophelia.

Remastered Brutality

Alinur, a student filmmaker, tries to make a film about the apocalypse for his capstone project. The movie itself happens to be about a mercenary named M who inadvertently causes an apocalypse. As he tries to “create” the destruction of this supposed apocalypse through utilizing technical gimmicks that he has enforced onto the production of the film, this supposed effort also creeps in as a force that starts to “destroy” him, piece by piece. The outcome of it tests the sincerity of not only the film itself but also of the performative efforts that Alinur has made as a filmmaker—even this test might not be as sincere as it seems.

The We Should Game

Fame driven Ken Dean becomes the subject of a documentary when he attempts to start a pornography company. Following the failure of the company, Ken uses his father's religious music to start a Christian rock band but finds himself trapped in a gay conversion cult.

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.

One For My Baby

A romance is played in reverse, revealed through memories brought on by improvisational music.

Cookie Logic

A young scientist studies the mechanics of time travel by having a conversation with a group of her future selves.

Ground Control

A journey to an unknown star, a children's theatre play, an untalented writer and the fear of becoming the worst version of oneself. A mixture of live-action footage and animated scenes. A stream of (un)conscious stereotypes.

The Days Left

A man loses a close person in his life, and is forced to experience the consequences.

Purgatorium

After his death, a young man stuck in purgatory attempts to cope with the afterlife.

i am saved

Feedback and religious radio noise

¿Por qué la gallina cruzó el camino?

Plot unavailable

Stone

Via the New York Times: "...a severely obscure meditation on pre-revolutionary Russia in the form of an encounter between a ghost from the past and the ghost's present-day guardian. In fact, the two characters seem to be the shade of Anton Chekhov and the young man who tends a Chekhov museum in the Crimea, though that is never made explicit."

Beijo de Borboleta

Plot unavailable

Butterfly

A short experimental film, exploring the concept that one small change can have a profound impact on a person's life.

Kino Kopf

Born from steel and glass Kino Kopf is created by two inventors. They are assembled by their mother, a nurturing artist, and their Father a greedy entrepreneur. Kino Kopf is the first of its kind a sentient humanoid VHS camera. They are given a life by their mother but presented to the world by their father. Kino Kopf is the next big sensation and spurs a technological revolution. They are soon forgotten and alone as new models surpass them. Kino Kopf is left alone to contemplate if they ever had a soul, as visions of an electric cowboy dance through their dreams.

Maine Man

A loop of a guy in Maine hanging out in his room.

Mr Goon Fart (Gay Cut)

A student moves into their accomodation, only to find their room already decorated, a strange, inhuman flatmate, and a kettle that won't stop boiling.

Cobweb

In the 1970s, Director Kim is obsessed by the desire to re-shoot the ending of his completed film Cobweb, but chaos and turmoil grip the set with interference from the censorship authorities, and the complaints of actors and producers who can't understand the re-written ending. Will Kim be able to find a way through this chaos to fulfill his artistic ambitions and complete his masterpiece?

Pines

A man returns to the burnt forest where he last saw his brother.

Prelude: Dog Star Man

A creation myth realized in light, patterns, images superimposed, rapid cutting, and silence. A black screen, then streaks of light, then an explosion of color and squiggles and happenstance. Next, images of small circles emerge then of the Sun. Images of our Earth appear, woods, a part of a body, a nude woman perhaps giving birth. Imagery evokes movement across time. Part of the Dog Star Man series of experimental films.

Roxy

The life of a taxi driver is to not judge or get involved. It's to go where he's told to go, for a price. One day, Thomas gets a group of odd passengers with a ravenous dog. They have money, and they have places to be. How far will he go?

Days, Months, Years and Nothing Else

A randomly chosen name and random scenes shot in two different hours. Monologue (story) adapted later according to name and scenes with "Funkadelic - Maggot Brain".

The Film Lost To Time

A film buff's obsession with an elusive, possibly nonexistent film spirals into a dangerous descent, blurring the line between reality and madness.

154

The prototype [TEST TYPE • 154] is a highly sophisticated artificial intelligence, which is capable of autonomously acquiring notions from its surroundings and - eventually - developing autonomy of thought. Given the nearly human nature of its learning capabilities, the laboratory that programmed it hires a kindergarten teacher, asking him to instruct the machine as if it were a newborn child. The learning process - which spans 7 days - becomes increasingly insidious in the long run, posing a peculiar yet crucial problem: can there be a form of autonomous thinking that excludes emotions?

Richer and Richer

Losing her lover, mother, and hope for tomorrow, Gisele, the daughter of a crime syndicate, is forced to confront its oppressive leader – her father.

Platform

Jess confronts a piece of her past on the platform…

AA-PROXIMA-SUN

A girl approaches a divine entity that comes to the world in the form of a yellow umbrella, and ends up discovering her true self.

The Switching Division

A short film about a telephone engineer and his son as they both attempt to understand the past and the future.

SIN PIEDAD

Plot unavailable

Strasek, der Vampir

Serbia, in the year 1910: Milena Strasek has lived with her 12-year-old son Stefan in a small village since the father abandoned the family shortly after Stefan was born. Many years of uncertainty concerning the man’s whereabouts have taken their toll: Milena Strasek falls seriously ill and dies, leaving her son alone in the empty house. The father appears the following night. He has come to take his son, but Stefan refuses to go with him. It is a fateful encounter, changing Stefan for the rest of his life.