Monks (2016)

Cygnus-X

Experimental short film of colors and lights. Silence.

AS AN EARTHQUAKE

On February 6, 2023, an earthquake on the border of Turkey and Syria claims more than 55,000 lives. On this day, I am in an oncology center, 6 days since having my tumor removed, and in the afternoon my partner ends our relationships. Blending memory and theory, this autofiction documentary unfolds the relationships between love(s) and catastrophes.

Winter in Pluto

The myth of a goddess who rebels against traditional romance and falls in love with herself.

Double Exposure

A photographer girl enters a street to take street photographs as usual and takes a few photos that she thinks are normal. When she washes the photos and hangs them, she sees that she is actually in one of the photos and goes in search of that person.

Memory Home

Upon moving into a new apartment, a young woman finds herself surrounded by strange events. Curious about the reasons behind the occurrences, the young woman is sucked into memories and daydreams, remembrances and forgetfulness, places and non-places.

USSR (1917-1991)

Experimental short film that explores the rise and decline of the Soviet Union, from the revolutionary spark of 1917 to the challenges and sacrifices endured during World War II, until its dissolution in 1991.

Shellfish Knish

Young, Jewish and misunderstood Simon Markowitz gets himself into hot water with his Rabbi when he creates his own recipe for a knish that no one in his family seems intent on eating.

Dancing not to be dead

Some spaces draw attention, as if they evoke something that’s about to happen. These are the places where we escape when we dream or die. The only thing that exists is time; we wait for the moment to arrive.

CLUMP & THUD, THUD, THUD.

A young woman finds herself stuck with a clump in her head. Unsure what to do about it, she roams the streets of Dublin in an attempt to rid herself of the monotonous thuds and escape her roommate's acting practise. Safe travels you old clump.

City with Dreams of the Sea

Short film of a general landscape about the saturation of the city. 35mm.

Athos

The Athos peninsula in Greece is one of Europe's last secrets. Over 2000 monks live on Athos - cut off from the outside world. Access is denied to women, tourists are not welcome. Only workers and pilgrims can obtain a visa. The "Autonomous Monastic State of the Holy Mountain" attracts people who feel like they are missing something from their modern lives. With the help of three Athos monks, "Athos - A Taste of Heaven" tells the story of the island and its inhabitants in a unique filmed diary style. The film's guiding theme is the path we as people have to find and follow - each and everyone for themselves. "First we must heal our own souls, only then we can help others", is one of Father Galaktions core messages. He lives as a hermit on the holy mountain. Not all monks, however, live as secluded and demure as Father Galaktion. The film team is also received by Father Epiphanios - a gifted and poetic cook who certainly does not disdain the pleasures of life.

On Top of the Earth

Sophie is both attracted to boys and girls. She is torn between Nicolas and Mathilde.

Between You and You All

A chronicle of the lives of a couple and the gradual dissolution of their relationship.

Requiem

Four hardened crooks break out of prison. Hunted down, with nowhere to run, they seek refuge in the only place the police cannot follow, a Cistercian monastery. Cut off from the outside world, a nightmare stand off develops between the fugitives, ready to kill in defence of their dearly purchased freedom, and the monks they' re holding hostage. But in this potentially lethal confrontation, nothing is quite as it seems. The game' s been rigged from the start. Requiem' s a violent and fast paced French film that really delivers.

Yo, Diablo

Joey works as a waiter for a hedonistic community of summer holiday makers in a small Mediterranean paradise. It is unclear if their exaggerated behaviors are due to the fact that the summer is coming to an end or if its just the last of their summers.

The Phantom of Liberty

This Surrealist film, with a title referencing the Communist Manifesto, strings together short incidents based on the life of director Luis Buñuel. Presented as chance encounters, these loosely related, intersecting situations, all without a consistent protagonist, reach from the 19th century to the 1970s. Touching briefly on subjects such as execution, pedophilia, incest, and sex, the film features an array of characters, including a sick father and incompetent police officers.

How to Smile for More Than Five Seconds

A tutorial about guided meditation. Throughout the project, the spectator is invited to follow a series of steps that, if done well, will take them to a calm and tranquility state.

Maine Man

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

One Blood

Two men in the moors alone, fighting their free will and masculinity (or lack thereof).

The Prophecy II

In this direct-to-video sequel, Gabriel returns to try to destroy the human race he despises so much, with the help of a suicidal teen and the opposition of the angel Daniel.

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

King Arthur, accompanied by his squire, recruits his Knights of the Round Table, including Sir Bedevere the Wise, Sir Lancelot the Brave, Sir Robin the Not-Quite-So-Brave-As-Sir-Lancelot and Sir Galahad the Pure. On the way, Arthur battles the Black Knight who, despite having had all his limbs chopped off, insists he can still fight. They reach Camelot, but Arthur decides not to enter, as "it is a silly place".

The Countess Died of Laughter

A man goes to a convent with exciting news, one of the nuns is an heir to a fortune! The man causes the nuns to become obsessed with him as he tries to find the right heir.

Andrei Rublev

An expansive Russian drama, this film focuses on the life of revered religious icon painter Andrei Rublev. Drifting from place to place in a tumultuous era, the peace-seeking monk eventually gains a reputation for his art. But after Rublev witnesses a brutal battle and unintentionally becomes involved, he takes a vow of silence and spends time away from his work. As he begins to ease his troubled soul, he takes steps towards becoming a painter once again.

The Omen

Immediately after their miscarriage, the US diplomat Robert Thorn adopts the newborn Damien without the knowledge of his wife. Yet what he doesn’t know is that their new son is the son of the devil.

The Omen

A diplomatic couple adopts the son of the devil without knowing it. A remake of the classic horror film of the same name from 1976.

Bull Durham

Veteran catcher Crash Davis is brought to the minor league Durham Bulls to help their up and coming pitching prospect, "Nuke" Laloosh. Their relationship gets off to a rocky start and is further complicated when baseball groupie Annie Savoy sets her sights on the two men.

Ladyhawke

Captain Etienne Navarre is a man on whose shoulders lies a cruel curse. Punished for loving each other, Navarre must become a wolf by night whilst his lover, Lady Isabeau, takes the form of a hawk by day. Together, with the thief Philippe Gaston, they must try to overthrow the corrupt Bishop and in doing so break the spell.

The Da Vinci Code

A murder in Paris’ Louvre Museum and cryptic clues in some of Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous paintings lead to the discovery of a religious mystery. For 2,000 years a secret society closely guards information that — should it come to light — could rock the very foundations of Christianity.

Love Poems Part II: Alexandria

CATS, SEA, FISHERMEN AND SUNSET. The sequel to the original Love Poems. A short documentary Film capturing beautiful shots in the City of Alexandria followed by a Poem written for the city by Salma Torrez.

This is Not a Film

A man trapped in an aimless routine becomes the spectator of his own life as he wanders through the urban landscapes of his city in search of something that gives him meaning. Between memories and ghosts, he faces his doubts and longings, questioning what is real and what is just a projection of his loneliness.

Regard Silence

“I love poetry because it makes me feel like my mind expands.” In Regard Silence, that's the very first sentence expressed—in sign language of course. Watching the poems signed by deaf people in this film has a similarly mind-expanding effect. That’s because sign language—the Mexican version in this case—is a very different means of communication than written or spoken language.

The Name of the Rose

14th-century Franciscan monk William of Baskerville and his young novice arrive at a conference to find that several monks have been murdered under mysterious circumstances. To solve the crimes, William must rise up against the Church's authority and fight the shadowy conspiracy of monastery monks using only his intelligence; which is considerable.

Black Kettle

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.

A Wave From The Ocean Crashing Into the Shore

This experimental film explores the relationship between what we perceive as natural and what we perceive as unnatural and how this relationship changes over time due to natural and unnatural decay.

Chimera

Lost in the woods, a panicked Griff desperately tries to find his way home, but as he moves deeper into the depths of the woods he faces more nauseating uncertainties. Bewildered and disoriented, he must leave the woods.

Pig's Inferno

Kaito lost his sister who was his lover in his childhood. He severed all contact with the outer world for twenty years and devoted his time to writing down memories of his sister. One day, a week before the manuscript is to be completed, a woman visits his room. She burns all his papers and takes him to the city to cut him off from his memories. Nevertheless, Kaito cannot stop writing about his sister. The woman decides to lead him on a journey to ultimate hell.

6EQUJ5

An abstract short film about an alien invasion.

Happy End

A dark comedy about a murder and its consequences presented in a backwards manner, where death is actually a rebirth. The film starts with an "execution" of the main protagonist and goes back to explore his previous actions and motivations.

The Boxer's Omen

After his brother was crippled in the ring by a cheating Thai boxer, Chan Hung goes to Thailand to avenge his brother, and finds the key to an omen which may release their family from an ancient curse. He is then caught up in a spiraling web of fate, Buddhist curses, and black magic.

Fotofinish 2

Documentary filmed on the occasion of the “2003, Odyssey in Space Zero” operation inside the Spazio Zero Theater in Rome. The document, filmed between 21 October and 30 November 2003, recounts the representation of Fotofinish not as a single and continuous work, but as the evolution over time of the moods and movements of the actors who, replica after replica, have developed an awareness of the space and arrived at the joy of staging.

Blue Noise

A Landscape of noise. The experience of a look being assimilated into a completely technological environment

Dilution

Dilution is an experimental short film that explores the transit between resistance and (di)ssolution, between holding and releasing and a path towards obsessive repetition. They are layers, exposed pores, matter that oscillates between remaining or disappearing. The sound is not a background, but a puncture: friction, tearing, water that drags what still persists. A sensorial testimony of what refuses to vanish completely.

bleared eyes of blue glass

The "bleared eyes of blue glass" in the title of this experimental short expand on a verbal image from Virginia Woolf's novel The Waves, considered the most experimental among the 20th-century British writer's literary works, from which the young filmmaker took inspiration for his film, borrowing passages and visions to explain his own understanding of what cinema is. A film that plays with water - precisely - and light, and yet in a very dark b&w lit up by rare flashes of colour, making a journey in the night in which the shadow of a man gradually acquires substance.

SIN PIEDAD

Under the relentless sun, a killer stalks through the mountains, where the innocence of a young couple becomes prey. With no shadows to hide their fate, the hunt is a macabre game in broad daylight, where fear is not hidden in the darkness, but burns with the rawness of the unperturbed noon.

No Norte da Saudade

Kalú Kariú, a trans artist and poet from northern Brazil, reflects on how “saudade”, an untranslatable feeling of profound nostalgic longing, becomes a powerful source of creation. After eight years away from his roots, Kalú invites us into a space where memory, distance and identity intertwine, and art is born from absence.

Other States

An attempt through improvised in-camera multiple exposure, to capture a heightened, altered state, whether it be anxiety attack, hallucination or vision of madness. Shot in New York and San Francisco.

Fungi

As he falls down the spiral of personal obsession; a delusional mycologist finds himself in the midst of seeking the unattainable. Morals won't play a role in his relentless pursuit of transforming his being into fungus.

Bunnyhood

What could possibly be more important than feeding your daughter?

Dinosaur Farm

A political assassination leads to division and chaos.