Macabre Metrics (2024)

The Artist and His Canvas

An experimental film revolving around how an artist perceives a man and a woman.

LIMINAL

Plot unavailable

FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Shot on 16mm film in New York and composed in Berlin, the work explores polarizing themes of the metropolis. Audibly and visually, the viewer is put in a flicker between serenity and intensity; harrowing ambience cut with sharp beeps, vulnerable steps mashed in high velocity.

Queen of the Morning Calm

Follows 29-year-old immigrant sex worker Debra, and her self-aware 10-year-old daughter Mona, as they embark on a journey of emancipation. Debra attempts to escape cycles of abuse and poverty while learning to become a more nurturing mother and discovering her own self-worth.

Angel

In this short film, a young man, a girl and a dog attempt to fly with wings more symbolic than practical.

O Novo Corpo

On an isolated farm, a woman finds an injured and frightened woman in her old chicken coop. Moved by an inexplicable instinct, she decides to help her, without imagining that this silent encounter will awaken buried secrets. When tension finally gives way to trust, something dark approaches, bringing a truth that no one could have foreseen.

Rosewater

A solitary man struggles to cultivate beauty in a desolate urban world. Lonely and dislocated, he drifts in and out of a dream state envisioning the promise of regeneration. ROSEWATER tells a story of hope sustained through perseverance, ritual and, ultimately, revelation.

Copy/Paste

A man contemplates whether or not it is possible to do something unique.

Emptiness

LEI and WONG clandestinely arrive to Ecuador, on their way to the port city of Guayaquil. From here LEI plans to continue her journey to New York, but CHANG, a bipolar mobster will decide her fate. WONG unwillingly gets entangled in the web of corruption that operates the encroachment of Chinese immigrants. His only objective is to bring his twelve-year-old son from China.

Aishiteru

Experimental short film that reflects through the voice of the protagonist, poetically, about a fateful intimate and personal event.

Jeff

A phone sex operator loses her grip on reality, caught in a hypnotic relationship with a caller making disturbing confessions.

Where Is Amy Pressman

In 2007, a teen girl from a posh L.A. suburb must deal with the grizzly murder of her family while trapped in the company of their killers.

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.

reMemBer2.human

In an indeterminate future, forbidden memories challenge a database containing all human memories. An experimental cinematic search between past and future, fiction and fact, Prishtina and Tirana. The future, a glitch.

Chimera

A psychological thriller that delves into the intricate struggles of a man haunted by entities that only he can see. As he confronts these manifestations during therapy, a gripping journey unfolds, blurring the lines between reality and the paranormal. His therapist attempts to guide him through the chaos of his own mind, uncovering a haunting truth about his and her mental health.

Shearing Animation

An abstract animated film inspired by the work of jazz musician Chico Hamilton.

nor any memories of the turning backs

[poem_body_memory_voice] None of them belong to each other. All of them belong to themselves. A layered accumulation —___- a poetic exercise on relating*_on_love, migration, and mourning.

Drums West

This newly rediscovered short was created in Jim's home studio in Bethesda, MD around 1961. It is one of several experimental shorts inspired by the music of jazz great Chico Hamilton. At the end, in footage probably shot by Jerry Juhl, Jim demonstrates his working method.

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?

Curucuru and Friends: The Secrets of the Rainbow Tree

The movie takes place between Seasons 1 and 2. The Green Forest Village hosts a festival in celebration of the 1000th anniversary of the large tree growing in the middle of the village. While Curucuru and his friends are helping in the festival, they learned that tree's vitality is due to a legendary item call the Pingya, which gives it Eternal Love and Life. But in the midst of the festival, a bunch of Pirate Hyenas came to the village and stole the legendary item, causing the tree to wilt. Now it's up to Curucuru and his pals to get it back from the pirates, before things can go worse. But amid-st the actual troubles they face, the kids also encounter a strange Tiger child, who is connected to the incident.

Demi-Goddesses

The second essay about still dominant dark aspects of our modern society. It is conceived as a surreal anti-patriarchal thought experiment and raises important questions about gender, power, and social change, prompting us to reflect on how historical patterns of discrimination and oppression might be either repeated or overcome in a reversed gendered world. It challenges the viewer to confront their own assumptions and biases, and to consider the possibilities of a more equitable society.

Platform

Jess confronts a piece of her past on the platform…

Flying Daddy

One morning, Papa transforms into a giant insect in the futon, emerges instantly in front of the astonished family, breaks through the window and flies into the sky. Short animation by Keita Kurosaka for MTV Japan.

Open Mic

A conversation Harper has with herself in her own head, interjected with the moments in which she is recalling. Some sort of event sent her into an existential state of mind, where she can't help but think about who she is, and how much control she really has over her life.

Borealis

After the mysterious death of his father, Aaron O'Donnell, a ruthless capitalist, decides to take the reins as the leader of Borealis. However, his brother Andrew sets out to hijack his dictatorship and warn not only the residents of Borealis, but all future visitors of the danger Aaron poses.

Reversal

Two souls: One seeks to know her life's true essence and the other is haunted by foreign sights of himself, as they both are influenced by an existence beyond human realm—whom continually oversees them across eras, trapping them in a game of time and the unknown.

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.

Paint Showers

Cosmos of paint unleash a storm of color.

In Between Days

A Korean immigrant falls in love with her best friend while navigating her way through the challenges of living in a new country.

Madeleine

A stop motion/collaged based independent short film plays with the recontextualisation of memories and how time distorts them.

Dead End

Two brothers come into contact after a very long time due to the discovery that the world is going to end. Together, they find themselves face-to-face with the inevitable dilemma to either save the reality of their relationship or the world's existence.

Purple Leone

Purple Leone is an experimental short film exploring how trends emerge and spread across the world. Through a blend of visuals and sound, it reflects on influence, identity, and the subtle forces behind global culture. A quiet, atmospheric look at what drives what we follow.

The Sun Is Also a Star

Two young New Yorkers begin to fall in love over the course of a single day, as a series of potentially life-altering meetings loom over their heads - hers concerning her family’s deportation to Jamaica, and his concerning an education at Dartmouth.

Fluids

16mm color work by Stan Vanderbeek that takes his work away from the cutups and the commentary and lands him in the psychedelic and abstract. Opticals, repetitions, camera moves and zooms are what make up the bulk of this exploration into fluids. The results bridge that realm between hangout art piece and intersteller stoner trip.

Proyecciones del Limbo

Plot unavailable

Becoming Air

Breathe deeply: in 3 years, your molecules will circle Earth, as today’s oxygen came from nature.

Michelle

Plot unavailable

ghost town.

A young man has an anxiety attack and in an attempt to feel something, he skips through Kanye West's 2018 release, ye, until he lands on Ghost Town.

Ray's World

A guy named Ray tries to go to sleep and a sasquatch gets into funky business.

I Should Call Her

An overly anxious man mysteriously finds himself unable to leave a bathroom.

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.