The Last Rung on the Ladder (2024)

Fairlane

New in town, Brandon starts working at an auto shop to support his single mother where he's trained by an experienced mechanic, Evan. The two spark up a whirlwind romance which takes an unexpected turn when a secret is revealed, throwing a wrench in their relationship.

The Male Gaze: First Kiss

The Male Gaze is a new series of releases from New Queer Visions that showcases short LGBTQ films from across the world. The first instalment, First Kiss, brings together five shorts that are based around men experiencing romantic and/or sexual interaction with other men for the first time. It takes in films from Sweden, Indonesia, USA, Australia and France giving a rounded look at how similar experiences are depicted across the world. The films are: Naked [Naken] (2013); Pria (2017); Walk With Me (2018), One Night Only (2018); Michel's Mouse [Tapette] (2016).

Survivor Type

A disgraced surgeon stranded on a deserted island with no food and only a handful of supplies must go to great lengths to stay alive for rescue that may never come.

The Captain

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

The Last Time I Saw Richard

Jonah is proud to be the loner at the teenage mental health clinic, taking pleasure in making the other patients uncomfortable. But when he is forced to share a room with the newly admitted Richard, the boys become locked in a battle of wills.

The Amber Amulet

The Masked Avenger can make things happen. Though at 10 he is considered young for a justice fighter he has already proved himself highly effective in the pursuit of peace. He has discovered powers that are locked inside gems and minerals and uses them to keep Franklin Street safe. But something is wrong in the house at the end of the street. There is a woman in trouble. When The Masked Avenger leaves a 'happiness questionnaire' in her letterbox a series of events are set in motion that no one could predict. This is the story of a superhero, a beagle, an amber amulet and the potential that is locked inside all of us.

Crack of Dawn

The farmhouse of a rural family is declared unfit for habitation. While part of the family fights to save the space their ancestors built, the younger ones imagine where they could go.

Boy

The life of a boy.

Pleasure

Behind the scenes of a porn shoot, the actors are practicing various positions. The rumour is that one of the girls is doing a double anal, an advanced routine that requires someone extremely tough. A startling film about workplace intrigue, set at a decidedly different place of work.

4444444444

A young man on a bicycle is turning a corner in front of an apparently abandoned building when he begins to hear the ringing of a cell phone. (A prequel to the first version of Ju-on, 2000.)

John Henry

The story of the legendary steel-driving folk hero born with a hammer in his hands, who pitted his strength against a mighty railroad-building machine.

Sauna

An anxious and ungainly teenage boy struggles against bullies, puberty, and his fears of mortality when his parents send him to a summer water polo camp.

Doctor Who: The Night of the Doctor

The Doctor struggles to help the only remaining crewmember of a crashing gunship. The people of the planet below offer to save his life, but at a dear cost to the life he's lived for hundreds of years.

Bound for Greatness

Darren, who lives with Aspergers, has gone throughout his life not truly connecting with anyone. Seeking the comforting sounds of crashing waves one blustery day, he happens upon a girl nursing a broken bird. She needs him…

The Serpent's Song

At a secret monastery located in a rural area of Thailand, a music teacher is trying to help a young nun to be able to speak again. The nun's passion and sexuality clashing with her religious convictions have caused her to shut down.

I'm Here

A library assistant plods through an ordinary life in LA until a chance meeting opens his eyes to the power of creativity and ultimately, love. When this new life and love begin to fall apart, he discovers he has a lot to give. This short film proves that ordinary is no place to be.

The Old Man and the Sea

An old fisherman makes the biggest catch of his life.

Awakening

Carsten is dating Melissa, who introduces him to her parents. On a camping trip with Melissa's family, Carsten finds that he shares a secret with Melissa's father.

The Idyll

A modern adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story about a man and a woman sharing an unexpected encounter on a train as it travels through a beautiful and surreal landscape.

Songs From the Sky

After Phyllis discovers that her daughter Cecilia can read, she’s torn between abiding to her slave owner’s commands or encouraging her daughter that reading is a pathway to their freedom.

The Name You Carry

When Vlace is suspended for hitting a classmate, Sasha is called to come get his son at school and has no choice but to take him along on his delivery route. During this intimate journey, we discover what provoked Vlace's uncharacteristic act, as father and son find their way toward a new understanding.

Dream Girl

Humans use technology to improve their lives, to forge connections, to create time that doesn’t exist, to replace real interactions. When we devise a second version of ourselves on social media, do we lose a piece of our true selves in the process? Do our digital connections threaten our real life relationships? What happens if the filtered characters we’ve imagined take on a life of their own?

The Suit Weareth the Man

A young London businessman is seduced by a corporate entity.

Requited

Nicolas, a young man in his mid 20s, struggles to decide whether or not to go to the wedding of his best friend from high school, Aaron, who he's always been quietly in love with. The two had a falling out years earlier after Nicolas inexplicably kissed Aaron's girlfriend. Nicolas clings to an idealized image of his former friend, unconsciously sabotaging his own happiness in the process. The film is a realistic slice-of-life that poses the question "How do you get over something you never had?"

When You Wake

Johan is busy destroying his relationship to his girlfriend Julie. He's no longer himself, and he behaves egoistically and without emotions towards her. It is only a question of time before the love, that once was, is gone. Early one morning after a night out Johan meets a stranger. A man who confronts Johan with his cynical and destructive path.

World Wide Woven Bodies

At the end of the 1990s the Internet comes to Northern Norway and coincides with the sexual awakening of young Mads (12). The introduction of pornographic images into his life complicates his relationship with his parents, and their house becomes a minefield filled with uncomfortable interactions.

The Emissary

A mysterious interplanetary diplomat arrives at a post-apocalyptic planet earth in order to facilitate the adoption of a member of an ancient royal family.

Contos Analógicos do Centro da Cidade

Plot unavailable

Electric July

In the burning heat of July, Thomas and Victor, two 14 years old teenagers, are bored to death and want to escape. Victor decides to take Thomas to an abandoned bridge. He will have to confront his fears and desires.

Us Again

In a vibrant city pulsating with rhythm and movement, an elderly man and his young-at-heart wife rekindle their youthful passion for life and each other on one magical night.

Feral

A disturbed young man pushes away his exurban family to seek wildness in the woods. The boy's urge for the primitive manifests in his bedroom at home and in a wild dog he follows through the countryside.

I Am the Doorway

For hundreds of years the human race has looked beyond the stars for extra-terrestrial life. Every new discovery creates a dozen more questions...who would have guessed the answers were now among us? After Saturn 16 crashes back to Earth, ex-astronaut Arthur struggles with an infection. His doctors, friends and family are blind to it's origin but his victims won't be. The Doorway is open - it started in Space, but it ends on Earth. No one is safe in I Am The Doorway.

Limbus

As Alex struggles with disturbing hallucinations, his wife Vera tries to help, until they both experience their own profound revelations.

Strange Way of Life

After 25 years, an ex hired gun visits his old colleague, who is now a small town sheriff. Their past relationship is explored, as is how they reflect on it in the present.

The Little Matchgirl

An animated short based on Hans Christian Andersen's tale about a poor young girl with a burning desire to find comfort and happiness in her life. Desperate to keep warm, the girl lights the matches she sells, and envisions a very different life for herself in the fiery flames filled with images of loving relatives, bountiful food, and a place to call home.

The Perfect Gentleman

Jonathan is poised to marry the daughter of a wealthy tycoon. The couple appears picture perfect, until the eve of their engagement party, when an unexpected guest threatens to destroy Jonathan's plans for the future.

To Where the Sky Turns Blue

At an abandoned gas station, the paths of Rue, Halley and Rayleigh cross and unravel through layers of time, where their memories and the impact of choices on each other link the past and the present inextricably together.

Supernova

Andrea, a young woman in her early twenties, attends the party of her best friend Alan, where she has an unexpected encounter with Diego, a guy she used to have a relationship with. This plunges her into a whirlwind of feelings and memories.

Je t'aime, Julie

In late 17th Century France, a young, insecure woman resorts to desperate ways to be reunited with her lover, who's become a nun at a convent. Based on the chronicles of Julie d'Aubigny.

It's Still Your Bed

David comes home from college to his family’s farm to find that his parents have hired a young man named Brent, who is also sharing his room. David is still in the closet and wants to come out to his high school friend, but he finds himself drawn to his new roommate and tries to determine if he is also gay.

Jemima + Johnny

A white boy and a black Jamaican girl have a day out in a city where racial hostility prevails.

Blinking In Childhood

An ambient piece created to preserve the memory of the director's childhood home prior to renovations. The film itself is shot from the perspective of a child wandering around their home and simply observing all of what is inside of it.

Thread: My Rose

Thread: My Rose is the 1st part of the Sequel: Thread

Mother

A short revenge story, while the sun goes down.

Un Día de Verano

A young couple lives together in a small apartment in the city of Caracas, Venezuela. As they spend their summer in lockdown, their relationship will become increasingly toxic and more dangerous.