Trying Memory (2024)

Seven Years in May

One night seven years ago, Rafael came home after work and discovered that people he did not know had come looking for him. He immediately fled, without looking back. From that moment on, his life changed, as if that night had never ended. One evening, around an improvised fire near a factory, he decides to confide his journey to a stranger. Rafael’s intimate account meets the collective testimony of an entire nation oppressed by poverty, police repression and institutional corruption.

Bark

BARK is a portrait of a seemingly simple argument between two teenage girls that curdles into a surreal, psychological struggle.

Split Second

When a young woman is shoved out of a cafe moments before a grenade is detonated by the very man who commits the attack, she struggles with the guilt of survival as she attempts to uncover the reason why her life was spared when so many others were taken.

Shakti

Federico, in his mid-20s, lives alone in Buenos Aires. The day his grandmother dies, he decides to part with his girlfriend. He fears hurting her. However, she is laid-back, feisty and not even close to feeling hurt. He begins obsessing over her unexpected reaction—but then he meets someone else.

Good Night, Morning

A working-class man returns to his city from a distant job and spends the night at a friend's house instead of going home to his wife.

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.

Waiting for Magic Hour

A photographer and her driver form an unlikely friendship as they go on a road trip in Donegal, Ireland.

Kaleb

A hustler meets a client in a hotel room but he realizes that the young man needs much more than sex.

Lightrapping

Gustave is a photographer who makes pictures of nude male bodies in public spaces in São Paulo. One night, Pedro goes with him, without yet knowing whether he will be part of the project. This vast city will be witness.

Community Gardens

A grown-up son goes on a countryside trip with his ageing parents in the hopes of reigniting the relationship, but there is nothing left to reignite. This story of familial dysfunction is set against the picturesque backdrop of a dacha community (instantly recognisable to every post-Soviet native), rendered by Vytautas Katkas with irony and a rare sympathy for his hapless subjects.

She Runs

A teenager resorts to desperate measures in her efforts to quit her school's aerobic dance team and assert her independence.

What Did They Say?

A 1-minute film about the experience of young immigrant children having to translate for their parents. Presented by NextShark.

The Bridge Partner

A timid housewife is jolted into a fight for her survival or sanity when she thinks she hears her new partner at a weekly bridge game whisper a shocking threat.

Angst and Treason

During an awkward family gathering, María, a young lady going through a love crisis, discovers a secret that will transform her reality.

Shadows

In Manila, a solitary man from a far-away province lives in poverty. The only thing he has is a camera, and he stays at churches hoping people will hire him to take their photographs. During one day, he has three encounters that change his life: the first, with a smooth-talking young man who's standing by the church door who berates him for wasting his life in church, the second with a boy who offers to take his picture, and the third with a Mercedes-driving man who's been stuck in traffic and has no patience left. Is there any deliverance from the soullessness of the city?

Spoiled Milk

When an emotionally abusive father reneges on a lifelong promise, a determined millennial is forced to choose between fighting for her relationship with her father or her freedom. 'Spoiled Milk' is about what it means to have an expiration date as a daughter and the invisible scars of emotional abuse.

Undress Me

Mikaela has undergone gender reassignment and is now a woman. One night at a bar, she meets a guy and takes him back to her place.

Timewarp

A young woman experiences the worst panic attack of her life as the world around her seems to be going faster and faster.

Lost Angel

When a young Dutch tourist gets stranded at the start of his US vacation, he finds help from an unlikely stranger.

Is Now a Good Time?

A Marvel employee's workday is spent attempting to grant a terminally ill child's wish to see an unreleased Captain America film, leading to dark comedy and commentary on corporate control over art.

Aftermath

In a new, predatory ice age, two brothers search for a place to call home.

Filip

Seven-year-old Filip admires his older brother Sebastian most of all. They fool around, watch movies and play football together. One evening Filip happens to see something unexpected between Sebastian and his best friend and Filip doesn't know how to handle it.

Land of empty promises

Plot unavailable

Bogland

Why are gooseberries so much more valuable than deer trees and why did the Sami men lay naked on the marsh in the past? How do you respond to a mock execution and what is actually panic attack? Ella and Moa are two girls with more questions than answers and during a summer night they approach a little cautiously of their Sami origin. —Jonas Selberg Augustsén

Yardbird

A young girl who lives in a remote wrecking yard takes on the local bullies when they travel out to torment her father.

Red

Jesse is a chat-addict teen. One day, an unknown gay friend proposes him a blind date on a public spot, but Jesse, unaware of how his friend physically looks, demands the use of a ‘red’ t-shirt in order to recognize him. What Jesse never thought was that, that day, one of his biggest fears would come true.

Burger

It's late night in a burger bar in Wales...

Roles We Play

An older professor longing for motherhood must recalibrate her path to pregnancy when she realizes one of her favorite students is a potential sperm donor.

Canvas

After a heartbreaking loss, a grandfather struggling to reclaim his passion for painting finds the inspiration to create again.

The Year of the Radio

Mexico in the 90s. Alex, a 7 year-old boy and his little siblings are left in the care of senile Aunt Lola while their mother works as a host on a radio station. Alex misses his mother and along with his siblings, they listen to his mother’s show every night, building strange imaginary worlds through the stories they hear, the news, the radio soap operas and the religious influence of his great-aunt.

The Glutton

Gulosus (the glutton), is an alluring yet disturbing view of gluttony in contemporary culture. The film is in stop motion, with one photo being taken every 6 seconds, and contains over 130 individual sound effects and foley sounds. The piece draws from the compositions of traditional vanitas paintings and photography. It was also heavily influenced by a genre of youtube called 'Mukbang' (korean for 'eating show'), where people consume mass amounts of unhealthy and idealistic foods for viewers to watch. All of these elements came together to form an opinion on greed and vanity through a relatable but confronting menu. Influencing artists: PES Jan Svankmajer Reynold Reynolds Chen Fei Achievements: BUFTA Bond University awards - nominated best overall film - nominated best director - winner best experimental - winner best sound design Artexpress exhibitions at - Margaret Whitlam gallery - virtual gallery VX - Maitland regional art gallery

Lioness

When the temperamental Sylvie (17) is told that she has to give up her child when it’s born, she decides to escape the youth institution where she’s placed. In her eyes it’s the only solution to prevent that her child will have the same institutionalized youth as she endured.

Second Thought

Chris and Art lead parallel lives, starting their day with similar routines in different locations. Both go to Provincetown, a welcoming haven for the LGBTQ+ community, where their paths cross on a dating app. A steamy encounter follows their first meeting, but a dramatic turn occurs when one blocks the other the next day.

Równonoc

Plot unavailable

La Jetée

A man confronts his past during an experiment that attempts to find a solution to the problems of a post-apocalyptic world caused by a world war.

One Hundred and Twenty-Eight Thousand

Nearly one in ten Czechs over the age of 15 face some form of distraint, under which their property is seized because of money they owe. Every day, more and more people fall into the debt trap, but Karel is on the other side of the barricade – it is his job to collect their debts.

Jeremiah

An Asian-American high school football player is forced to confront his deepest fears after a strange encounter with a mysterious figure.

Adam

Tired of his turbulent family life, Adam seeks out an alternative arrangement in hopes of finding his place.