A Compendium of Brief Encounters with People I Might Be, Vol. 1 (2020)

Magaluf Ghost Town

At the height of the summer tourist season, the Spanish beach town Magaluf turns into a hellscape of the low-cost travel industry. For eight weeks every year, over one million mostly British vacationers ride an alcohol-soaked tide of public urination, fisticuffs and ambulance sirens for recreation. Instead of assembling a clip-reel of "balconing," when drunk idiots jump into hotel pools from their balconies, filmmaker Miguel Ángel Blanca crafts a far deeper and atmospheric look at a place where visitors and locals alike are driven by pleasure. Long-time resident Maria has little time left, so she takes in a seasonal lodger who listens to her relive her glory days. An enterprising real estate agent peddles an extravagant development, while a young gay man drifts without any plans beyond robbing a tourist for kicks. Part ghost story, part foreboding parable, this is a stylish and vivid impression of people and a place dreaming of escape. Myrocia Watamaniuk (Hot Docs)

Among Us

Based on the jaw-dropping contact accounts of individuals from around the world, AMONG US explores the suspicious phenomenon of non-human presence on Earth, from angels to ETs, and unveils the many ways they may be interacting, communicating and transferring subliminal information into our consciousness and potentially our DNA. The film ultimately shows that the interconnectedness of all species may be beneficial and most likely inevitable for the evolution of an intelligent universe. This film has been released in some territories under the title: "ET Contact: They are here".

The Land of the Enlightened

A group of Kuchi children are living in a minefield around Bagram airfield, Afghanistan. They dig out anti-personal mines in order to sell the explosives to child workers mining in a Lappis Lazulli mine. The trajectory of the blue precious stones goes towards Tajikistan and China, through an area controlled by child soldiers. When they are not waging their own mini-wars in the daily madness of life in Afghanistan, the children are fleeing away in their personal fantasies and dreams, while the American soldiers are planning their retreat...

Liam

Just after Isidore moves to France to study filmmaking, his best friend dies back in the US. Through documentary, performance, and animation, a ghostly portrait emerges, prompting Isidore to question his relationships with his parents and his boyfriend in Paris.

Binibining Detainee

A slice of the eccentric lives of Roca and Sammy, two members of the Gay Inmates Organization detained at the Pampanga Provincial Jail, intertwined with animated sequences of an inmate's incarceration story.

ROTA

Plot unavailable

The Other Side of Sadness

In a hybrid film, both documentary and fiction, five young women describe the feeling of grief when losing a parent at a young age. Anna returns to her father's home, a year after his death. In one weekend, she lives through a storm of emotions as these may come and go in the process of grief.

Fishing Dreams

Someone tells of a dream he had, which was to go fishing and get lots of fish, this kind of dream is often associated with a symbol of good luck. But he was afraid that the dream would happen again and again, from generation to generation.

And there was evening and there was morning. The first day

With the lack of personal video archive, Youhanna (the filmmaker) creates false memories using lost home videotapes shot between the 1990s and 2000s in Europe, Africa, and Asia, with the help of an Artificial intelligence programme, until a real, personal video archive surfaces, transporting him into the past to relive one more memory with his late mother.

Ghostbusters

After losing their academic posts at a prestigious university, a team of parapsychologists goes into business as proton-pack-toting "ghostbusters" who exterminate ghouls, hobgoblins and supernatural pests of all stripes. An ad campaign pays off when a knockout cellist hires the squad to purge her swanky digs of demons that appear to be living in her refrigerator.

Underworld

Vampires and werewolves have waged a nocturnal war against each other for centuries. But all bets are off when a female vampire warrior named Selene, who's famous for her strength and werewolf-hunting prowess, becomes smitten with a peace-loving male werewolf, Michael, who wants to end the war.

A Spot for Frog

Locked out of the school art room, a creative non-binary teen named Frog grapples with anxiety as they seek a new place to eat lunch. Imagination blurs with reality in this hybrid work of live action and animation about finding a place to belong.

The Island of Dr. Moreau

A ship-wrecked man floats ashore on an island in the Pacific Ocean. The island is inhabited by a scientist, Dr. Moreau, who in an experiment has turned beasts into human beings.

The Fly

Industrialist François Delambre is called late at night by his sister-in-law, Helene Delambre, who tells him that she has just killed her husband, André. Reluctant at first, she eventually explains to the police that André invented a matter transportation apparatus and, while experimenting on himself, a fly entered the chamber during the matter transference.

Species II

Having just returned from a mission to Mars, Commander Ross isn't exactly himself. He's slowly becoming a terrifying alien entity with one goal -- to procreate with human women! When countless women suffer gruesome deaths after bearing half-alien offspring, scientist Laura Baker and hired assassin Press Lennox use Eve, a more tempered alien clone, to find Ross and his brood. Before long Eve escapes to mate with Ross.

Aliens vs Predator: Requiem

After a horrifying PredAlien crash-lands near a small Colorado town, killing everyone it encounters and producing countless Alien offspring, a lone Predator arrives to "clean up" the infestation.

Metamorphosis

A crazy scientist creates a dinosaur hybrid using different genetical material. After the giant monster escapes, it spreads chaos across the laboratory...

The Island of Dr. Moreau

A shipwrecked sailor stumbles upon a mysterious island and is shocked to discover that a brilliant scientist and his lab assistant have found a way to combine human and animal DNA—with horrific results.

15'

In an increasingly virtual world, what are three rappers and a fan doing barricaded in a clothing store? If Andy Warhol were alive, he would say they are looking for their 15 minutes of fame, but what will we say?

Return of the Fly

Fifteen years after his father's experiments with matter transmission fail, Philippe Delambre and his uncle François attempt to create a matter transmission device on their own. However, their experiments have disastrous results, turning Philippe into a horrible half-man, half-fly creature.

Annihilation

A biologist signs up for a dangerous, secret expedition into a mysterious zone where the laws of nature don't apply.

Underworld: Awakening

Having escaped years of imprisonment, vampire warrioress Selene finds herself in a changed world where humans have discovered the existence of both Vampire and Lycan clans and are conducting an all-out war to eradicate both immortal species. Now Selene must battle the humans and a frightening new breed of super Lycans to ensure the death dealers' survival.

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 1

Bella Swan and Edward Cullen's honeymoon phase is abruptly disrupted by betrayals and unforeseen tragedies that endanger their world.

Twilight of the Cockroaches

The cockroaches of Saito's apartment live in peace with their human host, who gives them lots of space to breed and plenty of leftovers to munch on. In the midst of these high living times, Naomi and Ichiro plan to get married and start a family. But when a hard-bitten stranger roach named Hans appears with news of war with the humans across the lawn, it foretells disruption-not only of Naomi and Ichiro's relationship, but of the hive's entire way of life.

The death of the minotavr

The death of the minotavr talks about the concept of the heroine's journey. Suffering, horror and exhaustion lead the protagonist to a process of transformation, abyss and expiation, because only murdering to minotaur and everything he represents is possible to return to life. From the female gaze, it shows the depth of the emotional wounds caused by domestic violence; the same one that the surrealist Dora Maar lived and that ask why, as a society, instead of killing the minotaur, we blindly continue to send him women only to be devoured and ask them why they simply did not fight, why they did not try get out of the labyrinth.

Blue Moon Once

John the Baptist finds himself in a Holešovice silo, a wanderer roams across Prague´s brownfields and several women face their fathers.

Underworld: Blood Wars

Vampire death dealer Selene fends off brutal attacks from both the Lycan clan and the Vampire faction that betrayed her. With her only allies, David and his father Thomas, she must stop the eternal war between Lycans and Vampires, even if it means she has to make the ultimate sacrifice.

The Farm of Tomorrow

A series of gags showing how much more productive farms would be if farmers started crossbreeding their animals to create weird (but very useful) hybrids. This cartoon is one of Avery's future technology cartoons including The House of Tomorrow, The Car of Tomorrow and T.V. of Tomorrow.

Hybrids

When marine wildlife has to adapt to the pollution surrounding it, the rules of survival change.

Hybrid Hazards

A teenage rock band performs their music for a small audience. At the end of their performance, lead singer Lacy who is in love with one of the members, gets a text from her mother to invite the band to her family’s factory, possibly for jobs. However, the family has a dark secret that will forever transform or fatally devour their friendship.

Humanzee

In a quiet house in the suburbs, a lonely woman’s grizzly past comes back to haunt her when an old friend knocks at the door.

BloodRayne

In 18th-century Romania, after spending much of her life in a traveling circus, human-vampire hybrid Rayne escapes and plots to take down her father, Kagan, the evil vampire king. When she's discovered by three vampire hunters, she manages to convince them to spare her life and join her cause. But slaying a vampire as powerful as Kagan will be no easy task.

Dead 7

A ragtag group of gunslingers try to make their way in a post-apocalyptic world. The twist to this world is that it’s just not barren and dangerous, it’s also filled with flesh-eating zombies. The gunslingers will find themselves stranded in a town and forced to make a choice on either to save the citizens of the town or save themselves.

Were-Flutter: Darkest Desire

After picking up a strange but hypnotizing gem on the street during her walk back home, Hope, an everyday woman begins her striking transformation into a fearless creature. Intimidating at first, Hope ends up letting herself bask in the glory of her darkest desire.

The Colour

The old farmer Ammi tries to understand the traumatic loss of his friend, who died in a mysterious way. We follow him as he gets confronted by the demons of his past and he tries to overcome his fear.

Martha: A Picture Story

In 1970s New York, photographer Martha Cooper captured some of the first images of graffiti at a time when the city had declared war on it. Decades later, Cooper has become an influential godmother to a global movement of street artists.

17 Blocks

Using two decades of intimate home video, the story of the Sanford family, whose struggles with addiction and gun violence eventually lead to a journey of love, loss, and acceptance.

Leftover Women

In China, single women are under immense pressure to marry young or face the stigma that comes with being "leftover." Leftover Women follows three hopeful singles seeking to define love on their own terms.

Our Time Machine

When influential Chinese artist Ma Liang (a.k.a. Maleonn) realizes that his father Ma Ke, an accomplished Peking Opera director, is suffering from Alzheimer's disease, he invites his father to collaborate on his most ambitious project to date - a haunting, magical, autobiographical stage performance featuring life-size mechanical puppets called "Papa's Time Machine". Through the creation of this play, the two men confront their mortality before time runs out and memories are lost forever.

Rewind

Digging through the vast collection of his father's home videos, a young man reconstructs the unthinkable story of his boyhood and exposes vile abuse passed through generations.

The Dog Doc

Called a maverick, a miracle-worker, and a quack, Dr. Marty Goldstein is a pioneer of integrative veterinary medicine. By holistically treating animals after other vets have given up, Goldstein provides a last hope for pet owners with nothing left to lose.

The Dominican Dream

In the early 1990s, the future of basketball belonged to a young Dominican immigrant named Felipe Lopez. Featured on the cover of Sports Illustrated at the age of 17, Lopez's story is the ultimate profile of the American dream.

A Kid from Coney Island

Feature documentary about the rise and fall, and rebirth of ex-NBA star, Stephon Marbury.

Liminality & Communitas

After the sunset, a man wonders between the edges of the highways gathering edible roadkill animals.

Indianara

Bigger-than-life revolutionary, Indianara and her group lead a fight for the survival of transgender people in Brazil. She gathers her forces for one last battle against the attacks from her political party and the totalitarian threat to come.

To Be and to Have

The documentary's title translates as "to be and to have", the two auxiliary verbs in the French language. It is about a primary school in the commune of Saint-Étienne-sur-Usson, Puy-de-Dôme, France, the population of which is just over 200. The school has one small class of mixed ages (from four to twelve years), with a dedicated teacher, Georges Lopez, who shows patience and respect for the children as we follow their story through a single school year.

Pumping Iron

Amateur and professional bodybuilders prepare for the 1975 Mr. Olympia and Mr. Universe contests as five-time champion Arnold Schwarzenegger defends his Mr. Olympia title against Serge Nubret and the shy young Lou Ferrigno.

Renouer avec le vivant

Plot unavailable

Filhos de João, O Admirável Mundo Novo Baiano

A panorama of Brazilian popular music from the 60s and 70s through the musical group Novos Baianos. A retrospective of the community lifestyle adopted by its members and the influence inherited from singer João Gilberto.

Carmen Miranda: Bananas Is My Business

A biography of the Portuguese-born Brazilian singer Carmen Miranda, whose most distinctive feature was her tutti-frutti hat. From her arrival in the US as the "Brazilian Bombshell" to her Broadway career and Hollywood stardom in the 1940s.

Journey to the West

In 2014, Tsai Ming-Liang was invited to make a film for the MarseilleFID, Marseille International Film Festival. Since he was not familiar with Marseille, he decided to make a film as tourist, capturing the beautiful Mediterranean sunshine in the late summer of that year. He also invited famous French actor, Denis Lavant, to appear alongside Lee Kang-Sheng playing Xuanzang. "Journey to the West" was invited to be the opening short film at the Berlin International Film Festival the same year.

Murder: No Apparent Motive

This documentary about serial killers and FBI Behavioral Sciences profilers features interviews with Ed Kemper and Ted Bundy as well as crime victims and law enforcement officials. The film includes some dramatic recreations.

Meat

Meat is the modern story of the animals we eat, as told by the people who never get to say their piece - from the solitary hunter who believes everyone needs to be educated about their food, to an industrial pig farmer who argues that money isn't his primary driver.

Erasure: The Tank, the Swan, and the Balloon

1. Siren Song 2. Ship Of Fools 3. Chorus 4. Breath Of Life 5. Chains Of Love 6. Love To Hate You 7. Joan 8. Voulez Vous 9. Take A Chance On Me 10. S.O.S. 11. Lay All Your Love On Me 12. Am I Right? 13. Oh L'Amour 14. Waiting For The Day 15. Heart Of Stone 16. Stop! 17. The Good, The Bad And The Ugly 18. Who Needs Love Like That 19. Stand By Your Man 20. The Soldier's Return 21. Turns The Love To Anger 22. Star 23. Blue Savannah 24. Over The Rainbow 25. Love Is A Loser 26. A Little Respect 27. Home 28. Perfect Stranger 29. Sometimes British synthpop legends Erasure perform live at the Manchester Apollo on 8 June 1992, as part of their Phantasmagorical Entertainment Tour.

China's Van Goghs

An intimate portrait of a peasant-turned oil painter transitioning from making copies of iconic Western paintings to creating his own authentic works of art.

Salgueiro Maia - The Implicated

On April 25, 1974, a man walked alone in Largo do Carmo. He knocked on the GNR military barracks door and entered, unarmed and without any escorts. Inside, the Government’s chief, Marcelo Caetano, waited, surrounded by the military and the people. The man who stared at him that afternoon and demanded surrender, guaranteeing his safety, had just led Santarém’s Artillery 1 regiment in taking the capital. Without firing a single shot, he managed to overthrow a regime that was over 48 years old. That was the last step to take and he took it, without hesitation, becoming the unavoidable figure of the day that marked the beginning of democracy in Portugal