The invention of species (2024)

The Tin Drum

Oskar Matzerath is a very unusual boy. Refusing to leave the womb until promised a tin drum by his mother, Agnes, Oskar is reluctant to enter a world he sees as filled with hypocrisy and injustice, and vows on his third birthday to never grow up. Miraculously, he gets his wish. As the Nazis rise to power in Danzig, Oskar wills himself to remain a child, beating his tin drum incessantly and screaming in protest at the chaos surrounding him.

Portraits from a Fire

An Indigenous teenage boy fights through distorting realities as a family secret unravels.

Mermaids

Fifteen-year-old Charlotte Flax is tired of her wacky mom moving their family to a different town any time she feels it is necessary. When they move to a small Massachusetts town and Mrs. Flax begins dating a shopkeeper, Charlotte and her 9-year-old sister, Kate, hope that they can finally settle down. But when Charlotte's attraction to an older man gets in the way, the family must learn to accept each other for who they truly are.

Paillette

In this musical short film set in 1961, 17-year-old Kathryn begins a fashion internship to help design a line for the Seattle World's Fair. Kathryn struggles to defend her passion for a creative lifestyle against disapproving family and friends.

The Quest

Ghang-gheng, the ancient winner-take-all competition in which the deadliest fighters from around the world employ the most spectacular feats of martial arts skills ever displayed in order to win the prized Golden Dragon. But fighting prowess alone will not be enough for Chris to triumph over such daunting foes.

Now and Then

Waxing nostalgic about the bittersweet passage from childhood to puberty, four childhood girlfriends — Teeny, Chrissy, Samantha and Roberta — recall the magical summer of 1970. During their walk down memory lane, they reconcile experiences with boys, secrets, bullies and more.

Beautiful Girls

During a snowy winter in the small fictional town of Knight's Ridge, Massachusetts, a group of lifelong buddies hang out, drink and struggle to connect with the women who affect their decisions, dreams and desires.

Quadrophenia

Based on the 1973 rock opera album of the same name by The Who, this is the story of 60s teenager Jimmy. At work he slaves in a dead-end job. While after, he shops for tailored suits and rides his scooter as part of the London Mod scene.

mid90s

In 1990s Los Angeles, a 13-year-old spends his summer navigating between a troubled home life and a crew of new friends he meets at a skate shop.

SARAH

SARAH is a short film centered around Ayla and her best friend Sarah as they discuss summer plans, specifically, Ayla's "sweet seventeen". All is well until Sarah doesn't pick up Ayla's messages anymore when they are supposed to hang out. As Ayla's birthday nears, the more upset she becomes with Sarah. When the day arrives, Ayla finds herself celebrating her birthday without Sarah and leads to her final straw, spending her seventeenth birthday alone.

STRANGER

STRANGER is a coming-of-age short film that focuses on two neighbors reconciling before one of them goes off to college in Chicago. It is based on a true event that occurred the last day that I was in town before I moved to college. The two characters, Max and Cass, discuss their past together after not talking for years, realizing that they have changed as young adults and miss hanging out but cannot because Cass is leaving while Max stays in town to fix cars. With this last interaction, they get to say goodbye officially on a good note.

A Walk to Remember

When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town's minister. Jamie has a "to-do" list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon.

Dangerous Paradise

Heyst, a hermit on his own tropical island, plays unwilling host to red-headed stowaway Alma. Danger looms...

Pleasantville

Geeky teenager David and his popular twin sister, Jennifer, get sucked into the black-and-white world of a 1950s TV sitcom called "Pleasantville," and find a world where everything is peachy keen all the time. But when Jennifer's modern attitude disrupts Pleasantville's peaceful but boring routine, she literally brings color into its life.

The Breakfast Club

Five high school students from different walks of life endure a Saturday detention under a power-hungry principal. The disparate group includes rebel John, princess Claire, outcast Allison, brainy Brian and Andrew, the jock. Each has a chance to tell his or her story, making the others see them a little differently -- and when the day ends, they question whether school will ever be the same.

Out of My Mind

Melody Brooks, a sixth grader with cerebral palsy, has a quick wit and a sharp mind, but because she is non-verbal and uses a wheelchair, she is not given the same opportunities as her classmates. When a young educator notices her student's untapped potential and Melody starts to participate in mainstream education, Melody shows that what she has to say is more important than how she says it.

Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

After an abrupt and violent encounter with a French warship inflicts severe damage upon his ship, a captain of the British Royal Navy begins a chase over two oceans to capture or destroy the enemy, though he must weigh his commitment to duty and ferocious pursuit of glory against the safety of his devoted crew, including the ship's thoughtful surgeon, his best friend.

The Isle

Mute Hee-Jin is working as a clerk in a fishing resort in the Korean wilderness; selling baits, food and occasionally her body to the fishing tourists. One day she falls in love with Hyun-Shik, who is on the run from the police, and rescues him with a fish hook when he tries to commit suicide.

October Boy

14-year-old Thomas moves to the city. In school he meets Mads and Emma, who are interested in him for different reasons.

Olivier, Olivier

Olivier, the nine-year-old son of Elisabeth and Serge, a country veterinarian, vanishes one afternoon on the way to his grandmother's house. The emotional aftermath of his disappearance sends his father packing and nearly destroys his mother.

Emotion

Experimental short film depicting the life, perhaps real, perhaps a dream, of a young girl named Emi. Emi travels to the city where she encounters her counterpart, Sari, and falls in love with…a vampire?

To the Starry Island

Two men have returned to their hometown (the titular island) from Seoul to bury the father of one of them, but the islanders vehemently refuse their request, triggering memories of their childhood before and during the Korean War.

Big Time Adolescence

A seemingly bright and mostly innocent 16-year-old named Mo attempts to navigate high school under the guidance of his best friend Zeke, an unmotivated-yet-charismatic college dropout. Although Zeke genuinely cares about Mo, things start to go awry as he teaches Mo nontraditional life lessons in drug dealing, partying, and dating. Meanwhile, Mo’s well-meaning dad tries to step in and take back the reins of his son’s upbringing.

Firecrackers

Lou and her best friend Chantal plan to get out of their isolated, run-down town and move to a city far, far away. When Chantal’s unstable and possessive ex violates her during a night of partying, the girls decide to exact their revenge on him through a night of vandalism and debauchery.

I Are You, You Am Me

9th-graders Kazuo and Kazumi take a tumble at a temple in a small seacoast town in Japan. Through supernatural intervention, their minds and bodies are switched, and the result is a touching and hilarious coming-of-age comedy as they attempt to survive the pressures of junior high school life.

Smoke Cemetery

An orphaned teenager is visiting his parents’ grave - once a place of solace, now a reminder of his growing emptiness.

The Third Solar Term

During spring break, Qizhe’s double life unravels as a secret online connection clashes with his role as the “perfect” son at home.

Month to Month

Broke and reeling from a recent breakup, an aimless young man wanders around the streets of Los Angeles in search of his stolen car.

Licorice Pizza

The story of Gary Valentine and Alana Kane growing up, running around and going through the treacherous navigation of first love in the San Fernando Valley, 1973.

Bulbul Can Sing

Coming-of-age drama about a young girl living in rural India, fighting her way through love and loss as she figures out who she really is.

Rumah Untuk Alie

Alie, the youngest and only daughter among five siblings, suffers relentless abuse from her father and siblings—blamed for their mother's death—when all she longs for is a bit of compassion and acceptance from her family.

Summer of Violence

A young college grad, Naomi turns down law school to pursue poetry, despite her father’s objections. She subsequently struggles to survive in 1993 Denver, after being cut off by her father during a period of violent crime in the city known as the Summer of Violence.

Mr. Pip

As a war rages on in the province of Bougainville in Papua New Guinea, a young girl becomes transfixed by the Charles Dickens novel Great Expectations, which is being read at school by the only white man in the village.

Desert Bloom

The story involves Rose Chismore's youth. She flashes back and remembers her coming-of-age. Her recollections are sometimes less than sweet, particularly those of her troubled and alcoholic step-father. Her memories of Robin, her first-love, are much happier and she also recalls her colorful Aunt Starr -- who's visit is fun but also detrimental to her family's health. The setting of 1950s Las Vegas' bomb testing is increasingly significant to the development of the story.

Giant Little Ones

Two popular teen boys, best friends since childhood, discover their lives, families, and girlfriends dramatically upended after an unexpected incident occurs on the night of a 17th birthday party.

Victim or Hero

"Victim or Hero" is a short film about the battle between fate and willpower. Do we accept the role of the world’s victim, or take control as the hero of our own story?

Pack Rat

In rural New Zealand, a fifteen-year-old girl fights to keep her place among the pack of boys she has grown up with. As day turns to night, she falls into a power game with the pack's alpha - but it is the wrestle within herself that proves to be her hardest challenge.

Love & Savagery

In 1969, a visiting geologist from Newfoundland arouses scandal in a small Irish village when he romances a local girl who’s destined for the convent.

Bengbulan

12 year old Carmen has to stay home during the summer while most other people are on holiday. She plays with younger children Anders and Kerstin. 20 year old Bengt-Olof is a little bit challenged and has no other friends of his own age. Therefore, he frightens and mobs the children in the neighbourhood who, at first try to flee him, but then begin planning their revenge...

Moondance

The close relationship between two fun-loving brothers comes under threat when a beautiful, sensitive girl arrives on the scene. As the younger brother comes of age, the inevitable jealousy, confusion, rivalry and lust place their brotherly love in jeopardy.

Dangerous Games

Drama is afoot at Shirobara Middle School when the bold Henmi Ryoko transfers into Class A, 9th Grade. She immediately picks a fight with, Masuda, the head of the preparation committee. The girls' battle for control of the gang soon grows out of control as it sweeps up the entire school. Brawls. Seduction. Yazuka. And more!

Loser Leaves Town

Jose, an eleven-year-old luchador, retreats into a fantasy world until it is infiltrated by a tough 12-year-old girl. He uses his vivid imagination to make it through the toughest weekend of his life.

Lucid

Winter and summer, day and night, life and dreams. Lucid is all about duality. Anxious and awkward in real life, Everett decides to make a change. After coming across studies in the art of Lucid dreaming, Everett hopes to improve his inept social skills. Will having full control of his dreams help him feel complete? Find out in the second feature-length film imagined by Nate Ross & Daniel Walker: Lucid.

Operation Bikini

The film takes place aboard an American submarine in the Pacific during World War II. The sub's commander is ordered to stop and pick up an underwater demolition team led by Lt. Hayes, whose mission is to locate and destroy a US submarine sunken in a lagoon off Bikini Atoll before the Japanese are able to raise it and capture the advanced radar system on board.

Once There Was a War

The film is a window into the world of fifteen-year-old Tim, sharing his joys and sorrows and his first encounter with love, during the German occupation of Denmark in World War II.

A Colony

Camille wanders through the countryside talking with frogs and chickens: she sails through life as a carefree soul. But for her older sister, the introverted Mylia, things are more complicated. Mylia is lost between the uncertainty in her family life, the superficial atmosphere at her new school and her first experiences at house parties. It is Camille who eventually introduces Mylia to Jimmy. The boy from the nearby Abenaki reserve is different and he encourages her to break free.

Mr. Harrigan's Phone

Craig, a young boy living in a small town befriends an older, reclusive billionaire, Mr. Harrigan. The two form a bond over books and an iPhone, but when the man passes away the boy discovers that not everything dead is gone.

Last Summer

During a long hot summer in the 1970s, four boys roam free through a neglected rural paradise, until a tragedy strikes that sets them against the adult world and changes their lives forever.

Psychic School Wars

It's a new school year at the local Junior High School i Kamakura. The school year starts off with a new transfer student Ryoichi Kyogoku who joins the 8th grade class. He has been ordered to join the school, and use his special gift of telepathy and take over their school. This boy who happens to be handsome, and be a charismatic person, gains popularity, and using his powers takes over the entire school, except for Seki. This begins a war to regain their freedom for their school and themselves.

Shell

Abandoned by her mother when she was a child, Shell has stayed to take care of her dying father but now feels trapped within the beautiful but desolate landscape that surrounds her. With only her routine of running the decaying petrol station, taking care of her father, and spending afternoons in her bedroom with a local mechanic, life is passing Shell by with every passing truck that rattles her walls. One day a salesman stops to re-fuel and offers Shell a taste of the outside world that takes her closer than ever to the edge of the road and her desire to escape.

Tempos

On his last day in Brazil, Dut spends time with his friends around the neighborhood reminiscing about old times and longing for the future. In a cathartic moment, they perform "Times" by Flying Kites. TEMPOS is a celebration of moments past, the fraternity of friendship while growing up, and the hope for a future where there will be more time.

The Hand of God

In 1980s Naples, Italy, an awkward Italian teen struggling to find his place experiences heartbreak and liberation after he's inadvertently saved from a freak accident by football legend Diego Maradona.

House of Hummingbird

14-year-old Eun-hee moves through life like a hummingbird searching for a taste of sweetness wherever she may find it. Ignored by her parents and abused by her brother, she finds her escape by roaming the neighborhood with her best friend, going on adventures, and exploring young love.