Explorer (2016)

Visions of Europe

Twenty-five films from twenty-five European countries by twenty-five European directors.

Waking Up in Vegas

Yael is at the beginning of puberty and is searching for his own identity between his virile big brother and his queer best friend Aaron. In the process, he not only questions himself, but also endangers his friendship with Aaron.

Devil's Tribulation

Liu Ming and Jia Lan are childhood sweethearts. Liu Ming devotes herself to cultivation every day, and Jia Lan always waits quietly, accompanying Liu Ming. Ye Tian Mei has admired Liu Ming for a long time, but hates that Jia Lan is always by Liu Ming's side. One day, when Jia Lan is playing in a lake, Ye Tian Mei hypnotises her, swaps their souls, and imprisons Jia Lan's...

Letters

LETTERS, a dramatic historical fiction written by Mrs. Evelyn Merritt in 2010, tells the story of U.S. soldiers and their loved ones through their correspondence beginning with the Civil War and ending with the War in Iraq. Sahuarita High School students adapted the Readers’ Theatre play into a movie, reasoning the student actors would be kept safe from Covid-19 by filming them individually, and afterward the footage could be reassembled into a screenplay following the original dialogue.

Mi querido Juan Manuel

Juan, a seventy-year-old man with senile dementia, shares a room with Manuel, a young sparrow.

Open

Jess comes into "Gay's The Word" (the first Gay and Lesbian bookshop that opened in London) where she meets Leah for the first time. They coincidentally meet by the same bookcase over three days. What sparks is a romantic awkward chemistry between the two, transpired by Jess' curiosity in Leah and the chance for an artistic and sexual liberation possibly waiting for her at the end.

My Pretty Pony

The story follows an elderly man on his deathbed who gives his young grandson a pocket watch and warns the boy against the dangers of letting time slip away.

The Lake in the Sky

An isolated teenager explores the past, his late father, and unstable memory through the use of celluloid on his 16th birthday.

Zurück

Lena returns to Germany after spending a year in Australia. Lena's mom and boyfriend are happy about she's home. Lena herself has mixed feelings. It is difficult to adapt to life in Germany again.

Deep Ocean

A boy with a secret crush struggles with his feelings as he watches the one he loves grow closer to others, sinking deeper into his own emotional turmoil.

Screengrabbed Too: BBC Introducing Arts

Huw Stephens presents an exciting selection of short films from emerging artists and film-makers from across the UK. Topics are fresh, varied and thought-provoking, including a behind-the-scenes look at a zoo closing for the night, an honest account of farming the land, and a powerful love letter from a son to a mother who has cancer. Expect to be moved and challenged by these short dramas, observations and dance, made by a new generation of storytellers. Yew; Echdo; King of the Pit; Two B or Not Two B; Lucky House; Everything Is Fine; The Jacket; Cages; It's Always Been; Mary Lost Her Battle; Between the Dog and the Wolf; From His Perspective

Edward Has A Tree Inside Him

A young woman is thrust into a caretaking role after her boyfriend is diagnosed with a unique illness.

True

While he's receiving an enigmatic phone call from his girlfriend Francine, Thomas remembers the milestones of their relationship, from the very moment they met in a really strange way. A segment of “Paris, je t'aime” (2006).

The Strange

Amadeu, nine years old, goes to a summer camp for the first time. The first few days are tough, but Nil, the most expert monitor, gains his trust and helps him integrate into the group. Just when Amadeu starts to feel comfortable a violent experience forces him to rebel against everything he had learned.

The Dead Girls

Two teenage girls forced to serve a violent drug cartel await the first snowfall at the desert surrounding a mountain called La Siberia.

When Jeff Tried to Save the World

When Jeff discovers that the bowling alley he manages is being sold, he must do everything he can to save the place he's come to call home. This is the original / short.

Cycles

CYCLES is a playful, sweetheart choreography, circling through the madness of grief.

Pepper

The painful awakening of a couple after an evening of fantasies ...

Postcards from the End of the World

Trapped in a seemingly dull family vacation, Dimitra, Dimitris and their two daughters will have to find a way out of a secluded island in the Mediterranean, when confronted with the unexpected end of the world.

Hotel Boy

The young Samir accompanies the politician Stefan to a hotel room. Samir is in love and has set everything aside to be able to go with Stefan, as they had planned. But under the surface lies a big misunderstanding, and outside in the rain a journalist is waiting for the next big headline.

The Easter Sunday Massacre

Two film enthusiasts who work for a boutique distribution company called Flicker & Fade meet Vince Miller, the elusive writer/director of 1979's The Easter Sunday Massacre, who, along with his film, hasn't been seen in over 40 years.

And So We Put Goldfish in the Pool.

One summer day, 400 goldfish were found in the swimming pool of a secondary school. This is a story about the four 15-year-old girls who put them there.

Communication

An Orthodox Jewish student unexpectedly inherits the estate of his estranged mentor, and discovers a painful truth about their final days together.

In a Moment

Max isn't sure about his sexual orientation until he meets Leon at his new school. When Max is singing a song at a school concert something beautiful happens.

Juan Gabriel is Dead

Best friends Beto and Daniel spend most of their time together. Daniel struggles with his gender identity just to hide his feelings for Beto. To be himself, he has to overcome his fear by showing Beto what he truly feels.

Life in Color

An aging, closeted Alzheimer's patient, clashing against his strong-willed daughter, struggles to hold on to the memory of his long lost lover.

Trust Me

Animated short documentary following a young woman's diagnosis of bipolar: a journey of self-acceptance to challenge everyday stigma. In "Trust Me", a genre-bending short documentary, a young woman uses humour and compassion to share her moving and deeply personal story of coming to terms with her mental health condition. When she starts exhibiting atypical and extreme behaviour, her loved ones trick her into hospitalisation against her will. She is diagnosed with bipolar disorder which starts her challenging journey of self-acceptance, confronting internalised and societal stigma, and learning to trust herself and others again.

Femme

The Ysbreeker family -- mother Jolien, father Frank, daughter Roos and son Teun -- are enjoying their annual holiday on a camping site in France. Teun is at the beginning of his puberty and can't quite control his hormones. Roos, a teen girl in the middle of her puberty, is more interested in her first camping love than in her own family. Teun notices that his sister is becoming a woman, in all different ways. How does he react? Does it have any influence on the brother-sister relationship?

Bro

Bro is the story of Jamal and AJ, two brothers in NYC. Jamal returns home from prison to see a different world and a younger brother following in his footsteps. Their lives collide into a day they wont forget.

Shackles

The discharge of the nuclear sewage has brought great crisis to the environment. A particular mermaid becomes victim to it all.

Gentleman Spa

Hao, a chubby gay man, works as a janitor at a gay spa. For him, romantic relationships are an unreachable dream. One day, an attractive customer, Kai, walks into the place, and Hao has the opportunity to massage him.

Guardian

Manuel is a gay Latino teen who lacks guidance and support. Even though his mother, Anna deeply cares for him, she is only able to prove and instill her love through video tapes made from afar. Keeping his sexuality and boyfriend a secret from his homophobic father, Manuel must decide the life he wants to live or end.

Grandpa Walrus

On the windy and cloudy beach, Granny is praying, Mum is shouting, the sisters don’t care, Lucas is alone. Grandpa was a weird guy, now he's dead.

A Drowning Man

Alone and far from home, The Kid makes his way through a strange city looking for the means to get through his day. Surrounded by predators he is forced to make compromises merely to survive, his life of exile grows one day longer.

Push It

Hedda tries to approach Adam in every way she can, but everything she does turns out wrong. And Adam gets to break all the rules. A film about never being able to win, even though you’re the best, with the gym hall as its arena.

Wednesdays

Every Wednesday, 8 year old Kris accompanies 28 year old Willem to the swimming pool. They swim, go down the slide and have a lot of fun. But one Wednesday Willem confronts Kris with a frightening request...

Give Up the Ghost

While doing their homework on a winter afternoon, schoolmates Charlie and Matt share a kiss. But Matt snaps and storms off. Later at a catechism lesson, Matt accuses Charlie of it not being consensual and an argument erupts.

III

By a hot summer day on the lakeshore, three siblings face death for the first time through their contact with nature.

Smog

Thick, deadly smog blankets the globe, reducing visibility to less than a few metres. In a secluded farmhouse, a woman and her overbearing husband attempt to find resources and survive using a series of walking trails crafted from ropes and stakes. One night, the woman is alerted to the presence of someone or something else deep in the smog. Desperate to escape the farmhouse, the woman attempts to meet the unknown and risk everything to leave her loveless and abusive relationship behind.

Fili di memorie

Plot unavailable

Swain

Swain is inspired by Nathaniel Hawthorne’s Fanshawe, features a dreamlike narrative of a young man’s ritualized rejection of heterosexuality, as a mysterious woman in white gossamer pursues him through a ruined landscape.

The Female Side Effect

After the death of a patient, Crimera Pharmaceuticals, assigns the task of finding out what happened to Dr. Elena Pizano, a clinical trial analyst. She must do this with the help of the efficient and reliable artificial intelligence entity: KODA. During her findings she will come across data gaps in one of the drugs being studied, uncovering a darker truth in the world of medicine. As the organizations try to hide the information, she must decide how to handle the secrets she's just uncovered.

The Licensed Fool

A travelling court jester, known as The Licensed Fool, begins to unravel when he learns of a sinister motive behind him being hired for an upcoming performance.

American Eid

Ameena, a Muslim Pakistani immigrant, wakes up on Eid to find out that she has to go to school. Homesick and heartbroken, she goes on a mission to make Eid a public-school holiday, and in the process, reconnects with her older sister, and embraces her new home, while her new home embraces her.

Dinner Is Served

A Chinese student at an elite U.S. boarding school realizes excellence is not enough when he tries out for a leadership position no international student has ever applied for.

Growing Fangs

Val Garcia, a Mexican-American teen who is half human/half vampire, has had to keep her identity a secret from both worlds. But when her human best friend shows up at her monster-infested school, she has to confront her truth, her identity, and herself.

The Little Prince(ss)

When Gabriel, a 7-year-old Chinese kid who loves ballet, becomes friends with Rob, another Chinese kid from school, Rob’s dad gets suspicious about Gabriel's feminine behavior and decides to intervene.

Living Reality

An exploration of the emotional divide between fiction and reality in the American sitcom.

Enclosed World

A short animation by Makoto Shinkai in Lightwave 3D. Inspired by Haruki Murakami's book "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" with music by Tenmon.

Pria

Caught between the traditions of his upbringing in rural Indonesia and his idealization of Western freedom, a teenager struggles with the expectations of imminent manhood.

Pedro

Pedro gets home at dawn. Before the young boy falls asleep, his lonely mother drags him to the beach.