Dance: BBC Introducing Arts (2022)

Step Up: Year of the Dance

Youth from different social classes in Beijing come together to form China's best dance crew and learn what it really means to be family.

Swallowed

Sam, newly a mother, shops at a supermarket with her baby and husband Carlson. She throws a neighborhood shishkabob party and has a family Sunday breakfast. But through her smiles and picturesque tasks, there's a suppression. Sam’s grown something she can no longer contain. This breaking point is the film SWALLOWED, where psychological horror meets dance.

Good Boy

Two high school friends, Caleb and Macon, are reunited after many years. During the tense reunion, Macon fights his tortured mind, wrestling with a dark secret that is the source of Caleb's greatest pain.

Thirst

Two friends go on a hike to the desert. In the desolate wilderness something hidden comes out in their friendship. From then on, the only way they manage to communicate is sexually and violently. While one of them wants more than the other is able to give, he expresses his frustration by making sure they get lost and have no water - anything to escape from awaiting reality.

Yes, God, Yes

Fifteen-year-old Alice has always been a good Catholic, but when an innocent AOL chat turns unexpectedly racy, she finds herself suddenly obsessed with sex.

Pigtails

The earth shook. The sea roared. And then… There is a small house solitary standing by the seaside. A young girl has been living there alone since that fateful day. Mail is no longer delivered, but even this morning, she’s hanging out the laundry as usual. She’s unaware that all around her, the clothes pegs are quarreling, the pillow argues with the umbrella about the outside world, and the new toothbrush is unsuccessfully trying to charm the grumpy older ones. Do objects exist to be used until they are consumed or broken? Are they afraid of being thrown away once their life cycle is complete? A delicate story of hope in a cruel and gentle world after an unnamed disaster.

Second souffle

At 16, Gabriel takes over the camera of his deceased older brother and films his daily life with his little sister who is growing up, his mother who is sinking into madness and a boy from his neighborhood. An unexpected encounter will lead Gabriel to film a first love.

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.

Helium

A young boy, Alfred, is dying, but through the stories about Helium, a magical fantasy world, told by the hospital's eccentric janitor, Enzo, Alfred regains the joy and happiness of his life, and finds a safe haven away from daily life.

Do I Have to Take Care of Everything?

A comedy about a chaotic morning in a family with kids, and a mother who is determined that it's best to take care of everything herself.

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.

The Focus

The Focus is the film about easy death on the Mediterranean sun.

Crossed Wires

A misunderstanding leads to sombre consequences as two flatmates recall very different turns of event from the previous night.

Teach Me to Dance

In this drama, Lesia convinces her English-Canadian friend Sarah to perform a Ukrainian dance with her as part of their school's Christmas pageant. Sarah's father, angry at the growing number of Ukrainian settlers, won't allow his daughter to participate. Despite the prejudices of their parents, the girls' friendship remains strong, and they meet in Sarah's barn to celebrate Christmas Day together. Part of the Adventures in History series.

Spokane

Two guys bail on a wedding, head to a strip club, and end up in a hotel room...

Step Up

Tyler Gage receives the opportunity of a lifetime after vandalizing a performing arts school, gaining him the chance to earn a scholarship and dance with an up and coming dancer, Nora.

Companions

A lone wanderer yearns for companionship in a world where everyone looks out for only themselves. However, in the midst of a newfound camaraderie during battle, tension soon begins to rise as the pair drudges closer toward the inevitable.

Rubber Band Pistol

Jūzō Itami's debut short film, concerning a group of unique young people in the high economic growth period who are into games with rubber band pistols.

Late Bloomer

Late Bloomer is the pastoral romance of an eternal recurrence. Director's talent to plea for love without any dialogue would touch the hearts of audiences. The old man's day out which at first seemed like the ordinary visit of his family's graves turns out to be the poem about the everlasting love. Actor Yoo Soon-cheol wrote this poem with his old and stoop-shouldered body.

Fragments

Chloe, a straight talking film director, tries to convince her friend Sam to be an actor in her next short film. Just after finding out that he once again didn’t get into medical school, Sam meets Alex, a hypochondriac 18 year old. A love triangle forms in these self-reflexive, humoristic fragments filled with sex talk , set in New Orleans.

Skeletons

A man must confront the pain and trauma of a past relationship, as a former lover unexpectedly arrives on his doorstep.

Isha

Rahmi, a Romanian immigrant living in England, creates a new life for himself while trying to keep up appearances with his Muslim family. This moving, evocative drama costars renowned Romanian actress Maia Morgenstern and Game of Thrones’ Lino Facioli alongside newcomer Hora Savescu as Rahmi.

Lonely Water

Warning children not to play near 'dark and lonely' water, a horror film style look and voice-over is used in this film to highlight the dangers.

Triumph of the Actor

Ercan is fed up with clichés of migrant roles. Instead of playing a terrorist on television, the Turkish actor is trying to get a role as Hitler in a new movie.

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.

Two Friendly Ghosts

James Dean and Donald Turnupseed, the man whose car killed Dean, meet again for the first time... at the very same intersection where the accident occurred.

Room 048

Set in a single hotel room, this film traces its history from conception to decay through an intimate look at five of its occupants, all of whom the room once knew but have since been lost in time.

Jack

Jack is a year 11 student who has totally cut himself off from his friends to the extent they don’t even try to talk to him. Except one: Oscar. Oscar’s had a hard go of it himself. But what happens when Jack gives in and talks to him?

Tickle Where It Hurts

Nicolás's irreverent night plans change when he meets up with Luka again; an attractive and carefree ghost of his past.

Stranger

An old farmer struggles to take care of his rundown farm alone, when a stranger appears and uninvited begins to help him.

Where The Shadows Fall

The Man wanders a barren purgatory, seeking those he lost.

Breakfast Wine

In Ireland they say it takes just three alcoholics to keep a small bar running in a country town. But what if you’ve only got two?