Curtis LaForche lives in a small Ohio town with his wife Samantha and six-year-old daughter Hannah, who is deaf. Money is tight, and navigating Hannah’s healthcare and special needs education is a constant struggle. Despite that, Curtis and Samantha are very much in love and their family is a happy one. Then Curtis begins having terrifying dreams about an encroaching, apocalyptic storm. He chooses to keep the disturbance to himself, channeling his anxiety into the obsessive building of a storm shelter in their backyard. His seemingly inexplicable behavior concerns and confounds Samantha, and provokes intolerance among co-workers, friends and neighbors. But the resulting strain on his marriage and tension within the community doesn’t compare to Curtis’ private fear of what his dreams may truly signify.
Dom works the night shift in a small hotel near the industrial sea port of Le Havre. One night, a woman arrives with no luggage and no shoes. Her name is Fiona. She tells Dom she is a fairy and grants him three wishes. Fiona makes two wishes come true then mysteriously disappears. Dom, who by then has fallen in love with Fiona, searches for her everywhere…
Terri is an oversized teen, always late for school and with so little motivation that he wears pajamas in the class. That’s how he dresses at home, where his uncle constantly criticizes him, and he won’t change, not even to receive a guest who just happens to be the prettiest girl in his class. A therapist would say he is depressed, but Mr. Fitzgerald (John C. Reilly), a school counselor for the problematic ones, receives him in his office for truly enlightening conversations about being more than meets the eye. As with his colleagues, Terri always leaves us on the outside, as he walks reluctantly to the sound of a female voice singing his tragedy. Shot in Los Angeles, this is a drama and a comedy about cruelty, sexual awakening and friendship. You’d think you couldn’t find new information in the vastly explored high school setting, but Azazel, son of experimental filmmaker Ken Jacobs, shows that there’s plenty more to say about it. (Ágata Pinho)
Tomas is a little bit too old to still be living with his parents, but his dream of becoming a magician leaves him with no other option. His father just wants him to grow up and get a proper job. At dad’s birthday party Tomas gives his parents, the guests and the beautiful new neighbor Monica a bizarre magic show.
That stupid boy is Loïc. He who confuses desire and pleasure, friendship and sex, admiration and success. Loïc, who tries to compensate for what life failed to bestow on him before he grows up. Loïc is not a stupid boy. One day, he will also try to put together a story.
Lana is a phone sex operator. She swings on a hulahoop when taking calls, to make the gasping noises her client’s love. Nico doesn’t know what Lana does, all he knows is he is madly in love with her. Heidy is Nico’s jealous lover. She is certain Lana has put a spell on him.
In marble production line, a man announces to his colleague the movements of a machine by hand signals. In this magnificent choreography between machines and gestures, the chief conductor of the orchestra dominates nature – a simple hand movement can definitely destroy a giant block of rock. (Miguel Cabral)
When Lionel learns by chance that his family originates from Poland, a chain of events is set off that will change his and his sister Lucie’s lives forever. Getting involved in a car chase in Slovakia is a sure thing, as is the stolen car, white wedding, and false passports. The road to Warsaw is an adventure!
When someone runs, among the woods many things may happen. It’s a time to find your physical limits, your boundaries, to deal with games of power. While running people can find other bodies than theirs. The question is: how far will you go to achieve your personal goals? (Possidónio Cachapa)
Jorge é um escritor solitário de ficção popular. À noite, ele olha através de janelas iluminadas para dentro das casas das pessoas e pensa, sim, eles são felizes. Um dia, o acaso – conclui – leva-o à casa onde Laura vive com o filho, André, e através das
Alex’s move abroad forces his parents, who know nothing about computers, to suddenly dive into the mysterious world of the Internet.
In “Sunday, 6th April, 11:42 a.m.” the landscape is considered as a connective system of the relations between people. The video focuses the correspondences between actions and places, between movements and environments. In this sense people are the places they live and the paths produced by these.
“Exotic” is the result of a three-week artistic residence in Maputo (Mozambique) in March 2008. Besides exploring the elements of local culture and its impact on the rhythm and daily routine of the city, it can also touch topics like the movement and the inscription of the body within urban spaces.
Pierre dreams since always going to live in Portugal. He takes his boyfriend to Lisbon, hoping secretly that this city will be also the cradle of their incipient love.
Valérie Massadian pays a visit to her chilhood via a four year old girl named Nana. An impressive debut feature by an exceptional photographer evident by the remarkable compositions of each take in the film. A highly independent Nana, spends time in the country side with her mother and her distant grandfather. One day, she returns home and finds no one, a sense of abandonment is filling the screen while Nana hasn’t realised the emptiness the cruel adult world can provide. Nana will go her own way either we like it or not, with no need for saviours, she is dressing herself up, she is making her own sandwichs, she is taking walks into the woods and she is even reading herself bedtime stories. Nana is free of adults and guidance and Massadian as director reflects this freedom by setting her subject completely free and by letting Nana be herself she created one of the most honest portraits of innocence. (Nina Veligradi)
Vinh, a Vietnamese refugee, was adopted 20 years earlier by a Swiss family and is now about to get married. His Vietnamese mother seizes this opportunity to finally meet the family that loved and raised her son. They are now going to have to have to play the fragile comedy of happiness.
Paula lives between the education of her daughter Beatriz, who gives her a vital strength to face the days, and the undesired heritage of looking after her own mother Carminda, a demented and unpredictable woman. It’s summertime and is sizzling. Paula, is no longer a daughter, but a full-time mother. She dresses, feeds, bathes, cleans and beautifies. However, one unforeseen morning, somewhere, and with no apparent reason besides exhaustion, the crack opens. Explodes. (Cláudia Varejão)
A heavy metal band plays in a stage half forgotten in the dark and the powerful sound of the guitar pierces a curtain of smoke. But the night has many stages and when the concert is over, one of the elements returns home alone, in silence. Waiting for him is an apartment almost empty and a grandmother needing some company. (Ágata Pinho)
