OFF ON SELECTION
Watch Online
As of 2023, our festival adds the 'OFF ON' selection to the line-up. This special section is available for streaming only. Streaming on Whush.com from July 4th to July 21st, 2023.
UN ECLAT D´AMOUR INCOMPRHÉNSIBLE (MEXICO) BY DANTE SILVA
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Synopsis: One morning Aymé suffers the abandonment of her partner. That same day she decides to meet up with Laura, her best friend whom she has not seen during the years of the relationship. After letting off steam with Laura over coffee, they both go out that night to try to have some fun. Aymé does not imagine that despite her grief, that night she will discover something indescribable that she had never felt before. The next day Aymé feels, in her solitude, a glow of incomprehensible love. Running time: 00:15:00.
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THE MUSE (USA) BY MAX KARPYLEV​
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Synopsis: Once successful novelist Mark is fighting for his sanity struggling to finish his book. Mark explores his difficult relations with his father and the sense of fear as an enemy of creativity. Will Mark sacrifice himself to finish his book on time? Running time: 00:49:00.
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ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT (USA) BY GRAHAM MARVIN
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Synopsis: It’s the night before his father, a retired choir conductor with Alzheimer’s, moves into a long-term clinic, and Neil Kelly is determined to stir his dad’s memory while facing his own. Over the course of the night, Neil goes down a rabbit hole of chamber music, adolescent awkwardness, and inextricable fears. All Through The Night is a psychological father/son drama about how we process our memories, and the way they can manipulate, empower and haunt us. Running time: 00:22:49.
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Selections/awards: Sedona IFF.
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A DOSE OF THE BUZZER (USA) BY AARON THIBEAULT
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Synopsis: A government agent is on a mission in an undisclosed bunker in Russia. The agent waits by a shortwave radio tuned into UVB-76 The Buzzer to wait for instructions. Running time: 00:09:09.
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CHARMING HABITS (LITHUANIA) BY PAULIUS ANIÄŒAS
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Synopsis: Poet at work: daydreams, nightmares and writings. Running time: 00:20:00.
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LAUNCHPAD TO THE LIMELIGHT (USA) BY KELLY THORNE
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Synopsis: A half-hour comedy riot, a 'fish out of water' story about a group of outcasts who accidentally become a family. The show is found footage from 1983's biggest hit talent show, Launchpad To The Limelight, which is broadcast on Staten Island Public Access Cable! The show is hosted by a fame obsessed couple who bring the most untalented talent of New York City to their basement studio to film (totally not creepy at all). It’s a serious talent show, for the seriously untalented. Running time: 00:17:07.
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PIONEER (USA) BY DILLON SIENKO
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Synopsis: Fed up and exhausted with his life, a man takes drastic and revolutionary steps to escape his burnout. When things go wrong, he's reminded of his friend's apprehension towards his decision and battles with whether being a pioneer was ever worth it in the first place. Running time: 00:07:03.
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Selections/awards: SHINE Online IFF, Big Sur FF, APEX Film Awards, Robinson FF, Paradise FF (Best Sci-Fi Film), and more.
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HOLESTEPPER (PERU) BY SERGIO FERNÁNDEZ MUÑOZ
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Synopsis: Angel (Oswaldo Salas), an enthusiastic high school teacher, discovers a website where his students make fun of him and his disability through some strange videos. Mixing reality and the adolescent digital universe, Angel will be involved in a world hitherto unknown. Running time: 00:17:26.
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Selections/awards: Sydney World FF, New Jersey Independent FF, Martinique International FF.
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CIRCUS MOVEMENTS (PORTUGAL) BY LUKAS BERGER, MÁRIO GAJO DE CARVALHO
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Synopsis: Circus culture is a space of diversity, cooperation and integration. A magical space with real people. "Circus Movements" was shot with circus kids from Ethiopia - Liya and Beza, doing the hula hoop; Habtamnesh, doing the aerial hoop; and the Beniyam, only 5 years old, performing acrobatics. Collectively, they are great circus artists performing in the magnificent landscapes of Ethiopia. Running time: 00:15:00.
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Selections/awards: Ann Arbor FF, Athens International Film + Video Festival, Trento FF, Vienna Shorts Festival, DokumentART European FF, IFF Braunschweig, Tallin Black Nights FF - PÖFF shorts, Filmfest Dresden, and more.
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NO ENTRY (CANADA) BY PHILIPPE VANASSE-PAQUET, DIMITRI LAVALLÉE
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Synopsis: Urbex abounds in Montreal. To taste it is to get addicted. And we took that risk. Running time: 00:14:02.
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Selections/awards: Festival CinéRelève (Best Documentory), Yorkton FF, Cinema on the Bayou, Ennesimo FF, Oneota FF, Festival Cinéma du Monde de Sherbrooke, Silver Wave Festival, West Virginia Mountaineer Short FF, Made Here FF, and more.
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KING OF THE WORLD (BELGIUM) BY RON CHIERS
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Synopsis: Marc is an artist with bipolar disorder. He filmed himself, and was filmed, during a psychosis. It is an insight into the raw reality of someone struggling with mental illness. Like a lonesome rider, he lets us see into the depths of his soul and goes off the track with his uncontrolled connections. Marc lets music take him into higher realms and paints himself with battle colours. A wall is used as a canvas for a manic work of art. With a state of mind that alternates between euphoria and sadness, he struggles through a rollercoaster of delusions. Wandering through past and present, through his own reality versus reality, he imagines himself to be a king, performer, stripper, art teacher, advertising man and child. In this search for himself, Marc shares his vulnerability with us. Running time: 0:25:45.
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Selections/awards: Ghent International Short FF, Sevilla Indie FF, Impact Docs Awards, and more.
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MOSCOW STATE CIRCUS (USA) BY JOSHUA VAN HORN
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Synopsis: A short profile on the bears of the Moscow State Circus based on a passage by John McPhee. Running time: 00:01:02.
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Selections/awards: Extremely Shorts FF, MicroMania FF, Big Teeth Small Shorts FF, Doc.London, Sydney World FF, Ghent Viewpoint Documentary FF, and more.
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WHERE MY FRIEND MADE A PAINTING (PORTUGAL) BY PEDRO FLORÊNCIO
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Synopsis: Short and simple story: My friend made a painting from a photograph about a manifestation against the economic crisis and I made a film from that painting. Between these two objects lies a path, which began in a casual photograph and ended in a poorly-lit garage. "Where My Friend Made a Painting" is, in order of importance, a short film about a place, a friend, a creative act, a painting and the silence of one manifestation. Running time: 00:05:40.
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Selections/awards: Naoussa IFF, Hong Kong Arthouse FF.
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THE JOY OF A HOME (PORTUGAL) BY ANA ISABEL MARTINS
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Synopsis: My grandparents are an elderly couple who have lived together for 50 years. Their home is the place where they spend more time together, where they share frustrations and their memories. Running time: 00:20:00.
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Selections/awards: Athens International Digital FF, Hong Kong Arthouse FF, Pravo Ljudski FF, International Short FF Peru, Madurai FF, Ljubljana International Short FF, and more.
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LAST KISS (RUSSIA) BY ERADZH NIDOEV
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Synopsis: Documentary experimental social video about couples in relationships. In November, 2022 Russia has accepted an anti-LGBT propaganda Law. We can't talk or write anything about gay people. I want to say in this video that love has no boundaries and laws and than you need to be grateful for what you have today. Running time: 00:04:29.
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TILT (USA) BY BRYAN HEWITT, VITA MEI HEWITT
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Synopsis: Abstract narrative film that follows a couple's struggle to deal with the emotional impact of isolation during the pandemic quarantine. The lack of outside interaction has allowed their emotional states to become powerful enough to affect the appearance of everything around them, including the shape of the house where they live. They have stopped speaking and are trapped in a series of meaningless repetitive actions until one of them finds the strength to break the patterns that have come to define them. Running time: 00:18:32.
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Selections/awards: Sofia Art Film Awards.
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PERMISSION TO LAND (AUSTRALIA) BY MARTIN GERIGK
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Synopsis: War. Fragility. Instruction Abidance. Intuition. Digitalization. Dichotomous decision paths. What would we do if we were given the freedom to direct possibilities? Running time: 00:03:10.
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RE-MEMBERING: MEDITATION ON A TRIPTYCH (SWEDEN) BY AMRA HECO
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Synopsis: A chance encounter with discovered video footage from 1983 of the Bosnian town Tesanj triggers unexpected emotions as the filmmaker recognizes her grandfather who died in the 90's during the war. This opens old wounds, but also creates an opportunity for healing. The film is a meditation that brings into question dominating visual narratives through the eyes of three characters whose destinies and fates merge in unexpected ways through the thin veil of digital celluloid. Running time: 00:10:15.
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Selections/awards: Sarajevo FF, Golden Horse IFF (Best Documentary Short), Gothenburg FF, Doc.Boston (Best Experimental Documentary), and more.
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RETARDATION (SWEDEN) BY NILS AGDLER
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Synopsis: The second short film in the Male Nature Studies series. “The Great Acceleration” gained momentum in the 1950s with the Western man at the wheel. The growth curves turned sharply upwards and so did, and still do, the human impact on the biosphere. But what if this man begins to see himself as a small part of nature instead of striving to "conquer" it? What if he abandons the pursuit of status and the ever-expanding claims to power? What if he slows down and throws his paralyzing yoke? Is he still a Man then? Nils Agdler visualizes ideas of another future man – the resigned man, the regressed man, the liberated man, and possibly – the last man. Running time: 00:04:45.
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Selections/awards: Japan IFF (Best No-dialogue Film), Berlin Flash FF, Naples Film Awards (Best Experimental Film), Sydney World FF, Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival, and more.
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CANDLE (UK) BY CHARLES JIMENEZ
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Synopsis: Confined to an endlessly burning waiting room, a dying sedentary woman experiences herself blurring between existences as she decays. In her last remaining fragments she tries to make amends with her spirit before her last frame. Running time: 00:06:55.
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Selections/awards: Sydney World FF, and more.
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A FUGUE (UK) BY CHARLES JIMENEZ
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Synopsis: In a melancholic half-alive dreamscape, a nameless and featureless sedentary body forgotten from time and space struggles to find the light to its path amongst an ever-expanding disorderly reverie. Running time: 00:11:00.
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Selections/awards: Philadelphia Youth FF (Winner Experimental), Enimation Festival, Farnham FF, Dhaka International Youth FF, Sydney World FF, and more.
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KERATIN (UK) BY CHARLES JIMENEZ, SCARLETT WANG
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Synopsis: After a mating of elements, two bodies grieve over a lost third: a child separated from their womb. The three bodies regain connection in a 'wombic' journey, bound by their keratin. This spiritually networks the three into an eternal fusion of a collective body Running time: 00:03:45.
Selections/awards: Saigon Experimental FF, Sydney World FF.
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