Bertie the Brilliant

After Midnight

February 1984 •French

A fancy dress ball takes place in a strange palace. The host is unknown. The theme: "your idea of human representation”. During the course of this mysterious and rather frightening evening, each guest is transformed into his own character and the intrigue thickens.

Vert Torpeur

March 2022 •English

An abstract short film that sheds light on the bad habits of the society in which we evolve, but in a dark satiric & cynical way.

Naara

January 2015 •French

David, a clueless and cocky Spanish video blogger traveling in Africa, arrives in Benin, where he accidentally finds the truth behind an ancient legend.

All Beauty Queens Have Broken Bones

May 2024 •English

Marlo believes God has told her to win the Miss Teen Indiana Pageant. Her older sister Rose is skeptical, but she's been drinking a lot lately, and the word of God is a mystery to her.

Transit Times

Invalid date •German

A year in the life of a family in a typical backyard in the center of the Moldovan capital Chisinau in the 1990s: Zina lives here with her husband Victor and daughter Eva and, like the other inhabitants of the house, struggles for the family's financial survival. Through the eyes of the family, we experience a country in transition after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

The Narcissus Season

February 2017 •Persian

A story about normal people who have not lost themselves in today's narcissistic world.

Hair

January 2010 •French

Philippe, about thirty, discovers that he is becoming bald. For this backward adolescent musician, the loss of his hair is a real disaster. When he asks his dermatologist how much time he has left, this one tells him that only his father detains the answer to this question.

Sun in My Mouth

June 2010 •English

A young man confesses his sexual past to an unseen phone sex operator. He reflects on his sexual identity as we follow him on a solitary excursion to a beach.

Fairytale of London Town

December 2010 •English

Blister

June 2022 •English

Stranded in a vast arid desert, two resentful lovers are forced to endure one another as they await their rescue.

Journal No. 1 - An Artist's Impression

June 2007 •English

In 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, Film Journal No. 1 was released in Sarajevo. Fifty years later, after the collapse of the Communist bloc, this newsreel was lost in the confusion of the fighting in Yugoslavia. In Journal No. 1 Hito Steyerl attempts to find out how the footage got lost and what was on this document from the Sutjeska studio. In the simultaneous projection of Journal No. 1 the ‘unattainability of an historical zero hour of the national identity’ takes concrete form: The lost newsreel reports on a literacy campaign as well as Muslim women confidently removing their headscarves. We listen however to eyewitnesses trying to recapture the lost content and we see the artist Arman Kulasic making a number of drawings that resemble the story-boards for the lost film. What appears to be moments of great change remain limited by subjective and uncertain memory. The film was premiered at documenta 12.

Threesome

March 2014 •Thai

Som, an ordinary young woman who works as a movie make-up artist. Her longtime live-in boyfriend Rang is also in the business. But the handsome musclebound prop guy – always wearing tight, biceps-baring vest T-shirts – captures many adoring eyes, like that slutty actress, but also his straight-acting gay boss and just about anyone else with a pulse.

Helicopter Mom

April 2015 •English

Maggie Cooper thinks it would be really cool if her son Lloyd were gay. So cool, in fact, that she outs him to the entire school.

Astronaut

April 2024 •Chinese

The girl, born into a wealthy family, seemingly has everything but is constantly surrounded by an overwhelming sense of boredom, prompting her to chase after excitement incessantly. Upon receiving an invitation from a mysterious man, she gambles everything in a billiards match, only to discover beneath the bandages wrapped around the man's wounds a sorrow she had never imagined. The gentle oxygen of her comfort zone feels suffocating, and perhaps only by journeying together can one catch a glimpse of the dazzling deep space beyond the atmosphere.

Fake Me A Happy New Year

November 2012 •Latvian

Anita and her children, Santa and Kristaps, live in an apartment in Riga. Every year, they celebrate New Year’s Eve with grandma, uncle Peter and a feast fit for kings…

Bulbule Paristan

January 1926 •Urdu

Probably the first Indian film directed by a woman. It was a big-budget fantasy abounding with special effects set in a Parastan or fairyland.

Rain in the Sunshine

October 2013 •Japanese

Schoolboy Hinata has a big crush on his classmate Shigure, but is too shy to tell her. On the day Shigure is leaving, Hinata flies off on the wings of a bird chasing after her to tell how he feels!

The Portrait Studio

October 2013 •Japanese

Late 19th century Japan: a studio photographer who always captures his clients’ best smile. One day he tries to coax a smile out of a little girl, but… A nostalgic tale of a relationship that transcends wars and disasters.

Jemima + Johnny

September 1966 •English

A white boy and a black Jamaican girl have a day out in a city where racial hostility prevails.

Khush

January 1991 •English

Khush means ecstatic pleasure in Urdu. For South Asian lesbians and gay men in Britain, North America, and India, the term captures the blissful intricacies of being queer and of color. Inspiring testimonies bridge geographical differences to locate shared experiences of isolation and exoticization but also the unremitting joys and solidarity of being khush.