When I Grow Up

Our Bed Is Green

March 2021 •English

Realm, a virtual reality facility, is quite transparent about the erotic nature of its services: Wall to wall, it is lined with tempting previews of sexy, ready-made experiences. But Realm also offers something more: With the help of data-mining technology, clientele can create virtual facsimiles of real-life places and people. This hyper-personalization is what attracts Cecily, a young woman grappling with a disorienting world and an intense fixation.

Sh_t Happens

October 2020 •Slovak

The caretaker exhausted by everything, his frustrated wife and one totally depressed deer. Their mutual despair leads them to absurd events, because... shit happens all the time.

Moravian Hellas

January 1964 •Czech

Karel Vachek’s graduate film offers us a documentary essay which is both a light-hearted and aggressive little piece and also a parody of investigative film journalism. The Strážnice folk festival, backed by the cultural Party apparatus of the time, for years had little to commend itself to authentic folklore. In the film the event assumes the form of a bizarre stage spectacle with almost surrealistic elements that Vachek reinforces with unconventional approaches (commentary appearing as titles on screen, singing, declamations into the camera, feature etudes, the fusion of news coverage and fiction). The result is a stirring film collage depicting various characters, from crowd-pleasers, Easter egg decorators, kitsch artists and peddlers, to museologists and local residents, all of whom come up against the eccentric "identical” twin reporters Karel and Jan Saudek and a bored actress who appears as an extra. Using their special blend of irony and wit, they present us with the sad truth.

Tangled Roots

August 2022 •English

An intimate look into Demers family's experience raising children while dealing with the societal stigmas around disabilities and the consequences of Alberta's forgotten experiment in eugenics.

The Enchanted Bell

May 2000 •Czech

After a magic bell from Tibet is stolen, a little girl and an elephant undertake a dangerous journey to bring the bell home.

The Wooden Ghost

March 2023 •English

An adaptation of one of the most famous horror poems of all time. How, in a fever dream, a carver finishes the portrait of a young woman. Then suddenly something flies into the workshop and strange things start happening. Stop-motion animation is combined with live action to create a terrifying experience from flesh, blood, wood and feathers.

The Shadow over Prague

June 2016 •Czech

The Nazis decided to awaken the dark forces of the Old Prague legends in order to use (and abuse) them to destroy the world. The only one who can stop them is Perak.

In the Box

June 1999 •Slovak

A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.

Do Chile za zatměním Slunce

February 2021 •Czech

Britain

June 2011 •English

Join Eric and Lyn, a pair of armchairs who discuss the politics around Britain today. As this country is going through a real shift at the moment –what better time is there to record the thoughts of two elderly British people, to highlight this, than now?

Roma Boys – The Love Story

October 2009 •Czech

The film explores the taboo subject of homosexuality within the Roma community through the personal story of a Roma activist who happens to be gay. Though his job has earned him respect among his peers, by coming out his status is in jeopardy. However, the desire to share his complex story prompted him to write a screenplay based on his life. Partly a documentary about his autobiographical script, the film switches between documentary and narrative storytelling. Owing to its distinctive style, the film offers a glimpse into the protagonist's world as he faces triple discrimination: as a Roma, as a gay man, and as a gay man in the Roma community.

My Dad and the Volcano

August 2024 •English

Gavin built a giant volcano sculpture that's now in his dad's shed. Gavin seeks his dad's understanding but he's uninterested in modern art and refuses to participate in the documentary.

CERN, or The Factory for the Absolute

October 2010 •Czech

Human action is often influenced by the desire for knowledge. This desire is in itself a positive impulse and could be said to be the basis of all progress. Let's move this statement to the ground of scientific research at CERN, and see if it applies here - and then test the common experience that human stupidity permeates every social stratum and, in the case of the elites, is a potential threat.

Garden Party

January 2017 •French

In a deserted rich house, a couple of amphibians explore their surroundings and follow their primal instincts.

Sisters

June 2021 •Hungarian

The Big Sister - a person of colossal size - is trapped in sand in a deserted landscape. With no way to take care of herself, this burden falls on her resentful little sister.

The Limited Bird

January 1989 •English

John's first independent work from 1989. Won Best of Fest Shorts at the Cinequest Film Festival, CA. The film is comprised of highly rendered drawings with very little moving parts to tell a complex story of relationships "gone to the birds".

We Are Human, After All

December 2016 •Czech

During a very harsh winter, a hare has to deal with the bitter cold, hunger and the threats posed by hunters and other animals. One day he sees the easy, comfortable and safe lives that rabbits lead. He decides to go and stay with them in the hutch.

77777

January 1955 •Czech

A Window Means Longing

May 2022 •English

It’s a story of a girl dreaming of a fuller life. With the help of a kind stranger, she has to overcome her fears. Her trepidations may appear absurd but are far more serious in their nature.

Night on the Town

January 1981 •English

In a run-down hotel for transients, a man sleeps fitfully in bed. He rises to use the toilet down the hall, and while he's there, a burglar enters his room. He returns to find the burglar leaving through the window; the burglar falls to the street beneath. The man leaves the hotel and walks past the fallen burglar to a seedy bar, where he drinks too much and has a hedonistic vision of sex and death. He awakens on the bar-room floor and drags himself out. Is this the end for him?