The Clearing

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…

Absolution

January 2010 •English

A down and out professional tries and fails to commit suicide. He wanders the streets and bumps into the man who caused his hardships...

Electric Swan

August 2019 •Spanish

Buildings are not supposed to move. But on Avenida Libertador 2050, a building moves and the ceiling shivers, causing a strange nausea that devours its residents. Those who live on the top are afraid they’ll fall, the ones who live beneath are afraid they’ll drown.

Human Nature

September 2001 •English

Obsessive scientist Nathan and his lover, the naturalist Lila, discover Puff: a man born and raised in the wild. As Nathan trains the wild man in the civilized ways of the world, Lila fights to preserve the man’s natural state. In the power struggle that ensues, an unusual love triangle emerges.

Paralysis

April 2016 •English

Struggling with the pressures of homophobia when her partner is taken away by a hateful mother, a young gay woman struggles to cope with the traumas and anxieties of her life. Her dreams descend, taking the shape of shadows which reach into her life.

Antoine and Colette

June 1962 •French

Now aged 17, Antoine Doinel works in a factory which makes records. At a music concert, he meets a girl his own age, Colette, and falls in love with her. Later, Antoine goes to extraordinary lengths to please his new girlfriend and her parents, but Colette still only regards him as a casual friend. First segment of “Love at Twenty” (1962).

Safe

May 2013 •Korean

A woman working as a cashier at an illegal gambling parlor pushes her luck by stealing money from gamblers as a way to pay off her own debts. When one gambler realizes he’s been cheated, he returns with murderous intent and the already dismal situation spirals out of control.

Monster

September 2013 •Spanish

Sara helps her little brother Tomas to overcome his fear of the monster under the bed, but it is harder to protect him from his violent and authoritarian father.

Code_Switch

December 2019 •English

After tragedy strikes, a meek Ruby Oliver enters a broken VR game for a last chance to see the dead. Little does she know that this game treats all girls as a virus as she fights to save herself.

Doretha's Blues

March 2021 •English

Doretha goes out for her evening drink at her local watering hole when a news story dredges up old memories.

Summer Animals

March 2021 •English

Living out of a motel, 15-year-old Tommy makes a drastic decision in order for her siblings to escape the heat before the summer’s over.

Nice Coloured Girls

June 1987 •English

Nice Coloured Girls is a short film classic by Tracey Moffatt, one of Australia's foremost visual artists. Three Aboriginal women cruise through Kings Cross and pick up a 'captain' (a drunken white man). They encourage him to spend his money on them and to drink until incapacitated while they steal his wallet and race off to catch a cab, self-satisfied. Nice Coloured Girls contrasts the relationship between Aboriginal women and white men in the past and present.

Ronia: The Robber's Daughter

December 1984 •Swedish

Ronia lives happily in her father's castle until she comes across a new playmate, Birk, in the nearby dark forest. The two explore the wilderness, braving dangerous Witchbirds and Rump-Gnomes. But when their families find out Birk and Ronia have been playing together, they forbid them to see each other again. Indeed, their fathers are competing robber chieftains and bitter enemies. Now the two spunky children must try to tear down the barriers that have kept their families apart for so long.

People on Sunday

February 1930 •German

A semi-documentary experimental 1930 German silent film created by amateurs with a small budget. With authentic scenes of the metropolis city of Berlin, it's the first film from the later famous screenwriters/directors Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann.

Silent Running

March 1972 •English

After the entire flora goes extinct, ecologist Lowell maintains a greenhouse aboard a space station for the future with his android companions. However, he rebels after being ordered to destroy the greenhouse in favor of carrying cargo, a decision that puts him at odds with everyone but his mechanical companions.

Escape

August 2024 •English

Awakening on the floor of a destroyed suburban bedroom, we discover a global invasion has begun and we are not alone in the house.

After-School Special

June 2011 •English

A man and a woman have an awkward encounter at an indoor playground.

Impatientes

January 2023 •French

Nell

December 1994 •English

In a remote woodland cabin, a small town doctor discovers Nell — a beautiful young hermit woman with many secrets.

The Room

April 2001 •English

A man explains how he was obsessed when he was younger by a mysterious room and an extraordinary rarefied piano music that drifted through its open window during the night. Forty years later, returning to his home town after having spent most of his life abroad, in "a bunch of different places", he asks one of his friends to rent a room for him. As chance would have it, it turns out to be the same room which attracted him when he was a young man. What drew him again to this room?