El Retiro(2022)

Alas(es)

Heroic(es)

Luis, an 18-year-old Mexican boy with indigenous roots, enters the Heroico Military College with the hope of securing a better future. There, he encounters a rigid and institutionally violent system designed to make him a perfect soldier.

In Search of Gladys Glover(en)

A diary-cum-thriller-cum comedy-cum-horror film shot on an iPhone (RIP BlackBerry!) for zero dollars with friends, IN SEARCH OF GLADYS GLOVER was born in the darkness of winter in a post-pandemic 2022 after a fateful 35mm screening of George Cukor’s NYC classic IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU (1954). Indebted to the spirits of Larry Cohen, Anne Charlotte Robertson, and New York City herself, IN SEARCH OF GLADYS GLOVER is a time-shifting journey about the disorienting feeling of being in the city the past few years. It’s a movie for everyone who wakes up each day and continues to put one foot in front of other—laughing often, crying often, watching as many beautiful films and sports games as possible, aimlessly walking the city streets alone, making art, hanging with good friends—but ultimately doesn’t understand what the fuck is going on anymore.

The Young and the Damned(es)

A group of juvenile delinquents live a violent life in the infamous slums of Mexico City; among them Pedro, whose morality is gradually corrupted and destroyed by the others.

Killer Girl, Odyssee III(en)

In 1989, Jun-Jieh Wang enrolled in Hochschule der Künste, Berlin, a year when the Berlin Wall was pulled down and the fall of Communism in the communist states of Central and Eastern Europe and beyond. He was astonished by these dramatic events. Several issues concerning politics, ideologies, aesthetics as well as the forms, market and power of art had been preying on his mind for so long that he lost the ability to make artworks and even questioned the value of the existence of art. His passively reactionary state of mind in this period was clearly reflected in the works simulating low-quality B-movies or TV programs, such as Killer Girl, Odyssey III (1990), Love, Die, Daredevil, Odyssey IV (1991).

Observations(en)

A young woman with little choice takes part of a social experiment

Man on Fire(en)

Jaded ex-CIA operative John Creasy reluctantly accepts a job as the bodyguard for a 10-year-old girl in Mexico City. They clash at first, but eventually bond, and when she's kidnapped he's consumed by fury and will stop at nothing to save her life.

The Matador(en)

The life of Danny Wright, a salesman forever on the road, veers into dangerous and surreal territory when he wanders into a Mexican bar and meets a mysterious stranger, Julian, who's very likely a hit man. Their meeting sets off a chain of events that will change their lives forever, as Wright is suddenly thrust into a far-from-mundane existence that he takes to surprisingly well … once he gets acclimated to it.

Trade(en)

A Texas cop, whose own daughter might have been forced into sexual slavery, joins forces with a Mexican youth to find the boy's sister, who was abducted and forced into prostitution. Meanwhile, a Polish woman who was promised a better life in America also becomes a victim.

Em Branco(pt)

Santa Sangre(en)

A former circus artist escapes from a mental hospital to rejoin his mother – the leader of a strange religious cult – and is forced to enact brutal murders in her name.

Smash Cuts! Super Sci-Fi Shorts Fest(en)

Host Scott Forrest presents a curated compilation of eight independent short films in this rapid-fire science-fiction feature. Genres collide, narratives twist, aesthetics clash, and even humor, both campy and dystopian, showcase the vast creative possibilities of each story's individual world, offering the viewer a brief glimpse into the lives of every character's attempt to survive the otherworldly chaos around them. Released in 2001, the selected shorts span original creation dates of 1997 to 2001; most of the featured filmmakers also appear as themselves in short video interviews to talk about their inspirations, creative process and motivations while working on their individual shorts.

An Experiment in Image and Form(en)

Trapped between the frames of time.

Non Negotiable(es)

Hostage negotiator Alan Bender is called to rescue the president from a kidnapping, only to find himself also mediating to save his wife and marriage.

3 Minute Warning(en)

Three characters unknown to each other, experience a supernatural entity slowly unveil itself.

Subsurface(en)

Trapped and alone, a young man must confront the pain he's ignored when he finds himself face-to-face with consequence.

noturna(pt)

A possible alien presence in a filmschool campus turns the unknown present in the life of its students.

Caterpillar(ja)

A half-hour experimental film that shows Fukui moving towards cyberpunk imagery in a manner similar to Tsukamoto, featuring industrial locations, a malfunctioning cyborg/android and a hulking metallic ‘caterpillar’ that stalks characters.

Red Autumn(de)

A Experimental Docu-Drama about the Red Army Faction's formation, and events leading up to their imprisonment and death, from 1970 to 1977.

Amores Perros(es)

A fatalistic car crash in Mexico city sets off a chain of events in the lives of three people: a supermodel, a young man wanting to run off with his sister-in-law, and a homeless man. Their lives are catapulted into unforeseen situations instigated by the seemingly inconsequential destiny of a dog.