The Lessons of the Night(2018)

Love You Forever(en)

Confronted with trauma, women contain, compartmentalize, distract, and ultimately carry on— lessons learned from a society of partially blind eyes. Shannon is a mother enraptured with invisible pain. She endures in chaotic calm, cracking from the inside out. Exploring the definition of motherhood and female madness, we ask: is reckoning with female pain more dangerous than playing pretend?

Tree of Nails(en)

A folktale in Los Angeles.

Barbara(en)

A lone, crisis-hotline operator receives a distressing call during her graveyard shift.

Milkshake(en)

A coming-of-age story of a girl wanting her mother's approval and validation in Burbank, CA.

Sanda(ro)

Sanda spends all her time working in a plastic factory, raising her two small children and catering to an indifferent husband, leaving little room for herself. A chance encounter with another man may offer her an escape from her daily chores.

Mountain Men(en)

Two estranged brothers, Toph and Cooper, must journey to a remote family cabin in the mountains to evict a squatter. Buried resentment and bruised egos soon derail the plan and when the smoke clears they've destroyed their car and burned down the cabin, leaving them stranded in the cold Rocky Mountain winter. With their very survival at stake, they must learn to work together as brothers to get back to civilization.

Monday(en)

After the suicide of a teenage boy, his friends go through their own personal turmoil in isolation, on the Monday of his funeral.

Lorraine(en)

One of the biggest burdens a soul can carry is the loss of a loved one. How do you let go of someone you brought into the world? In this documentary, Lorraine Battle speaks on the death of her son, Calvin Antoine Battle.

Locked(en)

A tormented man struggling with his inner demons, seeks desperately a way to be at peace with himself.

Translations(en)

It's been years since Stef last left her house. The loss of her brother combined with the quiet dread of the unknown conspiring to keep her inside. When her brother Liam's best friend, Evan, arrives to give Liam's journal to Stef, they begin a relationship. However, when Stef and Evan start to unpack their shared trauma, they question if their relationship can ever break free from its confines? Caught between Evan's images of a world outside that they could inhabit, and a story of lost love that Stef is translating from a previous generation, Stef must choose the kind of future she wants, and whether Evan will be a part of it.

Red All Over(en)

A stark observation into both sides of an often untold story of gun violence, bullying and life.

The Président and the crossing keeper(fr)

A crossing guard has known too many misfortunes in his life to believe he is facing the on-the-run President of the Republic.

Flawed Enough(en)

Addy is having a perfectly normal day until her online girlfriend surprises her with a proposed first meeting. She should be over the moon. Except there's a problem. Addy hasn't told her she's deaf. Torn by the possibility of meeting her girlfriend but having it all go wrong, Addy struggles to decide whether she should go to the meeting or not. Luckily, her sister is there to help. Until she isn't. And suddenly, meeting Isla isn't a choice anymore. It's a last wish

Cloud Study(de)

Mother at War(da)

1918. World War I rages in Europe while Erna Jensen tends to her ordinary life at home in Bramstrup, with her simple-minded son, Kalle. One day the village constable comes to enlist Kalle for military service for the German Empire – of which Southern Jutland is a part. If Erna is to save Kalle from certain death, she must follow him through thick and thin. Upon a chance meeting with a deserting solder she trades identities. Now disguised as Private Julius Rasmussen, Erna heads for the front. In her encounters with the other soldiers and in the presence of the war, unknown sides of Erna are awoken. This is the story of a woman who won’t let a war prevent her from fighting for what she loves.

It's Not All Sunshine and Roses(en)

A short indie film

After the Sirens(en)

Aiming to expose the extreme mental and emotional demands of being a police officer, After The Sirens is an intimate documentary that unmasks how mental health is perceived and addressed in the police force from first hand accounts. The film invites viewers to consider the mental resilience required to be an officer, with conversations surrounding trauma exposure, emotional labour, multiculturalism and personal experiences of coping. Through displaying the force’s involvement in a recent traumatic case, as well as the trauma encountered throughout their individual careers, the documentary offers the opportunity to go inside the policing mind.

any key to end.(en)

In a bout of emotional distress, a young man leaves a voicemail for his estranged girlfriend, one that begins to unearth darker feelings as his thoughts descend upon him.

Hello in Here(en)

A woman becomes increasingly isolated and starts to unravel as a result.

Violet(en)

Violet realizes that her entire life is built on fear-based decisions, and must do everything differently to become her true self.