essentia(2022)

Midnight Movies: From the Margin to the Mainstream(en)

From 1970-1977, six low budget films shown at midnight transformed the way we make and watch films.

Maine Gandhi Ko Nahin Mara(hi)

Once known for his intellectual prowess, a retired professor (Anupam Kher) begins experiencing memory gaps and periods of forgetfulness. But while he tries to laugh it off, it soon becomes clear that the symptoms are a sign of a more serious illness, prompting his grown daughter (Urmila Matondkar) to move in as his caretaker. Meanwhile, as his mind regresses, he recalls a traumatic childhood memory involving the death of Mahatma Gandhi.

Liberation: Direction of the Main Blow(ru)

This five part epic war drama gives a dramatized detailed account of Soviet Union's war against Nazi Germany during world war two. Each of the five parts represents a separate major eastern front campaign.

Maine Pyaar Kyun Kiya?(hi)

Dr Samir is an absolute charmer when it comes to women, but he poses as a married man to keep them at bay. Love becomes a three-ring-circus for him after he ends up tangled in his web of lies with his girlfriend Sonia and pretend wife Naina.

Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles(fr)

A lonely widowed housewife does her daily chores and takes care of her apartment where she lives with her teenage son, and turns the occasional trick to make ends meet. Slowly, her ritualized daily routines begin to fall apart.

Death Wish 4: The Crackdown(en)

After the death of his girlfriend's daughter from a drug overdose, Paul Kersey takes on the local drug cartel.

Re-re-repeat(en)

Re-re-repeat A rhythmic dialogue between sound and image: exploring space, corporeal phenomenology and chance outcomes, which alter perceptions of time and memory.

Soul Kitchen(de)

In Hamburg, German-Greek chef Zinos unknowingly disturbs the peace in his locals-only restaurant by hiring a more talented chef.

Sullivan's Travels(en)

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

All We Imagine as Light(ml)

In Mumbai, Nurse Prabha's routine is troubled when she receives an unexpected gift from her estranged husband. Her younger roommate, Anu, tries in vain to find a spot in the city to be intimate with her boyfriend. A trip to a beach town allows them to find a space for their desires to manifest.

Meet John Doe(en)

As a parting shot, fired reporter Ann Mitchell prints a fake letter from unemployed "John Doe," who threatens suicide in protest of social ills. The paper is forced to rehire Ann and hires John Willoughby to impersonate "Doe." Ann and her bosses cynically milk the story for all it's worth, until the made-up "John Doe" philosophy starts a whole political movement.

The Brutalist(en)

When a visionary architect and his wife flee post-war Europe in 1947 to rebuild their legacy and witness the birth of modern United States, their lives are changed forever by a mysterious, wealthy client.

State and Main(en)

A movie crew invades a small town whose residents are all too ready to give up their values for showbiz glitz.

Shall We Dance(en)

Ballet star Petrov arranges to cross the Atlantic aboard the same ship as the dancer and musical star he's fallen for but barely knows. By the time the ocean liner reaches New York, a little white lie has churned through the rumour mill and turned into a hot gossip item—that the two celebrities are secretly married.

Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu(hi)

Rahul and Riana meet each other for the first time, get drunk, and awake the next morning to find that they have gotten legally married to each other.

I'm Still Here(pt)

In 1971, military dictatorship in Brazil reaches its height. The Paiva family — Rubens, Eunice, and their five children — live in a beachside house in Rio, open to all their friends. One day, Rubens is taken for questioning and does not return.

Maine-Ocean Express(fr)

"Maine-Ocean" is the name of a train that rides from Paris to Saint-Nazaire (near the ocean). In that train, Dejanira, a Brazilian, has a brush with the two ticket inspectors. Mimi, another traveler and also a lawyer, helps her. The four of them will meet together later and live a few shifted adventures with a strange-speaking sailor (Mimi's client).

Shadow of a Doubt(en)

Just when Charlie is feeling especially frustrated by the lack of excitement in her small town in California, she receives wonderful news: Her uncle and namesake, Charlie, is coming to visit. However, as secrets about him come to the fore, her admiration turns into suspicion.

The Hills Have Eyes Part 2(en)

A motocross team on their way to trial a new super-fuel head out across the desert lead by Rachel, who, unbeknownst to the rest of the group, is a survivor of the cannibal clan which menaced the Carter family several years before.

Scent of a Woman(it)

An army cadet accompanies an irascible, blind captain on a week-long trip from Turin to Naples.

lente / ruido(pt)

All about clandestine girl.(nl)

Mágoa das Flores(pt)

Experimental college short film. Two servants plan and execute the coronation of a delicate and machiavellian entity until sunset.

Paranoid Park(en)

A teenage skateboarder becomes suspected of being connected with a security guard who suffered a brutal death in a skate park called "Paranoid Park".

Goose Chase(en)

Students turn the world upside down in their quest to find Krit, a missing young boy. They embark on a challenging journey filled with unexpected twists of fate and high-stakes bets.

Inland Empire(en)

As a Hollywood actress begins to adopt the persona of her character in a film, her world becomes nightmarish and surreal.

Grid(pt)

A ritual of grids, reflections and chasms; a complete state of entropy; a space that devours itself; a vertigo that destroys the gravity of the Earth; a trap that captures us inside the voids of the screen of light: «That blank arena wherein converge at once the hundred spaces» (Hollis Frampton).

Black Box Investigations(en)

Cracking open the human-camera body.

Todos tienen algo Desierto(es)

Documentary-essay short film about a inner/outter trip to the flowery desert in the north of Chile. A student film by Gabriel Lizama AKA Liz Taylor.

Rally for the Return of Joy(pt)

Through the power of a good barber, The Tramp is reborn in the streets of Recife.

FIG.4(fr)

Bodies and movements recomposed from thousands of pornographics images.

Mictlan(fr)

Topographical video born from the meeting of a tunnel located at Hamburg (Germany) and Mictlan, the Aztec underworld. Circular and underground journey towards the dematerialization.

Electroma(xx)

Two robots embark on a quest to become human.

Bosco(fr)

Three filmmakers bring back images of the forest. They are reworked and destructured with the means of the photochemical laboratory. BOSCO is a visual breakthrough punctuated by a contrasted and hypnotic black and white.

My Neighbor Wants Me Dead(en)

The Tenant continuously fails to escape his deadly apartment under five minute time limit as his blood-thirsty neighbor threatens to break in and exterminate him.

In Spite Of(en)

The silent daily routine of a young man is revisited through Dostoevskian musings.

Dream of the Wild Horses(fr)

The horses in Denys Colomb Daunant’s dream poem are the white beasts of the marshlands of the Camargue in South West France. Daunant was haunted by these creatures. His obsession was first visualized when he wrote the autobiographical script for Albert Lamorisse’s award-winning 1953 film White Mane. In this short the beauty of the horses is captured with a variety of film techniques and by Jacques Lasry’s beautiful electronic score.

A Short Film About My House(es)

Oxymoron Life...(pt)

The wanderer Rascal embarks on a psychotic and contradictory journey to break out of the ego bubble in which his self-loathing and isolation have inserted him in. After his metamorphosis, his soulmate, Paloma, makes him realize that life is as complicated as it is simple - and that all that's left to do is to live.

House(ja)

Hoping to find a sense of connection to her late mother, Gorgeous takes a trip to the countryside to visit her aunt at their ancestral house. She invites her six friends, Prof, Melody, Mac, Fantasy, Kung Fu, and Sweet, to join her. The girls soon discover that there is more to the old house than meets the eye.