5 short films, from 5 directors and 4 different countries on the theme of the Alter-Ego. The "Alter Ego Film Project" is inspired by the spirit of Maya Deren and her way of making films. Between double personality, secret identity, doppelgänger and impossible love we have discovered several unconventional stories halfway between narrative and experimental.
Greta (Segment « Autofocus »)
Greta’s friend (Segment « Autofocus »)
Greta’s friend (Segment « Autofocus »)
This film is about what the routine of everyday life can do to the human mind and psyche. It also reflects on the importance of the choices we make and how limited these choices are in the first place. The plot evolves around a family of four. They live in the suburbs, in a strange villa that appears, through a complex game of mirrors, to be more like a piece of installation art than a real house. The main character, who hardly appears on screen, is the son, a man in his thirties. Suffering from asthma and eczema since childhood, he uses his condition to manipulate his parents and his sister. Thus the existence of the terrorized family turns into an endless ritual of attempting to satisfy his whims, and always on the alert for yet another one of his “health crises”. Las Meninas resembles the scattered pieces of a puzzle. It is up to the viewer to assemble them in order to form his very own picture – something that makes the film itself personal and unique.
Fleeing New York City, a failed marriage and a fragile mental history, artist Robert Forrester moves to small-town Pennsylvania. There he becomes fascinated with the simple domesticity of a beautiful neighbor, watching her through the windows of her home --- until she invites him in for coffee. He is drawn into a relationship with the young woman whose boyfriend goes missing; Robert becomes a murder suspect, gradually sensing he is the target of a larger plot.
Obsessed with dreams, he embarks on a long, long dream that banishes his deepest darkness from his soul, reaching a life-changing conclusion.
The 6th installment of the Paranormal Psychic series.
With input from actor and writer Jan Hlobil, director and cinematographer Rene Smaal presents a film in the true surrealist tradition, in the sense that only 'found' elements were used, and that it defies interpretation based on ordinary cause-and-effect time sequence.
A visual of FAO agreeing with the voices in his head
“Phantom Requiem" unfolds in the desolate expanse of an abandoned factory, where shadows and silence are the only remnants of a once-thrumming industrial heartbeat. In this spectral setting, a coterie of puppets emerges—ethereal figures, each step and gesture echoing the dissonant unraveling of a viewer ensnared in a psychotic fugue. Rendered in austere black-and-white, this stop-motion film marries the macabre grace of desolation with the intimate terror of mental dissolution, crafting a visual poem that is both stark and sublime
Three creatures wait in a basement for a mysterious man. But their curiosity might just get the better of them.
Estranged lovers reconnect through the power of the Magic Conch Shell.
An obsession with chess leads a boy to a nightmare where he realizes that his life must change.
After a catastrophic global war, a young filmmaker awakens in the carnage and seeks refuge in the only other survivor: an eccentric, ideologically opposed figure of the United States military. Together, they brave the toxic landscape in search of safety... and answers.
On the day ZZ Baxter plans to end his life, he crosses paths with a deranged man named Dugnut Johnson on his way to work. When ZZ snatches a folder from Dugnut that has his name on it, they realize they might mean more to another than what they first thought.
Karma, an international high school student from Sikkim struggles to fit in and hold onto his cultural identity when he is stuck at home with his host sibling, Alex.
Meet Shavon O'Brien: Her family doesn't understand her, her church ignores her, even Jesus forgets about her. With only the spirit of Sinead O'Connor to guide her, Shavon battles institutional child abuse, narcissistic group think, a talking stomach and a singing poop bucket! Shavon goes from Catholic to Crusty Punk in this very, very, very, dark musical comedy!
A struggling drug addict is plunged into a tortured netherworld, where he must defend his spirit from a ravenous horde of soul-addicted junkies.
Experimental shots with some continuity with a gritty raw surrealist style