Bench Talkies is a compilation of six films from six filmmakers. The one recognizable name is, of course, Karthik Subbaraj, while the others are all aspiring directors. The films deal with various subjects and are in different genres and are of varying quality.
Zara
Siddharth
Boss
Madhumitha
A behind-the-scenes look at the making of Stephen Spielberg's "Catch Me If You Can."
Experts set out to prove that female great white sharks rule the ocean.
Witness a remarkable coming-of-age story as we track a young leopard's journey from rookie to royalty in South Africa's lethal Big Five landscape. When we first meet Jack, he's clumsy, fearful, and weak, but he's a fast learner - and he'll need to be. He's destined for a showdown with the area's current leopard monarch, an alpha male with a real mean streak. We follow Jack as he hones his skills and builds up muscle for the ultimate catfight. It's a battle where only the winner will walk out alive.
Submission for the Raindance Halloween 14 Second Horror Film Competition
Launder Run tells the story of Jake, a man returning to his gritty hometown after years away, carrying the weight of a troubled past. The film opens on a rainy Saturday afternoon as Jake trudges through a bleak estate, visibly exhausted and clutching a plastic bag. Arriving at his sister Sue’s chaotic, unkempt flat, he confronts the ruins of his old life—a dirty fridge, a cluttered bedroom reduced to storage, and the ghosts of a once-close family. Seeking solace, he revisits his old pub, a place teeming with memories. As he steps inside, the bartender recognizes him with shock, hinting at Jake’s mysterious past and the reasons for his long absence. “Lounder Run” explores themes of homecoming, redemption, and the unshakable grip of one’s origins.
After a Robbery at a jewelry story, a group of robbers takes refuge with a host in a shabby apartment building in the suburbs. But they don't know that in the basement hides an obscure alien creature with telepathic powers.
Bootlegger/cafe owner, Johnny Franks recruits crude working man Scorpio to join his gang, masterminded by crooked criminal defense lawyer Newton. Scorpio eventually takes over Frank's operation, beats a rival gang, becomes wealthy, and dominates the city for several years until a secret group of six masked businessmen have him prosecuted and sent to the electric chair.
Delves deep into the anxiety, thrill and uncertainty of six aspiring animation artists as they are plunged into the twelve-week trial-by-fire that is the NFB's Hothouse for animation filmmakers.
A man who was adopted at birth traces his real parents, and discovers that they have severe learning disabilities and do not know he exists.
Incognito - far more than just a band. The sound visionary Jean-Paul "Bluey" Maunick has been pioneering in the mercurial acid jazz scene, and as a talent ...
In the Bible, God destroys the sinful cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and sides with Joshua to conquer another misbehaving city: Jericho. Are these stories true or simply moral fables? Archaeological and geological evidence holds the answer.
The story of Annie Batungbakal, who dances in a disco bar.
A deceased couple affectionately haunt a living friend while trying to get into heaven.
Welcome to Sin City. This town beckons to the tough, the corrupt, the brokenhearted. Some call it dark… Hard-boiled. Then there are those who call it home — Crooked cops, sexy dames, desperate vigilantes. Some are seeking revenge, others lust after redemption, and then there are those hoping for a little of both. A universe of unlikely and reluctant heroes still trying to do the right thing in a city that refuses to care.
Nanni Moretti recalls in his diary three slice of life stories characterized by a sharply ironic look: in the first one he wanders through a deserted Rome, in the second he visits a reclusive friend on an island, and in the last he has to grapple with an unknown illness.
In "Multo", a young groom in Baguio for his honeymoon is possessed by a homicidal spirit when he discovers a cursed ring and decides to wear it. "Kulam" is set in the eerie halls of a mysterious hospital where a doctor practice voodoo and dead bodies go wandering in the night. "Aswang" is about a student who is a guest at a town fiesta in a remote province. The people's hospitable ways leave her clueless about a ritual that takes place at night.
In three tales of extreme horror, a young couple hires a mysterious nanny for their baby; a a young woman discovers that her sister has been dead and been made alive again; and a student unwittingly brings home from a beach field trip the egg of a horrible alien monster.
Three unrelated stories of horror include: a substitute teacher who preys on a small school; neighborhood children being abducted by a tree-dwelling monster; and a group of Manila residents plagued by attacks from a Manananggal.
"MALIGNO" A couple takes a vacation on a secluded island and strange forces are at work that seems to keep them on that island. When her boyfriend suddenly grows ill, Ruffa Gutierrez finds a handsome young man (Monsour del Rosario) in the woods who seems to exhibit magical powers. He offers to cure her sick friend on one condition that she stay with him forever. Will she accept any foods from that handsome man to save her loved one? "ANINO" A family of siblings moves into their new apartment but little did they know of a tragedy that occurred within its walls. A ghost of a murderer manifests itself in a form of a shadow and has now set its sight on them. They need to leave that house before they were killed.
An anthology film that takes you to different eras in the history of Kerala through three stories about relationships and emotions.
Four comedic episodes framed within the story of a tyrannical Zen master and his two hapless disciples.
Three separate stories all concern the relationships between adult children, their somewhat distant parent (or parents), and each other. Each of the three parts takes place in the present, and each in a different country. Father is set in the Northeast U.S., Mother in Dublin, Ireland, and Sister Brother in Paris, France. The film is a series of character studies, quiet, observational and non-judgmental. A comedy, but interwoven with threads of melancholy.
Four different couples have a romantic week over New Year's Eve. Both coming out of failed marriages, Ji-ho and Hyo-young are not open to the possibility of new love, while Jin-ah heads to the other side of globe and encounters Jae-hun.
A group of kids embarks in a macabre adventure, full of characters from the Brazilian popular imaginary - the werewolf, a witch, a ghost, monsters and The Saci.
Four interwoven stories that occur on Halloween: an everyday high school principal has a secret life as a serial killer; a college virgin might have just met the one guy for her; a group of teenagers pull a mean prank, and a bitter old recluse receives an uninvited guest.
Five O. Henry stories, each separate. The primary one from the critics' acclaim was "The Cop and the Anthem". Soapy tells fellow bum Horace that he is going to get arrested so he can spend the winter in a nice jail cell. He fails. He can't even accost a woman; she turns out to be a streetwalker. The other stories are "The Clarion Call", "The Last Leaf", "The Ransom of Red Chief", and "The Gift of the Magi".
This omnibus release consists of three playlets filmed and aired during television's Golden Age, and starring some of the legends of film and television. The collection originally ran as a two-hour segment on December 14, 1959, on the anthology series The Play of the Week, broadcast locally in New York City via the independent radio station WNTA. Each "tale" in the anthology was adapted from a single tale by the inimitable Sholom Aleichem, regarded by many as the "Yiddish Mark Twain". Included are: "A Tale of Chelm" starring Zero Mostel and Nancy Walker in the story of a bookseller attempting to buy a goat; "Bontche Schweig" about a poor man (Jack Gilford) whose recent arrival in Heaven makes the angels cry; and "The High School" about a Jewish merchant (Morris Carnovsky) persuaded by his wife (Gertrude Berg) to let their son attend a particular high school despite the enforcement of quotas for Jewish students.
A strange mortician tells four horrific tales to three drug dealers that he traps in their local funeral parlor.
A two-part feature directed separately by Shimizu and his colleague Keisuke Toyoshima. Unrelated to each other, both have a common goal: to bring ghosts and aliens together in pure, referential and absurdistic delirium, including neo-Nazi specters, zombie yakuzas and nasty aliens.
Wasteland is a five-part anthology film that deals with isolation, mental illness, and the subjectivity of reality. Each of the five parts can be watched individually, but when viewed in sequence, each story brings out a more interesting and distinct context to its respective pieces.