As I Was Moving Ahead Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Mayhem(2024)

AA-PROXIMA-SUN(pt)

A girl approaches a divine entity that comes to the world in the form of a yellow umbrella, and ends up discovering her true self.

Purgatorium(en)

After his death, a young man stuck in purgatory attempts to cope with the afterlife.

Negativ(ru)

A photographer during the Soviet-Afghan war becomes obsessed with a mysterious figure that appears in his images every time the person photographed dies.

Woolgathering(en)

A collection of interwoven images are threaded together by a string of unspecified women who roam their dreamscape which they are unable to escape. They are displaced, belonging to no particular point in time or place, and a disoriented sense of self pervades. Together, the film becomes a quietly throbbing organism of reality and unreality, and the gaps between an impending present and a perpetual past are frail.

I Should Call Her(en)

An overly anxious man mysteriously finds himself unable to leave a bathroom.

La manzana(es)

A Certain Dream(ko)

A female hotel employee wanders around different guestrooms and searches for an unreachable dream. Wandering in other people’s dreams, she encounters a mysterious guest and hears a story about a woman who dances deep inside her dream and a dancing procession...

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.

Mother of Fog(ar)

In what could be considered a follow up to Al Qasimi’s 2020 work Mother of Fire, she once again invokes the figure of the jinn (spirits in Islamic mythology) to explore the ghosts of British imperialism in the UAE. As its spectre lingers on the horizon, two teenage girls seek to liberate a pirate damned to spend purgatory on a site now being developed into a hotel. Originally commissioned for Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present, Al Qasimi entangles historical narratives with contemporary notions of piracy. In examining how it has been historically and culturally represented, new perspectives of old mythographies come into focus. (Myriam Mouflih)

l'A.M.—a misheard love story(en)

L'amour (love). La mort (death). Two French words that could confuse a foreigner, but never a native. Messenger V writes for a company that sends out both love letters and death sentences. After going into work one day, she finds out her assigned recipient is her lover.

Nostalgia for the Lake(es)

A vision from Limbo, where the canoeist of the eternal lake floats in his boat, between sleep and wakefulness. When he sleeps, he dreams of the everyday of a parallel time. when he wakes up, the same song haunts him again and again. his boat, “ara” (time, in guarani) travels through time like a shooting star.

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.

Lohengrin(en)

A short experimental film shot on Super 8, inspired by the music of Richard Wagner.

Flux(en)

Samantha is an 18-year-old girl who, in the middle of a move, experiences a flashback of memories and is reunited with her imaginary childhood friend, Flux. Between waves and cardboard boxes, she passes the farewell with herself, with what surrounds her and with the tide.

The Waltz of a Lonesome Pigeon(en)

An experimental fairy tale about life, death, and spreading your wings. After Cecilia witnesses a bird smashing into her window, she begins to notice her body transforming. Her skin starts to peel and little feathers start to grow out of her back. Will she fly away or end up like that poor little bird?

PROLIX(en)

A young woman watches TV with her cat in the room. A dying man explores what's left of his psyche.

Social Butterfly(en)

A socially awkward, neurodivergent youth struggles to adapt at a social gathering that quickly takes a turn into the uncanny and surreal.

Rift(es)

Daniela (24) is a ghost in pain. Her life ended suddenly and painfully, leaving her friend and roommate, Mónica (22) alone in their shared apartment in Santiago, Chile. Daniela feels her frustration grow within her, as she fears that her time in limbo will never end.

The Other Side(is)

A silent short. Water, footsteps, darkness and light. Shot and edited entirely on a phone in a single day.

Pena(pt)

A newly-born harpy discovers herself.