All Films

Baby Back Costa Rica

2011 • 5 min • Portugal

Three teenage girls are heading home in their Mini Cooper S. They discuss their boyfriends, their boyfriend's mothers, their boyfriend's mother's cars, and Judaism.

From Barbara to Txi

2011 • 11 min • Canada

About Vancouver-based, semi-retired stage clown, Barbara 'Txi' Hannah. Now in her 60s, Txi has been a stage clown for over 30 years, working all over the world with different performance groups. Oddly enough, Txi describes herself as an extremely shy person and explains how performance has helped her battle her introversion. Txi's family life has proven to be as out-of-the-ordinary as her choice of occupation; after two children and eight years of marriage, her husband came out as a homosexual. From Barbara to Txi is an exploration of a woman's perseverance through an unusual sequence of events.

Niagara

2011 • 3 min • United Kingdom

Two love-struck gangsters escape with one million dollars in a bag and some serious trust issues. A road trip starts.

Fall in Love with You Just Like That

2011 • 10 min • China

The most famous short in Chaoshan series, a simple love story with huge so-bad-it’s-good energy.

The Story of Ones

2011 • 9 min

Utilizing the banality of Vietnamese state radio broadcasts, The Story of Ones gives a face and a sense of place to the unseen and offers a personal counterpoint to the officially sanctioned. Like entering a roomful of stories, the viewer steps into an unfamiliar space guided only by the sound of the radio tuning in to lifestyle programming, call-in shows and radio dramas. The portraits and settings layered atop the aural landscape create questions, provide humor, offer context and withdraw explanation of what once seemed clear before entering the room.

The War We Are Living

2011 • 54 min

Two extraordinary Afro-Colombian women fight to hold onto their gold-rich land and defy paramilitary death threats in the remote mountains of Colombia. Part of the PBS series Women, War & Peace.

Mutus Floris

2011 • 4 min • Canada

Mutus Floris (mute or silent flowers) is composed of over 5000 individual photographs of wild flowers taken over three seasons, at Phenzhopehaugh in Scotland.

The Chinese Economic Bubble

2011 • 46 min • Netherlands

The biggest real estate developer in the world is – unsurprisingly - a Chinese. And he is convinced opportunities are equal for all in China. But do the scaffold builder from the countryside and the car salesman from the Chinese capital, representing the social strata of Chinese society, share his believe in the Chinese Dream? The Chinese Bubble shows how class differences motivate a country to move forward in uncertain times. It helps explain the delicate balance of Chinese growth and explores the sacrifices of the people who are making it happen.

Sundays

2011 • 16 min • Belgium

Sundays or how Mankind faces the passage of time. That free time we are trying to fill at all costs. That same time we look at passing by, with laughter or boredom.

Psychopompe

2011 • 50 min • France

This movie is a retrogressive interpretation of the Frankenstein myth, evoking the genealogy of ideas and images bound to this modern Promethean figure from its origin to its derivative forms. The story is built by a succession of fleeting images in a manner both instinctive and erudite. Following an association of images from different cultural and historical contexts, PSYCHOPOMPE treats the strange transformation of "mythological waste" and its survival - through B-movies and amateur images as well as in moments from daily life. The soundtrack, inspired by minimal, ambiant and Noise music, is played live by its composer, Joakim, and his band the Disco. It is a peculiar mix of electronic sounds and acoustic instruments, stretched-out layers of sounds and noise explosions, outlining a cinematographic narrative: a story of metamorphoses.

Forward Home: The Power of the Caribbean Diaspora

2011 • 50 min • Trinidad and Tobago

Documentary on diasporic tourism in the Caribbean

A Boy Inside the Boy

2011 • 30 min • Italy, Japan

The story is told through the eyes of a boy, how he wanders between reality and dream. His daily life is transformed to a surreal world through the unique sensitivity of boyhood.

Take It/Break It

2011 • 20 min • Slovenia

The film comprises of a series of animations that questions notions of gender, sexuality and identity. Battling with stereotypes, the film is able to touch on some very pertinent ideas and urges us to rethink of what we understand about homosexuality and life.

Nazi Goreng

2011 • 6 min • Germany

Young neo-Nazi Jan's world is somewhat limited, but stable. At least until he ends up in an Asian strip club while on the run from the police and experiences a moment there that rocks his world.

Plug, the new world

2011 • 14 min • Japan

This is a story of PLUG and his friends, who live in the Zero Emission world, sharing energy each other, harmoniously.

The Furfangs 2

2011 • 2 min • Italy

Tells the continuing story of a 2nd wave of mysterious and aggressive creatures who came from the space. The Furfangs are back!

RSWX Presents: Librarian Girl

2011 • 59 min

"If you're not familiar with library music, it's basically instrumental records that were (and still are) sold to provide television- and filmmakers with appropriate soundbeds for their images. A lot of it (read most of it) can be boring, but fortunately many the old records were played and recorded by some of the best session musicians during their downtime, so there are some incredible gems to be found. Library records have since become very sought after by producers and we were lucky enough to have found a big lot of them, about 10 years ago. Instead of animating the sleeves, we have filmed our librarian here at RSWX while she goes about her working day."

RSWX Presents: Introversy

2011 • 58 min

A quick-fire mix of 420 song intros, accompanied by animated versions of the record sleeves.

Baboon Bandits: Monkey Alert in South Africa

2011 • 52 min • Germany

Jimmy is a burglar and a loner, Long-Fingered Fred excels in breaking into cars, while Merlin prefers to target restaurants. Meet the alpha males of the infamous Smits Baboon Gang.

Mantis in Black Lace

2011 • 10 min • Canada

A short film detailing the shocking and awkward coming of age tale concerning Lars and Lila's "first time".

Fig Leaf: The Biggest Cover-Up in History

2011 • 59 min

Stephen Smith uncovers the secret history of the humble fig leaf, opening a window onto 2,000 years of Western art and ethics. He tells how the work of Michelangelo, known to his contemporaries as 'the maker of pork things', fuelled the infamous 'fig leaf campaign', the greatest cover-up in art history; how Bernini turned censorship into a new form of erotica by replacing the fig leaf with the slipping gauze; and how the ingenious machinations of Rodin brought nudity back to the public eye. In telling this story, Smith turns many of our deepest prejudices upside down, showing how the Victorians had a far more sophisticated and mature attitude to sexuality than we do today. He ends with an impassioned plea for the widespread return of the fig leaf to redeem modern art from cheap sensation and innuendo.

The River

2011 • 3 min • United States of America

After a few months of travel we returned to Addis Ababa to the house were I grew up. I wanted to hear a story from my grandmother, Tafesech Zeleke, who raised me. She told us the story, Wenzu, in her kitchen. When she passed away I decided to make this piece.

After 35 Years

2011 • 41 min • Afghanistan

Afghanistan has one of the world’s worst ratings in terms of domestic violence. All of this stems out of a lack of family law in our judicial system. Those working on reform, work very hard to find solutions for this problem but face severe opposition by the conservatives. Meanwhile, the cries of women committing self-immolation and street-children in the dynamics of a society make one face with the stories of bitter realities and inspiring struggles.

The Rake

2011 • 50 min • United States of America

In the summer of 2010 three high school graduates went on a trip into the forests of Washington. After their departure they were never heard from again. One year later mine excavators recovered a camera that held possible answers to their disappearance. This is the uncut footage found on the camera.