All Films

Desperado

2008 • 2 min

A video portrait of a friend as he shares his favourite karaoke song.

I Wanna Be Boss

2008 • 58 min • Belgium, China, Netherlands, United States of America

The pupils from the third class of Middle School #2 in Chongqing, the best school in central China, are being honed to fill important positions in the new global economy. The pupils are children of the new Chinese middle class. Often their parents have lived through hunger and their children must now succeed where they did not. The members of China's youngest generation have the eyes of the world pinned upon them. Will these representatives of the "I want-generation" live up to their promise? Is our fear for these smart, hard working children justified?

The Bird Feeders

2008 • 14 min • United States of America

A woman and a man, both no longer young of age, follow basic routines in their home. Outside at the birdfeeders, birds follow basic routines. As the sun rises and moves across the sky, life passes for all. The film uses a combination of stop motion and time lapse to record. This creates a visual staccato effect, which is also very apparent in the audio track when the two people are talking. Using this technique only small intermittent bits of a conversation are recorded. Much of the talking is omitted leaving newly constructed sentences and meanings.

Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion

2008 • 59 min

Thee Hounds of Foggy Notion is the title of the August 25, 2008 live CD/DVD release by San Francisco-based rock band Thee Oh Sees. Recorded during their Sucks Blood era in 2007, the performances include songs from previous albums, as well as others that were unreleased at the time. Some of those that had not appeared on any album were later reworked for 2008's The Master's Bedroom is Worth Spending a Night In, here performed in the more subdued psychedelic folk manner which characterized the band's sound during this period. This album was the final appearance of percussionist Patrick Mullins, who left the band after "Sucks Blood". The live footage on the DVD was filmed over the course of four days in San Francisco.[1] It features the band performing in mostly unconventional locales, such as on the shoulder of a highway and near the beach. The video footage was directed by Brian Lee Hughes.

A Letter of Unprotected Memories

2008 • 10 min • Indonesia

Lucky Kuswandi is taking us on a personal journey he underwent when Imlek, the Chinese New Year, was declared to be a national holiday. The celebration always takes him back to his childhood, when such festivities were still forbidden. Through his eyes, we see the unique colors with which the people celebrate Imlek, past and present, and the big question he always poses with each Imlek.

The Unfinished One

2008 • 10 min • Indonesia

Ten years has passed since Wawan were shot to death in Semanggi during the May riot. Ever since, his mother, Mrs. Sumarsih, vowed to continue Wawan's fight for justice. Is she ever going to stop?

Helen

2008 • 3 min • United Kingdom

As the winning artist of the 2008 Film London Jarman Award, Luke Fowler was commissioned to produce four short films for 3 Minute Wonder, Channel 4s shorts strand. The four films premiered on Channel 4 over four consecutive nights in April 2009. Entitled, Anna, Helen, David and Lester, they are a series of portraits of four diverse individuals brought together through a shared residence – a flat in a Victorian tenement in the West End of Glasgow. Composer: Toshiya Tsunoda

Anna

2008 • 3 min • United Kingdom

As the winning artist of the 2008 Film London Jarman Award, Luke Fowler was commissioned to produce four short films for 3 Minute Wonder, Channel 4s shorts strand. The four films premiered on Channel 4 over four consecutive nights in April 2009. Entitled, Anna, Helen, David and Lester, they are a series of portraits of four diverse individuals brought together through a shared residence – a flat in a Victorian tenement in the West End of Glasgow. Composer: Lee Patterson

Sten 16:30

2008 • 7 min • Sweden

Klara works at the reception of the bathhouse. She has a note in the calendar that she does not remember what it was about.

Projecting the Body

2008 • 56 min • Australia

An intimate look at the life and work of Stephen Cummins, who blazed a trail through the 1980s, examining desire, oppression and the politics of sexuality. Reacting against the environment of AIDS paranoia and ensuing homophobia, Stephen created films that are both bold in their politics and beautiful in their poetry.

Quando o Vento Sopra

2008 • 18 min

A man in crisis and an old super-8 movie with footage from his childhood. A paper picker and his son walk the streets in search of survival. The film traces a poetic trajectory between the impermanence of things and affective memory.

Beijo na Boca Maldita

2008 • 17 min

Very popular in Curitiba from the 70's, Gilda marked an epoch. Kind of folk street, said she is transvestite. Anyone who didn't want to take a kiss from you hurried to give you a change. They all fled their jokes on the Boca Maldita.

Coven of the Heathenites

2008 • 26 min • United States of America

A summer sojourn is fleshed out for maximum solar exposure in this video travelogue of sun, sea and epidermal exhibitionism. The states of mind and geographic localities are awash in a flow of imagery that rushes in on a tide of both Pacific and Atlantic origins. The people and places that bathe in this magnificence add both a sacred and profane froth into the salty brew; a witches brew of sculpted creations bubbling up with volatile violations from the depths of unfathomable needs.

14

2008 • 9 min • Germany

A secret unfolds within a family through the eyes of the three people who hide it.

Film for Invisible Ink, Case No. 142: ABBREVIATION FOR DEAD WINTER [Diminished by 1,794]

2008 • 13 min

“A single piece of paper, a second stab at suture, a story three times over, a frame for every mile. With words by Charles Darwin. A long-distance dedication for a far-away friend halfway up the mountain.” —David Gatten

Lola

2008 • 3 min

[3:00 | 16mm | B & W | Mono | 2008] Through the eyes of pure content in light and darkness, to objects strange and shifting, a cat’s curiousity of all things moving.

Unveiled Views

2008 • 52 min

Five women talk about their occupations, aspirations, and the rights and status of women in their Muslim countries.

Sucker's Love

2008 • 6 min

Opening with cheesy pop style text, tribute to Jean-Luc Godard’s film titles. This is a practice of stop motion with 35mm photo stills, inspired by Chris Marker’s La Jetée and the first ever film Race Horse from 1878. The movement of the 35mm still gearwheel is like the view from a train window leading the viewer down wormhole traveling through time. In those old family photos, the video follows the viewer’s perspective as if the original action of the image is restored. Memories cross three generation from1949 to 2008. Grandparent’s KMT era, parent’s wedding, babies, childhood, activities, current bad relation, all contemporary images is black & white, old photos with original color, the noisy soundtrack and sharp high pitch noise, gives the family trip a rejection.

Transactions

2008 • 7 min

In a sewing workshop, the making of a piece of clothing is filmed in detail while we listen to a phone conversation between a Taiwanese mother and her daughter, the director of this film. The mother spends her days and nights toiling away so she can afford to send her daughter to school in the United States. They are discussing the credit card bill. Not only their physical distance, but especially their emotional one manifests itself in an increasingly emphatic way. Their worlds are light-years away from one another, which leads to miscommunication and lack of understanding. A talk between two people who love each other is reduced to a business transaction; after all, the language of the dollar is universal. Transactions is about the boundaries of a love that supposedly knows no bounds.

SheSaidHeWalks HeSaidSheWalks

2008 • 5 min • Argentina, United Kingdom

She Said He Walks, He Said She Walks (2008) is nostalgia, bitter love and postures encapsulated in a skilled short film by Dominican Nelson Carlo de los Santos. Presents a resounding account of a relationship, subject to contemplation of four minutes. Sleazy love disoriented by the wandering wanderings of what was wanted and felt, within a complaint about the industrialized and prefabricated image that pollutes the natural feeling.

Hatchet Jack

2008 • 46 min

Hatchet Jack may or may not exist. Many in this small wooded community laugh about the idea, and some are passionate story tellers. The film starts out in a bar with a group of hunters who are planning on venturing into a patch of woods that was said to be the site of a murder in 1993.

Silêncio da Mulher

2008 • 48 min • Mozambique, Spain

Marta, a young woman living in the rural area of southern Mozambique, discovers she is HIV positive after becoming pregnant.

Real Fiction

2008 • 20 min

Zach, a gifted writer, devoted son, and life-partner to his boyfriend AJ, is as ambitious as he is impatient. Success in his business seems impossibly elusive after trying every avenue available to him, and without adequate funds to provide treatment for his increasingly ill mother, it seems like a miracle when Damien, an influential literary agent, expresses interest in taking Zach on as a client.

Heads or Tails

2008 • 11 min

A day in the life of two teenagers from the outskirts of Madrid who, to escape the routine, walk the neighborhood playing heads and tails who makes the next prank. While they are honest with each other, they will doubt everything, even if their friendship will not be something else; the currency will decide for them.