Social & External
Protagonista
The story takes place in the landscapes of La Spezia, where urban and rural environments intertwine. Water plays a primary role as a form, alongside the circle (e.g., bicycle wheels, pizzas, clocks…), which sets the rhythm of the character’s life, dynamically accelerating until it becomes very fast. The overlapping forms invite the viewer into the cyclical rhythm of the short film, moving from the spinning bicycle wheel to the washing machine drum in the character’s bathroom, from a freshly tossed pizza to the delivery mailbox, and finally to a dead-end wall. Savana is a race against oneself and against others; it’s a matter of decision and unpredictability — it’s black or white.
Energy cannot be created or destroyed. When we die, where does our energy go? Inspired by Vauhini Vara's essay "Ghosts", in which she prompted Al to help her write about her sister's passing, "GHOSTS" takes us on the emotional journey of grief. We see a ghost figure trying to get through to her sister, who is still alive, and let her know she's still around somehow. There are two poems in this piece, one is a poem written by GPT 3, and the next is the director's (Oriana Mejer) response to it. This film uses spoken word poetry, TouchDesigner motion graphics, and is originally scored by French musician Taime.
Omnibus film with 13 short films by students of the HfG Ulm
The desire to grow closer to yourself will lead you to disappear. The simple desire to get a closer look at yourself makes you see yourself disappear. The possibilities of recording are limited.
A sensitive study on human relationships and the passage of time. Through the lens of directing and editing, the film observes the nuances of daily life and the resilience of connections.
A perspective on everyday things.
A man tormented by his shadow gets tired of feeling bad.
What remains for me is to promote my own ruin. Aware of inevitable loneliness, the incarnation of cruelty.
A person spends most of their life mourning the things they have lost, unable to move on. They frequent a silent but helpful medium and embark on a spiritual journey where they linger among their past lives.
Shadow plays flicker, birds call, and colour leaks into grey walls. In Starlings, live action collides with puppetry and poetic visuals as a teen girl transforms loss into light, reviving the fractured bond with her father through the fragile power of art.
A journey to an unknown star, a children's theatre play, an untalented writer and the fear of becoming the worst version of oneself. A mixture of live-action footage and animated scenes. A stream of (un)conscious stereotypes.
Joey works as a waiter for a hedonistic community of summer holiday makers in a small Mediterranean paradise. It is unclear if their exaggerated behaviors are due to the fact that the summer is coming to an end or if its just the last of their summers.
Set beneath a surreal green sky on a distant, crumbling world, the film captures the last survivors of a dying civilization—women who perform a synchronized ritual dance to summon an ethereal extraterrestrial presence from another realm.
Returning to his hometown one last time, a wayward love rat reignites friendships and reopens old wounds in one self-destructive weekend.
A visceral journey through dysphoria in the internet age.
A loop of a guy in Maine hanging out in his room.
After an intruder infiltrates her apartment, Allie must deal with the remnants of painful memories that she refuses to accept.
An experimental short film about sensory seeking behaviour in childhood. Filmed on VHS.
An orphaned raccoon happens to have a unique talent.
A street smart runner develops an intense rivalry with an equally ambitious wealthy young athlete.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Thomas Montgomery, a married father of two young daughters, gets seduced by the world of online gambling and chat rooms where a virtual romance and sexual obsession ultimately leads to the murder of an innocent man.
Louis Menkins is five weeks away from being released after 26 years in prison. He is faced with the decision to put his own release at risk in order to protect a young man named Beecher from growing gang controversies.
Based on the Vanity Fair article of the same title, a story about a young boy drawn into a web of lies through an online chatroom.
The legendary Roberto Duran and his equally legendary trainer Ray Arcel change each other's lives.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
Eight short stories of seduction and illicit encounters between lovers, filled with humor and eroticism, which use a circular structure located in the cosmopolitan atmosphere of a colonial city of Mexico.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
A noir thriller set in Miami, the film follows an enforcer who discovers his femme fatale boss has branched out into cyber sex trafficking, putting a young runaway he’s befriended at risk. He sacrifices everything to save the young girl from the deadly organization he’s spent his life building.
A woman is released from prison after serving a sentence for a violent crime and re-enters a society that refuses to forgive her past.
Four women are waiting for the blue circle and a possible change of their lives.
In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.
Jo, the mother of seven children, divorces her second husband in order to marry Jake, a successful but promiscuous screenwriter. Though they are physically and emotionally compatible, they are slowly torn apart.
The story of golf icon and legend, Bobby Jones, who retired from competition at the tender age of 28.
West Philadelphia basketball star Sergio Taylor deals with the pressures of fame while his brother and sister have their own issues with ambition.
“Snow gently falls on the blood-stained streets of a seedy out-of-time New York City. Steam envelopes the nightmare unfolding within its narrow alleys. Iron is the will of the one who would dare to resist… fight… survive.”
Ana and her two best friends, Maria and Paula, navigate life in their oppressive countryside village. Whilst their families struggle in the poppy fields harvesting opium, the girls try to grow alongside the creeping terror of their cartel oppressors.
