sissi's mixtape (a guide to love, loss & desperation)

fragments from song lyrics of different artists have given life to this story about love, loss and desperation.

overthere: Part I

For about a dozen years, Lizama has traveled to southern Chile during the summer, mainly between the cities of Valdivia and Osorno. Years of observing birds and their collective movements, trees and their swaying, the sea and its rhythm, the rain and its whisper, the mist that turns into fog and the boats that shatter the calm. Memories and lessons embedded in cinematic time, of someone who yesterday embarked on the journey as a stranger and today does so to reach the family home. Starting from a recognizable world, we enter a more dazzling and abstract one, playing with the pixels in the frame. Recorded and (mostly) edited on a cell phone.

After Hours

Something strange and unpredictable takes inthe mysteriously vacant rooms of Berlin’s infamous Techno club Berghain. A group of wild animals occupy the monumental spaces of the former power station. We explore the building together with the animals and experience its dimensions from a new, nonhuman perspective. The brutality of the industrial architecture is confronted with the beauty of these shy creatures.

Mudpuppy

A reflection on loss and nature’s quiet observance in a small nook of the Ozarks. 

Inviável

A man and a woman live in an abandoned house in a forest. Their lives are shaken when someone visits them.

you don't know JACK like I did.

An experimental re-edit of Jack Frost, starring Michael Keaton.

The Scary Movie

Martina and Sonja, cross-dress in vampire capes and werewolf claws, re-enacting familiar horror tropes. A corresponding soundtrack of stock screams and "scary" music suggests that the girls' toying with gender roles and power dynamics may have dire consequences.

MISU~MISU

An experimental short film from director Luis Zamora, born in the aftermath of the July 2024 protests in Venezuela. An attempt to turn fear, dreams, and fleeting thoughts into images that linger.

Osessione

ABBERANT MOTION # 1

An introduction to the Spinning Woman: "the spinning is an insistence of self amongst others without conformity." Spinning in urban traffic on busy city streets is seen in relation to concepts of community where "private ideas should not come out." Spinning, an aberrant, potentially turbulent form of motion, is used as a metaphor which allows the unsocialized self to cohere while maintaining a visible, physical, social presence.

Inquieta

An intimate and introspective experimental film in which the author's anxious manias and worries are presented visually, without the need for sound. The movement of her fingers and mouth, both tearing the skin, accompanied by the images of her eyes show that even though it is sometimes involuntary, the author is aware of her manias and because they are present at every moment of her life, they are evident to those around her. Even when conscious, her manias are almost impossible to control, as the body is already programmed to surrender to the internal need to self-mutilate in order to relieve some of the anxiety.

Follow Back

After discovering a stranger’s livestream, a month unfolds under his balcony, through watching and being watched.

Her

Ten years ago, Arjun Singh and Tara Kapoor were inseparable-two young souls lost in love, dreaming of a future together. Their days were filled with laughter, stolen moments, and whispered promises of forever. But forever never came. Now, a decade later, Arjun finds himself in the dead of night, at an almost desolate five-star hotel room, a far cry from the life he once imagined. He is no longer the boy who believed in love-he is a man hardened by crime, preparing for the biggest drug deal of his life, one that could set him free. As the clock strikes 3:33 AM, shadows of the past begin to creep in. He sees glimpses of Tara-her laughter, her touch, her presence-as if time itself is mocking him.

Notre Musique

A three-chapter (Hell, Purgatory and Paradise) meditation on the city of Sarajevo in the wake of the Bosnian war, on Palestine and Israel, and on war itself.

Tracing My Breath

A short film on breathing and quiet afternoons.

Elétrico Magnético

Zi

In Hong Kong, a young woman haunted by visions of her future self meets a stranger who changes the course of her night -- and possibly her life.

Teatro Circo de Orihuela

Augusto M. Torres makes a tour of images in honor of the CIRCUS THEATER of Orihuela.

MERAHEFET

In the video art work "MERAHEFET" describes the world of a ghost, from her point of view floating over places that become a spring, a path that suggests a deep longing that is only revealed when the ghost stops for a moment to look out the window. This moment when she manages to take control of it, is flooded with flashes of mirrors that reveal to the viewer and the spirit what motivates her to continue her journey.

Das Memórias que Guardo em Bytes

The lights and characters of Fortaleza's nightlife blend into a sensory experience through images stored in the memory of the devices.

The Safety of Objects

In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.

For Sama

A love letter from a young mother to her daughter, the film tells the story of Waad al-Kateab’s life through five years of the uprising in Aleppo, Syria as she falls in love, gets married and gives birth to Sama, all while cataclysmic conflict rises around her. Her camera captures incredible stories of loss, laughter and survival as Waad wrestles with an impossible choice– whether or not to flee the city to protect her daughter’s life, when leaving means abandoning the struggle for freedom for which she has already sacrificed so much.

Obi-Wan Kenobi: A Jedi's Return

This special explores the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker to the screen, as well as Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to their classic roles. Director Deborah Chow leads the cast and crew as they create new heroes and villains that live alongside new incarnations of beloved Star Wars characters, and an epic story that dramatically bridges the saga films.

Room 237

A subjective documentary that explores various theories about hidden meanings in Stanley Kubrick's classic film The Shining. Five very different points of view are illuminated through voice over, film clips, animation and dramatic reenactments.

The Trials of Cate McCall

In order to be reinstated to the bar and recover custody of her daughter, a hotshot lawyer, now in recovery and on probation, must take on the appeal of a woman wrongfully convicted of murder.

Lucky Them

More interested in partying and flirting with young musicians than work, veteran rock journalist Ellie Klug has one last chance to prove her value to her magazine’s editor: a no-stone-unturned search to discover what really happened to long lost rock god, Matt Smith, who also happens to be her ex-boyfriend. Teaming up with an eccentric amateur documentary filmmaker, Ellie hits the road in search of answers.

Radium Girls

Young women toiling in a factory are exposed to hazardous material which takes a disastrous toll on their health.

Call Me Crazy: A Five Film

A psychotherapist helps a law student cope with schizophrenia in one of five interconnected tales dealing with mental illness.

Ticker

The Driver drives a wounded diplomat, who carries a mysterious briefcase, while under helicopter attack. During the attack the briefcase is struck by a bullet, causing a display on it to begin counting down, and it to leak an unknown fluid from the bullet hole. The Driver manages to destroy his pursuers, but refuses to proceed without knowing the contents of the damaged briefcase. It is revealed that the diplomat guards a human heart for a peacekeeper, whose life is needed for the continued freedom of the people. The case is delivered, and the tyrant is forced to give up his attempt to take the country by force. The Driver leaves for another mission.

I Believe in Unicorns

Feeling awkward and isolated, an imaginative and strong-willed teenage girl runs away from home with an older punk rock drifter.

Extremis

A purely observational non-fiction film that takes viewers into the ethically murky world of end-of-life decision making in a public hospital.

DC Showcase - Batman: Death in the Family

Tragedy strikes the Batman's life again when Robin Jason Todd tracks down his birth mother only to run afoul of the Joker. An adaptation of the 1988 comic book storyline of the same name.

Heart of a Dog

Lyrical and powerfully personal essay film that reflects on the deaths of her husband Lou Reed, her mother, her beloved dog, and such diverse subjects as family memories, surveillance, and Buddhist teachings.

Cameraperson

As a visually radical memoir, CAMERAPERSON draws on the remarkable footage that filmmaker Kirsten Johnson has shot and reframes it in ways that illuminate moments and situations that have personally affected her. What emerges is an elegant meditation on the relationship between truth and the camera frame, as Johnson transforms scenes that have been presented on Festival screens as one kind of truth into another kind of story—one about personal journey, craft, and direct human connection.

Fort Bliss

After returning home from an extended tour in Afghanistan, a decorated U.S. Army medic and single mother struggles to rebuild her relationship with her young son.

Halo Legends

The universe of the Halo video game series is expanded in seven short animated films from Japan's greatest anime directors and studios.

Aquaman: Heroines of Atlantis

Amber Heard and Nicole Kidman discuss their characters Mera and Atlanna.

Atlantis Rising

James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici go on an adventure to find the lost city of Atlantis by using Greek philosopher Plato as a virtual treasure map.

Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl

Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.

Curve

Clinging to a smooth, curved surface high above a sentient abyss, a woman tries to cover the few feet back to safety without losing purchase and falling to her death.