Obinagụ is not human. They are a spirit who walks among us, taking the form of a worker each day, only to return each evening to the forest they call home, a place where they feel whole and free, where they don’t have to perform or hide.
Social & External
The people behind it
Ololade Olokun
Obinagụ
A dying man in his forties recalls his childhood, his mother, the war and personal moments that tell of and juxtapose pivotal moments in Soviet history with daily life.
Begotten is the creation myth brought to life, the story of no less than the violent death of God and the (re)birth of nature on a barren earth.
Little is known of Jean Speck (1860-1933) beyond the fact that he opened Zurich’s first cinema. Rouzbeh Rashidi and Jann Clavadetscher consider the flittering black and white ghosts and shadows that he left in his wake in their phantasmagorical experimental feature film. This journey through a cinematic night probes the very essence of the cinematic image.
Homo Sapiens Project (200) was completed in 2020 as part of the 20th anniversary of Experimental Film Society. This eight-hour experimental feature is constituted from short film experiments made between 2000 to 2010. These films have already undergone many metamorphoses over the years. They were always restless wandering spirits seeking a permanent place of rest but so far without success. Each section of Homo Sapiens Project (200) was made under the unique condition of living out a form of subtle therapeutic practice. Collectively they reflect major life-changing events, formalistic mutations and thematic shifts within Rouzbeh Rashidi’s filmography. In spite of this, they could not find the peace of a satisfactory final shape. Indeed, they are about peace, something that rarely (if ever) exists within Rashidi’s work. But now, after twenty years of roaming the subconscious, they have come to rest in a permanent retirement in one world, one very personal floating planet.
Homo Sapiens Project (201) was completed in 2021 as part of re-envisioning and restructuring Rashidi's filmography. This nineteen-hour experimental feature is constituted from many feature films produced between 2002 to 2014. These experimental features were made as a type of test or trial experiment. Rashidi assembled the films from footage accumulated over the years, archival footage, found footage and rushes donated by his close collaborators.
Park ranger Angelica seeks the help of her dog handler ex-boyfriend, Viktor, to search for a missing woman in a dangerous nature reserve in Sweden. The search is complicated by a disturbing myth about the Cave Banshee, a vengeful spirit from the Nordic folklore that once lured miners to their deaths in the reserve's treacherous caves. As they delve deeper into the forest, Viktor starts to question his own sanity and whether the rumored Banshee is more than just a myth. To make matters worse, Angelica and Viktor share a painful history with the haunted place. Viktor must now confront his troubled past and work together with Angelica to survive the night and unravel the mystery behind the woman's disappearance.
Deep within the enigmatic Forest of Eels, curious creatures answer a mysterious summons to join in what they believe will be a joyous celebration and sacred ritual. But as they gather beneath the towering fog of the cauldron, the atmosphere turns darker than they ever imagined.
Exploring love's complexities, an experimental film captures a woman's brief yet significant journey, prompting her to break free and embrace newfound liberation
A year after losing her mother, a young girl learns that she must journey across Japan to the annual gathering of gods in the sacred land of Izumo.
Aruz, who lost his son during migration, one day finds a strange creature with one eye on his head, brings him to the village and raises him as his own cub. Years pass, Aruz finds his missing son, and Grandpa Gorgud names him Basat. Tepegoz, who has already grown up and finished painting, starts eating people one day. When the people found out about this, they kicked Tepagöz out of the village. After Tepagoz's mother, the fairy, bathed him in the lake of Kir, he is no longer affected by weapons, and Tepagoz made a condition in front of the people that they should bring one man and 500 sheep every day. If not, he will raze the whole place to the ground. Seeing that Oban is in such a difficult situation, Dede Gorgud says, "Basat is the only solution." As a result of the dream he saw, Basat, who returned from his trip incomplete, tricks Tepegoz and defeats him and saves the people from trouble.
After the end of a relationship, a young Belgian woman remains alone in an isolated house and turns silence, repetition, and solitude into forms of existence and resistance to forgetting.
Parallel stories of two siblings. One follows a marine biologist searching for a mythical sea creature in Costa Rica, who perhaps has dark intentions. The other follows her shipwrecked older brother who is saved by a Costa Rican fisherman who believes he has found his new son.
Mavka, a Soul of the Forest, faces an impossible choice between love and her duty as Guardian of the Heart of the Forest when she falls for a human, a talented young musician named Lukas.
A tale of people unfolds under the night sky. These doomed couples and lost individuals begin journeys and attempt to find resolution in their lives. Love is observed from a distance, sadness is in the air. With little sympathy for the loss and destruction caused to the characters, the stories progress and become neatly woven into a minimalistic portrayal of modern life.
A group of kids embarks in a macabre adventure, full of characters from the Brazilian popular imaginary - the werewolf, a witch, a ghost, monsters and The Saci.
Vintage pornography reels from the archives of Italy’s National Film Museum display over an AI recitation of Dante's The Divine Comedy.
A comic study of 20th-century history, reconstructing the life of writer, creator and professional prisoner Tulse Luper. Born in 1911 Newport and last heard of in 1989, Luper’s life is pieced together from the evidence found in 92 suitcases scattered across the globe. In the first of three parts, we follow Luper through three distinct episodes: as a child during the First World War; as an explorer in Mormon Utah; and as a writer in Belgium during the rise of fascism.
"21 Days" illustrates a love triangle starring Bete, her boyfriend, Jonas and Agatha, a childhood friend of Jonas. Told from three different points of view, the narrative was inspired by the songs "cardigan", "august" and "betty", from the album "folklore" by singer Taylor Swift.
A documentary filmmaker explores seemingly unrelated paranormal incidents connected by the legend of an ancient demon.
Ocean was a girl and now just a paper head. Her brother reminisces the times they shared during their childhood, a sorry experience that birthed emotional scars.
In 1917, two children take a photograph, which is soon believed by some to be the first scientific evidence of the existence of fairies. Based on the true story of the Cottingley Fairies.
A bureaucrat interviews five souls to decide which of them will be given a life on Earth. But he soon faces an existential challenge of his own.
A mysterious woman comes in to town and inhabits the local haunted mansion, making everyone wonder if she's a witch or "The Grey Lady".
A mother and her teenage daughter must confront Death when it arrives in the form of an astonishing talking bird.
This psychedelic tour of life after death is seen entirely from the point of view of Oscar, a young American drug dealer and addict living in Tokyo with his prostitute sister, Linda. When Oscar is killed by police during a bust gone bad, his spirit journeys from the past -- where he sees his parents before their deaths -- to the present -- where he witnesses his own autopsy -- and then to the future, where he looks out for his sister from beyond the grave.
After an affair with a queen leads to his demise, an eager traveler encounters a mystical bird with the power to give him another life.
When a teenaged girl moves to England, with her brothers and parents into the ancient Canterville Hall, she's not at all happy. Especially as there's a ghost and a mysterious re-appearing bloodstain on the hearth. She campaigns to go back home, and her dad, believing the ghost's pranks are Ginny's, is ready to send her back. But then Ginny actually meets the elusive 17th-century Sir Simon de Canterville (not to mention the cute teenaged duke next door), and she sets her hand to the task of freeing Sir Simon from his curse.
A young girl Abigail lives in a city whose borders were closed many years ago because of an epidemic of a mysterious disease. Abby's father was one of the sick - and he was taken when she was six years old. Going against the authorities to find his father, Abby learns that her city is actually full of magic. And she discovers in herself extraordinary magical abilities.
While Jane Holman is driving with her two sons, she accidentally runs into a drifter, Jack McCloud, who breaks his leg. Being responsible, Jane invites Jack, and his dog, to stay at her home until his leg has healed. Jack struggles to adapt their lifestyle, and finds himself loved by the family.
On Christmas Eve, a fighter pilot on his way home becomes lost while flying over water and needs a miracle to land safely.
Romulus, a misunderstood musician turned recluse hiding from personal demons in a New York City cave, finds the frozen body of a young drifter in a tree. The authorities, including his police officer daughter, claim the death is accidental. Romulus is convinced the man was murdered by a prominent art photographer but how can he prove he's right when everyone thinks he's insane?
A series of uncanny déjà vu events force a man to re-examine his tragic past, memory, instinct, and future.
Vincent, an artist with unresolved inner demons, meets a mysterious girl who helps him come to terms with his creative legacy… and eventual death.
Three people — a blue-collar American, a French journalist and a London school boy — are touched by death in different ways.
After the collapse of Earth's ecosystem, Vesper, a 13-year-old girl struggling to survive with her paralyzed Father, meets a mysterious Woman with a secret that forces Vesper to use her wits, strength and bio-hacking abilities to fight for the possibility of a future.
The year is 1955, and a great flood is coming to Northfork, Montana. A new hydroelectric dam is about to be installed in the mountains above the town, ready to submerge the valley in the name of progress. It is the responsibility of a six-man Evacuation Committee to relocate the townsfolk to higher ground. Most have duly departed, but a few stubborn stragglers remain – among them a priest caring for a sickly orphan, a boy whose fevered visions are leading him to believe he is a member of a roaming band of lost angels desperately searching for a way home.
In New York City, Clary Fray, a seemingly ordinary teenager, learns that she is descended from a line of Shadowhunters — half-angel warriors who protect humanity from evil forces. After her mother disappears, Clary joins forces with a group of Shadowhunters and enters Downworld, an alternate realm filled with demons, vampires, and a host of other creatures. Clary and her companions must find and protect an ancient cup that holds the key to her mother's future.
The students of Anubis House are on the eve of their graduation when they encounter a new group of underclassmen and a mysterious stone that leads them on a quest to save the world from evil.
A dog goes on quest to discover his purpose in life over the course of several lifetimes with multiple owners.
The witch from Pixar's Brave uses magical illustrations to tell the legend of a power-obsessed prince who sought a magic spell that would allow him to wrest control of a kingdom from his brothers, only to destroy that kingdom and his own fate as well.