When three friends take a road trip to an idyllic forest and drop acid, one is lured into a mystic web of hallucination and nightmare. Jimmy Joe Roche directs “Skin of Man,” an experimental horror film that creates vivid textures with avant-garde technique. The black and white film is free of dia...

Gilbert refuses to have a sad Christmas this year. NoBudge regular Alex Kavutskiy directs “Gilbert’s Little Christmas,” an L.A. holiday comedy which monitors an aspiring entrepreneur (his big idea is hamburgers on a stick) that’s lost all hope after being dumped on Christmas day a year ago. Gilbe...

A woman gets dumped by her boyfriend as everyone else in the world is deeply in love. Fareeha Khan writes and stars in “Break Up, Baby,” a sharply written and performed comedy that weaves in colorful touches of animation and surrealism. After a painful conversation at a diner ends their relations...

On Valentine's Day in Toronto, a young couple's relationship is fragmented by performance. “V-DAY,” directed by Zachary Lacosse, is a slow-burn drama that’s highly observant of a long-distance couple and their awaited encounter to see each other on the February holiday. We meet a young man, in hi...

An awkward guest shows up to a party and makes things weird for everyone. Written by Kate Berlant, Andrew DeYoung and John Early, “Rachel” is a hilariously creepy portrait of a strange evening in the lives of a group of L.A. creatives. Early stars as the man throwing a party for his boyfriend, Go...

A surreal fever-dream about the isolation and suffocation of the quarantine experience. “6FT.,” directed by Francesca Pazniokas, is a visually striking experimental film brimming with colorful textures and vivid soundscapes. Stuck at home for days on end, a figure goes about their life constricte...

Four friends live in a toxic state of limbo until world events change everything. David Dunnington’s “What Is You Laughing Four” is an energetic look at the highs and lows of male friendship in all its camaraderie and inexplicability. Set in Philadelphia, we meet the group of friends as they slow...

A woman endures frequent nightmares of her own death while finding it impossible to determine what’s real. Directed by Lexx Truss, “Zarina” is potent horror, a disorienting trek into the deep recesses of the mind — terror is alleviated with momentary blips of relief only to return stronger. Zarin...

A supernatural shard of a film concerning a troubled young woman at a lake house. Directed by Zach Fleming.

An eco-warrior gets out of jail and an old friend tries to pull him back into the fray. A mystifying film, a cheap production & awkward, unnatural interactions make it seem like maybe it's a ruse. Either way, it's intriguing & I recommend you watch at least twice. The film is basically one conver...

The act of transporting an old mattress into a new walk-up apartment becomes absurdist one-woman choreography in this wordless vignette. Directed by Adinah Dancyger. Starring Hannah Gross.

Etta returns home from Vegas with a pile of cash and needs to explain to her boyfriend how she got it. Jessica Garrison writes and directs “DIME,” a provocative chamber drama circling a host of relationship hot buttons - trust, jealousy, sex, power. The situation escalates bit by bit - Etta arriv...

A couple rebrands their struggling haunted house business amid the pandemic. “Spooky Town,” directed by and starring Omar Shaukat and Anna Suzuki, is a sign-of-the-times mockumentary that follows a hapless duo through badly executed attempts to frighten their customers. While they wait for their ...

In this experimental fashion film, a young woman enjoys a peaceful, secluded picnic before venturing into the bustling city. “Australian Sweetheart”, by Jane Inyang, is composed of a series of elegant images portraying a feeling and a style. We’re paying close attention to the clothes and the com...

A found footage compilation of a young drifter’s Mini-DV adventures. Michael Santos’s “trash moth” offers a series of vignettes discovered from a young man’s handycam that becomes progressively darker. Felix makes friends with a group of hooligans in hopes they will give him a beer. Next, he has ...

A group of teenagers from the UK fall desperately in love with the same person. “True Love,” by Jess Dadds and Sam Giles, is a Super-8 snapshot of early entanglements with infatuation, a love letter to a collective feeling. Shown as a step-printed sequence of images, we see the friends lounging a...

A heartbroken man comes to New York City to sell the rings from his seven failed engagements. Matt Nelsen directs “Seven Rings,” a perfectly awkward romantic comedy about the sad life of a gregarious man. Looking to move on from a string of failed romances, Jerry Pound tries to convince himself h...

A mentally unstable young man takes care of his grandfather while alienating everyone else in his life. “Pricks of Sensation,” directed by Alex Sulock, is a disturbing portrait of a downward spiral, a pitch black fever dream tracking a man on the verge of snapping. Tending to his ailing grandfath...

In a trash-filled city, a homeless woman's encounter with a fish takes an unexpected turn. Elly Stern directs “Waste Away,” a beautifully designed and executed stop-motion animated film, an allegory of motherhood in various forms, and a depiction of the overabundance, wastefulness and decay of mo...