An unexpected visit from her super sends an anxious woman scrambling to hide evidence of her cat. “No Pets,” directed by and starring Billie Michael, takes a simple conceit and finds plenty of tension, awkwardness, and humor. Arriving to her apartment, the woman discovers that her building’s supe...

A young woman tries to embrace her sexuality while beginning to question the intimacy with her best friend. Lucy Blumenfield & Arielle Friedman direct “Countdown,” a tender snapshot that finds two friends at different stages of sexual expression. A bedroom conversation establishes Julia as the fr...

A young dancer tries to make rent while relying on the financial support of her sugar daddy. Through candid storytelling and docu-fictional modes, Abby Harri’s “Side Hustle” observes the intimacy in the life of a sex worker with a client. Eden, a contemporary dancer, starts her morning making vid...

After viewing a botched depiction of himself, a nude drawing model sprouts an ear from the back of his head. Nathan Ginter’s “The Third Ear” is an understated thriller with a surreal take on self image. Working as a janitor, a middle-aged man mops the floor of an art gallery space. At the end of ...

A young man with vision problems deals with his caustic friends and a bizarrely ominous influence. “Eyeballs,” directed by Cooper Herzog Olson, is an experimental oddity, a stream-of-consciousness DIY tone poem about learning to see, but not too much. Wandering around a small beach town, Dennis e...

While making a documentary about a heavily polluted town, a filmmaker takes interest in a neighborhood teenager as a compelling subject. Max Drexler’s “Phillips” is a docu-fictional portrait of an American town and the grim anxieties cast over a particular resident. The filmmaker walks us through...

A recent graduate poaches rare books from his geriatric roommate. Sam Brodsky directs “Mint Condition,” a NYC story tracking a young Irish lad in his quiet quest through a niche enclave of the literary world. Oscar makes breakfast for his roommate and landlord, Jerry. They sit across from each ot...

A constable, young officer, and dysfunctional family try to get to the bottom of a murder. Jonah Bergman directs “Music for the China Doll,” an eccentric murder mystery shot entirely on broadcast television tube cameras. The dead body of Madame Charlotte Dubois lies in the middle of a living room...

A family quarantining together at their home in New Jersey are unable to leave their kitchen. Michelle Uranowitz directs “I Can’t Get Out of the Kitchen,” an absurdist home video filmed on an old VHS camera which is an intriguing combination of the mundane and the unexplainable. A dad makes a san...

A queer woman’s sleepover with her girlfriend resurfaces buried sexual traumas, blurring the lines between fantasy and pain. Tiger Hornby directs “Night Milk,” an experiential drama realizing the hallucinogenic disassociation between mind and body during sex and its internal epicenter. It’s the e...

A young man becomes suspicious of his downstairs neighbor after letting her use his fire escape. Camille Casmier directs “Intruder,” a compelling drama that graphs exponential unease and distrust that may be racially complicated. While preparing dinner, Sam, a white man, hears a knock at the door...

A young couple surveys the state of their relationship, calling into question everything they once knew about each other. “Breaking Up,” directed by Claudia Nankervis and Jessica Sofarnos, is a heated drama about partnership and communication, and the punctures that threaten to dissolve such. Ste...

A young woman teeters on the brink of adulthood while trying to grapple with the heartbreak that comes from a drifting friendship. In “It’s All Happening,” Sammy Grand contends with the realities of adult friendship, observing shifts in emotions and perspective. Their current form of friendship i...

A young woman arranges viewings for her one-bedroom house, which she may not be genuine about actually renting. Ryan Leedu directs “No Bedroom,” a character study that builds intrigue with an ordinarily mundane task that raises questions of intent. At first it seems like a typical situation: a wo...

A harrowing account of a leadership seminar gone rogue in 1970’s California. In “You've Never Been Completely Honest,” a hybrid-documentary directed by Joey Izzo, a mixture of animation and reenactment footage brings to life a brutal audio interview. In 1972, a man named Gene recounts his experie...

A YouTube food critic goes to great lengths to try the new Taco Bell™ Crispy Chicken Wings©. Bobby McCoy directs the internet culture satire, “Trying The New TACO BELL CRISPY CHICKEN WINGS (Food Review),” which reflects the abundances and absurdities of a hyper-corporatized modern age, in a fashi...

An audacious drama about betrayal and gossip revolving around a college Halloween party gone wrong. A girlfriend cheats on her boyfriend with a man named Goatee Ralph, which sends her boyfriend, Jimmy, spiraling across campus in a rage. The next day, two classmates recount the incident in increas...

Sarah Lasley is a video artist from Louisville, Kentucky and an Assistant Professor of Film at Cal Poly Humboldt. She has screened
internationally at film festivals and universities, notably the Cairo Video Festival in Egypt and National Chiao Tung University in Taiwan. Her museum and gallery exh...

Ryan McGlade is a writer, director, and editor. His films have been featured in film festivals around the world, including Palm Springs International ShortFest, Montclair Film Festival, Maryland Film Festival, and the Bushwick Film Festival, where Hoss was awarded the Programmer's Choice Award fo...

A young mother finds a key that opens the door for her son’s escape. A kinetic experimental film made entirely from still photographs, Thea Lorentzen’s “A Key for the Kid,” is a small marvel in abstract ingenuity. The year is 2100 and the task is to find a blinking red key hidden in the forest. T...

Two alien sisters journey for the first time to their favorite planet Earth with hopes to go viral on the internet, but their father has other plans for them and their beloved humans. Director: Sophia de Baun. Cast: Miriam Gabriel and Zora Schiltz Rouse. Producers: Sophia de Baun, Miriam Gabriel ...