Gloria plans to catch the bus from Chinatown back home to her native Virginia, but along the way, she runs into old friends and bad habits. Directed by Deni Cheng, “Bucko!” is an edgy naturalistic drama carried by the captivating Eloisa Santos as Gloria (aka Bucko). Her suitcase is packed but she...

Jim Cochran hates his job, he wishes he could just shoot clay pigeons all day.

Directed by James P. Gannon.

An emotionally unstable outcast attempts to make a connection with three unsuspecting college students. “Angel of the Night,” directed by Nick Verdi, is a pitch black character study (darkly funny depending on your tolerance for aggressively anti-social, antagonizing behavior) that follows a 35-y...

In a world where time travel is commonplace, two friends confront a secret one of them has been keeping. “When You Were Born” is mumblecore sci-fi, a high concept, lo-fi drama that defies metaphysical constraints. Writer/Director/Editor: Zephyr Sheedy. Starring Victoria Lowry, Audrey Stemann and ...

Simple story about two Belarus teenagers in love. It doesn't scream for your attention but it doesn't have to - it's got sincerity on its side. Mumblecore must have reached eastern Europe, or they've invented their own version, because that's a good starting point here. A low-key, naturalistic sc...

A harmless driving lesson quickly turns into a survival lesson on police encounters. “Ten & Two,” directed by Travis Wood, is a vignette about a mother and teenage son in the suburbs preparing for the inevitability of racial profiling. On a test drive, the son misses a stop sign and rattles the ...

A lo-fi parable about a young kid in Detroit who turns to scrapping to provide for his family. Portraying poverty and struggle without sensationalizing, it treats its characters as complicated individuals -- real people faced with real choices -- not as symbols of poor urban life. The oldest sibl...

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 ...

On a laid-back summer day, a young woman spends some time with her casual partner. Irmak Akgur directs “Limerence,” a slice-of-life portrait that flows in uninhibited vignettes. Minimally plotted but tonally sharp, Akgur’s film captures a couple of free spirits in their element — spending the day...

Tired of everyone ignoring her, a filmmaker rides the London Underground from one end to the other. Julia Mervis directs “The Misery Line,” a quaint and comedic satirical documentary on modern commuter-culture and transit. Dressed in her sized-up suit and red tie, Mervis makes it clear that she w...

A cook is offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to act in a film. “The Role,” directed by Paolo Chianta, is a hand-drawn animated film that traces a quiet man’s foray into an unfamiliar world. After discovering that he bears a striking resemblance to their father, a pair of siblings ask the co...

A male stripper has an unusual experience on the job in Mary Dauterman’s “Unfinished Business.” From a script co-written by Jenny Donheiser, the film is an awkward comedy that uses 1980’s costuming and choreography to highlight its dingy tableaus and expressionless ladies. When he arrives to a mo...

In Corona, Queens, two Ecuadorian siblings are placed at odds when one reveals an urge to leave their home. Emilio Subia’s “Naños” drops us into the bumbling lives of two brothers and the high-stakes drama that allures them. Fleeing a petty heist, Diego sprints through the subway alongside his pa...

A little girl receives a letter from Santa Claus in this short and sweet holiday film from director Eric Paschal Johnson, co-director of “Observatory Blues”. Over a series of richly melancholic 16mm compositions of a young girl lugging a Christmas tree through fields and forests, Santa narrates a...

Desensitized by millennial romance, Rose and Teddy turn to a Tinder-esque sugar dating app for disposable income. “Daddy’s Playground,” created by and starring Boni Mata and Ashley Morgan, is a kinetic, darkly humorous tale of feminine agency, a “soft-core, arthouse, thriller, trash production” f...