While recuperating from cosmetic surgery, an actress stops in a small town expecting peace and quiet, but instead finds herself absorbed in a local legend. “Pure Immersion,” directed by Dave Biddle and Dave Ehrenreich, is a strangely engrossing tale of a young woman covered in face bandages makin...

A lonesome woman with strong moral fiber meets a new man for a late night drink. “Bar Snakes,” directed by Alex Warren, is a boozy vignette that perfectly captures the flirtatious maneuverings of two tipsy souls. The woman (played by Kate Adams) is already drunk when the date starts; the man (pla...

Instructional videos on how to survive an active shooter attack send a paranoid man into a self-fulfilling spiral. Dylan Redford directs “Emergency Action Plan,” a layered satire and personal essay film which explores emergency readiness drills ranging from Redford’s childhood to the present day....

An Illinois farming family on the verge of collapse confronts an uncertain future, and a tick finds a host. “Gossamer,” directed by Charlie Schmidlin is a heavy drama exploring familial hardship, generational loyalty, and a shifting society. Drawing on his own family’s experience, Schmidlin rende...

During the Covid-19 pandemic, a mother returns her son’s missed phone call. “It’s Your Mother Calling,” directed by NoBudge favorite Travis Wood, is a touching animated micro-short that uses a real voicemail message over a series of colorful visuals. It’s a portrait of longing and motherly advice...

At a mysterious job interview, a massively in-debt young man finds himself caught up in an unpredictable scheme with a Gen-X Upcycler. “They Fly By Night,” directed by Ross Kolton and Bill Tangradi, is a homespun crime comedy set in a fully fleshed-out world of vintage goods buying/selling, and (...

A Michigan man prepares for an annual ice fishing trip with a group of old friends. Pete Johnston directs and narrates “Ice Fishing In a Climate Crisis That Precedes a Global Pandemic,” a lighthearted personal documentary that details a tradition going back to 2013 where a group of men gather in ...

A Japanese-American woman travels to Tokyo to find a very specific can of paint for a friend’s boss. “Space White,” directed by Isaac Ravishankara, is a quiet character study of Sam who arrives in Japan without knowing the language or culture. The store she’s been told will have the paint she’s l...

A group of police cadets are mercilessly hazed as they suffer through the worst day of their training. Andrew T. Betzer directs “Important Police Shit,” a series of provocative vignettes tracking the physical and emotional abuse that cops-in-training endure, a captivating but painful glimpse insi...

A struggling actor suffering from an ear infection takes his pain out on the world. “Ear Ache” is an uncomfortably engrossing dark comedy directed by Alex Kavutskiy carried by a potent, on-the-edge performance from DeMorge Brown. Twice a year, Frederik Beltran can have a surgery on his ear that t...

Amidst a mandatory quarantine, a young woman living in isolation battles her growing paranoia and deteriorating mental health. Meg Case and Brad Porter direct “Wrath,” a craftily devised and executed homemade project, which in any other year would fall firmly in the sci-fi horror realm; in 2020, ...

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...

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 ...

Zablah, a demon baby boomer, seeks to convince a millennial to eat at Applebee’s. Ryan Betschart and Rachel Nakawatase direct “Zablah,” a gritty comic oddity shot on 16mm (using a film stock that looks almost like 8mm) that uses a clickbait headline as a springboard to tackle a generational divid...

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...

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, two friends on a FaceTime call experience a dispute with a neighbor. Entirely presented as a video screen capture, Tanner Jarman’s film becomes an inadvertent tour through the racist viral videos of the day as we follow a young black man walking down the str...

Lessa and Cass are young lovers in a small town who dream of moving to Florida in this impressionistic portrait directed by Monica Lek. “And She Hisses” is a pulsating snapshot of the beauty and recklessness of young love, a fantasy that could last forever or be gone tomorrow. Cass gets a job at ...

After a difficult break-up, Annie reckons with the imminent departure of another close friend who is moving away from their shared apartment and city. From a script she co-wrote with Hannah Rehak, Nina Slesinger directs “Downbeat,” an intelligent and emotionally astute portrait of friendship and ...

During an editorial fashion shoot, a callous director and client toy with their model. “A Woman Eats,” written by and starring Frances Li, shows a woman trying to “act natural” as she’s subjected to increasingly humiliating questions and intrusions into her personal life. Posed in a lush still li...

After a job interview, Main arrives home to a chaotic scene involving her little brother and a warlock-wannabe neighbor. Abigail Bruley directs “Main Absolves,” an enigmatic comedy about a young woman at odds with her family / life. She didn’t get the job that her parents thought was a done deal,...

A platonic meet-cute at a bus stop whimsically spirals into a surprising connection between a makeup artist and a nun. In “Sisters,” written by Beth Hoyt & directed by Nicole Emanuele, nothing is quite what it seems and getting exactly what you wished for is not necessarily a good thing. Waiting ...

A woman tries to clean her apartment, but her unkempt lover won't let her. Sara Silva directs and stars in “Dirt,” an experimental portrait of a messy relationship built with layers of spontaneous energy and complex threads of dissatisfaction. The two women wake up on the couch to find a dirty ap...