On Thanksgiving morning, a foster family of agoraphobic shut-ins sends their most courageous teen to hunt for a Thanksgiving turkey. Theo Matza’s “Tate’s Parade” delivers on autumnal sentiments in a city where eccentric characters hide behind every corner. It’s the morning of Turkey Day, and the ...

A girl sends a sexually explicit DM to her celebrity crush. In Jessica Ryan’s “I Swear to God I’m not Crazy,” a young woman from Worcester, Massachusetts attempts to craft a raunchy video through a series of peculiar role-played performances and an amusing narration. Piper Conley stands in front ...

Over the course of a muggy summer day in New England, two friends meander from place to place, getting high and avoiding the aftermath of a recent family tragedy. “Out of Body,” directed by Miles Dixon, is a moment-to-moment observation of both the joy and aloofness of a youthful bond. Cam and Ry...

In a flashback, a woman is accused of over-narrativizing her life and makes that accusation into a narrative. Summer Benotwitz’s “Difficult Woman” is a two-minute snapshot of a couple amidst a peevish argument. In a Los Angeles bar, the couple (played by Lily Lady and Cameron Cowperthwait) meet f...

Through an autobiographical video essay, a dance artist muses on her transition from restaurant work to full-time teaching. Miriam Gabriel’s “Verbal Diarrhea” is a self-reflective journal entry about career shifts during a particularly manic period of the pandemic. We first find Miriam in the out...

A box-office clerk is forced to deal with a hot-tempered patron. David Cardoza’s “Life in the Cage” is a comedic vignette capturing a confrontation outside of a movie theater. Behind the glass, a box-office attendant reads a comic as a frantic movie-goer rushes to the window. The man, increasingl...

Two unnerving experiences with “good guys” highlight the different ways that two young women react to men and the gray areas of sex and desire. Written by and starring Elizabeth O'Donnell and Annalisa Plumb, “Pillow Talk” is a candid exploration of the dynamics of sexual intimacy, and the dialog...

Two tortured men spend the day taking care of one another. Michael Rees’ “Guzzle Buddies” features a charismatic Lewis Pullman and Kyle Chase in a darkly comedic examination of male friendship and deep-seated crisis. Lewis comes home to find his roommate, Kyle, in the middle of an existential pan...

As she tries to wrangle her two-year-old daughter and an old dog, a young, single mother collects recyclables. Jefferey Liu’s “Hustle Mode” is a textured, New York City story shot on 16mm rendered with flustered charisma. With a waddling Beagle by her side, Lexi takes a bag of cans and bottles to...

An exploration of the emotional divide between fiction and reality in the American sitcom. Philip Thompson’s “Living Reality” puts the peculiar form of sitcom into perspective when a character shows strange symptoms and signs of longing. The spoof TV-show, also called “Living Reality,” starts and...

Two teams of men compete in a game of their own invention until a problem arises and an arbiter steps in to solve their dispute. Kati Skelton directs “The Arbiter,” a comedy made of dramatic prose, friars, and fishermen. In the banquet hall of a motel, two teams of men stand divided. They’ve been...

Parodying a psychology edutainment program, this fictional broadcast explores the world of optical illusions and beyond. Clare Ruddy’s “Brain Job: Perception” is a hilarious spoof on pop psychology filled with absurd animations and non sequitur riddles. Ruddy plays the host and offers a stream of...