Sundance Film Festival 2023

<p>Within the human struggle to live and work, and with the materials for survival available for exploitation, seemingly foreign worlds are intertwined in the modern battlefield of patents, ownership, and colonialism. Delving into labor and science practices,<em> A Common Sequence</em> examines who gets to work with the essentials of life &mdash; saving animals from extinction, researching medicine, harvesting food, coding the genome &mdash; in our modern world controlled by data.</p> <p>Filmmakers Mary Helena Clark and Mike Gibisser take us to the areas and people involved in these physical and political worlds with an intuitive visual style, letting the audience experience each location&rsquo;s atmosphere. Take the achoque salamander, which can regenerate limbs and even its heart, the intellectual property rights of apple trees, and the commodification of human DNA. The film eloquently guides us through the philosophy of what is &ldquo;common&rdquo; to everyone in nature and the complicated pursuits of owning materials of the planet and even our bodies, whether for conservation or for sale. The resulting discussion could change all our lives!</p>

<p>Rakesh and Ganesh are so close, they consider themselves brothers. Both are fishermen of Bombay&#39;s Indigenous Koli community, but they&#39;ve taken contrasting paths. Rakesh uses his inheritance &mdash; his father&#39;s boat and the knowledge passed down by generations of Koli fisherman &mdash; to fish in the traditional ways, while Ganesh &mdash; who was educated abroad &mdash; has instead embraced modern, technology-driven, and environmentally destructive methods of deep-sea fishing, causing increasing friction between the friends. But with declining fish populations caused by pollution and invasive species, neither man is finding much success, adding to the burdens facing their young families, and testing the bonds of their brotherhood.</p> <p>Director Sarvnik Kaur takes a deeply humanistic and intimate approach in her profile of these two men at a crossroads in both their friendship and profession. Immersing the viewer in their experiences, where neither man is hero or villain in the choices they make to survive in an imperiled world, she presents a microcosmic, sea level view of the fragility of our relationship with the changing environment.</p>

<p>Teenage aspiring journalist Itsy is miserable when her family moves to the small town of Pebble Falls. Among the new challenges &mdash; a fixer-upper house and unfriendly high schoolers, to name a few &mdash; Itsy meets Calvin, her strange, space-obsessed neighbor and classmate. Itsy befriends Calvin in hopes of writing an expos&eacute; on the oddball for a summer internship back in New York City, but she soon discovers that the amateur astronaut has an out-of-this-world secret. Calvin believes his parents were abducted by aliens, and it&rsquo;s his mission to find and join them in outer space. As they endeavor to uncover the truth, the pair of outsiders foster a surprising and heartwarming friendship.</p> <p>A lighthearted yet touching family narrative set against the backdrop of the beautiful Utah landscape, <em>Aliens Abducted My Parents and Now I Feel Kinda Left Out </em>is a story about embracing what makes us different, finding belonging, and staying true to yourself. Suitable for kids (and aliens) of all ages</p>

<p>Heavily pregnant Itto looks forward to a day of peace and quiet when she gets her affluent household mostly to herself after her husband Amine goes away on business. She&rsquo;s quickly lost sight of her modest origins and has adapted to her new family&rsquo;s detached opulence. But when a mysterious state of emergency is declared nationwide, Itto struggles to find help; meanwhile, increasingly ominous events and strange weather phenomena suggest a supernatural presence is nearing. While frantically searching for a way back to Amine, Itto unexpectedly finds emancipation and the possibility of solace in a new world order.</p> <p>Sofia&#39;s&nbsp;astonishing feature debut is an imaginative sci-fi that explores the unsettling circumstances of a world that no longer seems recognizable. With a hypnotic visual sensibility, <em>Animalia</em> explores the tension between faith and purpose, eroding myths and challenging class prejudice to expose the ways we are all more connected than we know.</p>

<p>While researching Australia&rsquo;s deteriorating coral reefs, marine biologist Abby receives word of her elderly mother Dora&rsquo;s stroke. As she rushes to her seaside hometown to care for Dora, Abby recalls her childhood years spent living in concert with the ocean, and her mother&rsquo;s efforts to protect the bay from greedy developers and invasive fishermen alike, often to the detriment of their own relationship. Among the coral gardens, Abby also befriends a rare fish, the blue groper &ndash; affectionately named Blueback &ndash; a tether to her environmentalism, and the key to reminding Abby and Dora of their love for one another and the vulnerable waters they call home.</p> <p>Based on Tim Winton&rsquo;s 1997 novella of the same name, <em>Blueback</em> is a complex and emotional film about a mother and daughter&rsquo;s passion for the ocean and each other. Actors Mia Wasikowska, Radha Mitchell, and Eric Bana return to the Sundance Film Festival in this poignant, visually stunning film that serves as a beautiful reminder of the power within all of us to make a difference.</p>

<p>Matthieu Rytz returns to Sundance (<em>Anote&rsquo;s Ark</em>, 2018 Sundance Film Festival) with this up-to-the-minute tale of geopolitical, scientific, and corporate intrigue that exposes the machinations of a secretive organization empowered to greenlight massive extraction of metals from the deep seafloor that are deemed essential to the electric battery revolution.</p> <p>Narrated by Jason Momoa, <em>Deep Rising</em> illuminates the vital relationship between the deep ocean and sustaining life on Earth. The documentary also follows mining startup The Metals Company, as it pursues funding, public favor, and permission from the International Seabed Authority to mine wide swathes of the Pacific Ocean floor.</p> <p>Rytz&rsquo;s fly-on-the-wall access observes extraction companies as they co-opt scientific studies and deliver pitches to investors, proposing how the costs of industrializing our Earth&rsquo;s last pristine environment can be justified to access metals they claim will benefit all of mankind. As oil conglomerates pivot investments to deep-ocean mining, <em>Deep Rising</em> examines humanity&rsquo;s destructive pattern of extracting materials for profit and asks why we don&rsquo;t choose, instead, to develop abundant resources to solve our energy problems.</p>

<p>Descending to remarkable depths below the sea on one single breath, Alessia Zecchini enters what she describes as the last quiet place on Earth. The Italian champion is determined to set a new world record in freediving, a dangerous extreme sport in which competitors attempt to reach the greatest depth without the use of scuba gear. Freedivers are often subject to blackouts upon ascent, necessitating the help of safety divers like Stephen Keenan, a free-spirited Irish adventurer who fell in love with the sport in Dahab, Egypt. Having formed a special bond on the freediving circuit, Alessia and Stephen train together to make an attempt on Dahab&rsquo;s legendary Blue Hole and its challenging 85-foot-long tunnel 184 feet below the Red Sea, their fates inextricably bound together.</p> <p>Filmmaker Laura McGann deftly weaves together the parallel stories of Alessia and Stephen, capturing their preternatural diving ability and their nascent relationship against a stunning underwater backdrop. Immersed in the beauty, stillness, and peril of the deep, you&rsquo;ll be holding your breath to see what happens next.</p>

<p>A meticulous dissection of image-making and a mapping of its movement through society, directors Axel Danielson and Maximilien Van Aertryck use a mind-boggling array of archival footage to collage this sociological study by tracking the transmogrification of photographic philosophy and technology over human history. Weaving and contrasting some of the most iconic, harrowing, and viral images in our collective memory with user-generated footage that transports the viewer through time, space, and experience, Danielson and Van Aertryck intricately fashion an argument about how humans see ourselves that feels rigorous, learned, and current.</p> <p>The signature analytical style this directing duo developed collaborating on shorts maps beautifully to this, their directorial debuts, arriving them to the features sphere with intellectual verve and universally accessible breadth. Their efforts to contextualize consequential imagery and trace its propagation feels critically vital in the current climate of slippery truths and altered realities. Balancing critical examination with delightful surprises, they put their footage in cacophonous, lively, enlightening conversation. For a film concerned with the construction of image, <em>Fantastic Machine</em> does that very thing with smarts, humor, and great stamina.</p>

<p>Philippines, 1946. Nearing the end of World War II, an affluent family lives stranded in their country mansion, tormented by the occupying Japanese soldiers who are losing grip over the island nation. Rumors spread that the patriarch, Aldo, stole Japanese gold and stashed it somewhere nearby. Aldo knows that his family will be slaughtered if they find the riches, so he escapes to seek help from the Americans. Soon they fear he will never return while sickness overtakes the mother. Searching for help, their young daughter, Tala, mistakenly places her trust in a beguiling, flesh-eating fairy, who desires to consume them all.</p> <p>Writer-director Kenneth Dagatan imbues this ghastly fairytale with an intriguing mix of Catholicism and Filipino folklore to conjure up a nightmare vision of a war-torn land. Dagatan&rsquo;s cast fully commit to this dark fantasy, led by Felicity Kyle Napuli as our young heroine, and the divine villainess played by Jasmine Curtis-Smith. <em>In My Mother&rsquo;s Skin </em>delivers on impeccable craft, fantastical special effects, and enough fly-covered oozing flesh to be seared permanently into your memory.</p>

<p>On July 17, 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur was shot down by Russian forces over eastern Ukraine, killing all 298 people on board. The reality of this attack, and its possible ramifications for the then-ongoing war in Donbas and the West&rsquo;s relationship with Russia, was immediately questioned by the Russian government and media. As voluminous evidence &mdash; including physical artifacts like the butterfly-shaped shrapnel found in the bodies of the pilots &mdash; piled up, the lies denying reality only became more outlandish and incredible.</p> <p>In a world where violence can only be defended by lies, and lies only maintained by violence, <em>Iron Butterflies </em>presents the truth of what happened to MH17, but also what was at stake by not confronting it. Director Roman Liubyi uses a wealth of visual material and individual testimonies to craft this artful yet evidence-driven examination of a turning point in recent world history. This act of mass murder not only destroyed so many people&rsquo;s lives and the possible future that they could have built &mdash; it contained the seeds of the future we now live in.</p>

<p>Born with a disability so rare that no reliable statistics for it exist, filmmaker Ella Glendining wonders if there is anyone who can share the experience of living in a body like hers. This simple question, one which nondisabled people so often take for granted, leads to a journey to not only others who live like her, but to the realization that meeting them changes how she sees herself in the world, as well as many surprises on this journey.<br /> <br /> With intimate personal diaries, conversations with similarly-bodied people and doctors treating her condition, and a searching and unique perspective, <em>Is There Anybody Out There?</em> invites the viewer to consider questions and assumptions they may have never encountered before. Are people born this way to be &ldquo;fixed&rdquo; by medicine? Is it ableist to see disabled people as living an undesired existence? With warmth and an infectious joy for her body and life as it is, Glendining takes you on an unforgettable experience that will change how you see others, like and unlike you.<br /> &nbsp;</p>

<p>For two decades, New York City cinephiles had access to a treasure trove of rare and esoteric films through Kim&#39;s Video. Originally run by the enigmatic Yongman Kim out of his dry-cleaning business, his franchise eventually amassed 55,000 rental titles. In 2008, facing a changing industry, Mr. Kim offered to give away his collection provided that it stay intact and be available to Kim&#39;s Video members. In a bid to revitalize tourism, the small Italian village of Salemi, Sicily became home to the archive. But after the initial publicity faded, so too did any sign of the collection. Enter filmmaker David Redmon, who credits Kim&#39;s Video for his film education. With the ghosts of cinema past leading his way, Redmon embarks on a seemingly quixotic quest to track down what happened to the legendary collection and to free it from purgatory.<br /> <br /> David Redmon and Ashley Sabin&#39;s playful documentary embraces various filmic forms, from cine-essay and investigative nonfiction to experimental cinema and even heist movies, to fashion an ode to the love of cinema and the enduring power its stories hold.</p>

<p>Central Appalachia is a place of mountains and myth. Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon knows this well, calling those mountains home. Coal has had a profound influence on this community&rsquo;s identity, but Sheldon dares to consider what future stories might look like out of the shadow of coal, now that relationships to coal are changing. She takes us on an alluring cinematic journey through the past, present, and future of Appalachia.&nbsp;</p> <p>Sheldon&rsquo;s distinct vision remixes present-day moments of life in a coal-mining town with archival footage and atmospheric invocations of the land to alchemize something new &mdash; a rare, nuanced depiction of this community. A young girl learning the story of coal anchors the journey while Sheldon&rsquo;s poetic voiceover guides us through the experience and an expressive score differentiates the reality of coal from a more imaginative world. The hybrid approach allows Sheldon to explore the act of storytelling itself and is a magical reclamation of the power of stories to shape how a region sees itself. The end of one story welcomes the beginning of another. &nbsp;</p>

<p>After years of remission, Noelia&rsquo;s cancer has returned and is spreading quickly. Exhausted by relentless treatment plans and pills that do more harm than good, she seeks another way out. Brushing aside her boyfriend Jorge&rsquo;s well-meaning but suffocating gestures, she heads back to Vieques, the blissful eastern Puerto Rican island where she grew up; a land grappling with its own poisoning after decades of contamination from U.S. Army operations. With Hurricane Irma closing in, and alongside her mother in the serene comforts of home, Noelia looks for an answer to her pain in the land she&rsquo;s always been intertwined with.</p> <p>In her arresting debut feature, interdisciplinary artist Glorimar Marrero S&aacute;nchez submerges us in a cinematic language of healing and reverence, casting a nuanced eye over the deeply felt wounds of colonization that seep into the fabric of daily Puerto Rican life. Isel Rodr&iacute;guez embodies Noelia with grace and quiet power, laying bare the determination to reclaim her autonomy when faced with the reality of her diagnosis. Coupling lyricism and warmth, <em>La Pecera</em> miraculously unearths how mourning is not without hope.</p>

<p>The human race is old, but rocks are timeless. Weaving stunning imagery with evocative text and interviews, <em>Last Things</em> observes the history of all of us and this planet Earth through the most essential parts &mdash; evolution and extinction, from the POV of rocks. The immensity of our existence is hard to fathom, and we are obsessed with our past, looking for reasons. A huge journey we should take on a cinema screen.</p> <p>In a distinctive style seen throughout her long career, Deborah Stratman skillfully combines pure science with speculative fiction, not to give you an answer to the meaning of life, but to provide sounds, images, and ideas to contemplate. Using both microscopic and landscape photography, we see the luscious textures of rocks and matter and our handprints on it. Texts from writers enhance the journey, ranging from the creators of the science fiction genre to experts of stream-of-consciousness reflections. Stratman blurs the borders of poetry, narrative, and fact in an ethereal adventure. As one interviewee states, &ldquo;Rocks have a history, but they don&rsquo;t remember it.&rdquo;</p>

<p>A New York couple, Rachel (Emilia Clarke) and Alvy (Chiwetel Ejiofor) live in a not-so-distant future where technology provides ever-more convenient living. A rising tech company executive, Rachel lands a coveted spot at the Womb Center, which offers couples a convenient (and sharable) maternity by way of detachable artificial wombs, or pods. But Alvy, a botanist with an affection for nature, prefers a natural pregnancy. And yet, as Rachel&rsquo;s AI therapist puts it, why is that &ldquo;natural&rdquo;? So begins the tech-paved path to parenthood.</p> <p>A social satire of detachment parenting, Sophie Barthes&rsquo; third feature delves into the fraught, comedically tantalizing relationship between technology, nature, and society. In her imaginative world, AIs make coffee, print toast, track productivity, and measure people&rsquo;s &ldquo;bliss index.&rdquo; But at what cost? Even nature is no longer natural (there are &ldquo;nature pods&rdquo;). Barthes brings a funny, philosophical sensibility to her questioning of society&rsquo;s giddy pursuit of convenience, tech&rsquo;s intrusion in our lives, womb envy, and the commodification of&hellip; everything. And Clarke and Ejiofor&rsquo;s wry touch and emotional depth lend it a deep resonance and romance.</p>

<p>At age 16, an undersized army brat landed a part as a 12-year-old on a Canadian television show. Confident he could make it in the U.S., he moved into a tiny apartment in the slums of Beverly Hills. Three years later, he was struggling to scrape by and ready to retreat. But then came his breakout roles &mdash; Alex P. Keaton on the sitcom <em>Family Ties</em>, and Marty McFly in the <em>Back to the Future</em> trilogy &mdash; and a superstar was born. Michael J. Fox dominated the industry for most of the 1980s and &#39;90s, but a diagnosis of Parkinson&#39;s disease at age 29 threatened to derail his career.</p> <p>Fox&#39;s improbable story sounds like the stuff of Hollywood, so what better way to tell it than through scenes from his own work, supplemented with stylish recreations? Owning his own narrative, the actor playfully recounts his journey with intimacy, candor, and humor. In the hands of Davis Guggenheim (<em>An Inconvenient Truth</em>, 2006 Sundance Film Festival), <em>Still</em> reveals what happens when an eternal optimist confronts an incurable disease.</p>

<p>Augusto and Paulina have been together and in love for 25 years. Eight years ago, he was diagnosed with Alzheimer&rsquo;s disease, and his wife has since become his caretaker. As one of Chile&rsquo;s most prominent cultural commentators and television presenters, Augusto is no stranger to building an archive of memory, having been responsible for that herculean task following the Pinochet dictatorship and its systematic erasure of collective consciousness. Now he turns that work to his own life, trying to hold on to his identity with the help of his beloved. Day by day, the couple face this challenge head-on, adapting to the disruptions brought on by the taxing disease while relying on the tender affection and sense of humor shared between them that remains intact.</p> <p>Oscar-nominated director and Sundance alum Maite Alberdi (<em>The Mole Agent</em>, 2020) returns to the festival with a film that gracefully delves into the melancholy of remembrance met with resistance, uplifted by the beautiful partnership at its core. Traversing decades of intimacy, <em>The</em> <em>Eternal Memory</em> elegantly cements Alberdi&rsquo;s place as one of today&rsquo;s most thoughtful documentarians.</p>

<p>Trailblazing food writer Ruth Reichl worries about the fate of small farmers, ranchers, and chefs as they wrestle with both immediate and systemic challenges. As the pandemic takes hold, she reaches across political and social divides to discover innovators who are risking it all to survive on the front lines. The film transcends the health crisis, laying bare how America&rsquo;s decades-old policy of producing cheap food at all costs hobbles purveyors who are striving to stay independent. What began as a journalistic endeavor blooms into a series of intimate friendships. As Reichl witnesses and follows intrepid characters puzzle through intractable circumstances, she takes stock of the path she&rsquo;s traveled and the ideals she left behind. Through her eyes, we learn to understand the humanity and struggle behind the food we eat.</p> <p>Filmmaker Laura Gabbert (<em>City of Gold</em>, 2015 Sundance Film Festival) teams with Reichl to tell an expansive history behind an ever-more consolidating food industry. The film covers a rich cultural spectrum, from fine dining rooms to farmlands, discovering passionate, inspirational changemakers along the way.</p>

<p>Pieced together from a near decade&rsquo;s worth of personal archives, Fox Maxy&rsquo;s <em>Gush</em> delivers a kaleidoscopic diary of horror and survival. The film flows seamlessly through found footage, documentary sequences, and digital animation as it weaves through a stream-of-consciousness meditation on the impact of sexual violence and healing through collective joy. At first, it is a fiery manifesto on the sovereignty of land and the body, then an ode to the bonds of friendship before morphing into a celebration of what it means to endure. Maxy&rsquo;s film is a work defiantly without limits, refusing to be categorized.</p> <p>After building a body of work that established her as an artist to watch within the experimental film space, Maxy&rsquo;s feature film debut is a continuation of her signature freestyle and sumptuous approach to the medium. <em>Gush</em> blends an intimate collage of personal footage and fixations that &mdash; true to its director&rsquo;s form &mdash; creates something like its own cinematic language. It&rsquo;s a film that speaks to viewers on its own terms and demonstrates the radical possibilities of personal filmmaking.</p>

<p>Adam is a teenage artist coming of age in the aftermath of an alien takeover. The Vuvv, a species of hyper-intelligent extraterrestrials, brought wondrous technology to earth, but only the wealthiest can afford it. The rest of humanity, their livelihoods now obsolete, have to scrape together money in the tourism industry. In the case of Adam and his budding love interest Chloe, that means livestreaming their courtship for the amusement of the coffee-table sized Vuvv, who find human love exotic and interesting. When Adam and Chloe&#39;s scheme goes sideways, Adam and his mother have to find their way out of an increasingly nightmarish alien bureaucracy.</p> <p>Writer-director Cory Finley (<em>Thoroughbreds</em>, 2017 Sundance Film Festival) returns to Park City with this brazenly original sci-fi trip that features a breakout performance by Asante Blackk. Based on the novel by National Book Award winner M.T. Anderson, the film carefully threads its comedic fantasies with a morose sensibility that sends audiences on a probing exploration of class and commerce.</p>

<p>Ever wondered what the reality of spending months on a spaceship might be like? Not the romanticized, exciting vision of a space mission, but the fundamentals of day-to-day reality: the isolation, confinement, and lack of privacy and social contact. Sounds similar to our pandemic lives, you might think. But in this case, it&rsquo;s your job, and sadly you can&rsquo;t escape to the woods when you&rsquo;re feeling blue.</p> <p>In his engrossing, heartwarming, and beautifully contemplative documentary, Ido Mizrahy ponders the conflict between our need for connectivity and the urge to explore the unknown. Scientists predict that we will have the ability to send humans to Mars (and to return them safely) within the next decade. Dr. Al Holland, a senior NASA psychologist, studies the effects of prolonged separation of individuals from Earth. <em>The Longest Goodbye </em>offers us an opportunity to witness as Dr. Holland investigates the ways to provide support and coping mechanisms to the red planet-bound explorers in order to prepare them for the actuality of becoming a long-mission astronaut.</p>

<p>The father of video art and coiner of the term &ldquo;electronic superhighway,&rdquo; Nam June Paik was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century. Born in Japan-occupied Korea, Paik studied as a classical musician before moving to Germany in the 1950s. Forever changed after encountering avant-garde composer John Cage, Paik became a member of the influential experimental art movement Fluxus, which created new forms of art and performance. Eventually immigrating to the United States, he became fully engaged with television and video art in a way that would revolutionize how the world thinks of image making in the electronic age.</p> <p>First-time feature director Amanda Kim tells the remarkable story of Paik as a citizen of the world and trailblazing artist, who both saw the present and predicted the future with astonishing clairvoyance. With Steven Yeun reading Paik&rsquo;s own written words &mdash; showcasing the artist&rsquo;s strategic playfulness and immense creativity &mdash; <em>Nam June Paik: Moon Is The Oldest TV</em> is a celebration of perhaps the most modern artist of all time.</p>

<p>In the oceanside village of Iyi, the revered Mama Efe (Rita Edochie) acts as an intermediary between the people and the all-powerful water deity Mami Wata. But when a young boy is lost to a virus, Efe&rsquo;s devoted daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and skeptical prot&eacute;g&eacute;e Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen) warn Efe about unrest among the villagers. With the sudden arrival of a mysterious rebel deserter named Jasper (Emeka Amakeze), a conflict erupts, leading to a violent clash of ideologies and a crisis of faith for the people of Iyi.</p> <p>C.J. &ldquo;Fiery&rdquo; Obasi&rsquo;s potent modern fable deploys vivid monochromatic black-and-white cinematography, rich sound design, and a hypnotic score in a folk-futurist style both earthy and otherworldly. Obasi depicts a pitched battle between opportunistic militants promising technological progress and a matriarchal spiritual order living in fragile harmony with the ocean. <em>Mami Wata</em> transports us to a place that seems both suspended in time and perhaps running out of time, as the threats of modern life wash up on its shores.</p>

<p>There are people out there you wish you had known about (and supported) a long time ago. Francine Coeytaux is one of those people. She has spent decades working in public health and focusing on new reproductive technologies, including the development of emergency contraception. With abortion restrictions and bans going into effect, Coeytaux and her team of providers established Plan C &mdash; a grassroots organization dedicated to expanding access to medication abortion.</p> <p>Tracy Droz Tragos (co-director of <em>Rich Hill</em>, U.S. Documentary Grand Jury Prize, 2014 Sundance Film Festival) accompanies the team as they look for ways to distribute abortion pills while following the letter of the law. Unmarked vans serving as mobile clinics distribute medication to those who cannot get help in their own states. Countless calls are coming in daily from women desperate to be &ldquo;un-pregnant.&rdquo; The team of Plan C works tirelessly to make sure they are not alone.</p> <p><em>PLAN C</em> feels like essential viewing, not just because it&rsquo;s timely and diligent. It&rsquo;s a call to action that has the power to motivate and replace fear with hope.</p>

<p>As a fertility doctor, Sarah has a firm understanding of the cycle of life. However, when she is forced to make sense of the increasingly strange behavior of her young daughter, Sarah must challenge her own beliefs and confront a ghost from her past.</p>

<p>Tucked in a lush green forest in southern Estonia, a group of women gather in the safe darkness of a smoke sauna to share their innermost thoughts and secrets. Enveloped by a warm, dense heat, they bare all to expel fears and shame trapped in their bodies, and regain their strength.</p> <p>Director Anna Hints captures this intimate ritual in a stunningly visceral and absorbing way. Her camera engages with the tight space by cradling bodies and faces revealed in chiaroscuro. An exchange of voices share what their bodies have experienced and withstood. The testimonies are deeply personal while also feeling universally recognizable. Hints further immerses us into the space with a soundscape saturated with breath and steam. The heat, sweat, and corporeality are palpable. At times, the women&rsquo;s anatomies become landscapes, the sweat like rain. Moments outside in the cool light of the forest offer a release dispersed throughout the experience. It&rsquo;s a beautiful privilege to be allowed into this healing space, and Hints honors the tradition and the empowered vulnerability of women with her striking and engrossing portrait.</p>

<p>Chilo&eacute; Island, 1880. After her father is murdered by a German colonist, Rosa (newcomer Valentina V&eacute;liz), a 13-year-old Huilliche girl, renounces her Christian upbringing and seeks shelter with Mateo (Daniel Antivilo), the leader of an Indigenous organization that practices witchcraft. Under Mateo&rsquo;s gruff yet tender tutelage, she learns the art of sorcery and vows to settle the score. Rosa&rsquo;s vengeance leads to a brutal crackdown by the island&rsquo;s Chilean Christian authorities and puts her on the path to discovering her dormant powers.</p> <p>Based on actual events, Christopher Murray&rsquo;s dark decolonial fantasy is an enigmatic coming-of-age tale, rooted in the historical conflict between German settlers and the Huilliche people of Chile. Strikingly shot by cinematographer Maria Secco and co-written by Murray and Pablo Paredes, <em>Sorcery </em>conjures an atmosphere of mournful magic, while spinning a cautiously hopeful account of Indigenous resistance. As it follows young Rosa on her journey of self-discovery, the film walks the borderlands between grim history and supernatural fable. Antivilo delivers a quietly powerful performance as the stoic sorcerer Mateo, and V&eacute;liz is affecting as his determined prot&eacute;g&eacute;.</p>

<p>Conjuring spirits has become the latest local party craze, and looking for a distraction on the anniversary of her mother&rsquo;s death, teenage Mia (Sophie Wilde) is determined to get a piece of the otherworldly action. When her group of friends gathers for another unruly s&eacute;ance with the mysterious embalmed hand that promises a direct line to the spirits, they&rsquo;re unprepared for the consequences of bending the rules through prolonged contact. As the boundary between worlds collapses and disturbing supernatural visions increasingly haunt Mia, she rushes to undo the horrific damage before it&rsquo;s irreversible.</p> <p>Filmmaking duo (and twin brothers) Danny and Michael Philippou of <em>@RackaRacka</em> YouTube channel fame suspend us in the foreboding and nightmarish realm of their debut feature, making the most of their twisted propensity for the surreal and grotesque. Effortlessly blending the creepiness of a ghost tale with the modern sensibilities of a horror-thriller for the Insta-generation, <em>Talk to Me</em> exposes an uncanny reality where the dead roam eerily close to the living.</p>

<p>Tender caresses and enveloping embraces are portals into the life of Mack, a Black woman in Mississippi. Winding through the anticipation, love, and heartbreak she experiences from childhood to adulthood, the expressionist journey is an ode to connection &mdash; with loved ones and with place.</p> <p>Raven Jackson&rsquo;s striking debut is an assured vision, unafraid to immerse us in moments of grief and longing, or within the thickness of things left unsaid. Her camera is patient and loving, capturing the beauty of Black bodies and life. Rural quietness is filled with the transportive sounds of crickets, frogs, and water in its many forms. Jackson&#39;s nontraditional narrative borrows from the language of memory. Shifts in time are prompted by movement and emotion &mdash; the feeling of mud between fingers or the release felt from being outside during a storm. Dialogue is restrained, and performances are subtle and powerful. Jackson employs the power of touch to communicate what evades spoken language. It&rsquo;s an embodied experience that honors the sumptuousness of life and leaves you feeling the rain on your skin.&nbsp;</p>

<p>An artist and visual effects instructor connects with her aging grandmother, Margie, through collecting, art-making, and obsessing as a way to enhance reality.</p>

<p>Set in the heart of the Amazon, a young Ash&eacute;ninka boy must face his fears and catch a giant catfish, signaling his journey into manhood.</p>

<p>Christopher embarks on a transatlantic voyage as a passenger on a cargo ship. His hopes of finding out what lures so many men to sea sets him on a journey into solitude, fantasy, and obsession.</p>

<p>Newly orphaned and freshly wounded from a loss, a boy lends his companion a prosthetic arm for the day. The companion records the limb being exposed to textures and materials. What will become of the limb and the video recordings?</p>

<p>Cash for organs and anything for love.</p>

<p>A crush gone moldy&hellip;</p>

<p>A Garrano horse is forced to pull a heavy load under a blazing sun. A young boy named Joel discovers a man who is about to set a forest on fire.</p>

<p>Two co-workers at a derelict fast-food franchise accidentally discover a yonic meat portal to another realm &mdash; a &ldquo;burger&rdquo; world, wherein they&rsquo;re the only ones who can liberate an oppressed vegetable populace from the all-controlling hand of big meat.</p>

<p>Sejin once had the power to have anything she wanted just by thinking about it. Now she has lost her magic. Hours before her interview to be a tourist interpreter, Sejin heads to the weary sea to save her father.</p>

<p>An unlikely hero&#39;s journey into his own memories becomes a vehicle for reconciliation and healing for himself and his sibling.</p>

<p>Tracey is just trying to jerk off with her bathtub faucet like normal when some old memories dredge themselves up, the pipes explode with dirty water, and she starts leaking black goo.</p>

<p>While a gamer uploads a testimonial video to denounce the harassment she suffers in a video game, a stranger enters her home and hacks her computer, blurring the boundaries between the real and virtual worlds.</p>

<p>A pregnant widow steals silver from a dead body in order to survive and feed her daughter. But the silver is cursed and has consequences for all of them, including the unborn.</p>

<p>In&eacute;s works as a seamstress in a sweatshop where pregnancy tests are periodically administered. When she becomes pregnant, she is sure that her condition will get her fired. She does everything she can to keep it a secret.</p>

<p>Movements of resistance are collapsed and woven together, from reflections of one&rsquo;s own body in the world today to documentation of Alcatraz, the reclamation of Cahokia, and the repatriation of the ancestors.</p>

<p>A poetic memoir, a love letter that speaks of introspection and what it means to rediscover who you are and cherish where you come from.</p>

<p>Set in the outer space of consciousness, where the surfaces of far-out planetary bodies form the terrain for an exploration of 24/7 capitalism, insomnia, and the disappearance of darkness.</p>

<p>In a world where Black men have wings and their first flight is a rite of passage, Akil must defy fears, insecurities, and societal barriers while discovering his perfect launch into manhood.</p>

<p>Through snowy stargazing, flirting with guys on dating apps, taking ketamine (or not), and watching YouTube lecture videos, outer and inner space collapse &ndash; to draw a warped cartography of desire and distance.</p>

<p>At the edge of the playground close to the forest, the children of Okiwi School made a refuge they call Hawaiki. Hawaiki has spiritual and metaphysical connections for Māori as the children create a space for their self-determination.</p>

<p>An anthropomorphic feline wanders across empty cities and exurban spaces of contemporary China. Black Cat is on a quest to answer a single question: What is the most precious thing in the world?</p>

<p>Two ships collide in a harbor, an explosion shatters a city, and a sailor is blasted skyward, where he soars high above the mayhem and toward the great unknown.</p>

<p>A surrealist exploration of dissociative identity disorder (DID) based on the lived experience of a Black, nonbinary, disabled artist and former sex worker.</p>

<p>In an insular city, a young girl is paralyzed by the fear of her loved ones disappearing. Her grandmother tells her the tale of Edwardo, the first one of his kind to have fought death.</p>

<p>An incarcerated man is allowed a temporary release with a woman prison officer to evacuate his mother &ndash; who is trapped in a village during an earthquake that might lead to a tsunami &ndash; bringing them to an unexpectedly exciting experience.</p>

<p>An &ldquo;afronaut&rdquo; emerges from the wreckage of his spaceship in the volcanic crater of Mount Nyiragongo. As he encounters the people of present-day Goma in the city, he begins to understand how to change the future for his people.</p>

<p>A weekend at a music festival is brought to a grinding halt when Tai is confronted by a white person wearing a Native Ceremonial Headdress. He retreats into his mind where a roundtable of various versions of his identity meets to come up with the perfect thing to say.</p> <p>When the debate escalates into a fight, they break the only device to communicate messages to Tai. At this moment, the various versions of Tai have to band together to try and fix the damaged device and still come up with the &ldquo;perfect thing to say.&rdquo;</p>

<p>When it shrinks, it expands. It floats and it sinks. It separates but connects. When I think I&rsquo;m watching them, they&#39;re actually watching me.</p>

<p>The long-dead Ourika, a Senegalese girl enslaved by a French aristocrat, is awoken in the eerie space between life and death, between body and soul, where she finds her way back to life and into liberation.</p>

<p>After their mother&rsquo;s death, a cognitively disabled woman and her estranged sister must learn to communicate in order to move forward</p>

<p>The Newt Congress takes place at a conference building surrounded by nature where participants have come together to optimize the exploitation of giant talking newts. Adapted from the novel <em>War with the Newts</em> by Karel Čapek.</p>

<p>In order to prove his popularity to his older brother, Simo sneakily infiltrates his brother&rsquo;s gaming channel and uses a suspicious object to help increase the viewers. His actions have the effect of a bomb on the whole family.</p>

<p>The world is about to end. Maya is forced to go home to the province of Zambales. There, she confronts her childhood house that terrorizes her as frogs rain outside.</p>