A Chinese manicurist in Miami attempts to describe feelings she doesn't have the words for. “Agua Viva,” written, directed and animated by Alexa Lim Haas, is a gorgeous, melancholic portrait of a stranger in a strange land. As she quietly goes about her day giving manicures and pedicures in a Flo...

The fever dream of a 1980s stand-up comic who is either having a nervous breakdown or the best set of his life. Directed by Laura Moss, and written and performed by Tony Grayson, “Allen Anders - Live at the Comedy Castle (circa 1987)” is an ingenious sendup of a dated comedy special, darkly hilar...

In the aftermath of an assault, a woman tries to come to terms with the violation, or just get through her day. Director Naima Ramos-Chapman uses an unexpected dose of magical realism to express a poetic response to a loss of dignity. The quiet morning at first feels mundane, but as new details e...

A young woman decides to carry on the family tradition of attending the county fair, this time with her dead parents. Kate Jean Hollowell directs and stars in “Are They Smiling?” a comedy about an unusual grieving process: spending the day alone at a fair carrying the ashes of your dearly departe...

After being mugged on Halloween night, Dave takes to his hotel room to report the incident to his credit card company and experiences an unsettling exchange. Starring Maxwell McCabe-Lokos (a director we featured with his 2017 film "Ape Sodom,") “All Shook Up,” is a wildly WTF short directed by Ev...

An aspiring film director prepares for a play based on her complicated feelings toward her father. “An Athlete Wrestling a Python” is a Australian film by director Stephanie Jane Day, an incisive, darkly comedic character study on Julien. Her present preoccupations with the artistic process and c...

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 ...

A dogged reporter is determined to get to the bottom of a mysterious town's secrets, as well as her own. Amy Zimmer writes and stars in “A Riveting Thriller” (dir: Doron Max Hagay), a satirical mini-noir tracking a weary woman holed up in her car, snacking on white chocolate pretzels, sipping on ...

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...

A father writes an online review for a pair of herb scissors. An actress gets bad news while filming a credit score commercial. A football team psychs themselves up for a game with a prayer. Directed by Abigail Horton, “A Few Activities” highlights a series of small, absurd moments in the lives o...

Ada is an unlikeable competitive walker who makes a dress out of toilet paper and has an unfortunate run-in with a hose. Eleanore Pienta’s “Ada” is a lighthearted silent comedy following the unpredictable antics of a peculiar woman making her way through crowded New York City streets. As she walk...

A film about a person's inability to cut an avocado. Directed by and starring River L. Ramirez, this experimental short finds strange humor in reality-bending absurdities and illogical deep-seated fears. A woman sits in a white room at a table in front of an avocado terrified at the prospect of c...

A frustrated, out of work actor turns to medical acting to pay his bills, offering intensely committed performances to students who are simply trying to diagnose symptoms, not evaluate believability. The actor, Paul (played by Alex Karpovsky) wants to be great but without a traditional audience i...

Alba arrives to a weekend getaway flustered after her fiancé bails on the trip last minute. Pepi Ginsberg directs “Alba and June,” a relationship drama turned love triangle that finds two cousins spending time with their friend Danny. | Director: Pepi Ginsberg. Writers: Pepi Ginsberg, Claire Luci...

2014 NoBudge Award winner Jeremy Hersh (Best Screenplay, “Natives”) returns with another story of women in love confronting their maybe-irreconcilable differences. Where that earlier film expanded to embrace ideas about place, culture, and identity, what we get here is a marvel of concentration. ...