Awena was left alone when war took him away from home.
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The people behind it
Malena Filmus
Awena
A vibrant anthology of LGBTQ+ short films and music videos that delve into the complexities of youth, identity, and desire. This diverse collection showcases a range of cinematic voices—both emerging and established—exploring the exhilaration, vulnerability, and confusion of coming-of-age through stories that celebrate queer love, self-discovery, and the breaking of societal boundaries. Blending narrative shorts, experimental visuals, and music-driven pieces, the anthology offers an evocative, multifaceted portrait of innocence transformed.
A man and his daughter, living in an isolated log cabin built in an open field near an inhospitable forest, are terrified by the mysterious mist rising from the trees.
The 12-year old Dolores, a feisty preteen desperate to be seen as a grown-up in 1976 suburbia is on her humiliating, hilarious journey from girlhood to growing up. She fantasizes about sex, womanhood, work... and Freddie Prinze. The girl thinks she's got the lowdown on being a woman, but when her overworked single mom Janice hires Cleo to babysit her world collides with the super cool black 16-year old's, each learns painful truths about what it really means to grow up.
In an inhospitable place, a boy and his family struggle for survival.
'Lukas & the Aspies' is a story about 12-year old Lukas. In many ways, Lukas is a normal kid: He plays in a band, hangs out with his friends and fights with his little brother. But Lukas' has also Asperger syndrome - and hence his own set of unique problems.
Sincho is a cruise ship clown who is evicted from his home without much money. He hallucinates about a lawyer who offers to help him. Homeless, Sincho decides to commit suicide rather than suffer on the streets.
8-year-old Jérémy is ready for a typical evening with his parents and little brother. But his mother’s behavior grows more and more unsettling.
A young college student reluctantly meets with her estranged father only to discover the truth about the events of the wild summer of '75 that drove them apart.
Three friends leave their small town to walk to Chicago, but find the tension among themselves rising.
Mourad is a young Moroccan man who lives alone on his parents' farm. After a meal, Mourad's family realizes that the scars of the past are beyond anything they could have imagined.
Amanda struggles to keep something inside as she spends the day taking pictures of her best friend.
A tragic comedy of a sweet little girl, who grows up to be a crazy old cat lady.
A woman makes a powerful connection with a surprising stranger on her 30th birthday.
A short animation by Makoto Shinkai in Lightwave 3D. Inspired by Haruki Murakami's book "Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World" with music by Tenmon.
A look at the challenges of living in a small Australian town, portrayed through the lens of a novelist and her teenage son.
When a young girl’s father is taken to hospital, a familial bond between her and her uncle is tested.
A heartwarming story delivered by the New Santa.
China, 1997. An unhappy marriage, a love affair and a child who holds all the secrets.
A bride walks on the desert. She takes off her bridal ornaments and turns into a harlot. A multitude of people crawl on their bellies, become sick and soon die. A volcano erupts. White ashes of lahar cover the earth. The bride remembers her betrothal and repents--symbolically paving the way for the resurrection of her people. A final bridal march into a new heaven and earth takes place.
A top lad recollects fights, friends and painting his toenails with his dad.
Jonas Cord is a disagreeable young tycoon who's building planes, directing films, and catting around on the corporate make in 1930s Hollywood.
A jazz musician seeks refuge from a lynch mob on a remote island, where he meets a hostile game warden and the young object of his attentions.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
Owing to his alleged involvement with communist parties, film director David Merrill is forbidden from working in Hollywood. He decides to fight for his rights and faces numerous challenges.
Suffering from a severe case of depression, toy company CEO Walter Black begins using a beaver hand puppet to help him open up to his family. With his father seemingly going insane, adolescent son Porter pushes for his parents to get a divorce.
The story of a young woman who takes an epic journey to claim her own darkness and sexuality so she can stop putting it into the hands of her abusive lover. When Inanna, a young actress, working as a stripper, becomes obsessed with a mask maker, she sacrifices parts of herself and her life, piece by piece, in order to win his love. At the same time she enters a mythic journey in the theater. One that forces her to face the many abuses endured by women around that world and that blurs her performance, her dreams and her real life and results in a provocative and powerful confrontation that frees her. -- from official website
South America, 1960. A lonely and grumpy Holocaust survivor convinces himself that his new neighbor is none other than Adolf Hitler. Not being taken seriously, he starts an independent investigation to prove his claim, but when the evidence still appears to be inconclusive, Polsky is forced to engage in a relationship with the enemy in order to obtain irrefutable proof.
When a rebellious teen embarks on a solo summer journey to connect with her roots, she finds herself in a new world, geared up for the ride of her life, and discovers she had the drive in her all along.
A dirty bomb goes off in Los Angeles, jamming freeways and spreading a toxic cloud.
While serving life in prison, a young man looks back at the people, the circumstances and the system that set him on the path toward his crime.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.
After surviving an IED explosion in combat overseas, a young soldier with the Army Motorcycle Unit is medically discharged with a broken back and leg. Against all odds he trains to make an impossible comeback as a motocross racer in order to support his family.
A sweeping drama set in the chaotic aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq, where the life of top UN diplomat Brazilian Sérgio Vieira de Mello hangs in the balance during the most treacherous mission of his career.
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
An aging, out-of-work actress accepts one last job, though the consequences of her decision affect her in ways she didn't consider.
Mahree Bok lives on a farm in South Africa. Her father is a policeman who cannot hide his joy when activist Steve Biko is caught by the South African authorities. Piper Dellums is the daughter of a US congressman from California and who lives in a nice home in Washington DC. When Mahree is chosen to spend a semester at the Dellums' house, she doesn't expect that her host family would be black. Nor do her hosts suspect that she is not a black South African.
A troubled young woman becomes obsessed with her mysterious new neighbor, who bears a striking resemblance to the girl's dead mother.
While Native American Wolf is being pursued by the FBI for having taken the law into his own hands, when his mother was raped and killed on their reservation he crosses paths with Cash, a down and out musician who is coping with the end of his marriage. An unlikely friendship develops, as they ride together towards the Teton mountain range, where Wolf will spread his mothers ashes.
American retired Judge Randall Nemes and his hired gun, Gaspar, track down a con man posing as a priest in a small Colombian town only to be thrown off-course by a scrappy 16-year-old girl intent on reuniting with her sister in the United States.
