Habilito: Deuda por Vida

Documents the conflicts and tensions that arise between highland migrants and Mosetenes, members of an indigenous community in the Bolivian Amazon. It focuses particularly on a system of debt peonage known locally as ‘habilito’. This system is used throughout the Bolivian lowlands, and much of the rest of the Amazon basin, to secure labor in remote areas.

Black River

An observational documentary, shot on high-contrast black and white 16mm film, about a largely undeveloped river in southeastern North Carolina that is home to the oldest trees east of the Rocky Mountains.

Blood Quantum

A documentary exploring the controversial use of blood quantum in determining Native American identity.

l'A.M.—a misheard love story

L'amour (love). La mort (death). Two French words that could confuse a foreigner, but never a native. Messenger V writes for a company that sends out both love letters and death sentences. After going into work one day, she finds out her assigned recipient is her lover.

Amazonia: Healing with Sacred Plants

Psychologist and anthropologist Alberto Villoldo talks with traditional healers of Madre de Dios, a department within in Peruvian Amazonia. They and Dr. Villoldo explain aspects of ayahuasca, a powerful, plant-based medicine of crucial importance.

Encore

The audience is consensually prompted to gaze into the small, condensed universe of someone experiencing a fascinatingly destructive egomania. Here, they recognize behavior once thought to be beyond eccentric, yet today somehow normalized - perhaps sprouting from a modern culture of self-centered ideology? We witness in this character the downfall of self-idolatry; the frequent cause and occasional side effect of pathological narcissism; self-hatred. The struggle between loving oneself more than anything, while simultaneously desiring perfection, threatens to upend the film's eerie dreamworld. However, a brief brush with self-awareness only serves to solidify the character's self-obsession. An existential crisis half-realized - drowned in the shallow waters of Narcissus' well.

memory file 01

Vide-Uhhh!

Produced using a VHS VCR and a digital camcorder, Vide-Uhhh! is an experimental piece, showcasing the VCR recording itself as Jesse England takes it apart, messes with key components and even attempts to break it.

I Should Call Her

An overly anxious man mysteriously finds himself unable to leave a bathroom.

Blue Suns

A walk in the woods become a metaphoric journey in Chloé Leriche's short film. As a solitary figure moves through the forest, the texture of stone, the movement of water, all the infinite pageantry of the natural world is captured in its richness and detail. With the help of an orchestrated soundscape and composed cinematography, Blue Suns catches the miracle and mystery of this world as it unfolds.

Mayan Renaissance

Mayan Renaissance is a feature length film which documents the glory of the ancient Maya civilization, the Spanish conquest in 1519, 500 years of oppression, and the courageous fight of the Maya to reclaim their voice and determine their own future, in Guatemala and throughout Central America. The film stars 1992 Nobel Peace Laureate and Maya Leader Rigoberta Mencu Tum. All of the images, voices, expert commentary and music in the film come directly from Central America, the heart of the Mayan World.

Ray's World

A guy named Ray tries to go to sleep and a sasquatch gets into funky business.

Mjandasj - renarnas rådare

The third and final part of a trilogy based on Arctic creation myths. The film is a multifaceted tissue weave of myths and traditions reflected in the symbiosis between reindeer, human and landscape.

part i. The BUILDING.

A short film about the Nicholson School of Communication and Media building at the University of Central Florida.

indo e voltando

Stuck in the traffic of life.

In Ictu Oculi

A good feast in the countryside.

Dead Man

William Blake, an accountant turned fugitive, is on the run. During his travels, he meets a Native American man called Nobody, who guides him on a journey to the spiritual world.

The Living Stone

The Living Stone is a 1958 Canadian short documentary film directed by John Feeney about Inuit art. It shows the inspiration behind Inuit sculpture. The Inuit approach to the work is to release the image the artist sees imprisoned in the rough stone. The film centres on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp. It was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Short.

Untitled (Pink Dot)

In Untitled (Pink Dot), Murata transforms footage from the Sylvester Stallone film First Blood (1982) into a morass of seething electronic abstraction. Subjected to Murata's meticulous digital reprocessing, the action scenes decompose and are subsumed into an almost palpable, cascading digital sludge, presided over by a hypnotically pulsating pink dot.

The Garden Cadences

Jone is ready to fly. She finds herself at the beginning of something new, but before she moves on, there needs to be a closure. Jone is one of Mollies, the queer-feminist collective that had been living for a decade at a trailer park next to Ostkreuz, Berlin.