The Shape Of Things

The Pope is in town and the night of his stay is anything but heavenly for some of Berlin′s inhabitants. Rich and poor, down-and-outs and policemen, street kids and taxi drivers - in their search for a little bit of happiness, they all end up on an amusing and at times harrowing odyssey through the labyrinth of the big city.

1997, Victoria, British Columbia—Reena Virk, a fourteen-year-old girl is murdered by her peers in a case that shook the nation. A year later, fifteen-year-old Braidie becomes obsessed with this case, but not for sympathy for the victim—because she sees something in herself that resonates with the teenage killers. Horrified by this, Braidie plunges into her memories and takes us on a journey through her life—from playing ponies to afterschool smoking—and discovers the increasing ostracization and violence towards one of Braidie’s own peers at the hands of her and her friends.

Overview of some of the most important early electronic musical instruments to shape music as we know it.

Tom Noonan's play-turned-film 'What Happened Was...' won the Sundance Grand Jury Prize for Best Dramatic Feature in 1994. Now, 20 years later, Noonan has returned to his roots with the SHAPE of SOMETHING SQUASHED, an independent film developed from his latest theatrical hit. It tells the story of an older 'has been' actor who is asked to participate in a read-through of a play at a legendary theater company. The production depends on the success of the read-through, but unbeknownst to the actor he is only standing in for a star playing hard to get. Each character is desperate for their world to become what they've dreamed, making this story both funny and heartbreaking in its depiction of life in, and out of, the theater.

Four part film by Peter Herwitz where light and color evoke memories and emotions through imagery which hovers at the boundaries of recognition.

A sensory and cinematic work from the Sonoran Desert in the southern US, where a man lives in a lonely pact with a brutal nature and in the shadow of the apocalypse.

A murder is shown in three different points of view in La Plata.

A story of love in which people are drawn to each other, even though they know it will hurt them.

In this video, Tsang explores language as an instrument of power. She re-speaks a text from In My Language, a video posted to YouTube in 2007 by autism activist and blogger Amanda Baggs, in which, using a speech-generation device, Baggs describes her experience as an individual who communicates nonverbally in a predominantly verbal world. Tsang recites Baggs’s address verbatim, using a technique she calls “Full Body Quotation,” in which she conceives of her own body as a mimetic “playback device” that replicates the tone, inflection, and rhythm of the original monologue as it plays through an unseen earpiece.

Subtitled "An Apocolyptic Vision in 26 Bursts," this in-your-face documentary follows grindcore rockers Blood Duster through day after controversial day of death-rock style and tasteless humor. Tracking the band across Australia, this straightforward film captures Blood Duster in hotels, backstage, in vans and in the most grotesque and demented of situations -- such as reveling in their blood-drenched, ear-shattering on-stage mayhem.

John Hess traces the evolution of the screen shape from the silent film days through the widescreen explosion of the 50s, to the aspect ratio of modern digital cameras. This lesson is part of the FilmmakerIQ course: "Everything You Need To Know about Aspect Ratio".

Diane doesn't hesitate for a moment when her best friends, Thomas and Jacques, ask her to be their surrogate mother. It is in these hardly ideal circumstances that she becomes infatuated with Fabrizio.

Jo Kondo (*1947) is one of the most interesting composers of contemporary music in Japan. His music is composed intuitively and at the same time it is highly abstract. Without clear directionality and at the same time not without form. For a Japanese audience it sounds “Western” and in the West it is regarded “Japanese”. A music in between categories. Like Kondo’s music the film is shifting between places and directions: a concert in the Muziekgebouw in Amsterdam, an elaborate sushi bar in Tokyo, a CD-production in a Cologne radio station, the Zuisenji temple in Kondo’s neighborhood in Kamakura. Kondo wants his music to appear “normal”, without spectacular surface or narrative elements. A concept of “normality” you may also find in the films of Japanese filmmaker Yasujiro Ozu, who – like Kondo – spent most of his life in Kamakura.

Five-channel video installation which responds to German art historian Aby Warburg’s essay about his visit to the American Southwest.

Souta and Doumoto have finally moved together. However, the couple's happiness is short-lived since Souta's older sister, Kozue, unexpectedly goes to her brother for asylum after arguing with their parents and running away from home. Souta will end up developing jealousy towards her sister since he believes Doumoto is interested in her.

This heartwarming documentary takes you halfway across the world and into Nepal's Srijana School for the Deaf. The film offers an intimate look into the everyday lives of four deaf kindergartners, featuring newcomer Lija Gurung. From her inaugural step into the classroom through her first six months of school, the film follows Lija's journey as she forms friendships, learns sign language, and slowly integrates into her new world. The filmmaker's meditative presence and deep love for the children is made manifest in a tender, compelling portrait of Lija and her classmates, allowing very personal access to this pint-sized world filled with curiosity and exploration.

A rebellious art activist takes matters into their own hands to restore a statue