Set on a militant horticultural nursery, Guilty By Nature follows the life cycle of a wild and vigorous shrub; exploring ideas of individuality and persecution. The film is shot with extreme close-ups, varied frame rates and an exaggerated soundscape.
We are all influenced by the films we watch though not perhaps so much as the characters found in this short. First there is Z, the fish'n'chips loving, 'man in black' Asian guy who makes a dubious living selling, stealing and selling again the same battered old VCR. His customers include Q, Irish girl with a sideline in drug smuggling and a penchant for Bollywood movies, music and clothes, and who sets out for revenge when she discovers her new VCR is stolen again. Running literally riot through the film is a couch potato who has finally doned his 80s adidas tracksuit a la superman.
Influenced by the action movies he's fed himself with, he decides to wreck havoc on women, children and the old. Then there is Mod, the black guy with a taste for Kung Fu films and nunchukas, and Football Italia, the final buyer of the VCR and instrumental in the dramatic and hilarious climax of the film.
Based on Mario Petrucci's award-winning book-length poem for Chernobyl, Half Life tells the story of the people who dealt with the world's worst nuclear disaster at ground level: the fire-fighters, the soldiers, the 'liquidators' and their families.
Half Term is a powerful study of one boy's journey into the treacherous terrain of manhood. Mark's entire future seems to implode on one week's nightmare holiday visit to his absent father in remote coastal Cornwall, a visit that will change his life forever.
Hamlet is a ghost story - so why has nobody ever told it as one?
In Fodor's Hamlet emphasis is put on the nightmarish ether of the play, setting it in a surrealistic no-man's land.
Rather than following traditional, schoolbook definitions of characters, these are ripped apart. So, for example, the traditionally weak Ophelia, is now dominated by her elder sister Polonia (normally a male comic role) who supplies her with addictive drugs to cement that control. Hamlet's father, The Ghost (normally an heroic victim) is now a vicious psychopath, manipulating his own son to gain brutal vengeance on his murderer, Claudius.
And yet not a single line is added or changed, the difference is how they are delivered - naturalistically with the emphasis on making sure an audience who may never even have heard a single line of Shakespeare accept it as though it is merely an alternative accent of English.
A 'feinschmecker' tries to seize his last chance of happiness with a beautiful street performer who models herself after Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's.
Haven is an afterlife love story between two jaded spirits. A young man is dragged along a bridge by two men and thrown over the side. His name is Tom and the dark afterlife he awakes in will never be the same. Tom meets a beautiful but haunted young woman. Together they attempt to overcome the past in a place built out of secrets.
Haven incorporates black box performance with innovative camera work and animation. Lino-cuts and prints by artist Trevor Haddrell create the architecture of the afterlife. Memories from life back in the world are shown through the eyes of the characters using a specially designed camera apparatus. The film boasts a gripping original soundtrack by the post-industrial band Mindless Faith.
Heavy Metal Drummer is a celebration of rock music in the Arab world. The film tells the story of a teenage boy who is the only heavy metal fan in town. He spends his weekends playing traditional ballads in a wedding band with his two cousins but dreams of playing thrash metal and headlining Monsters of Rock.
