Synopsis

At a summer music festival, a galactic burst leads to new dimensions. Two friends thrown apart by the blast try to make their way back together in this brilliantly prismatic short.

This film screens as part of the Family Animated Shorts: Me and Magical You program.

Synopsis

In this intense psychological drama, Jonah (Eric Nam), a highly motivated Korean-American surgical resident, is committed to getting ahead. When he gets the chance to train under the notorious Dr. Edward Harmon (Bill Camp), a legendary heart transplant surgeon, Jonah must choose between appeasing his abusive mentor and staying true to his values, as well as between career and family, ambition and morality.

Following the success of his award-winning Chicago-made short BJ’s Mobile Gift Shop, Chicago native Jason Park’s feature debut operates like Whiplash meets Grey’s Anatomy with Jonah and Dr. Harmon on an increasingly unnerving collision course. As the tensions between teacher and student come to a head and conflicts escalate with surprising — and sometimes shocking — outcomes, Jonah learns that perfection comes at a high cost.

Synopsis

A retired director (Kwon Haehyo), now running a bookshop, is hastily hired to supervise a short play at a nearby university. He agrees at the behest of his niece (Kim Minhee), who is scrambling to replace the student director who was dismissed due to misconduct. Excited to reconnect, the two work with the student actors to write and stage a work of political theater that irks the school administrators.

Infused with a political edge, By the Stream finds great depth in simplicity. Using a spare plot, stripped down visual style, and a cast of his regular actors, director Hong Sangsoo (On the Beach at Night Alone, 2017) crafts a wistful meditation about regret, human connection, and the creative process.

Synopsis

Born in South Korea, but adopted by Dutch parents and raised in the Netherlands, Mieke lives happily as a queer woman with her partner in the city of Utrecht. But when her guilt-ridden birth parents reach out to her after years of separation, Mieke’s life is upended. She  must come to grips with who she is, and also who she might have been — made all the more complex by the entrenched homophobia that still exists in South Korean society.

Filmmaker Jota Mun — themself a Korean adoptee — traces Mieke’s story, recounting the events leading up to her reunion and observing her ongoing internal conflicts about her birth parents and where she belongs. Equally affecting is the film’s sympathetic focus on Mieke’s vulnerable mother Okgyun, who desperately seeks forgiveness for giving her daughter up for adoption. Beautifully conceived and profoundly multilayered, Between Goodbyes is a heartbreaking and uplifting story of family, identity, and acceptance.

Synopsis

An overwhelmed new mother partners with two baby traffickers to find the perfect well-paying parents for her infant in this heartbreaking human story.