Kevin Hayden

Norwegian singer Annie and Norwegian visual artist Bjarne Melgaard’s “Russian Kiss” is their protest song and short film, directed by Richard Kern, aimed at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s regime and its anti-gay laws.

What we present to the world is a carefully curated version of reality. Girls Will Be is a powerful visual meditation on this topic, exploring the all too au courant themes of image obsession, social pressure, and shame. This "anti-fashion" fashion film eschews traditional narrative structure, instead presenting viewers with a dreamy tableau that viscerally juxtaposes the "perfect" images rampant on social media with the grotesque reality that often lurks beneath these lovely facades. In Girls Will Be, viewers get an uncomfortably firsthand close-up of the loss of innocence of a teen girl as her desire to be accepted by peers—and by extension society— makes her vulnerable to their perversely warped value system.

22-year-old Lex thinks she has mastered the art of shooting up and getting just high enough not to wake up dead. But today — things didn’t go as planned.

Following the artist from the bustling streets of New York to her rain-soaked hometown of Bergen, the film includes interviews with AURORA's closest friends, as well as uniquely stripped-back performances of tracks including “Warrior” and “Murder Song (5, 4, 3, 2, 1).” Whether she’s reminiscing on her childhood with her sisters, dancing through the city streets in her headphones, or discussing the secret life of apples, there’s a spellbinding quality to everything the artist does.

In this moving short film, pop superstar Kesha shares the vision behind her 2017 album, Rainbow. An intimate portrait of her songwriting process and personal struggles—depression, insomnia, and an eating disorder—the piece follows her journey from hospitals and rehab to a triumphant performance of “Praying” at the 2018 GRAMMY® awards. “It’s called Rainbow because after the storm, there’s a rainbow,” she says in the film. “I wrote it as a message to myself that I could make it through.” The film includes music video clips, live performances, and footage of the singer writing and recording with Ben Folds, the Dap-Kings, and Sandra Williams.

A deep, dark dive into a world where conspiracy theories, fake news, and foreign interference reign. The film sees prospective talent attend a casting for crisis actors to speak on behalf of a suspicious political figure potentially involved with a cyborg lizard. As a female agent cross examines the actors, asking questions that get progressively more niche, her suited male colleague sits on an exercise ball, as an unknown white fluid begins leaking from a model's leg.