TWO MILES EAST

John Lilly and the Earth Coincidence Control Office

The daring experimenter Dr. John C. Lilly dedicated his life to radical self-investigation and unlocking the mysteries of consciousness and communication. “My body is my laboratory” was the motto, and his research on the language of dolphins and whales – as well as psychedelics and sensory deprivation – assured his own cult status in 20th-century pop culture as the basis for Ken Russel’s Altered States and Mike Nichols’s The Day of the Dolphin. Directors Michael Almareyda and Courtney Stephens, along with narrator Chloë Sevigny, explore the life of a determined scientist and his experiments into the psychonautical unknown.

Paper Marriage

Fanny, a Chinese immigrant facing deportation, enters a marriage of convenience with Jeff, an unemployed stranger. During this year-long charade, they tip toe around each other’s differences. As quiet moments turn into encounters, they navigate through their awkwardness and learn to work together.

Hacked Circuit

A single-shot portrait of the Foley process, revealing multiple layers of fabrication and imposition, which is dedicated to Walter Murch and "Ed Snowden."

Wild Prairie Rose

In 1952 Rose Miller returns to her rural hometown of Beresford, South Dakota to care for her ailing mother. Once there, she falls in love with a deaf man and must decide if she has the courage to follow her heart.

Spa Night

A young Korean-American man works to reconcile his obligations to his struggling immigrant family with his burgeoning sexual desires in the underground world of gay hookups at Korean spas in Los Angeles.

60 Seconds of Solitude in Year Zero

An anthology of one-minute films created by 51 international filmmakers on the theme of the death of cinema. Intended as an ode to 35mm, the film was screened one time only on a purpose-built 20x12 meter public cinema screen in the Port of Tallinn, Estonia, on 22 December 2011. A special projector was constructed for the event which allowed the actual filmstrip to be burnt at the same time as the film was shown.

Silent River

Desperate to reconcile with his estranged wife, Elliot stops at a desert motel where he encounters Greta, an uncanny woman on the run from a mysterious past.

Present Company Excluded

21-year-old Chris tries to break into her wealthy and glamorous neighbor's world.

Badiou

Alain Badiou, born in 1937 in Morocco, demonstrated his exceptional skills in many fields of science, but became famous as a philosopher. The directorial duo the Kaylan brothers made their first feature film about Badiou, in which the philosopher himself talks about his work and personal life and presents his thoughts.

Chato

When a fatherless 12-year-old boy attempts to put an end to his abuse from his brotherly neighbor, he's later confronted by his own mother about her suspicion next door, and he must quickly decide who he's willing to protect at the end.

Flying Monks Temple

A dreamer by nature, Quanqi Zhu decides to set up a unique installation at the hillside of Sacred Songshan mountain in China. Despite the language barrier, his best companion is Latvian architect Austris Mailitis. As the building of the object begins, the creators themselves have to levitate between cultural differences, conventions and personal ambitions.

Washes

Washes explores the relationship of Los Angeles and cars through the documentation of six different carwash locations. Filmed in a mixed media of 16mm film and HD video, each site is a recording from a fixed camera placed behind the windshield as water cascades. The lens focuses on the plane of glass and abstracts the background with a shallow depth of field. Passing cars, buses, and people are refracted by the water, creating colors, and textures on the surface of the glass. The mechanisms of the camera transform an everyday experience into flickering lights and shadows.

Pheonix Bakery: Sweets for the Sweet

As Chinatown’s Phoenix Bakery in Los Angeles celebrates its 80th anniversary, three generations of the Chans explore their family legacy and contemplate the future.

The Paradise We Are Looking For

San Diego has been called many things – including a paradise. It’s also a refugee city, a cluster of neighborhoods, a militarized zone, a border town. And Asian American. This collection of four short documentaries, commissioned on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the San Diego Asian Film Festival, maps many such San Diego’s – across ethnicity, geography and history. At the same time, they hold on to some notion of paradise, however illusory: a haven from war, the dreams of an immigrant, precious teenage reminiscences, solace in the afterlife, and spaces for creative expression.

Huan Dao

A-Zhi returns home to Taiwan for the first time in many years just as his younger brother, A-Yong, is leaving with friends for “huan dao,” or a round-the-island scooter trip. An accident with A- Yongʼs scooter causes them to spend time together in a dysfunctional reunion.

Pandemic Bread

Luz, a Filipina interpreter, takes a call from Dr. Femi Balogun to discuss the end-of-life options for Remedios, an elderly Filipina woman in the hospital ICU during the early months of the COVID pandemic.