Birth

5 separate, slightly immoral stories.

The personal story of a woman struggling with an inherited illness, as told by Signe Baumane, the Latvian director-animator living in New York City. With humour and courage, the director sets out on a challenging journey to discover her family’s best-kept secret. Featuring five stories about the courageous women in Signe’s family and their battles with madness, visual metaphors, surreal images and director’s narration.

An ancient Latvian folk tale is the basis for this colorful animated feature in the tradition of Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. A vengeful sorceress casts a kingdom’s princess into a deep sleep at the top of an icy mountain, where she awaits release from the spell that will destroy the land. Of all the men vying for the honor, the shy outcast son of a family of thugs is the most unlikely. Director Kalnaellis brings a playful sense of humor to the characterizations and adds zippy contemporary elements including a chorus of wisecracking crows. (Gene Siskel Film Center)

Twelve skits in six minutes: the first one and the final three are about sex, in between are sketches of blood, death, murder, truck crashes, a tough day on the toilet, a slip on a banana peel, and an omnivorous Elvis. In several vignettes, Plympton draws on the essentially comic image of men wearing jackets and ties in a world gone awry. Women, who don't appear all that often, cheerfully participate in the sex and don't hang around for the violence.

A satirical take on dentistry.

From an early age, songs and fairytales convinced Zelma that Love would solve all her problems as long as she abided by societal expectations of how a girl should act. But as she grew older something didn't seem right with the concept of love: the more she tried to conform, the more her body resisted. A story about the acceptance of the inner female rebellion.

In fifteen two-minute episodes, a woman reveals her most secret thoughts on the most intimate matters. In a humorous style that is both educational and shocking, these short lectures on sex from a woman's point of view manage to be both erotic and entertaining. Find out if "size really matters" and learn about "penis envy" as personal stories relate how sexual interactions between men and women lead to comical situations.

A tiny witch tries to milk an immense cow. Things get out of her control.

An animated visual interpretation of the poem by Jorge Luis Borges.

When you were born, what did you desire the most?

A modern tale about a girl, a dragon, and a prince - who likes her only when she has the right shoes on.

A philosophical study and personal myth of creation of a woman and her two ways to encounter a man. Screened both at Woodstock and KROK, the film captivates viewers with the elusive and not wholly understandable inner world of a woman.

A veterinarian routinely goes on house calls to treat sick animals. He is able to save most, but one time he arrives too late. The animal dies, and that breaks the veterinarian's heart. One night the animals that he has treated come to him in a dream. He receives love and forgiveness. When Veterinarian wakes up, his heart has healed.

A story about the separation of love and sex.

"Conceived and rendered with partner Josh Rechnitz, a story about a neglected housewife who falls in love with a vacuum cleaner."

In 1971, during the Soviet occupation of Latvia, a poor, upbeat family of four – an engineer, a schoolteacher and their two daughters – move into a large house that they cannot afford. The father's brother lends them money on the condition that the family starts an underground business of growing and selling rose cultivars to gardeners and collectors in Russia. United by the common purpose – to pay for and keep the house – the family toils in their garden and greenhouse. In the process, they become quite wealthy. But with wealth comes an arrogance and sense of invincibility. As the Soviet Union starts to crumble, the family also unravels.