Cinema 16: European Short Films (U.S. Edition)

Big Little Lies

The tale of three mothers of first graders whose apparently perfect lives unravel to the point of murder.

Wasp

Zoë is a single mother who lives with her four children in Dartford. She is poor and can't afford to buy food. One day her old flame drives by and asks her to go on a date with him. Scared that he doesn't want to go out with her, she lies and tells him that she is just babysitting the kids. This will be her first date in years.

Bird

12-year-old Bailey lives with her single dad Bug and brother Hunter in a squat in North Kent. Bug doesn’t have much time for his kids, and Bailey, who is approaching puberty, seeks attention and adventure elsewhere.

Fish Tank

Fifteen-year-old Mia is in a constant state of war with her family and the world around her. When she meets her party-girl mother’s charming new boyfriend Connor, she is amazed to find he returns her attention, and believes he might help her start to make sense of her life.

American Honey

A restless teenager escapes her troubled home and joins a traveling crew of young drifters selling magazines across the American Midwest. Immersed in a world of reckless partying, risky hustles, and fleeting romances, she searches for freedom and belonging on the open road.

Dog

A teenage girl gets ready to go out to meet her boyfriend, despite her mother's loud verbal disapproval of her clothes. She goes out to a deserted area with him and he begins to touch her up and have sex with her, however a dog reveals the true nature of her boyfriend.

Red Road

Jackie is a CCTV operator. One day, a man shows his face on her monitor, a man she hoped never to see again. Now she has no choice and is compelled to confront him.

Milk

Andrea Arnold’s directorial debut consists of a woman named Hetty that has a unique way of dealing with the unexpected death of her child.

Cow

A close-up portrait of the daily lives of a pair of cows: told by way of some narrative-free, intimate POV photography, with plenty of close shot images, we follow the daily routine of these animals as they live what can only be described as mundane, boring lives - all with an ultimate purpose within the human food chain.

Transparent

An LA family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.

I Love Dick

Adapted from the lauded feminist novel and set in a colorful academic community in Marfa, Texas, this is the story of a struggling married couple, Chris and Sylvere, and their obsession with a charismatic professor named Dick. Told in Rashomon-style shifts of POV, the series charts the unraveling of a marriage, the awakening of an artist and the deification of a reluctant messiah.

Wuthering Heights

Yorkshire moorlands, northern England, in the late 18th century. Young Heathcliff, rescued from the streets of Liverpool by Mr. Earnshaw, the owner of Wuthering Heights, an isolated farm, develops over the years an insane passion for Cathy, his foster sister, a sick obsession destined to end tragically.

Coming Up

Coming Up is a British Channel 4 television series of films made for television by new directors and writers. The first series was in 2006, and each year's series comprises seven or eight films. Series 6 was shown from July to September 2011. A reviewer in The Independent wrote: "Thank goodness for Coming Up ... it's a genuinely interesting display of possibilities".

Featherwood

Carol Blevins, a heroin addict and “Aryan Princess featherwood” (property of a gang member), became one of the FBI’s most important informants during an epic, six-year investigation into the murderous neo-Nazi crime and drug syndicate known as the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. Blevins, who lived with the gang, memorized details, pre-empted murders, interrupted robberies, and helped convict 13 members of the group. However, her harrowing journey left her with significant physical and mental scars and she lives under constant threat of reprisal by the ABT.