Teeth Agape

Fourteen-year-old Jasmin longs to be near her biological mother, Eva. Following her mother’s release from prison, an excursion into the country together becomes a first test for the fledgling mother-daughter relationship. They smoke, dance and stroll together – the mood is promising. But time and again, it is revealed that their needs and expectations are light years apart. For the moment, neither Eva nor Jasmin seem up to the task of fulfilling each other’s need for identity and support. (Talea is Italian for scion, a detached shoot or twig containing buds from a woody plant, used in grafting.)

This animated short tells the story of a ferocious polar bear turned to stone by an Inuk shaman. The tale is based on emerging filmmaker Echo Henoche's favourite legend, as told to her by her grandmother in her home community of Nain, Nunatsiavut, on Labrador's North Coast. Hand-drawn and painted by Henoche in a style all her own, Shaman is the first collaboration between the Labrador artist and the NFB.

This ultra-short film proves that walls are real and borders are imaginary with an animated critique of long-term detention for minors in immigration centres.

Vienna, 1996. A mini-DV tape with footage for a student documentary. Alina and Flora interview unreliable witnesses to the appearance of extraterrestrial reptilian creatures. But soon they themselves drift further and further into the narrative: Lizards subjugating humanity through hybridization? Sounds plausible. At some point, the Hofburg is in flames, and reason itself is in ruins. Michael Gülzow's mockumentary hilariously satirizes the media logic and spread of conspiracy ideologies.