Built on the artistic foundations of the island city of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Is Beneath the Skin. Filmed in the United Kingdom and Canada from first time directing-duo Michael Mackinnley and Aaron Ellis comes the story of a British Student shipped off to Canada after the death of his mother, he then meets an Aspiring American Artist who fled the violent actions of his parents in ‘sweet’ home Alabama. Both young men abandoned in their own way, find themselves in the company of one another on the beautiful Canadian island. Regardless of it’s beauty a pair of high school brats become intrusive on the boys’ growing relationship.
Being Charlie 2015
R | 1h 37min | Drama, Romance | 6 May 2016 (USA)
Storyline:
Charlie is a troublesome 18-year-old who breaks out of a youth drug treatment clinic, but when he returns home to Los Angeles, he’s given an intervention by his parents and forced to go to an adult rehab. There, he meets a beautiful but troubled girl, Eva, and is forced to battle with drugs, elusive love and divided parents.
Destricted 2006
1h 56min | Drama | 15 September 2006 (UK)
Storyline
Shorts by eight directors examine the boundary between Eros and porn. A feral man masturbates with the aid of a whirling crankshaft; a sunbathing woman phones a doctor for a playful house call; a man with a quartz penis goes through lovemaking, castration, cannibalism, and restoration; a mouth and tongue, close up, lick viscous liquids of different colors and consistency; we watch a grainy film of a lesbian threesome, their eyes and genitalia crudely scratched out; a director interviews ten men, choosing one who picks among six actresses for a porn shoot; ink wash drawings become animated scenes of copulation; last, while an infant cries, a strobe illuminates adults at play.
Hide Your Smiling Faces 2013
1h 21min | Drama | 25 March 2014 (USA)
Storyline
After a neighborhood tragedy, two adolescent brothers confront changing relationships, the mystery of nature, and their own mortality. Hide Your Smiling Faces is an atmospheric exploration of rural American life through the often distorted lens of youth.
This is a retelling of the old tale of Hansel and Gretel, but set in England in the 1920s. To the children and staff at the orphanage, Auntie Roo is a kindly American widow who gives them a lavish Christmas party each year in her mansion, Forrest Grange. In reality, she is a severely disturbed woman, who keeps the mummified remains of her little daughter in a nursery in the attic. One Christmas, her eye falls upon a little girl who reminds her of her daughter and she imprisons her in her attic. Nobody believes her brother, Christopher, when he tells them what has happened, so he goes to rescue her.
Ken Park 2002
18 | 1h 33min | Drama | 31 August 2002 (USA)
Storyline
Ken Park focuses on several teenagers and their tormented home lives. Shawn seems to be the most conventional. Tate is brimming with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother. Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They’re all rather tight, or so they claim. But they spend precious little time together and none of them seems to know much about one another’s family lives. This bizarre dichotomy underscores their alienation # the result of suburban ennui, a teenager’s inherent sense of melodrama, and the disturbing nature of their home environments.
On a journey to San Francisco, Richard, his father and cousin Emmeline find themselves on a ship about to explode. Rushed to a lifeboat with Paddy Button, the two children escape while their father (and uncle) are on another lifeboat. In the chaos following, the lifeboats are separated. Paddy, Richard and Emmeline find themselves with no food and no water stuck in the middle of nowhere. After some time, the three come across an uncharted paradise, where Paddy quickly teaches the children fishing, hunting and building. After maybe a month or two, Paddy gets very drunk off a barrel of rum found on the island when they first arrive, and drowns in the middle of the night. Emmeline and Richard, now alone and very scared, move location and rebuild their island home. Many years later, the two young teenagers have developed a very real home, but hormones and feelings between the two strain their friendship, until Richard, who is still very determined to reach San Francisco, is let down by Emmeline when a ship passes by the island and she does not light the signal fire. Throwing her out of the home they had built together, Emmeline attempts to survive on her own but is hurt. After Richard finds her dying, he realizes how he really feels for her and manages to save her. Nature runs its course and their friendship turns into love as the couple learn about the facts of life, when Emmeline has a baby and does not understand why.
From Time to Time 2009
PG | 1h 32min | Adventure, Drama, Fantasy | 24 September 2010 (UK)
Storyline:
In 1940s England, thirteen year old Tolly is sent to Green Knowe, the country estate of his grandmother, while his mother searches for any information concerning his missing in action father. Tolly soon finds that he can pass through time to witness the family stories Grandmother Oldknow tells him. Traveling back to 1805, Tolly becomes caught up in the family scandals, secrets, and mysteries that still echo in his own time…
Gribiche 1926
1h 53min | Drama | 2 April 1926 (France)
Storyline
A sincere working-class 13-year old in France is adopted by a well-meaning philanthropic millionairess from America — who promises his doting mother that the boy will have the finest education — but things are not so simple.
