2024 Coming Soon
The 2024 film program is coming soon.
The 2023 program is below.
Program 2023
Joyland
2022 Saim Sadiq
Punjabi, Urdu with English Subtitles
Gentle and timid, Haider (Ali Junejo) lives with his wife Mumtaz (Rasti Farooq), his father, and his elder brother’s family in Lahore, Pakistan. Following a long spell of unemployment, Haider finally lands a job at a Bollywood-style burlesque, telling his family he is a theater manager, when in actuality, he is a backup dancer. The unusual position shakes up the steadfast traditional dynamics of his household and enables Haider to break out of his shell. As he acclimates to the new job, Haider becomes infatuated with the strong-willed trans woman Biba (Alina Khan) who runs the show—an unforeseen partnership that opens his eyes and ultimately his worldview, in ways both unexpected and intimate.
2023 Anna Hints
Estonian with English Subtitles
In the darkness of a smoke sauna, women share their innermost secrets and intimate experiences, washing off the shame trapped in their bodies and regaining their strength through a sense of communion.
"a film that places you in the moment of relaxation, conveys the sense of a cleansing that is both physical and spiritual. Here, you are free to say anything, trivial or significant." - Screen Daily
2023 Dimitris Argyriou
English & German with English Subtitles
"Lights Out Berlin!" is a music documentary about the effects of the covid-19 pandemic in Berlin's music & club scene. Berlin has always been a vivid and colourful city. A city that was full of inspiring spots, artistic opportunities, and loud nightlife. A city with a huge cultural background that was for 2 years on hold.
2021 Andrew Gaynord
OV English
It's Pete's birthday and the old gang from college are throwing him a party out in the country. During what’s meant to be a joyful weekend reunion, Pete finds himself increasingly unnerved by his friends’ inside jokes and snarky comments. As the atmosphere goes from awkward to terrifying to downright surreal, Pete is pushed to the breaking point. Is he being paranoid or is he the butt of some elaborate joke?
2021 Jerrod Carmichael
OV English
Two guns. Two best friends. And a pact to end their lives when the day is done...
Val has reached a place where he feels the only way out is to end things. But he considers himself a bit of a failure—his effectiveness lacking—so he figures he could use some help. As luck would have it, Val’s best friend, Kevin, is recovering from a failed suicide attempt, so he seems like the perfect partner for executing this double suicide plan. But before they go, they have some unfinished business to attend to.
2022 Mike Day
OV English
The seemingly unlikely combination of cowboys and poetry come together during the American National Cowboy Poetry Gathering, happening since 1985. Through the written word, cowboys of the American West contend with their unique way-of-life. In the last years, they have been wrangling with their identity, environmental threats, and change. This documentary-Western offers an intimate look at the lives of these modern-day cowboys as they confront myths, old and new, to try and save the land they love.
2023 Ben Knight
English & German with English Subtitles
Ben, a journalist afflicted by the encroaching crises he writes about, travels from Berlin to London to Kansas to Norway, and then to the capital of all loss, the Chicxulub crater in Mexico, learning from those preparing for social and ecological collapse. Call them preppers, doomers, or bunker-dwellers, the collapse community turns out to be bigger than he thinks.
2022 James Morosini
English with German Subtitles
Inspired by writer, director, and star James Morosini’s true life experience, I LOVE MY DAD follows Chuck (Patton Oswalt), a hopelessly estranged father who desperately wants to reconnect with his troubled son, Franklin (Morosini). Blocked on social media and concerned for his son’s life, Chuck impersonates a waitress online and starts checking in with Franklin. But things begin to spiral when Franklin falls for this imaginary girl (Claudia Sulewski) and wants nothing more than to meet her in person, as Chuck has inadvertently catfished his own son.
2022 Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead
OV English
When neighbors John and Levi witness supernatural events in their Los Angeles apartment building, they realize documenting the paranormal could inject some fame and fortune into their wasted lives. An ever-deeper, darker rabbit hole, their friendship frays as they uncover the dangers of the phenomena, the city and each other.
2023- Various Filmmakers
Original Languages with English Subtitles
The 2023 Sundance Film Festival Short Film Tour is a 90-minute theatrical program featuring seven curated short films from the 2023 Sundance Film Festival, including two award-winning titles. The festival is considered the premier showcase for short films and a launching pad for many for many independent filmmakers known today.
2022 Hannah Barlov, Kane Senes
OV English
Cecilia and Emma were tween-age BFFs who were going to grow old together and never let anything come between them. That is, until Emma’s new friend Alex did just that. Twelve years later, Cecilia is a successful social media influencer living the dream of an independent, modern millennial woman... until she runs into Emma for the first time in over a decade. Emma invites Cecilia away on her hens weekend at a remote cabin in the mountains, where Alex proceeds to make Cecilia’s weekend a living hell.
Achtung Berlin presents: Franky Five Star
2023 Birgit Möller
German & Finnish with English Subtitles
Franky is still figuring out where to go in life. She has never allowed herself to pursue love because she is too busy dealing with her inner chaos. Her best friend Katja knows about her changing moods, but Franky has never revealed her biggest secret. She has an old-fashioned hotel in her head inhabited by four weird but lovable characters, including a strict concierge, a seductive chambermaid and a bell boy, who can alternately switch into her body in the real world by using the elevator.
When she meets Katja’s new boyfriend Hasi (Cino Djavid), Franky’s inner personalities decide to give love a chance but as she starts to fall for him, things spiral out of control.
An imaginative and refreshing take on finding your true self, or more than one.
"Characters like an Aki Kaurismäki film, in Wes Anderson colours." - KINO ZEIT
Achtung Berlin presents: Zähle die Wege meiner Flucht [Number my Wanderings]
2023 Dušan Solomun
German with English Subtitles
In a church, a priest receives a group of refugees.
In a bizarre and exaggerated way, the refugees are confronted with the bureaucracy that German institutions operate. The church serves as a hodgepodge of the most
diverse institutions.
Finally, the workers in this institutional mechanism turn out to be victims of the apparatus.
Ukrainian Film Festival presents: Stop-Zemlia
2021 Kateryna Gornostai
Ukrainian, English, Italian, Russian with English Subtitles
16-year-old Masha experiences her pregraduate year at a Kyiv school with her friends Yana and Senya. After she falls in love with her classmate Sasha it forces introverted and sensitive Masha to leave her comfort zone. An authentic and sensitive coming of age about Ukrainian youth.
GRRL HAUS CINEMA: Camp, Satire and Horror Shorts
2023- Various Filmmakers
Original Languages with English Subtitles
GRRL HAUS CINEMA is an ongoing program of short films and video art made by women, non-binary, trans and genderqueer artists. A mix of local, national, and international artists present work from a variety of disciplines: narrative, documentary, experimental, and conceptual. With an emphasis on low budget and DIY, GRRL HAUS is a space for underrepresented voices in media arts.
GRRL HAUS is back at Lakeside and has programmed an evening of films to make you squeal with laughter and fright.
La SurReal Film Festival presents: Los días de la ballena [Days of the Whale]
2019 Catalina Arroyave Restrepo
Spanish with English Subtitles
Set in the bustling city of Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city, Days of the Whale follows Cristina and Simon, two young graffiti artists who tag spots around where they live. Simón comes from a more working-class background and lives with his grandmother. They are part of an art collective that is the center for a group of young revolutionaries. Cristina is a college kid from an upper-middle-class family who finds herself living with her dad because her mother is a journalist who moved to Spain when threatened by the city’s criminal street gangs. The love that unites them, and their friendship with other artists keeps Cristina from leaving the city as tensions rise when Cristina and Simon’s rebellious, restless spirit leads them to defy this same gang by painting a mural over a threatening tag at the center.
Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival presents: 2023 Genreblock Shorts
2023- Various Filmmakers
Original Languages with English Subtitles
Europe’s largest international student film festival brings a selection of different genre short films with exciting perspectives from young filmmakers: Absurd family conflicts, unusual friendships or exaggerated system-criticism – in this year's Genreblock you can expect situations in which the answer is not always obvious... How to respond?