Here are synopses of the films for the Free Spirit Film Festival 2015.
A Visita
Directed by Leandro Corinto Brazil 2014 Drama 07:40m Portuguese (English subtitles) Festival screening on Friday 30 October
Synopsis
Matheus lives with his uncle Theo, whom he calls father. His real father was living abroad when he was very small, so he has no memories of him. Today, Matheus finally receives a visit from his real father, which will bring you some questions.
Adoration: A Natural History
Directed by Ian Woodward United Kingdom 2015 Docudrama 22:44m English Festival screening on Thursday 29 October
Synopsis
Adoration, a wildlife docudrama by lifelong naturalist Ian Woodward FZS*, is a portrait of the countryside seen through the seasons, their fauna and flora, and through the eyes of Nature Woman. It is accompanied by beautiful, inspiring music and the filmmaker’s screenplay-in-verse. Nature Woman, played by London-based actress Kim May, is the physical embodiment of the film’s imagery and sentiments. *FZS = Fellow of the Zoological Society of London.
Carlos Dunn's Katherine
Directed by Charles W Bailey Mexico/US 2015 Action 01:28:00m English Festival screening on Friday 30 October
Synopsis
A sadistic serial killer who is a member of a secret cell of the Vatican takes a contract to kill a young woman. The only problem is the girl's new boyfriend is in the way and he is not about to let anything happen to the woman he has fallen in love with.
Colours for Clarinet
Directed by John Osborne Canada 2015 Abstract 04:47m English Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
Colours for Clarinet is an animated video created to a musical composition written and performed for this work by Edmonton clarinetist Don Ross. Using only a single white dot as the graphic element, a fluid sequence of interacting dots and lines were synchronized to the music, followed by additional filters and algorithms to generate more complex shapes and colour. The video attempts to rise above its minimal graphic form and evoke the emotional feel of the music.
Milan 25
Directed by Nina Pfeifeneberger United Kingdom 2015 Animation 03:40m English Festival screening on Thursday 29 October
Synopsis
An animated music video for the artist Milan. Sometimes you need to let go of who you are and go back to the source of your creativity, to that private, most honest place, where you are able to express freely who you really are and the magic happens.
Mer Depré
Directed by Margaret Orr US 2015 Animation 06:08m English Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
A journey through the mind of a depressed individual.
Met by the Wind
Directed by Etienne Theytaz Switzerland 2015 Romance 01:24m English Festival screening on Thursday 29 October
Synopsis
When two strangers meet in the forest, fate will challenge them.
Mood Swings
Directed by Sanjay Kumar Australia 2015 Drama 03:20m English Festival screening on Friday 30 October
Synopsis
Having a steady view on a subject, the audience is transformed into a third person, detached but engaged. An experimental system of video layering, Mood Swings is a summary of its creator's year in Melbourne as an International film student. This journey was a crash course in Films, cultures, ideas and people.
My Mother's Forest
Directed by Bruce Alexander United Kingdom/France 2015 Drama 29:36m Lithuanian Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
Just prior to the 20th Century: Lithuania (the last European country to abandon paganism) A young pagan peasant girl falls in love with a priest. It is a love that defies all the rules of the strict religious doctrine of the village of that time.
NYMPH
Directed by Alexey Pan'ko Russian Federation 2015 Music vieo 01:30m English Festival screening on Friday 30 October
Synopsis
The film shows the feelings of a girl associated with memories and dreams of past lives. At the same time, we deviated from the standard of storytelling used in short and feature films. We talk about emotions and feelings through visual presentation.
Potent
Directed by Shailendra Bagde India 2015 Drama 23:36m Hindi (English subtitles) Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
Potent (Punsak) is the story of Chavanni, who is abused physically and mentally by a policeman and his wife, and is forced to work as a child labourer. Having a traumatized and painful childhood, Chavanni grows into a pervert adult, who is highly addicted to unnatural sex. Eventually, he is caught by the same police officer for a more heinous crime of performing sex with corpses. The story shows as how an abused child can become a demon for the entire society.
Poverty, Inc.
Directed by Michael Matheson Miller United States 2015 Documentary 01:31:00m English Festival screening on Thursday 29 October
Synopsis
"I see multiple colonial governors," says Ghanaian software entrepreneur Herman Chinery-Hesse of the international development establishment in Africa. "We are held captive by the donor community." The West has positioned itself as the protagonist of development, giving rise to a vast multi-billion dollar poverty industry — the business of doing good has never been better. From TOMs Shoes to international adoptions, from solar panels to US agricultural subsidies, Poverty, Inc plays the gadfly in this eye-opening examination of Western interventions in the developing world.
She Was (Lei Era)
Directed by Carlo Galbiati Italy 2015 Drama 02:00m Italian Festival screening on Thursday 29 October
Synopsis
If you can't be yourself, you're nobody. In a bar, a little girl suddenly starts laughing without any reasons and she can't stop doing it. Then, when her father tries to interrupt her, ...
Silly Sheep
Directed by Pranav Bhasin India 2015 Drama 04:59m English Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
Have you ever walked into an elevator with somebody you don't know? An elevator is a small, silent location, so what do you do in such a situation? Greet them out of the blue, or act as if they don't exist? This film discusses the events a tired office going man goes through, after getting into such a situation.
Speck
Directed by Khashayar Tayyar Iran 2015 Fantasy 12:47m Persian (English subtitles) Festival screening on Friday 30 October
Synopsis
This movie is based on the thoughts of Ain-ul-Qhozat of Hamadan, who thinks that the "truth" is neither white nor black, it is rather, "colourless", possessing no shades. Thus the novice athlete champion first passes through seven doors, descends seven tiers of steps, washes his hands clean of worldly attachments, walks the seven-bend alley, and passes right through the bazaar, for the market place represents the argumentative nature of worldly interests. He passes through the array of colours, for as Ain-ul-qhozat thinks, to reach the certainty of black or white, one has to dismiss all shades of colours. Colours are the metaphor of our dreams and imagination.
STREAM – Explore the Unseen
Directed by Roman De Giuli Germany 2015 Experimental 05:20m English Festival screening on Saturday 31 October
Synopsis
STREAM is one of the first evidences to show the beauty and colourfulness of fluids and particles in tiny areas, only an inch wide and not visible to the naked eye. It's all about the dramaturgy of emergence and fading of formations, offering the viewer plenty of allegories and associations to let the mind float and travel.