Meeting Che Guevara & the Man from Maybury Hill

IRELAND - 2002
During the Cuban missile crisis in 1963 a young woman from a small Irish town has a fascination with H.G Wells “War of the Worlds” and slowly her imagination and reality merge between the potentially real war of the worlds and Science Fiction, as she sets out to meet Che Guevara in a bid to save the world from the Martian Invasion.

Unbeknownst to her, Che Guevara has stopped over on the West of Ireland to refuel on a flight from Cuba to Algeria, and its only a matter of time before she catches up with him to deliver a letter that the Man from Maybury Hill has told her to deliver. The real and surreal become fantastically blurred as they slowly and surely draw their plans against us.
CAST
Vincent Fegan ... Aide to Che
John Hurt ... Man from Maybury Hill
Fiona O'Shaughnessy ... Beth
Karl Sheils ... Che Guevara

Directed by Anthony Byrne

12:01 PM

USA - 1990

12:01 PM is a 1990 Academy Award nominated short film starring Kurtwood Smith in 1990. Directed by Jonathan Heap, it originally aired on cable television in 1990 as part of the Showtime 30-Minute Movie anthology series.

It is the first film adaptation of the short story 12:01 PM by Richard A. Lupoff, which was published in the December 1973 edition of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. The major plot device is a time loop or time bounce.

In this version, Kurtwood Smith plays Myron Castleman, an everyman who keeps repeating the same hour of his life, from 12:01 PM to 1:00 PM. The character is fully aware that the time loop is occurring, although no one else appears to be aware of the repeating hour. Each time the hour resets, Myron retains his memory (or as the film puts it, his consciousness), and despite his best attempts to understand what is happening, he ultimately realizes that he is entirely helpless to prevent the time bounce. Myron cannot even break the loop by killing himself, as he reappears, alive, at the next iteration; he is trapped in the loop for eternity.

CAST
Jane Alden ... Stephanie
Kurtwood Smith ... Myron Castleman
Don Amendolia ... Prof. Nathan Rosenbluth
John Bachelder ... Blazer driver
F. Richards Ford ... Junior executive #2
Laura Harrington ... Dolores

Directed by Jonathan Heap

Alive In Joburg

SOUTH AFRICA - 2005

In 1990, Johannesburg is home to a number of Extraterrestrial refugees, whose large spaceships (estimated to be nearly one kilometer in length) can be seen hovering above the city. When the visitors arrived, the human population was enamored with, among other aspects, the aliens' advanced "bio-suits", and supposedly welcomed them with open arms. However, later on, the aliens began moving into other areas of the city, committing crimes in order to survive, and frequently clashing with the police. The film goes on, playing as a documentary, complete with interviews and footage taken from handheld cameras, highlights the growing tension between the civilian population and the visitors, especially once the ships began to steal electricity and other natural resources from the city.
According to individuals "interviewed" in the film, the aliens were captive labor, forced to live in "conditions that were not good" and had escaped to Earth. As the film takes place in 1990, while Apartheid was still effect in South Africa, the aliens were forced to live amongst the already-oppressed black population, causing conflict with them as well as the non-white population.

The alien species in Alive in Joburg are never named, and are frequently referred to simply as "them" or "the aliens." One black citizen referred to them as "the poleepkwa." In their biosuits, they resembled bipedal, humanoid robots. Outside of their suits, their most obvious non-human features are a lack of hair and ears, and protruding tentacles where a human's mouth would be, features very reminiscent of H.P Lovecraft's fictional monster Cthulhu. In the film, the area where one would expect eyes to be is pixelated.The aliens' language is not clearly defined, and seems to be made up of gurgles and animal noises, not unlike Wookies in the Star Wars films.One scene in early in the film, shown as television news footage, shows an alien fending off an attack by two police officers by telekinetically, while wearing one of their biosuits, throwing large vehicles towards them. Whether or not they themselves have this ability or whether it is done through the use of the suit is never explained.

CAST
Dawie Ackermann ... Afrikaans Professor
Jason Cope ... UN Official / Alien
Sharlto Copley ... Sniper
Braam Greyling ... Cop 1
Godfrey Seome ... Cop 2

Directed by Neill Blomkamp

Domination

TURKEY - 2007
It is year 2092 and vegetation is almost completely perished all over the world. A police team has just followed a suspect to a roof. There, they will learn a bitter truth that will affect all human race.
Domination is one of the biggest independent short movies ever made. A complete skyscrapper rooftop was built in a sport center and movie was shot in that set with blue screen background. Special effect team Dukkan-ul Hayal designed and prepeared a make up for our lead creature, a plant in the shape of a human. Then it took almost 7 months to finish the movies post production with striking visuals.
CAST
Özge Özberk
Şevket Çoruh
Nuran Eşici
H. Mücahit Pehlivan
Esra Şahin
Efe Erdoğan
Meriç Marşoğlu
Directed by Alican Serbest

An Angel's Mark

FRANCE -2004

A highly evolved civilization sends a space ship to a parallel universe. Oria, the female pilote, will discover that in fact, she’s travelled through the living body of a pregnant woman which turns out to be her awn in the parallel universe.

CAST

Marie-Christine Barrault

Christian Charmetant

Thierry Frémont

Héléna Noguerra

Directed by Christophe Reynaud

PART ONE

PART TWO

Spank

CANADA - 2003
SPANK” is a short film, set 6 years into the future. The Year is 2013. Advanced Technology has made it possible for people to interact with one another over the internet via means of a virtual hologram program. This Hologram Interface Technology (or H.I.T. as it's sometimes called) allows the public to live out their deepest fantasies from the comfort of their living rooms.
In this techno-future with a twist, a common domestic psycho-drama is not all it seems. Whether counseling session or virtual reality masochism, an enterprising therapist/technician makes an unexpected change in the program. We follow a day in the life of one young actor/therapist, Chavez (Blaze), as he takes us through a typical day of his work. Ashlin (Hopps), one of his long-time clients, is the first to log-on this evening. Usually, she gets Chavez to act as her husband the night she told him about her affair with another man. What she isn't prepared for, is that Chavez has a different scene he is going to play with her tonight, and Ashlin is in for some long-awaited news.......
CAST
Christian Blaze ... Chavez
Leslie Hopps ... Ashlin
Todd Hann ... Jarvis
Aubrey Arnason ... Amber
Damon Gregory ... Brian
Mare Shepherd ... Older Ashlin
Directed by Christian Blaze

The Prophet

ENGLAND - 2002
A moral tale on why it always pays to be nice.
Flynt, a mean and twisted astro-miner, rescues a mysterious Old Man from an apocalyptic planet. Remembering an ancient legend, Flynt decides to put the man and the myth to the test.
Written and directed by Ian Power, with narration by John Hurt, this C.G.I. laden black comedy clearly illustrates why it is better not to know your future as the force may not always be with you.
CAST
Ned Dennehy
Jer O'Leary
Directed by Ian Power

They Are Made Out Of Meat

USA - 2005

After years of probing humans in every possible manner, two alien researchers meet at a late night diner to discuss a most unusual discovery about our species.
A short-film adaptation of science fiction author Terry Bisson's short story "They're Made Out of Meat." Directed by Stephen O'Reagan, and starring Tom Noonan (The X-Files, Robocop 2) and New York standup Ben Bailey, it won grand prize at the Science Fiction Museum's First Annual Short Film Festival.

They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"Meat. They're made out of meat."
"Meat?"
"There's no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"
"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."
CAST
Tom Noonan ... Duncan
Ben Bailey ... Dexter
Gbenga Akinnagbe ... Merlin
Brenda Dellacasa ... Stacy
Stephen Campenella ... Andre

Directed by Stephen O'Reagan

Doll Face

USA - 2005
A machine struggles to construct its own identity as it mimics images on a television screen. Doll Face presents a visual account of desires misplaced and identities fractured by our technological extension into the future.
It's a very simple set, only a few objects. But they are very well designed, modelled, textured and lit, and the whole is much greater than the sum of its parts. It takes a lot of talent to make something so simple seem so believable.
But the real strength of "Doll Face" is in its content. This is a film that speaks on many different levels about the struggle between individuality and conformity in response to external ideals. But I think it's also a comment on reaching ever higher for physical perfection in our image-obsessed society.
Andy Huang has directed and animated short films that have received both national and international recognition. His past animated work has been showcased at the Smithsonian National Gallery of Art in Washington DC, and the Chicago International Children's Film Festival.
His latest independent short film “Doll Face” was accepted into the Official Selection at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, as well as the Electronic Theater at SIGGRAPH 2006 in Boston. Andy continues to study fine arts and animation at the University of Southern California.
CAST
Christina Frenzel
Directed by Andy Huang

High Maintenance

2006

Jane is unhappy with her dull husband and monotonous marriage. Thankfully, in the near-future unhappiness can be made a thing of the past and upgrades are always available.

Directed byPhillip Van

CAST

Nicolette Krebitz ... Jane

Wanja Mues ... Paul

Judith Rohde ... Delivery woman

Anna Schenk-Rollman ... Marie

Batman: Dead End

2004 - USA

The Joker has escaped from Arkham and Batman must once again bring him in - once and for all. Unfortunately for the bat, there is something even more sinister than the Joker waiting in the alley for the dark knight detective..

CAST
Clark Bartram Batman

Andrew Koenig The Joker

Kurt Carley Predator #1

Jake McKinnon Alien

Dragon Dronet Left Predator

Patrick Magee Predator #3