Award Ceremony + Shorts + Free Drink – Brussels Independent Film Festival

All Films are in English or have English subtitles.

Kiss/Crash (United Kingdom) by Adam Cole

What destruction is triggered by romance? What pleasure is there in a car crash? Kiss/Crash is a provocative short film that uses AI-generated imagery to explore the theme of desire and the expanding gap between real experience and artificial representation in the digital age. Here, an AI repeatedly and lovingly translates a car crash into a kiss, increasing in intensity with every collision. The piece creates a compelling metaphor between two seemingly unrelated Hollywood images: the violent car crash and the romantic kiss. Drawing on a familiar cinematic language, this piece also connects AI imagery to a long history of image-production technologies meant to incite and homogenize our desires through artificial representations.
Running time: 00:01:10

European Man…American Beach (United States) by Rex Shannon

A European man goes naked to an American beach. A clothed American beachgoer takes offense and a brawl ensues.
Running time: 00:06:56

Nature Attack (France) by Erik Semashkin

A bird decides to hunt crickets, but his crossing will be more complicated than expected.
Running time: 00:03:25

A Dog, A Stone (Tunisia) by Asma Laajimi

One night in Tunis. Mariem, a sex worker, tries to reach Dali. Her unrest grows when she fears he will break the promise to give her a double mattress.
Running time: 00:13:00

Daydrift (Belgium) by Tim Jans

Jason spends his last day at a juvenile detention center. He’s looking forward to being reunited with his mother, who promised him a better life. When Jason is once again left to his own devices, he spirals out of control
Running time: 00:16:38

Our Males and Females (Jordan) by Ahmad Alyaseer

A father and mother are faced with the painful task of washing and shrouding their deceased transgender daughter. Shrouding is an Islamic religious practice that is deemed obligatory to carry out upon death. But when no one agrees to wash her and shame falls onto the family, how far is the father willing to go to make sure his “son” is washed?
Running time: 00:11:00

Supurbia (Norway) by Alexander Gudmestad

While his neighbors, friends and family all prepare for an emission-free Constitution Day celebration, Gunnar struggles to cope with life in the materialistic suburbs of Norway. Supurbia is a satirical slice of Norway’s new-wealth middle class and their unspoken rules for achieving the perfect life.
Running time: 00:15:00

Manar (Israel) by Rachel Albert

Manar desperately tries to fight off two men who forcefully drag her body on the ground. Despite her effort to resist, they lock her up in an abandoned warehouse so that she finally agrees to consummate her marriage to her husband. She spends the following days attempting to escape but her persistence is met by her captor’s resolve as they frequent the warehouse and care for her basic needs. A little girl visits Manar as well, offering her a thin sliver of light and hope. As they struggle to perform the impending act, Manar and her husband share delicate gestures, soft glances that reveal a mutual and painful destiny of confinement. Manar will be met by the boundaries of her own body and soul as she discovers the price she is willing to pay for her own freedom of choice
Running time: 00:22:00