SHORTS BLOCK – THE LIVES OF OTHERS

7 MINUTES – A desolate train track seems the perfect spot to end it all, until someone else turns up with the same idea. Awkward.

BORNE – When Kate, an isolated and vulnerable young mother struggling to make ends meet, is offered help by her neighbour Marie, she finds herself pulled into a community that may not be as virtuous as it seems.

RISE – Inspired by real life accounts of Iranian refugees who worked alongside the director to develop this story, we see Niloo, a teenage girl resisting the patriarchal ‘morality police’ who kidnap her from the streets of Tehran.

BLOOD – Shanti finds blood in her underwear at the worst possible time. Against the backdrop of a Tamil coming-of-age ceremony

where fertility is celebrated, menstruation is shunned and infertility is silenced, Shanti struggles to keep a secret.

COST OF LIVING – Cost of Living is a timely short film, curated from more than half a century of archive footage, that reflects on the pandemic cycles of boom and bust that continue to affect us.

As we live through the deepest cost of living crisis for over fifty years, the film expresses the fury and anger of generations whose essential needs for safe housing, secure work and full bellies go unfulfilled. With an uncanny sense of déjà vu, we see empty petrol pumps, food banks and government tips for saving money. They evoke a past that feels uncomfortably contemporary.

BENCHED – Lewis meets with Andrew at a bench on the coast. He is anxious, keen to return to an unspoken formal event. They know each other, but the depth of their knowledge is unclear. Across their sparse conversation, a turbulent fraught relationship is revealed. External pressures seep in until they cannot bear it, and Lewis breaks away, returning to the event.

Andrew follows in time to witness Lewis’ wedding reception. The groom has not managed to choose between his life with his new bride or the life with the man who he loves. The morning after, this choice hangs in the air over Lewis’ new marital bed.

A DAY IN THE LIFE – When one of his best friends makes a life changing announcement, Pats normality is turned upside down.

IN.SPI.RA.TION – in·spi·ra·tion is a short documentary following three Isle of Man artists as they complete a piece of work, discussing their sources of inspiration and identity as artists. The film aims to demystify the artistic process, and demonstrate how everyone works differently, and there is no ‘right’ way to do art; it’s a personal journey.