The Expression of Hands (1997)

The boisterous and cheerful lives of the residents of Cameroon are barely dented by incursions of supernatural power in this humor-filled rendition of traditional folk tales in modern guise. In the story, a cheerfully naughty girl crosses paths with a witch who has the power to satisfy her curiosity about men by changing her into a young man. She then becomes one of the boy suitors for the amorous attentions of a policeman's daughter. Some of the men have unusual names and even odder magical gifts: one of them has the ability to make a man's genitals disappear when he shakes hands with him.

Loosely inspired in some plays from the Spanish author Federico Garcia Lorca("The Puppet Play of Don Cristóbal", "The Billy-Club Puppets" and "Doña Rosita the Spinster"), this short does an incredibly job capturing all the poetry from those literary works, adding a new level of beauty to them by the art of puppetry and stop-motion animation. "Cabaret" starts as a bizarre comedy filled with many extravagances, then, it quickly evolves into a heart-breaking (But at the same time, captivating) tragedy, filled with a breathtaking lyricism that leads into a memorable ending, having some of the most beautiful lines that have been ever spoken in any animated film.

A gifted poet checks into a Gothic hotel in hopes of meeting the woman with whom he has long been enamored. He is surrounded by a variety of offbeat characters like the hefty homosexual cook, shadowy clerks, snooty waiters, and valets prone to violence. He finally meets the woman of his dreams only to lose her and ultimately meet with tragedy.

Two deaf and dumb children. She is the daughter of an American Oil engineer. He is the son of an Algerian farmer. They meet and manage to communicate, transcending all the cultural barriers that separate them.

Playing painterly form with and against story-telling form, this Short Story is a loop that depicts a loop and is itself looped.

Looking outward, this is a segment from a series revolving around the relationship between Pierce's son and daughter. Their relationship is too complicated and too dynamic to understand. This piece doesn’t try to explain anything other than the fact of an overlapping acoustic environment and proximate activities. Looking inward, Wood is also a reflection on the many overlapping rhythms of the body.

Triangle is a dance in which young man and woman entwine in a succession of lithe movements. The association is with the triangle shape, in a human context involving the introduction of a second woman into the mix. This triggers a dynamic of jealousy and rage, though it seems reconciled at the end. Nominated for an Oscar in 1995 it is a wonderfully envigorating fusion of dance, music and animation.

This Oscar-nominated documentary short tracks the shift in the relationship of an individual to his work between the 19th century and today. Focusing on how nails are made, we first see a blacksmith laboring at his forge, shaping nails from single strands of steel rods. The scene then shifts from this peaceful setting to the roar of a 20th century nail mill, where banks of machines draw, cut, and pound the steel rods faster than the eye can follow.

A documentary showing the struggle to bring electricity to rural areas of the United States.

A shy old man works up the gumption to meet a woman on whom he has a crush.

An ailing elderly woman is paid a perfunctory visit by her family while she sits despondently in a nursing home. Nobody can get through to her except for her young grandson, who talks to her about the happy times they shared between the two of them when she was well.

Made as a relief worker's master's thesis, this documentary chronicles the difficulties of rebuilding a community in post-Pol Pot Cambodia

Zineb is a psychiatrist assigned to Rihana, a traumatized and pregnant young woman, who was raised as a son by her dictatorial father. Rihana's story awakens repressed thoughts in Zineb's own mind.

The Martians speculate on the nature of Earth's apparent dominant life form, automobiles.

Insects are tortured in various ways amidst the sounds of screaming.

The gang goes to a circus sideshow to visit Dickie and Spanky's uncle, mistakenly believing he is "The Wild Man from Borneo."

Word & number gag, no camera.

Sergey Dvortsevoy makes his international debut with this astonishingly intimate portrait of a nomadic family on the Kazakh plains. Several scenes in this slow, elegant film betray a certain dry humor -- a child devouring the last of a bowl of yogurt and then crying; a cow getting its head stuck in a pail; and a woman singing to herself, accompanied by her snoring husband. Other scenes capture the nomads' hardscrabble lives -- drunken herdsmen in the grips of existential despair, growling dogs, and a camel enduring a rather grim septum piercing. By the end of the film, the family pulls up stakes and herds its sundry four-legged beasts -- camels, cattle, goats, dogs, and horses -- to a more fertile plain. This film was screened at the 1999 Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival.

Memories split in the space.