'Ad Meliora' (translation: Towards Better Things) is an experimental short film about the struggles girls go through growing up in a male dominated society.
Social & External
The people behind it
An experimental short film exploring the endurance of the feminine spirit against oppressive structures. As a faceless maternal figurine stands paralyzed in a crumbling room, a son narrates the voice that was stolen from her and apologizes for the world that silenced her.
63-year-old Dolores—a teacher, a wife and mother—has always lived up to expectations. Her life in Barcelona is stable but suffocating: a dull marriage, a grown son about to make her a grandmother, and yet another Christmas far from her hometown. On Christmas Eve, something snaps. After feeling provoked, she assaults a man in public — an impulsive, violent act that seems completely out of character. Suddenly she’s thrust into a hostile system that puts her sanity and womanhood on trial. The world says she’s lost control, but something deeper has been set in motion.
After facing multiple rejections, Tuku agrees to learn knitting at the insistence of a prospective mother-in-law, only to rediscover her life and relationships.
A poem by Sophia Ron brought to life. Silhouettes, shapes, caresses; death. Even irony and a strong youth alienation plague the images. But what will the kids do about it?
An approaching loss threatens the of a middle-class family, whose dark secrets gradually come to light and begin to gnaw away at the family members - literally.
Elisabeth leaves her abusive and drunken husband Rolf, and goes to live with her brother, Göran. The year is 1975 and Göran lives in a commune called Together. Living in this leftist commune Elisabeth learns that the world can be viewed from different perspectives.
After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.
A wife is sick and tired of her husband's infidelities, so she leaves home and goes back to grad-school. There she meets many self-confident women who help her find her own voice.
The lives of two lovelorn spouses from separate marriages, a registered sex offender, and a disgraced ex-police officer intersect as they struggle to resist their vulnerabilities and temptations.
A mentally unstable teen transforms himself into a clown to deal with and mask his own disturbing, nihilistic worldview and deteriorating mental health. the further the film continues, the more prominent his descent into madness becomes.
In a recording studio, five mothers read the testimonies of other anonymous mothers and open up, laying bare their regret about motherhood. On an imagined island, these five mothers are locked away in an open-air prison. They are under surveillance and forced into hard labor.
After years of caring for her father, Bella falls for Ponce, a dreamer she sees as her prince charming. As their romance leads to marriage, she gradually loses herself, abandoning her studies, friends, and family for his world.
Matthew, a college freshman, meets his dream girl in a dorm elevator during a blackout. He never sees her face, but instantly falls in love. In the morning, the power is restored, but the "dream girl" has vanished. All Matthew knows is that she lives in an all-girls dorm. He sets out on a semester-long journey to find his mystery girl among a hundred female suspects. Could it be Wendy? Dora? Arlene? Patty? Cynthia? Or the 95 other girls, any of whom could have been in that elevator with Matthew.
Years after the crime, three clueless investigators discuss the disappearance of a young tourist in a small French town.
In a dystopian city, where women are merely the possession of men, the 17-year-old Valentina escapes from Zéro’s grasp. Vulnerable and alone, she gets rescued by Alex, the leader of a group of young, strong women who fight together against the injustice in the world.
Minja, a 19-year-old girl leaves her provincial town after her affair with the professor of drawing in order to avoid the scandal. In the big city, she meets Nenad and changes under the influence of love.
When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she takes a risky chance to reclaim it by impersonating him and running the project from his position.
A pair of twin brothers from East L.A. choose to live their lives differently and end up on opposite sides of the law.
A poor, struggling South Carolinian mother and daughter face painful choices with their resolve and pride. Bone, the eldest daughter, and Anney her tired mother, grow both closer and farther apart: Anney sees Glen as her last chance.
In a suburban landscape, the lives of several families interlace with loss, despair and personal crisis. Esther Gold has lost focus on all but caring for her comatose son, Paul, and neglects her daughter and husband. Lawyer Jim Train is devoted to his career, not his family. Helen Christianson wants to find a new spark in life, while Annette Jennings tries to rebuild hers.
20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.
A drama set in the American South, where a precocious, troubled girl finds a safe haven in the music and movement of Elvis Presley.
94-year-old Eleanor Morgenstein tries to rebuild her life after the death of her best friend. As a result, she moves back to New York City after living in Florida for decades.
The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.
The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.
In New York City, a young girl is caught in the middle of her parents' bitter custody battle.
Years after her son's suicide, a woman longs to confront both the past and a friend of his who took his business idea.
When a change of circumstances leaves Miriam unable to pay her college tuition, she makes a surprising decision: to start performing in adult films, using the pseudonym Belle Knox. Miriam lies to her family and her friends at school, keeping her double life a secret. But soon rumours spread and Miriam becomes the subject of vicious online attacks and unwanted attention. Miriam fights back: she talks to the media, saying her new line of work empowers her as a feminist. But her confident stand has unintended consequences. Miriam is shunned by her conservative family and her colleagues in the adult film world. One impulsive decision has quickly spiralled out of control - and Miriam's problems are just beginning.
Based on the true story of a black girl who was born to two white Afrikaner parents in South Africa during the apartheid era.
Conman Robert Freegard poses as an undercover MI5 agent and kidnaps countless victims amidst a high-stakes manhunt, until the woman who fell for him brings him to justice.
A former special forces contractor is forced out of retirement as an avocado farmer in Mexico when local gangsters try to force him and his family off their farm.
When lapsed Jew and former cardiologist Harry suddenly decides to spend his retirement as a pig farmer in Nazareth, Israel, the move deeply shocks his family and his new neighbours. Back in New York, Harry’s ex-wife Monica is trying to manage the lives of their adult children, Annabelle and David, as well as her own.
Young teen girl Xiu Xiu is sent away to a remote corner of the Sichuan steppes for manual labor in 1975 (sending young people to there was a part of Cultural Revolution in China). A year later, she agrees to go to even more remote spot with a Tibetan saddle tramp Lao Jin to learn horse herding.
A teenager faces an uphill battle when she fights to give women the opportunity to play competitive soccer.
Twenty years after their notorious tabloid romance gripped the nation, a married couple buckles under the pressure when an actress arrives to do research for a film about their past.
When seventeen-year-old Hannah stumbles upon a website about Thinspiration--an online community devoted to anorexia as a life choice--she becomes an obsessive follower of the site founder, ButterflyAna. By the time Hannah's family realizes what is happening and get Hannah the help she needs, the disease has fully taken hold and Hannah is refusing to eat. Will this family be able to exorcise the demon of anorexia from their lives?
An aimless young man who is scalping tickets, gambling and drinking, agrees to coach a Little League team from the Cabrini Green housing project in Chicago as a condition of getting a loan from a friend.
