Love this trippy short by London-based director Jamie Whitby (previously featured here). Part acid trip, part stoner noir, “Smokers Delight” is inspired and scored by the original track list from the cult icon of cannabis culture, Nightmares On Wax’s 1995 LP. The film was commissioned by Warp Records to celebrate the album’s 25th anniversary — “one of those records you’d put after you’d come home from a night out, as the sun started peeking through the blinds.”

Starring
Jordan Stephens
Theo Barklem-Biggs
James Thackeray
Corey Weekes
Deepica Stephen
Portia Williams
Michelle McMahon
Pierre Gorbanevsky
Ewens Abid
Abdul Salis

An Agile Films production
Director: Jamie Whitby
Producer: Scarlett Barclay
DoP: Spike Morris
Production Designer: David Hamilton
Stylist: George Buxton
Editors: Jack Williams, Edward Cooper
Sound Designer: Seb Bruen
Colourist: Alex Gregory
Casting Director: Heather Basten CSA
Animation and Titles: Chris Cornwell
Makeup & Hair Artist: Natasha Lawes

Executive Producers:
Hayley Williams
Myles Payne
George Evelyn
Kazim Rashid
East End Studios

This video was submitted by Jamie Whitby and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A perfectly deadpan reimagining of Mormonism’s inception by Brooklyn-based writer and director Taryn Ward (previously featured here). Shot in the two towns in which Ward grew up (Penfield and Palmyra), the film follows two absent-minded mormons as they struggle to find their place in the quiet suburbs of Palmyra, New York. Aside from being the birthplace of Mormonism, Ward describes the town itself as plain and uneventful — a place whose sheer boringness inspired him create this short about a pair of young men failing to find their place in it. As Ward explains further:

“Instead of satirizing Mormonism in an overtly direct way, I was more interested in trying to underscore the idiosyncrasies and strangeness of the door-to-door task itself, as well as the suburban life that surrounds it. Romanticizing suburban banality is certainly not uncharted territory for filmmakers, but using irresponsible Mormons was my conduit for that expression. The short also acts as a satirical, suburban reimagining of Mormonism’s foundation and backstory, but one can take that or leave it.”

Check out “Palmyra” above and see full credits below!

With Will Cornfield & Keegan Smith
Written & Directed by Taryn Ward
Director of Photography: Michael Faller
Producer: Aaron Gordon
1st Assistant Camera: David Maslyn
Location Sound: Paul Wright
Editor: Joseph Raymond
Original Score: Daniel James
Sound Design & Mix: Michael Odmark
Color: Dustin Wadsworth
VFX: Austin Lepri
Production Assistant: Kevin Flanagan

Taryn Ward’s Website

Taryn Ward on Vimeo

Taryn Ward on Instagram

A young man returns to Delhi in search of his origins in this uplifting short by filmmaking duo Azulroto aka Adonis MR and Bea Hohenleiter.

Directed by Azulroto
Cast: Gaurav Joshi
Music Score: ScummV
Graphic Design: Luis Valverde
Voice Over: Abhishek Ghosal
Sound Design: Arturo Quesada
Production assistant: Gaurav Joshi
Translation: Claire Durant , Gaurav Joshi
Special thanks: Joshi family, Antón Serrats, Marichu Sanz
With the support of Xperience

This video was submitted by Azulroto and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Two queer teens navigate the intimacy of their first time together in this tender portrait by New York City-based writer and director Matthew Puccini (previously featured here).

Written & Directed by Matthew Puccini
Produced by Jeremy Truong, Cecilia Delgado, Matthew Puccini
Starring Morgan Sullivan & Manny Dunn
Director of Photography: Matt Mitchell
Production Designer: Christina O’Neil
Editor: William Sullivan
Sound Design & Mix: Arjun Sheth
Score: Nathan Prillaman
Casting Director: Freya Krasnow

This video was submitted by Matthew Puccini and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Nice mix of visuals and hand-drawn titles in this short piece by Tom Ringsby (previously featured here). Shot over a week at a make-shift Airbnb studio in Johannesburg, South-Africa (“Jozi”), rapper/producer Vuyo and the North Of arts collective hosted a revolving door of both established and up-and-coming local musicians to record “The Jozi Tapes EP.”

Director, Camera, Editor, Titles: Tom Ringsby
Colourist: Andi H. Chu @ ETC London
Film Process & Scan @ On8Mill
A North Of / Intergalactic Studios Production
Thanks to: Henry Gill, Jannick Fjeldsøe, Kari Småge

This video was submitted by Tom Ringsby and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A fittingly absurd and gruesome depiction of a guy who works as a janitor cleaning up scenes after gang fights for Husky’s track “Never Ever.” Written and directed by Moscow-based filmmaker Evgenii Bakirov (previously featured here), the janitor figure is meant to represent the internal struggles of an artist, cleaning up his own mental world. Watch above and see full credits below!

Written & Directed by Evgenii Bakirov
DP: Kirill Groshev
Production Designer: Vasya Ivanov
Executive Producer “Spot”: Mikhail Marizov
Executive Producer Bureau “Working Title”: Igor Sayfullin
Producer: Samat Yuzeev
1st AD: Mina Khlechyan
Production Manager: Ivan More
Senior Administrator: Ravil Sneg
Assistant Producers: Maria Evenko, Valeria Morgunova, Ekaterina Panasenko
Casting: Daria Avrutova
Special Effects Makeup: Daria Rykova
Style – Visible Style Service:
Vasilisa Gamaleya-Gusarova
Yuliana Inyusheva
Tattoo: Herman Devyashin
Editor: Kirill Khandurin
Sound – FORTY TWO POST:
Nikita Gankin
Boris Voyt
Ilya Putilin
СС: Nikolay Vavilov
Gaffer: Anton Ageev
Decorator: Ilya Nemirovsky
Props Master: Roman Ovsyannikov
Location Manager: Oleg Talisman
Backstage Photographers: Dima Chyornyy, Daria Pocherk, Natalia Shavshina

Thanks to:
Pavel Galin
Camera Department
Igor Yashin
Super Vision Sistems
GrungeJohnOrchestra.Explosion

This video was submitted by Evgenii Bakirov and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A stylish meditation on life since COVID compared to life before by director Marco Mucig. While the start of quarantine was difficult for many people — filled with feelings of frustration, anger, and emptiness — Mucig questions whether some new rhythms and routines might actually be preferable to our old lives:

“It might sound weird, but I’m really scared about going back to my life before. I’m confused. I don’t know who I will be or what I will want. Everything is so uncertain. Will it pass?”

Starring
Giorgia Quarto
Enrico Berretti
Stefano Berretti
Vlad Chetrusca

Directed by Marco Mucig
Cinematography: Edoardo Emanuele
1AD: Lisa Valcarenghi
2AD: Glenda Petrosino
1AC: Niccoló Di Guida
2AC: Laura Bellacicco
Steadicam Operator: Federico Vio
Set Designer: Mattia Pozzi
Stylist: Silvia Gabrielli
Stylist ASS: Valentina Cusumano
MUA: Lucia Giacomin
Edit: Luca Campanale
Music: Machweo
Voice over: Amber Baker
Color: Lorenzo Ameri
Filming equipment: Movie People

Thanks to
Jacopo Ardemagni, Luca Merli, Marco Bellone,
Alessandro Gagliardi, Blu, Nina,
Impronta Birraia, Tucidide 56 Community

This video was submitted by Marco Mucig and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Los Angeles-based director Paul Trillo (previously featured here) takes us on an infinite zoom through time and space, framing our current affairs in the context of the universe, in this surreal video for The Shins’ track “The Great Divide.”

Directed by Paul Trillo
Produced by Jen Alvares (Hunters House) & Paul Trillo
Creative Director for The Shins: Jon Sortland
Executive Producer: Oscar A. R. Chow
CGI Studio: Hunters House Entertainment Group

This video was submitted by Paul Trillo and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A delightfully offbeat short about a couple of middle-aged friends’ intense dedication to Little League baseball by New York City-based filmmaker Gabriel Wilson. No stranger to the dreams (and fanaticism) that begins with Little League, Wilson tells the story of a pair of local irritants and one harebrained scheme to influence the playoff game. As he states:

“With Balk, I wanted to create a world where obsession reigns — a world like the one I grew up in — where the local sport was scarred by class and ethnic conflicts between groups from different parts of town, and where volatile coaches and helicopter parents traded insults and sometimes punches. But underneath the rough exterior of this fanatic world, there is a soft core. Balk is a story of friendship, love, and broken American dreams. It is about a moment where two friends, each afraid of losing the other, find their loyalties severely tested. It is also a story about the lengths that people will go to for those they love.”

Check out “Balk” above and see full credits below!

Cast:
Will Janowitz
Linas Phillips
Patrick Ryan Wood
Leslie Meisel
Scott Friend
Madeleine Morgenweck
Bari Hyman
Xavier Evans
Henry Pskowski
Grace Rex
Maria Tholl
Kealia Smith
Mark Castillo
Maria Bruzhayte
Craig Durham
Adam Wilson

Directed by Gabriel Wilson
Written by Gabriel Wilson and Ben Gottlieb
Produced by Mary McCune
Producer: Jennifer Kaiser
Producer: Scott Friend
Co-Producer: Tamara Hansen
Associate Producer: Robert Frankel
Cinematographer: Rob Leitzell
Editor: Robert Grigsby Wilson
Composer: Samuel Nobels
Unit Production Manager: Conner Thompson
1st Assistant Director: Dina Graham
Casting by Allison Twardziak
Art Director: Melanie May
Costume Designer: Aminah Haddad
Colorist: Jenny Montgomery
DI Facility: Company 3
DI Producer: Stephanie Arce
Sound Editor: Robin Shore
VFX Supervisor: Rob Bellon
Script Supervisor: Michelle Karst
Title Designer: Caspar Newbolt
Music Supervision By Groove Garden, Annie Pearlman, Melissa Chapman
1st Assistant Camera: Matthew Devlin
Steadicam Operator: Jesse Sanchez-Strauss
2nd Assistant: Rob Bellon
2nd Assistant/Swing: Omar Kakar
DIT: Joao Prado
Camera Intern: Alex Reid
Gaffer: Alex Brown
Additional Gaffer: Wesley Ortiz
Best Boy Electric: Daisy Long
Electrician: Mark Anthony Castillo
Key Grip: Charlie Diserens
Grip: Jonathan Tang
Additional Grip: Lauren Fondren
Additional Grip: Leo Hardman-Hill
Hair And Make-Up: Ashtyn Thurber
Sound Mixer/Boom Operator: Samuel Stevenson-Yang
Additional Sound Mixer/Boom Operator: Mauricio Escamilla
Casting Assistant: Dihlia Azama
Art Production Assistant: Nicholas Starikovsky
Picture Car Driver: Henry Pskowski
Additional Editing by Kaitlyn Cortes, Gino Volpe
Additional Locations: James Hogg
Production Assistant(s): Ana Jimenez, Elizaveta Goroshinikova, Becky Morgan,
Liza Goroshnikova, Maria Bruzhayte, Jordi Llaurado Vila,
Mandy Kim, Jose Arrigoitia, Jimmy Charlap, Colleen Brennan
Wrestling Footage Provided by Jon Marcher, Austin Goldberg

Special Thanks: Eric Mendelsohn, Julie Wilson, Jenny Tromski,
Louis Wilson, Peter Vaughn Sharon Kaitz, Michael J. Cacioppo Belantara,
Adam Wilson, Soheil Rezayazdi, Sarah Rapp,
Hana Safu, Jesse Husid, Andrew Castillo,
Jonathan Katz, Dumont Little League, Mahak Jiwani

Thank You: Matthews Diner and Pancake House, Jaclyn Noel,
VFW Hall POST 4290, Chantel Clark, Below The Line Production Supply,
Leonardo Campaner, Hand Held Films, Christian Thompson, Fixitinpost

This video was submitted by Gabriel Wilson and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

New York City-based director Omar Jones captures a day in the life of Reason in this trippy video for the track “Sauce” featuring Vince Staples.

Director/Edit/VFX: Omar Jones
Executive Producer: Anthony “Moosa” Tiffith
Producer: David Wept
Director of Photography: Franklin Ricart
Color: Jacob McKee
Production Co: TDE Films/At.las Productions

This video was submitted by Omar Jones and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

Love the range of emotion in this documentary short by Brooklyn-based director Kevin Castanheira. From the absurd to the heartfelt, “Selling Death” offers an unexpectedly profound meditation on the modern funeral industry.

Director: Kevin Castanheira
DOP: Michael Berlucchi
2nd Unit DOP: Scott Hanson
Prod Co: Keeper
Producer: Steve Codella
Editor: Scott Hanson
Music: Sebastian Fritze
Location Sound: Lydia Branscomb
Colorist: Dante Pasquinelli @ Neer
Sound Design: Bobb Barito
Titles: OPENTOPUBLIC
Lab: Photokem
Scan: Thom Kuo

This video was submitted by Kevin Castanheira and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!

A fun video about an anti-cupid and an arrow through the heart for Khai Dreams’ track “Sunkissed” by director Daniel Iglesias Jr. (previously featured here).

Starring Khai Dreams & Kanea Blokland
Label: AWAL
Director/Editor: Daniel Iglesias Jr.
Producer: Phil Soulliere
Prod Co: StrayDogs
Cinematographer: Neema Sadeghi
Photographer: Haley Appell
MUA: Alexandra French
Wardrobe: Hayley McCune
AC: Jake Coury
Gaffer: Sebastien Nuta
Grip: Michael Nicholas, Gabe Knoos-Newton
Steadicam: Parker Brooks
Hydroflex: Pascal Combes-Knoke
Auto Rigging: Tim Finn
Casting: Casting By Mar
Colorist: Dylan Hageman

This video was submitted by Daniel Iglesias Jr. and selected by our team. Click here if you have a project you’d like us to check out!