Tisch School of the Arts (NYU)

One of the early short films of director Brett Ratner.

Samah attempts tirelessly to escape wearing a burkini for her middle school swim meet, feeling embarrassed by its shape and cultural meaning.

A young man walks into a meticulously clean and sterile bathroom and proceeds to shave away hair, then skin, in an increasingly bloody and graphic bathroom scene.

A writer named Algernon (but called Harry by his friends) buys a picture of a boat on a lake, and his obsession with it renders normal life impossible.

A down-on-his-luck photographer determined to capture visual magic and fame. He concocts an intricate plot to blow up the Statue of Liberty and sets his camera to record the exact moment of its destruction.

This visually ravishing and thought-provoking work portrays one of the USA’s great shames—the 1955 murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till by two white men in Mississippi—and movingly reminds us of this dark episode’s enduring relevance.

At a shiva with her parents, a college student runs into her sugar daddy.

Holly, an anxiety-ridden high school sophomore, is faced with the challenge of giving a class presentation.

A modern day short noir film about suspicion, centered entirely on two characters – an older woman and a younger man. Sylvia tries to get Jim to kill someone off for her, but he fails – and now he thinks he’s being followed.

An experimental documentary portrait of director Malcolm Quinn Silver-Van Meter's grandfather

Following a one-night stand, a young insomniac wakes up in a luxurious Manhattan apartment where things are not what they seem. Something about his host is off. When she reveals that they are not alone, the red flags escalate into a waking nightmare.

The memory of his partner, Raul, who died during the AIDS crisis in New York in the 80’s, drives a melancholy, solitary man, Robert, to look for his family, who know practically nothing about him.

A young woman wakes up on a train going to an unknown destination. She has no recollection of how she got there or where she is. She finds herself in a vast city; a forest of steel and iron and concrete, wandering the dark streets.

A college student struggles to reconnect with his high school friends after learning they’ve started dating each other.

Isaac and Vivi, two adventurous young New Yorkers, go on a surreal first date to a mysterious Brooklyn art gallery where things are not as they seem. After consuming LSD-infused olives, their perceptions of reality – and each other – begin to unravel.

On a laid-back summer day, a young woman spends some time with her casual partner. Irmak Akgur directs "Limerence," a slice-of-life portrait that flows in uninhibited vignettes. Minimally plotted but tonally sharp, Akgur's film captures a couple of free spirits in their element - spending the day preening, dancing in the sun, making love. Built with convincing intimacy and naturalism, it culminates in a moment of carnal revelation.

15-year-old Angus considers the sacrifice he needs to make for the approval of his older brother's friends.

In Belleau Wood, France, during the Great War, a soldier named John writes a letter home to his wife Sara in Milwaukee. He writes that her picture "helps me remember what it was like to be me." He tells her about sorties into No Man's Land, and that they have orders tonight to charge. Then, his letter becomes a report of that charge: toward an armed German soldier who doesn't fire, even when John reaches him and jumps into the trench beside him. What happens next brings silence and an end to the letter.

On the stormy night of July 5th, 1995, Trick Stuart works the graveyard shift with his plus-sized pal Meathead at the Delta Kream, a 24HR fast food joint. As they practice their brass band routine, a very unexpected visitor arrives.

A young videographer is fascinated with filming a hunky skateboarder.