Royal College of Art

18 year old Em goes on a journey, with biscuits from her grandmother that she eats and shares with new friends. When down to her last biscuit, Em has to make a choice: eat it, or save it as a final link to her home.

Every day, a father and his son jump with a parachute from their vertiginous cold house, attached to a cliff, to go to the village on the ground, far away where they sell the ice they produce daily.

At Stamford Road in Dalston Junction of east London, the camera follows pedestrians, cars and birds while a narrator, who appears to be the director behind the camera, seems to instruct the objects.

Despite their disinterest, a young child tries to convince her local community she wants to become a statue, bringing her on surreal voyage towards the garish monolith that lingers in the background.

In this short film written and directed by Alexis Bisticas, the audience sees through the eyes of a man in the woods, following the distant sound of a saxophone. In a single take, the fluid steadicam shot takes the viewer on a surreal and poetic journey, as the walker comes across everything from family picnics to men in bondage suits.

A mixed-media biography of a fictional animation tycoon.

Victor is stuck in a low-budget airliner next to a shamelessly intrusive stranger. The crackling candy wrapper, the smacking of the lips, oh, he thinks, just give me a break. No, he doesn't want candy, thank you very much. Victor isn't hungry. But there's no escape, thirty-five thousand feet in the air. So, just keep breathing.

Moments of lost self-control.

A young boy gets caught stealing a sheep and is shaved of all his hair and branded with a mark on his forehead so that everyone will know that he is a thief and not to be trusted. Dumped in the desert, the thief covers his marking with a headscarf and goes to the nearest village where he is taken in by a trusting family in return for his work. However, has be actually changed or is he still the same thief at heart?

Mass: abstract gravity. Experimental art film created with partially lit paper relief.

A story of adolescent rural life and the inevitable waywardness of experiences earned the hard way.

Although Mermaids have been traditional symbols of fertility and a sexuality so powerful as to be a danger to shipping, details of their reproductive processes have been scarce. The film reveals the cycle of laying, fertilising and hatching as well as the previously secret role of storm-wrecked sailors.

A child, a cat, a starry night but, in this world of innocence, dream and magic, obscure forces of evil awaken. This animated short revolves around the adventures of a young, horned boy and a group of six devil-like vermin that can combine themselves to make one large creature.

A sensitive animated short depicting a daughter penning a letter to her deceased mother, detailing the day-to-day events and personalities of her life.

In a dreamlike narrative, a woman takes a bath and reflects upon her past experiences; submerged in the water she enters a space out of time.

Alternating Super-8, digital footage and the correspondence with her brother, the filmmaker evokes their deceased mother and the Portuguese revolution, which she only gets to know through these diffracted memories.

In this short, surreal, painterly comedy, Laura escapes from her superstitious worries by floating out at sea on her bed. On a sunny Friday 13th, all her troubles return.

A surreal view of religion.

A boy plants a microphone in the sitting-room so that he can listen to his parents after going to bed at night.

Ostia is a fascinating short film directed by Julian Cole and produced for the Royal College of Art, which reconstructs the events leading up to the murder of Pier Paolo Pasolini. Ostia relocates the proceedings to London and stars Derek Jarman as Pasolini. The film features an evocative dream sequence which is accompanied by poignant excerpts from Pasolini’s own poetry, as read by Jarman.