This short semi-animated film tells the story of a woman's spectacular ocean view from her apartment in Vancouver’s West End. How far will she go when leaves start to obscure her panorama, her light and her happiness? A brilliant blend of stop-motion, projections and models, drawings and altered live-action transports us into a meditation on the tension between urban life and the natural environment. Like Don Giovanni, will our ambitious protagonist stop at nothing to get her way?

Older than the Roman Empire, the giant sequoia trees have stood thousands of years and weathered every force mother nature has thrown their way, that is, until now. From the logger’s ax to climate change-induced fire storms, the famous Big Trees of the Sierra Nevada need our help to survive, so they may continue to thrive, and for countless generations to walk their groves in wonderment.

In 1900, unscrupulous timber baron Jim Fallon plans to take advantage of a new law and make millions off California redwood. Much of the land he hopes to grab has been homesteaded by a Quaker colony, who try to persuade him to spare the giant sequoias...but these are the very trees he wants most. Expert at manipulating others, Fallon finds that other sharks are at his own heels, and forms an unlikely alliance.

The Central African Republic. Here in the shade of sub-panel rainforests lives a tribe of the shortest people on Earth - the Baka pigmies. As it was hundreds years ago they hunt for meat and gather gifts of big trees. They pray to the spirits of the forest and teach their children to respect the forest, to take from it only what is of great need. But little by little their traditional mode is changing under the pressure of the "Big World" culture.

Among the trees, young women and men working the summer harvest develop new feelings, flirt, try to understand each other, find – and flee – deeper connections.

An ensemble piece set in a North African neighbourhood in Toulon.

It is through the voice of Salim, newly arrived in Canada, that we follow the journey of six immigrants who, cramped in a van, earn their living by distributing advertising leaflets. Despite their diverse origins, they share the same nostalgia for their native land and the same daily worries, which they approach with scathing humor. Among them is a young boy of Russian origin, Sacha. The biting cold and the endless stairs will get the better of his tenacity. However, Sacha will come to surprisingly break the routine of Salim and his companions...

A man tries to meet death by the tree where playful children come and go.

"The sulphur-iron mine is located at the common boundary of Sichuan, Yunnan, and Guizhou province, with an area of 1774 square meters. The Yong Ning River originated from here, flowing northward 108 kilometers into the Yangtze River. The mine was established in 1950 and its products are mainly exported, with some concentrated uses within in the county. We found this place in the newspaper by accident; it's called Big Tree County. Many years ago, it was part of the forest along the Yangtze River. A sulphur-iron mine was discovered in the 1920s, which started large-scale sulphur smelting. Now the old way of sulphur smelting is ranking first in the country[sic]. On our second day there, in this remote valley in the southern part of Sichuan province with hundreds of thousands of people living there, we met a boy named Tan Cong. We then got to know his family, as well as a local school teacher, and some of the locals smelting the sulphur."

It should have been an ordinary day, but it was very different from usual. There was a large crowd in front of my grandma’s house. Where did people come from and where are they going? I was peeping at them behind the window, but the big tree obstructed my view.

A trigger-happy Nationalist fears retribution from the son of a man he executed. To mollify the boy's anger, he takes a drastic step: he keeps constant watch over the fig tree the boy has planted at his father's gravesite. As the years pass, the man's lonely vigil makes him a tourist attraction, much to the chagrin of his former colleagues.

FIG TREES is a documentary opera about AIDS activists Tim McCaskell of Toronto and Zackie Achmat of Capetown as they fight for access to treatment drugs. Documentary interviews, speeches, press conferences and demonstrations are sampled, taken apart, and set to music, replayed this time as operatic scenes. A surreal fictional narrative is intercut with the stories of their struggles against government and the pharmaceutical industry. In this fictional world, Gertrude Stein decides to write a tragic opera about Tim and Zackie and their saint-like heroism. She kidnaps them, transports them to Niagara Falls, and forces them to sing a series of complicated avant-garde vocal compositions. However, when Zackie ends his treatment strike and starts taking his pills, Gertrude realizes that there will be no more tragedy, and thus, no more opera.

The violinist and the dancer fell in love. However, a man suddenly appears, with whom the dancer leaves, tempted by his wealth. A musician who has lost his beloved looks at life pessimistically and falls into despair.

A story like any other, about love, marriage, and passion fruits.

14 year old Jewish Mina, is trying to navigate between a surreal routine dictated by the civil war in Ethiopia and her last days of youth with her Christian boyfriend Eli. When she discovers that her family is planning to immigrate to Israel and escape the war, she weaves an alternate plan in order to save Eli. But in times of war, plans tend to go wrong. Marsha's coming of age film debut film is based on her childhood memories of a civil-war-torn Ethiopia.

Extremadura (Spain), 19th century. Four shepherd agree to let a game of cards decide which one of them will kill the village landowner.

Comedy about a woman who finds a new life after she loses her busband.

In "Spaces #2", 7 internationally acclaimed directors shot, after commissioning by the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, a short film at home, making their own timely comment on the new reality that we live in. The project is inspired by the book "Species of Spaces" by the French novelist, filmmaker, documentalist, and essayist, Georges Perec and the days of quarantine. The idea is to create a film at home, using the environment, the people or the animals in that space. The only outdoor areas that may be used are outdoor living spaces, such as the terrace, the garden, the balcony and the stairwell. "Spotting Fig trees" is Tarik Aktas's submission.

Plastic Tree's first DVD live released on April 3, 1996