Tales from the Rift

Somewhere between the stars is a place that has gone missing. Hazel is a time traveler. Hat is a zealot. Lily is ghost. And something is always watching. Through the lens of five interconnecting stories, the secrets of the Rift are revealed.

Ayer

The Court Jester

Unfolding during a 2004 episode of The Ellen DeGeneres Show, fitness trainer Richard Simmons makes an appearance. Amid the chaos and liveliness of the behind-the-scenes, Richard encounters David, an overlooked and underappreciated segment producer struggling with self-esteem. In a serendipitous twist, Richard sees beyond David's invisibility, offering his unique brand of honest, uplifting kindness.

The Art In Anguish

Josh Thomas is an artist grieving the loss of his wife, channelling inner turmoil into art. When presented with an opportunity, Josh must decide whether he’s selling art or his emotions.

The Hug

Nicholas Spark's touching tale of a woman whose love knows no bounds, even if those bounds are restraining orders.

I Was a Teenage Werebear

A repressed gay teen transforms into a beast after being bitten by a hunky classmate.

A Joke on Jane

The roots of modern television situatuation comedy can be seen in this Beauty brand film. As American grew the Beauty brand was developed to feature actress Margarita Fisher. Her husband, Haryy Pollard, directed the Beauty films and occasionally acted in them. He plays the husband in this one.

Run(a)way Arab

A queer Arab boy, Nazeem, looks up to his Muslim mother with awe. Later in life, it is only through being a drag queen that he holds on to their lost and fraught connection.

Illusione

During the 1950s, a Greek concert pianist meets the love of her life in Trieste, Italy. After they marry, she follows him to the United States -- where a cruel fate awaits her.

Moon

Babz Dubreuil, a lonely ex-convict, works as a cook in a brunch restaurant. At the encouragement of a colleague, she finds the courage to ask an attractive customer on a date. It might be the beginning of redemption.

Not a Word

Alice is a victim of sexual abuse, and like many victims, lived in silence for years, ashamed, tortured by guilt, afraid to reveal the truth. When Alice starts reading from her teenage diary she finally summons enough courage to confront the man she holds responsible for her suffering.

A Piece of Land

Ahmed flees his war-torn homeland of Syria and faces discrimination in Iraq. The people of the new society he joins make it impossible for him to move on and begin a new life.

Spring Tide

A teenage girl is ready to experiment, but an older man’s demands burden her sexual awakening with complex realizations about her place in the world.

Symmetry

We are a constantly evolving culture. A culture eternally cycling, dying, and being reborn. The cities we live in, the jobs we have shape our direction, but are we heading in the right direction?

A Woman

A modern Azerbaijani woman’s life is non stop all day as she juggles traditional and secular roles, her life subsumed by service for others while rarely getting the respect she deserves. Throughout the film we see how things are changing in progressive Azerbaijan, and how some things don’t change; like her, it is a country at a crossroads of seeming contradictions. This is the story of "a" woman, elements of whom are universal.

Annie Laurie

In late 18th century Scotland, Annie Laurie and William Douglas love each other, but their clans are on opposite sides of the country's civil war. Their love is made immortal through the title song of this film.