Deniz Demirer

Frictions develop when Yisroel "Izzy" Jonigkeyt, a Chassidic Jew from Crown Heights, travels to San Francisco to visit Polish-born Catholic friend Marek Wisniewski with the intent of discovering why a Bay Area art-world iconoclast named Harry Kierk seeks to destroy a lifetime's worth of his own work. As the visit progresses, Izzy and Marek discover for the first time that complex historical baggage impinges on their curious friendship and, soon, they begin to understand why Kierk is driven towards destruction. Continued encounters with Marek's vaguely anti-Semitic cousin Irek (who is their only gateway to contact Kierk) only compound these tensions.

"What do you do when the spark touches down-brief and hot?" So begins award-winning director Rob Nilsson's (Permission to Touch, MVFF 2015; A Bridge to a Border, MVFF 2014) provocative meditation on the Möbius relationship of fiction to reality, and the notion of creative control. In Love Twice, Luz and Ken are star-crossed lovers in screenwriter Sal's script, until their desire takes shape, inscribing itself into a movie of their own design. Risking his sanity to save the screenplay, Sal struggles to regain control of his characters and satisfy the demands of his producer Lester (legendary Velvet Underground founder John Cale), driving a wedge between the lovers with a desperate attempt to seduce Luz.

Center Divide is the second film in Rob Nilsson's multi-character Nomad Trilogy. In the first film, Arid Cut (2019), our refugees of the American Dream leave the city. In Center Divide, with no more West to escape to, they're now on the road heading East.

A look into the lives of two eleven year-olds spending a summer weekend fighting off boredom. Based on Kao's own memories of a cherished childhood in Iowa during the 60s and 70s, when the only structure to his and his friends play was having enough matches for the afternoon, and how to get your bike-chain back on in a hurry.

A husband-and-wife pair of retired cult deprogrammers experience marital strife when their past catches up with them.

Two young people arrive in New York to spend a weekend, but once they arrive they're met with bad weather and a series of adventures.