Connection Unmasked: Navigating Relationships and Neurodivergence

For those who the stark reality and pressures of life can feel an insurmountable struggle, happiness and belonging exists in a fantasy world of magic wizards, brave knights, and evil ghouls. A movie by Connor Macrae Love.

A short animated documentary that looks at the gay male/trans/non-binary body and why it is common for people to send naked pictures via dating apps. The documentary takes an experimental approach in its visual style and tackles themes of masculinity, queerness, solitude and the body. A movie by Steven Fraser.

A short film by Elsa van Damke follows a 27 y/o Maggie on a date  at her crush’s apartment. When she  suddenly gets her period, she rushes to the bathroom — where she finds herself  confronted with a monster that’s been living in her head for far too long.

A short animated documentary that explores the experience of telling the world that you are autistic when you also identify as LGBTQ+. Queer coming out stories are well documented, but the occurrence of telling friends, family, co-workers and strangers that you are autistic is less explored. A film by Steven Fraser.

This video work was created by turning real people into avatars using 3D scanning technology and then incorporating them into the film as a bricolage. The title comes from the nickname of a dog that was kept by the artist's family in their rural hometown in Japan. The dog lived for ten years as a guard dog in a rural household untouched by urbanization. However, due to its inability to bark properly, it couldn’t fulfill its role as a guard dog. Additionally, the dog was never given an official name by the family. The motivation behind my work, as well as my creative process, stems from a particular sensory experience that I can only describe as “nausea.” 

Whenever Naoki encounters something abnormal or difficult to accept, they always feel this sensation of nausea. This concept of nausea is not only a personal experience but also something that has been discussed in classical aesthetics and various philosophical discourses. A video work by Naoki Okada.

In this short film, an autistic girl drifts through life as if wrapped in the silence of a cosmic spacesuit. Floating between worlds, she struggles to connect, with words feeling distant, lost in the vastness of space. Navigating a world that feels alien, yet uniquely her own. A film poetry by Aine Collins.