Director: James Carman
Cast: Dr. Edgar Mitchell
Showtimes

“I can’t stand the term UFOs. We’ve known for years what they are…’

That’s one of the many contributors to The Hidden Hand, a film exploring the claims of people who have seen aliens.

People who say they were abducted are called abductees. People who say they had friendly contact with aliens are called contactees. People who label their experience as neither positive nor negative are called experiencers.

I call all of them something else: crackpots.

Director: Andres Kõpper, Arun Tamm
Cast: Mart Müürisepp, Hasan Steinberg, Ivo Uukkivi, Ott Lepland
Showtimes

“I think this is going to be the best day of our lives...” says one young, optimistic Estonian male. Two seconds later, a gangster’s knocking them to the floor. “This is not the best day of your life,” he growls.

That’s the funniest moment in this multi-stranded comedy/thriller about one night out in the city. It occurs early on, a promising sign of hijinks and high-paced wit to come. Unfortunately, it never delivers.

Director: Bing Bailey
Cast: Patrick Murphy, Geraldine McAlinden, Rory Mullen
Showtimes

“How would you feel if every new person you met screamed, fainted or threw up?” asks Billy’s mum. “No wonder he lashes out.” Billy (Murphy), you see, has been living in his parents’ home for an unnaturally long time. He lies on the bed all day, groaning, sleeping, and waiting for his mum to bring him food. A typical young fella, then. Except for the fact that he’s a zombie.

Director: Branko Schmidt
Cast: Rene Bitorajac, Zrinka Cvitešić, Leon Lučev
Showtimes

“No dogs were harmed in the making of this movie.”

They certainly can’t say the same about the humans. A Vegetarian Cannibal, gynaecologist Dr. Babić devours the people around him. He forges test results, blackmails enemies, seduces women and bribes officials – and that’s just the people he works with. His patients, pregnant women ranging from illegally trafficked prostitutes to his friend’s unwanted mistress, get it even worse.

Director: Bojan Vuletic
Cast: Jean Marc Barr, Julie Gayet, Baki Davrak
Showtimes

“After long hard years of isolation… war and terrorism… Belgrade has opened its heart again to tourists and visitors from across the world who are curious.”

So speaks a woman, standing in front of a choir of singing airhostesses. If that doesn’t make you curious, I don’t know what will.

Director: Paul Schoolman
Cast: Derek Jacobi
Showtimes

“As I sit in my cell barred and bolted… my soul finds release like a nomad… and wanders for me in the night.”

The words are written by Tony, an inmate at Dartmoor Prison, but they could easily belong to Julius Caesar. Long before he came to power, young Jules was dismissed as a loser, a waste of space, a homosexual. He grew up in a time of conflict and bloodshed. Dictators. Thugs. War. They’re the hallmarks of 80s BC Rome, but they could easily belong to modern day Dartmoor. Or Cardiff. Or Drumheller Pentientiary in Alberta. Or Pollsmoor Prison in South Africa, where Mandela was once held.

String theory says there are many alternate realities. StringCaesar, then, sees two of them collide behind bars around the world. Citizens wear orange jumpsuits, while rulers spark riots in the corridors and order murder in the yards.

Director: Marc Fields
Cast: Steve Martin
Showtimes

"I think people are continually transfixed by the five string banjo... in some mysterious way."

That's Steve Martin, actor, writer, comedian and Emmy award-winning banjo player. He's the frontman for this documentary, which takes it title from a Mark Twain quote. Why would anyone ever cry out "Give me the banjo"? Because like the blues, the banjo has an interesting (i.e. extremely checkered) past.

"You could hear the darkies singing," begin a troupe of banjo players, as a parade of racism trots across the screen. Minstrels, old white folk, you name it. And Steve Martin embraces that politically dubious history, happy to accept it as part of the music he likes to play.

Director: Mark Potts, Cole Selix
Cast: John Merriman, Brand Rackley, Mark Potts
Showtime

Anyone who’s worked in a cinema can tell you it sucks. The endless shifts behind the popcorn counter. The moronic customer complaints. The cleaning up of vomit and puke. How cathartic, then, for someone to have immortalized that eternal drudgery of multiplex life with such wit - and depressing reality.

“I'm getting out soon.” “When?” “I dunno.”

Director: Christopher Payne
Cast: Cindy Jourdain, Arionel Vargas, Max Brown
Showtimes
Facebook page

Dance movie. Those two words struck dread into me four years ago. Well, before I saw StreetDance. But even after that decent British effort, along came StreetDance 2. And Step up to the Streets 3D. And before you knew it, all those old fears were back. Thank goodness, then, that Christopher Payne is out there: his tale of ballet on the streets, Love Tomorrow, reclaims the words "dance movie" back from the money-churning crowd, producing a charming, character-driven piece.

Director: William C. Sullivan
Cast: Tommy Nelms, Jarret Kerr, Sarah Wharton
Showtimes

"We need to start thinking about the future, man. Sooner or later, we're going to be living in it."

That's Percival (Nelms) to his flatmate Sal (Kerr). Living together in a post-uni haze, Sal spends his days selling drugs ("a herbal entrepreneur") and Percival passes the time by worrying about everything. What does he do when he's not being neurotic? Dreams about Chloe (Wharton), a friend of Sal who he once met for five minutes.