21st Century Girl

Sep 3, 2020

1h 57m

★ 7.3

15 short films with an animated end-title sequence by young women directors born in late ‘80s to ‘90s.

Overview

21st Century Girl is an omnibus feature that is of the girls, by the girls and for the girls. The work of 15 women directors under the age of 30, each of whom contributed an 8-minute film, the package highlights a range of genres, visions and thematic concerns.

Genres

Drama

Romance

Production Companies

AOI Pro.

VAP

21st Century Girl Trailers

Cast

(segment "Out of Fashion")

Serena Motola

(segment "Low Resolution, High Emotion")

Ai Hashimoto

(segment "Mirror")

Aki Asakura

(segment "Projection")

Sairi Ito

(segment "For Lonesome Blossoms")

Erika Karata

(segment "Muse")

Shizuka Ishibashi

(segment "Anytime, anywhere")

Ayu Kitaura

(segment "I wanna be your cat")

Akari Kinoshita

(segment "Sex-less, Sex-friends")

Mei Kurokawa

(segment "Mirror")

Kumi Takiuchi

(segment "Love Desiccant")

Anna Yamada

(segment "Projection")

An Ogawa

Matt, a young glaciologist, soars across the vast, silent, icebound immensities of the South Pole as he recalls his love affair with Lisa. They meet at a mobbed rock concert in a vast music hall - London's Brixton Academy. They are in bed at night's end. Together, over a period of several months, they pursue a mutual sexual passion whose inevitable stages unfold in counterpoint to nine live-concert songs.

7.1

Open Hearts

Sep 6, 2002

Cecilie and Joachim are about to get married when a freak car accident leaves Joachim disabled, throwing their lives into a spin. The driver of the other car, Marie, and her family don’t get off lightly, either. Her husband Niels works in the hospital where he meets Cecilie and falls madly in love with her.

6.4

Italian for Beginners

Dec 7, 2000

Several lonely hearts in a semi-provincial suburb of a town in Denmark use a beginner's course in Italian as the platform to meet the romance of their lives. The film, which unspools the connections and family drama shared between the students, complies with several aesthetic principles of Dogme 95 movement.

6.6

Eggnoid

Dec 5, 2019

Sent from the future to look after a lonely girl, Eggy finds himself falling for her. But dating is forbidden and would risk both their fates.

7.0

Antonia's Line

Sep 21, 1995

After World War II, Antonia and her daughter, Danielle, go back to their Dutch hometown, where Antonia's late mother has bestowed a small farm upon her. There, Antonia settles down and joins a tightly-knit but unusual community. Those around her include quirky friend Crooked Finger, would-be suitor Bas and, eventually for Antonia, a granddaughter and great-granddaughter who help create a strong family of empowered women.

6.4

Crash

Jul 17, 1996

After getting into a serious car accident, a TV director discovers an underground sub-culture of scarred, omnisexual car-crash victims, and he begins to use car accidents and the raw sexual energy they produce to try to rejuvenate his sex life with his wife.

7.1

The Holiday

Dec 5, 2006

Two women, one American and one British, swap homes at Christmastime following bad breakups. Each woman finds romance with a local man but realizes that the imminent return home may end the relationship.

6.4

Copying Beethoven

Sep 10, 2006

A fictionalised exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on his Ninth Symphony. It is 1824. Beethoven is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer. A fictional character is introduced in the form of a young conservatory student and aspiring composer named Anna Holtz. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed, her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his private world.

7.1

Nowhere in Africa

Dec 11, 2001

A Jewish woman named Jettel Redlich flees Nazi Germany with her daughter Regina, to join her husband, Walter, on a farm in Kenya. At first, Jettel refuses to adjust to her new circumstances, bringing with her a set of china dishes and an evening gown. While Regina adapts readily to this new world, forming a strong bond with her father's cook, an African named Owuor.

5.7

When Saturday Comes

Mar 1, 1996

Jimmy Muir comes from a typical gritty, northern town where there are only two options: working down the pit or in a factory. But Jimmy has other ideas - he dreams of becoming a professional footballer. Confronted by a bitter and unsupportive father, hard drinking friends and a lifetime of bad habits...has Jimmy the will to achieve his ultimate goal?

5.3

A Real Young Girl

Apr 28, 1999

Bored and restless, Alice spends much of her time lusting after Jim, a local sawmill worker. When not lusting after him, Alice fills the hours with such pursuits as writing her name on a mirror with vaginal secretions and wandering the fields with her underwear around her ankles. And, in true teenaged tradition, she spends a lot of time writing in her diary.

5.5

Forces of Nature

Mar 12, 1999

Ben Holmes, a professional book-jacket blurbologist, is trying to get to Savannah for his wedding. He just barely catches the last plane, but a seagull flies into the engine as the plane is taking off. All later flights are cancelled because of an approaching hurricane, so he is forced to hitch a ride in a Geo Metro with an attractive but eccentric woman named Sara.

7.0

Me and You and Everyone We Know

Jun 17, 2005

Single dad Richard meets Christine, a starving artist who moonlights as a cabbie. They awkwardly attempt to start a romance, but Richard’s divorce has left him emotionally damaged. Meanwhile, Richard’s sons—one a teenager, the other 6-years-old—take part in clumsy experiments with the opposite sex.

7.4

The Cave of the Yellow Dog

Jul 27, 2005

The little nomad girl, Nansal, finds a baby dog in the Mongolian veld, who becomes her best friend - against all rejections of her parents. A story about a Mongolian family of nomads - their traditional way of life and the rising call of the City.

7.0

sex, lies, and videotape

Aug 4, 1989

Ann, a frustrated wife, enters into counseling due to a troubled marriage. Unbeknownst to her, her husband John has begun an affair with her sister. When John’s best friend Graham arrives, his penchant for interviewing women about their sex lives forever changes John and Ann’s rocky marriage.

7.2

Take My Eyes

Oct 8, 2003

One winter night, Pilar runs away from home. With her, she takes only a few belongings and her son, Juan. Antonio soon sets out to look for her. He says Pilar is his sunshine, and what's more, "She gave him her eyes"...

7.1

The Virgin Suicides

Apr 21, 2000

A group of male friends become obsessed with five mysterious sisters who are sheltered by their strict, religious parents.

6.1

Faustine and the Beautiful Summer

Jan 12, 1972

Faustine suffers the wounds of first love. During a summer when she is staying with her grandmother, she comes to know the nearby neighbors. Two brothers live in the large house. One is divorced and one has recently remarried, both of them live there with their teenaged and adult children. Though the boys of the household are drawn to Faustine, she grows ever more smitten with the divorced older man...

6.5

Fiction.

Jun 19, 2008

When a sheltered young woman becomes enamored with a struggling writer, she goes to great lengths to become involved in his creative process.