Boarding the Midnight Train

Oakland, California. Young Afro-American Oscar Grant crosses paths with family members, friends, enemies and strangers before facing his fate on the platform at Fruitvale Station, in the early morning hours of New Year's Day 2009.

A nameless drifter navigates a barren landscape punctuated by satellite dishes, radio towers and droning airplanes. Stopping periodically in anonymous hotel rooms, she makes attempts to connect to an unidentified second party.

20 men are chosen to participate in the roles of guards and prisoners in a psychological study that ultimately spirals out of control.

Two drifters bum around, visit earthy women and discuss opening a car wash in Pittsburgh.

A young man with a bright future suffers a near-fatal accident and recreates his new life with the help of an unlikely animal friend.

Gentle and broken, a homeless man fights others on video for money but soon finds comfort in an unlikely friend and the lost diary of a young girl.

The relationship of a couple who meet by chance in New York City is put to the test when they encounter a life or death circumstance.

In the fall of 1994, a teacher at Chicago's run-down Steinmetz High conspires with the school's academic decathlon team to cheat on an academic competition.

A deadly collision between a train and car lead to an unlikely bond between the train engineer and a young boy who escapes the carnage.

After Margaret, a divorcée living in Dublin, loses her teenage son, she develops an unorthodox relationship with Joe, a homeless youth. Their tentative trust is threatened by his involvement with a violent gang and the escalation of her ex-husband's grieving rage.

A young girl tries to help her grandfather, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, navigate his increasing forgetfulness, and ends up going on a remarkable adventure with him.

Anthropology student Daria, who's helping a property developer build a village in the Los Angeles desert, and dropout Mark, who's wanted by the authorities for allegedly killing a policeman during a student riot, accidentally encounter each other in Death Valley and soon begin an unrestrained romance.

Mara is a young creative writing professor struggling with problems in her marriage to an experimental musician. One day, she runs into Matt, a charismatic, free-spirited author from her past, when he wanders onto her university campus. Bonded by their shared interests, the two gradually become closer. When Mara’s husband unexpectedly cancels plans to drive her to an out-of-town conference, Matt accompanies Mara on the trip instead. Along the way, the tension surrounding their undefined relationship slowly grows.

The true story of 20-year-old Colleen Stan, a hitchhiking woman abducted by a young couple and held captive for seven years, during which time she's tortured and forced to live as a slave to her captors.

An unlikely friendship evolves over one wild night in LA between a struggling journalist and actor Hervé Villechaize, the world's most famous gun-toting dwarf, resulting in life-changing consequences for both.

In a forgotten pocket of Southern Ohio where American manufacturing and opportunity are drying up, a determined young woman finds a ticket out when she is accepted to college. Alongside her older brother, Ruth Avery joins a dangerous scrap metal crew in order to pay her way. Together, they spend one brutal winter working the scrap yards during the day and stealing valuable metal from the once thriving factories by night. With her goal in sight, Ruth finds that the ultimate cost of an education for a girl like her may be more than she bargained for, and she soon finds herself torn between a promising future and the family she would leave behind.

Follows a young boy who runs away from home in the search of his estranged mother.

A chance encounter with a stranger changes the life of a college gymnast.

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

Bill, an idle, unemployed aspiring writer, walks the crowded streets of London following randomly chosen strangers, a seemingly innocent entertainment that becomes dangerous when he crosses paths with a mysterious character.

After attending a funeral, a man returns to a merry-go-round where he once cherished joyful moments with someone deeply significant in his life.

In a society on the brink of collapse due to climate change, a woman grapples with the psychological effects of an unnatural existence. Cut off from her loved ones, she seeks refuge in various forms of escapism, desperate to outrun an ever-looming sense of doom.

Antoine - a grieving loner - spends his days in a cafe on Place Clichy watching people. Every day, he sees a woman he calls Albertine get out of the subway and go to the movies. Today, he takes it upon himself to talk to her. Thus began Antoine's down-going.

A young woman forced by her family to study a major she doesn't want, finds her only escape in her passion for the sky while caught between economic struggles and social norms.

Ten girls are waiting for arrival of the train. We find out from the conductor that it is delayed indefinitely. We spy on the girls from the outside and they figure it out. While they are telling their stories, sharing their problems and concerns, we are all waiting for the train. Will the train arrive? Where are they going and what are they really waiting for?

When two gay seminarians, Eduard and Mathew, are caught kissing in a church, Eduard must choose between his love for Mathew and his commitment to Christ.

A man's life becomes threatened after he goes on a date with a woman who's in love with the Devil.

When life brings Suhas, a corporate trainer, to a new city, he comes across a lively young man and a mysterious traveller girl who make him ruminate about his life choices and aspirations.

Miša, a young man with powerful telekinetic abilities, finds himself trapped in a dark experiment where he is subjected to manipulation and abuse. Though he is offered various comforts and pleasures once he is freed from his confinement, Miša rejects these temptations. Driven by a quest for truth and freedom, he embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets behind his powers and reclaim his autonomy.

A gang war at school.

Before heading off to college, an overthinking teenager asks out a former girlfriend in an effort to reconnect and hold on to his past.

As Samay nears his thirtieth birthday, he and his girlfriend Meenakshi embark on a road trip to a tranquil hill spot on a Saturday afternoon. Between winding roads and quiet moments, their conversations unravel reflections on life’s twists and turns—career choices, societal expectations, relationships, and the delicate balance between personal aspirations and external pressures. A journey filled with warmth, scenic beauty, and unfiltered thoughts, Tree Roots Through Concrete captures the essence of love, change, and the pursuit of meaning.

Nine fictitious documentaries and films reflect the mood of late 1970s Germany, particularly the two-month period in 1977 when a businessman was kidnapped by the RAF (Red Army Faction). The kidnap had been made to orchestrate the release of the original leaders of the RAF, aka the Baader-Meinhof.

Ieva is facing the day of her grandmother's funeral, but her goal of saying goodbye to her grandmother is complicated by the domestic problems of such processions and the growing distance between Ieva and her mother.

A short film that delves deep into the psyche of young protagonist Will. Follow the intriguing tale of Will as he finds himself captivated and consumed by his obsession with a girl named Bliss.

When a circus trio have a particularly disastrous show, Mandy the Acrobat must decide whether to run away from the circus, or to stay and help her friends.

"A socially anxious college student reluctantly heads to a party attempting to make new friends. Nande Walters directs “Who Are You Really?”, an experimental portrait of insecurity characterized by a raw, youthful energy. Anya walks into the room and immediately feels like everyone is judging her. Eventually she strikes up a conversation with a young man, but neither really knows what to say and it doesn’t go anywhere. After struggling through the awkward night, she’s surprised to learn that an extroverted friend didn’t fare much better. Walters is only 19 years old, one of the youngest we’ve ever featured on NoBudge, and her film is the work of an artist still learning her craft but she clearly knows the feeling she’s after and captures it with pops of style and a touching closing monologue." -Kentucker Audley

A character is inside a cubical room; there is a hole in the roof, which is too high to reach. But pushing on the walls distorts the room in various ways, always appearing to bring the hole closer while still leaving it tantalizingly inaccessible.