In our world, being able to fly is a dream most of would love to have. In director Bobby Peers' 'Sniffer' however, everyone can fly, and it's not the panacea of fun people thought it was going to be.

The short film opens with our protagonist stuck to the ceiling after he slipped from the harness that keeps him tucked in at night. His partner has to bring him down with a hook and a pair of gravitation boots. What follows is an insight into this man's world. He works at a sniffing factory, spraying men with various potions and then smelling the results. That is, until a pigeon ends up killing itself inside the sniffing room.

The death of a fellow flyer has a profound affect on our protagonist, who decides he has had enough and attempts to challenge the status quo. He quits his job, loosens his bindings, and literally takes off. 'Sniffer' took the Golden Palm for Best Short Film at the Cannes Film Festival and reminds us that hopes and dreams are rooted in the relative experiences of those around us.
 

We gave you a teaser earlier this month, and now we can give you, err… a slightly better teaser. Digital Theatre and of course The Journal are delighted to bring our first opera to the digital screen in the form of Opera North's award-winning 'Don Giovanni' - which is now available to download.

Based on the legends of Don Juan, a fictional libertine and seducer, the lothario makes one conquest after another until the ghost of Donna Anna's father, who died by Giovanni's hand, makes an appearance. In a last-ditch attempt at redemption, the Don chooses to maintain his amoral existence and pays the consequences.

The play was captured live at the Leeds Grand in October 2012, and director Alessandro Talevi's version scooped Best Opera prize at the 2013 Manchester Theatre Awards.

With a musical score written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, it's been widely praised as the greatest opera ever written - which is why we thought it'd be a nice opener for our audience. 'Don Giovanni' skilfully blends comedy, melodrama and the supernatural in to a package beautifully re-imagined for the present day. Check out the trailer above and head over to digitaltheatre.com to download it.

David Bolger, choreographer and artistic director of CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Dublin has made a beautiful film, dedicated to his mother, Madge.

The film opens with a man, dressed for work, being smartened up by his mother. He fondly places a nose plug, and then pushes him into a swimming pool. What follows is a graceful  balletic performance of loops, spins and contortions in the gravity less expanse, while his mother watches from the sidelines.

After three minutes however, his 76-year-old mother joins him in the pool, and the two perform an intimate display.The film was shot in the Marian College swimming pool, where Madge worked as a swimming instructor for many years and where she taught David to swim. It's a moving film about a mother and her son, and the revisiting of a memory the two shared together, years before.

Eliot Rausch's short film, is a moving portrait of a man born in the modern age. While technology has set us free in so many ways, it has put many of is in a virtual cage. The film follows the fate of a relationship, and it subsequent demise at the hands of a smartphone.

While one reaches out for a connection, the other has his thumb online searching for another form of community. It's a sad story that flashes between past memories tainted by technology's attention grabbing, and the disconnection it brings in the present.

'Get Back' forms part of the Lincoln Motor Company's “Hello, Again” series, which asks filmmakers to re-imagine the familiar into something fresh and new. The result of the brief led Rausch to make a semi-autobiographical piece about his own detachment from the physical world, and his subsequent immersion in the virtual one.

'Get Back' is a subtle, touching story that questions how much technology has improved our lives, and how much it has taken in return.

Professional sports across the world have been steadily creeping down the age bracket in search of  tomorrow's next star. It's a familiar story of predatory agents wooing young men and women with offers of money and free perks - in exchange for their identity and anything else they may think of.

But in Ryan Koo's 'Amateur' that narrative is not as clean cut as it might first appear. It follows the fortunes of Ed - played by Curtiss Cook JR - a 13-year-old middle school basketball prodigy. One evening, while practicing with a friend, a talent scout for a rival school shows up to try to convince him to change sides.

At first, Ed isn't interested, but after some probing, the scout finds a chink in the confident young man's armour; his troubled family life. What follows next is a master display of exposing that weakness and using it to his advantage. Offers of job security for his prison father, and free school fees appear to swing Ed into taking him up on his offer. But all is not what it seems.

'Amateur' is a prequel to a full-length feature film exploring the subject of child stars entitled 'Manchild'. While the full-length film is still raising funds on Kickstarter, what we see in 'Amateur' is a fascinating exploration of the power struggles within professional sports, and a thorough examination of our pre-conceived ideas that talent scouting of 13-year-old kids is a one-way street.