'The Territory' Schedule

"Sunday Dinner"

The Territory airs Wednesdays on PBS at 10:30pm, beginning Feb. 6.

Feb. 6

"The Open Luggage," Javier Rebollo, Spain, 27 min.: In this stylish European psychodrama, a con artist discovers the pathway to a parallel life and death in a stranger's suitcase.

Feb. 13

"Ni Aqui, Ni Alla (Neither Here, Nor There)," Nora I. Cadena, Texas, 25 min.: This documentary portrays displaced Mexicans barely surviving but making the most of it in the exotic world of San Francisco.

Feb. 20

"Fire of Time," Adam Cohen, New York, 28 min.: This experimental documentary captures the bleak beauty of the Barcelona slums and the viewpoint of one of its survivors.

Feb. 27

"Let Me Tell You a Story," Marlene Rhein, California, 9 min., 30 sec.: This clever, comic shaggy-damsel account of the vagaries of dating underscores the women are from Venus and men are from Mars theory.

"Talk to You Later," Michelle Silver and Stephen Hentges, California, 10 min.: Girlfriends endlessly re-analyze a boyfriend's voice mail in this perceptive spoof of "he said, she said."

"Poetry in Motion," Francesca Talenti, Texas, 6 min.: Evocative works by Texas poets are transformed into animated poetry.

March 13

"Loss Prevention," Jeanne C. Finley, California, 17 min: Award-winning video artist Jeanne C. Finley gives us a glimpse of a senior shoplifter who also happens to be her mother.

"Zeuf," Charlotte Lagarde, California, 4 min.: This experimental memoir with overtones of a public-service announcement is about an ER nurse whose illness results in an unusual form of therapy.

"4 Ways He Tried To Tell You" Jennet Thomas, England, 7 min.: This innovative work studies the ways we come to grasp shape, meaning, and language in a world of swirling images and mixed metaphors.

March 27

"Cockfight," Sigalit Lipshitz, Israel, 13 min.: Former colleagues come to a standoff at a remote border crossing, as ancient conflicts play out in a deadly drama that veers into farce.

"Thure Andersson: Close to the Soil," China Ahlander, Sweden, 10 min: This elegant documentary captures the simple beauty of one man's love for a passing way of life.

"Tour Guide," Daniel DeLoach, Texas, 5 min.: Memory and landscape coalesce in a Westerner's photojourney through wartime Vietnam.

APRIL 3

"As Night Falls," Sabrina Dhawan, New York, 20 min.: Passengers on a night train through India confront their own humanity when a desperate mother and her babies suddenly appear.

"Wood," Leighton Pierce, Iowa, 8 min.: This piece is a searing meditation on the qualities and mysteries of woodwork and fire.

APRIL 10

"The Last Drawing of Canaletto," Cameron McNall, California, 3 min., 30 sec.: Digital imaging and a haunting chant transform an 18th-century Italian drawing into a reverential interlude.

"Arcade," David Lobser, New York, 4 min.: This animated work in the style of the Quay Brothers presents a surreal dreamscape of dolls, bugs, and girls in masks.

"In Absentia," Quay Brothers, Great Britain, 20 min.: The inimitable, profoundly unsettling Quay Brothers outdo themselves in this dazzling, enigmatic blend of live action and animation, of real and surreal, of the human and the non-human.

April 17

"The Astronomer," Lance Myers, Texas, 3 min.: In this gem of classic animation, a lone observer looks out into the cosmos and back into himself in search of time, space, and the past.

"Snack and Drink," Tommy Pallotta and Bob Sabiston, Texas, 4 min.: This is a recent addition to a series of documentary shorts from Flat Black Films in Austin. It features Ryan Power, a 6-foot-tall, autistic 13-year-old, who is an avid fan of cartoon animation and unique soft drink flavor combos.

"The Creation," Deb Lucke, New York, 5 min.: Street art and street culture collide in this seriocomic vignette.

"La Revolution," Dara Frazier, Michigan, 10 min.: Low-tech, cutout animation provides a captivating history lesson about the twists and turns of Haiti's quest for independence.

"Love Defined," Francesca Talenti, Texas, 5 min.: This animated piece, in the tradition of the acclaimed media artist Joanna Priestly, deals with the meaning of and the endless search for love.

April 24

"Always Forever," Deena Lombardi, New York, 10 min.: Self-dramatizing teenage girls smoke, confide, and try on various dangerous personae in this engaging black-and-white commentary.

"With Raised Hands," Mitko Panov, Texas, 5 min.: Mitko Panov brings an historic image from World War II to life as young boy magically escapes a Nazi death train.

"Grandma," Sungyeon Joh, California/ Korea, 5 min.: Various styles of animation and stagecraft merge in the artist's commemoration of her Korean grandmother's World War II experiences.

"Sweet or Spicy?" Kip Fulbeck, New York, 7 min.: Kip Fulbeck's inspired, jarring mixture of sounds and images tackle issues of cultural identity in mass media and in our most intimate moments.

MAY 1

"Lowell Blues: The Words of Jack Kerouac," Henry Ferrini, Massachusetts, 27 min.: A lyrical, multilayered portrait of Lowell, Mass., and favorite son, writer Jack Kerouac, in an experimental documentary that combines poetry and place.

MAY 8

"Sunday Dinner," Joseph Ambrosavage, Texas, 15 min.: In this homage to Hollywood Americana, a perplexed patriarch struggles comically to maintain command of his unruly subjects.

"Home Movie," Gerrie McCall, Texas, 12 min.: Sound and image, music and graphics, all slightly out of sync, meld into an odd meditation on time, memory, and a sense of place.

May 15

"Los Trabajadores (The Workers)," Heather Courtney, Texas, 48 min.: An examination of America's dependence on and abuse of immigrant labor, told through the stories of Austin's immigrant day laborers.