Shake, rattle and rolllll around the world

Our favourite Swedish collaborators director Vedran Rupic and Salvatore Ganacci take the brakes off their latest story of love and yearning

Around the world with wonderful advertising

Photographer, artist and director Florian Joahn has created an idiosyncratic style that melds sensuality and surrealism. Having created visuals for the likes of Nike, Fenty, Vogue Italia, Skepta and Rita Ora, he broke into the world of film last year with erotic short Hormones Are My Master and documentary Whypipo: Mykki Blanco Speaks About Race in Whiteface. Exploring themes of racial bias, black masculinity and queer and transgender subcultures with a delicate yet subversive touch, his work provokes conversation and defies definition. 1.4 sat down with Florian to find out more about the power of portraiture and alternative versions of reality.

New York-based filmmaker Tomson Tee is committed to telling stories that challenge the truths of the world, no matter how difficult they may be to accept. Thanks to a chance incident on the metro, which encouraged him to pursue his interest in moving image, Tee was forced to reflect on his own upbringing and thought patterns. He is now happy to get curious about his own hang-ups and bias to ensure that his work remains relatable, real and most importantly, cuts through.

New York-based director Haya Waseem and her partner cinematographer Christopher Lew explore intimacy between real couples in this beautiful, gentle film shot on 65mm.

Thomas James is SO fantastically dark. We’re still recovering from his film for Ditch, Twisted Ritual, which was let’s face it a menacing horror scream-a-trip, and now he’s come up with this surreal, mesmerising dream-like film for Ghostpoet. It’s weirdly beautiful, even if the director describes it as a moist nightmare.

No surprises Nike is running, but there's a heart warmer from a bank and a heart breaking homage to his cousin from Anquan Boldin

Our top spots from the united states of advertising

Northampton-based filmmaking duo The Rest, recently signed to Pulse, is made up of Alex Motlhabane and Lewis Levi. Over the past two years, they have cultivated a reputation for beautifully shot, narrative-driven music videos and music-led short films. The impact their visuals have had in the UK music scene has been huge, serving, for many, as a blueprint for how to make original, low budget, high quality music videos for particularly idiosyncratic UK artists. Kofi Holmes Attivor catches up with Alex to talk with him about The Rest, his work, his motivations and some other reflections.

The long and short of fashion narratives....

With a budget of £100 – food money from one of their mums – students Red Filagate, Samuel Carson, Max Marshall & Zane Crowther spent their summer creating a clay hell hole in their halls bedroom. The result is this astoundingly good stop-frame of 30 little raver figures complete with hoodies, bucket hats and fanny packs. We talk with Max and Red about their work, creating a record label and why they’ll never work in clay again. Expect future wonders.

Sibling rivalry may eat up some families, but thankfully not directing duo The Coles – made up of Sophie and Walker. They’ve skilfully mastered the art of fraternal fighting so that it doesn’t interfere with their artistic ambitions, enabling them to continue stalking the streets for subjects to feature in their reality-twisting films.

Director Dylan Pharazyn plays on the power of supernatural forces between three characters in this mesmerising film for Auckland band Wax Chattels. We catch up with the Sweetshop director about his creative vision but first ask the bands’ bassist and vocalist Amanda Cheng about her lyrics for the film’s track Career.

The Milan-based creativity factory The Blink Fish’s latest fashion film for National Chamber of Italian Fashion (CNMI) is a playful and slightly surreal interpretation of the values of inclusion and diversity championed by CNMI. Niccolo Montanari catches up with Giacomo Boeri from The Blink Fish

Sonia Malfa can’t help but explore her identity through the subjects she portrays on-screen. As a Puerto-American director, a lot of her work harks back to the magical realism passed down through her family and touches on the stories of women and people of colour she’s known and been inspired by. Incorporating her love of nature with her passion for storytelling, Malfa’s pieces are sensually-captivating and incredibly layered with truth and personality.

Love, death and other stories told in cinematic and wonderfully weird ways

Norwegian cinematographer Benjamin Loeb captures that poignant space of early grief when a young friend dies in his stunning short film that quietly breathes with sorrow.

Roll up, Roll up, Roll on through our pick of those videos that make our heart skip a beat

Director Mike Mills cold-called The National band to see if he could do a video for their track Sleep Well Beast but after a conversation with vocalist Matt Berninger a search for something much bigger than a music video began. There was, says Mills “a sense of we can do anything and actually we don’t want to know what we’re doing”.

While trawling through Visionaire’s excellent series of Opera Music Videos featuring works of baroque master G. F. Handel and minimalist 20/21st century composer Philip Glass one thing led to another as it usually does and we discovered along the way director Daniel Askill’s short film Universal Machine also set to Glass’s music. We share with you this feast of joy...

Mohammad Gorjestani subconsciously seeks out stories similar to his own; searching for subjects that have overcome adversity against all odds. As an Iranian-American director, he fears cultural oppression in the States but uses this as fuel to rewrite his story and connect with others who have risen resiliently. Having lived through change and hardship, creating space and relating to his subjects is key – and it’s no wonder that it comes so naturally to him.

Few are able to combine travel with work. Yet New York-based director Janssen Powers has seemingly found a way to incorporate his love for adventure into his filmic career. But he’s conscious about balancing his learnings with profiling the subjects he features. For him, remaining humble and connecting over truth is key to creating ripe creative conditions.

Sophie Ebrard's latest photography show explores the uncomfortable side to becoming a mother. Now she has turned her exhibition into a moving piece of work with a film co-directed with Ruben Peeters

New York directing duo rubberband debuts their signing with Smuggler with a multi-layered cracker for Glass Animals latest track, Tokyo Drifting.

We talk with filmmaker Phoebe Arnstein about capturing those unique and poignant moments of other people’s lives in her perfectly crafted documentary on bathing rituals for cosmetics brand Lush.

The Porsche Awards honour top of the class film students and graduates with a helping hand to invest in their next film

The short film is a notoriously hard format to nail - challenged by time, frequently self-funded and at constant risk of sliding into self-indulgence. Which is why amongst the many short films we’re sent at 1.4 the cream always rises to the top. Director Tom Noake’s latest short Nursery Rhymes (in partnership with writer Will Goodfellow) deals a visceral blow with an elegant one-take shot and an unsettling delivery of Old MacDonald had a farm. No spoilers, just watch it. As a stand out entry to this years’ 1.4 awards we spoke with Tom about the project and its origins.

1.4 catches up with the British multi-talented artist in New York on her “multi-media approach spanning animation, live action, creative direction, fashion design and interactive to make highly original work that embraces the chaos, imperfection and energy of our lives”.

Just three films into his transition from Steadicam Op to Director, Loïc Andrieu has already established a clear artistic vision of the world he wants to explore. Rife with dark symbolism, stylistic depictions of the subconscious mind and teeming with ritualistic explorations of the eschatological, his work is compelling and unsettling in equal measures. 1.4 had the pleasure of delving into the depths of Loic’s creative mind to explore the meaning behind his powerful imagery.

Johannesburg-based Nare Mokgotho has a sharp eye for comic timing. Emily d'Silva catches up with the creative-turned-new director