It’s hard to live in the present. For most of us, the majority of our time is spent in reflection on the past or in anticipation of the future, and this can be a cause of great feelings of regret or anxiety. In profoundly different ways, the 3 films we’ve selected as our Best of the Month for August deal with this sense of impermanence and possibility.

One film, which I consider the best interactive piece I’ve yet seen, imagines the future possible in a literal way, letting you, the viewer, cycle through possible permutations. Another film manifests the anxiety inherent in parenthood and the knowledge that your beloved child is constantly in the midst of a bewildering process of becoming. And, in our final pick, a woman’s preconceptions of the future restrict her present. Through steamy romance, can she learn to shed that determining weight? Clocking in at 43min (about the length of a network hour-long drama) enjoy the best new shorts of the past month.