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2020 CATALOGUE

human unity films

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

#FEMALE PLEASURE

2018, Documentary, Switzerland, English, German, Japanese (with English subtitles), 97 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 20:04 – Cinema Paradiso

#FEMALE PLEASURE is a plea for female sexuality in the 21st century. The film questions millennial patriarchal structures, as well as todays omnipresent porn culture. #FEMALE PLEASURE accompanies five extraordinary women around the globe from Japan to India and the Somali Muslim diaspora, to the Hasidic community in Brooklyn and the Catholic clergy in Europe. It reveals universal contexts and shows the successful fight of courageous women for a self-determined female sexuality and an equal, sensual relationship between the sexes. It has been screened at seven film festivals around the world and has won awards in six of them. Some of the awards the film has received are for best female director, best documentary and audience award.

Producer: Philip Delaquis

Director, Writer: Barbara Miller

Cast: Deborah Feldman, Leyla Hussein, Doris Wagner, Rokudenashiko, Vithika Yadak

Contacts:

– Delegation of the European Union to India, 5/5 Shanti Niketan, New Delhi – 110021, India

– Barbara Miller, Mons Veneris Films GmbH, Zentralstrasse 156, Zurich – 8003, Switzerland

Phone: +41 792 215 767 E-mail: barbara.miller[at]gmx.ch

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vbj4lOYN2k

Website: http://www.femalepleasure.org

Twitter: https //twitter.com/femalepleasure_

Facebook: https://facebook.com/femalepleasuredocumentary2018

UN MONDE MEILLEUR

A BETTER WORLD

2017, Short Fiction, France, French (with English subtitles), 12 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 21:41 – Outdoor Screen

Le lapin de Maddy, 6 ans, n’est plus dans sa cage. Il se serait échappé. Mais Maddy sait qu’on ne lui dit pas tout.

Maddy’s rabbit is no longer in its cage. It could have escaped. But Maddy knows that they’re not telling her the whole story. This film has been screened at various film festivals around the world and has been screened in France multiple times.

Producers: Olivier Chabalier, Clémence Marcadier

Director: Clémence Marcadier

Writers: Clémence Marcadier, Stéphanie Tallon

Camera: Nicolas Zafiriou

Sound: Cédric Berger, Juliette Heintz, Xavier Thieulin

Editor: Clémence Marcadier

Cast:  Andréa Dias Marques, Florian Colas, David Marchal, Sara Louis

Contact: Olivier Chabalier, 8, rue Édouard Robert, Paris – 75012, France

Phone: +33 619 212 802 E-mail: contact[at]gaspfilms.com

Website: http://gaspfilms.com/en/films/a-better-world/

Twitter: https -//twitter.com/gaspfilms

UN MOMENT DE FAIBLESSE

A MOMENT OF WEAKNESS

2018, Short Fiction, France, French (with English subtitles), 15 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 16:30 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall (Introduction by actress)

Le soir de Noël, un homme bienveillant invite une vieille femme SDF à prendre un repas chaud et à passer la nuit chez lui.

A benevolent man invites an old homeless woman on Christmas Eve to have a hot meal and to spend the night at home.

Directors: Nicolas Paban, Dominique Arquin

Writers: Nicolas Paban

Contact: Nicolas Paban, 1621 avenue Joseph Gasquet Bat A3, Toulon – 83100, France

Phone: +33 660 250 115 E-mail: nicolas.paban[at]neuf.fr

A TRAMWAY IN JERUSALEM

2019, Feature, Israel, various languages (with English subtitles), 94 minutes

Screening on: Tuesday 7 January, 20:00 – Outdoor Screen

In Jerusalem, the tramway connects several neighbourhoods, from East to West, recording their variety and their differences. This comedy looks with humour at moments of the daily life of a few passengers, a series of brief situations that occur on the way to Jerusalem’s ‘red’ tram line, unfolding a whole mosaic of human beings.

Producers: CDP – Catherine Dussart Productions, Orange Studio, Agav Films (IL)

Director: Amos Gitai

Writers: Amos Gitai, Marie-Jose Sanselme

Cast: Mathieu Amalric, Yaël Abecassis, Hana Laslo, Pippo Delbono

Contact: Inès Papo, Orange Studio, 21 rue Jasmin, Paris – 75016, France

Phone: +33 6 13 35 2233 E-mail: ines.papo[at]orange.com

Trailer: https://youtu.be/U5XOs0CmVxk

ABU

2017, Documentary, Canada, English, Punjabi, Urdu (with English subtitles), 80 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 20:00 – Cinema Paradiso (introduction by director via Skype)

To date ABU has won ten international awards. Soon after emigrating from Pakistan to Canada with his family, Arshad realized he was gay. Merging clips from Bollywood films, animation, and home movies that capture awkward teen phases as well as significant life revelations, Arshad narrates his own cathartic journey, alongside his entire family’s. With charming lyricism and a dash of good humour, director Arshad Khan shares a deeply personal story of self-discovery and familial reconciliation, as he explores the challenges that can threaten the bonds between children and their parents. ABU is an intimately open and dazzling visual memoir about the complex dynamic the filmmaker has with his father, who was at once extremely modern and also rigidly traditional and unaccepting of his son’s true self. It has been screened at film festivals in Canada and US.

Producers: Arshad Khan, Sergeo Kirby

Director, Writer: Arshad Khan

Editor: Etienne Gagnon

Music: Michael Robert Snow

Sound Design: Sylvain Bellemare

Narration Writers: Arshad Khan, Matt Jones, Etienne Gagnon, Omar Majeed

Animation: Davide Di Saro

Narration Director: Deepa Mehta

E-mail: cameraaction[at]gmail.com (Arshad Khan)

Trailer: https://youtu.be/qR1B5iWWvzg

Website: http://www.arshadfilms.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Abu_movie

Facebook: https://facebook.com/Abumovie

ASHES IN THE SNOW

2018, Drama / Romantic, Lithuania, 101 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 20:00 – Outdoor Screen

In 1941 an aspiring Lithuanian artist and her family are deported to Siberia amidst Stalin’s brutal dismantling of the Baltic region. In a seemingly hopeless place, love is the only means of survival. It is a long and harrowing journey, and it is only their incredible strength, love and hope that pull Lina and her family through each day – but will love be enough to keep them alive?

ASHES IN THE SNOW is a riveting story that takes your breath away, captures your heart, and reveals the miraculous nature of the human spirit.

Producer: Prithvi Chavan, Chris Coen, Marius A. Markevicius, Zilvinas Naujokas

Directors: Marius A. Markevicius

Writers: Ben York Jones (based on the novel by Ruta Sepetys)

Associate Producer: Juliana Miliut, Elsa Ramo, Tiffany Boyle

Line Producer: Arturas Dvinelis

Executive Producer: Jonathan Schwartz, Ruta Sepetys

Trailer: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3759298/videogallery/?ref_=tt_ov_vi_sm

AUNTY SUDHA AUNTY RADHA

2019, Documentary, India, Hindi (with English subtitles), 49 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 20:00 – Cinema Paradiso (Q&A with producer)

Two sisters, Sudha and Radha, 86 and 93, have a near-magical existence in their village home in North India, along with their entourage of domestic help. It was nominated for best foreign film and best director of foreign language at the Madrid International Film Festival and has been screened at film festivals around the world.

Producer: Anupama Mandloi

Director: Tanuja Chandra

Contact: Anupama Mandloi, 1002 Bhagtani Heights, Versova, Andheri West, Mumbai – 400061, India

Phone: +91 982 014 9000 E-mail: mandloi.anupama[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJeGZ2jjMvo

COBORÂM LA PRIMA

BESIDE ME

2018, Drama, Romania, Romanian (with English subtitles), 84 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 20:00 – Outdoor Screen

BESIDE ME, Romania’s first inspirational feature film, explores the idea of human connectivity. Tedy Necula’s directorial debut sees several passengers stuck together in a subway train. They do not know each other and everyone has a different route and their own problems. But as passengers interact, things change and at the end of the journey, each one comes out changed in his or her own way. BESIDE ME is a telling reminder that we are all strangers until something brings us together. It is a story about empathy, self-awareness and tolerance. BESIDE ME received the award for Best Feature Drama 2018 at the I Will Tell Film Festival London and the Best Editing Award at the Militello Film Festival.

Producer: Anca Vlasceanu

Director: Tedy Necula

Writer: Alexandra Axinte

Contact: Delegation of the European Union to India, 5/5 Shanti Niketan, New Delhi -110021, India

Trailer: https://youtu.be/t8YlPScrc2Q

Website: www.coboramlaprima.ro

Facebook: facebook.com/coboramlaprima/

BURQA CITY

2018, Short Fiction, France, Arabic (with English subtitles), 20 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 21:46 – Cinema Paradiso

Souleymane and Leila just got married, for better or for worse. The better is that they love each other very much. The worse is that they are forced to live by societal standards.

Producer: Préel-Cléach Fabrice

Director, Writer: Bracq Fabrice

Cast: Omar Mebrouk, Chadia Amajod, Jalal Altawil

E-mail: fbracos[at]gmail.com

CAPABILITIES

2019, Documentary, Argentina, Spanish (with English subtitles), 67 minutes

Screening on: Wednesday 8 January, 21:50 – Outdoor Screen

Documentary about the NGO ATIADIM that (since 1981) has been providing disabled people with work, housing and containment.

Producer: Eliana Ponzano, Instituto Nacional de Cine y Artes Audiovisuales

Director, Writer: Gerardo Panero

Sound: Julián Caparrós, Gino Gelsi

Cinematography: Fabio J. Gauna

Editor: Emiliano Fardaus

Contact: Fueye Films, Boqueron 90, Chivilcoy, Buenos Aires, 6620 – Argentina

Phone: +54 911 525 981 46 E-mail: gerardopanero[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/349205746

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapacidadesDocumental/

COUNTER MAPPING

2018, Short Documentary, USA, English, 10 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 16:51 – Cinema Paradiso

Jim Enote, a traditional Zuni farmer and director of the A: shiwi A: wan Museum and Heritage Center, is working with Zuni artists to create maps that bring an indigenous voice and perspective back to the land, countering Western notions of place and geography and challenging the arbitrary borders imposed on the Zuni world.

Producers, Directors: Adam Loften, Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

Cinematography, Editor: Adam Loften

Sound Recording: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

Music: Matthew Atticus Berger

Key Cast: Jim Enote

Contact: Devin Tellatin, PO Box 1164, Inverness, CA – 94937, USA

Phone: +1 31 43 221 701 E-mail: devin[at]globalonenessproject.org

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/266773501

Website: https://goprojectfilms.com/films/counter-mapping/

MANUSANGADA

CRY HUMANITY

2017, Feature, India, Tamil (with English subtitles), 93 minutes

Screening on: Wednesday 8 January, 20:15 – Cinema Paradiso

In India, Dalits are those who are in the lowest rung of Caste hierarchy that discriminates people according to their status inherited by birth. They form 16% of the Indian population. Statutes have been enacted to give them equality but social practices do not allow them to draw water from the common well, to walk on the common path and in fact to share anything common with the forward castes including burial sites. The film MANUSANGADA is

a true story about denial of use of a common path to carry the dead body of a Dalit, that took place as recently as 2016 in the southern part of India. Kolappan, a low caste Dalit, is forced by upper caste people to carry his father’s corpse through a thorny and unformed route to an uncertain graveyard. When he finds the official powers aligning with casteist forces, Kolappan begins a protest to enforce social liberty equal to all. Will he succeed in bringing a change in the situation? The film depicts the signalling of the rise of Dalit struggles in contemporary India against long-standing human rights violations. It has been screened in five film festivals around India and one in Egypt, along with winning the ICFT Unesco Gandhi award in Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

Producers: S. Thara, Gana Natkunan

Director, Writer: Amshan Kumar

Cast: Rajeev Anand, Manimegalai, Sasikumar

Contact: Thara S, 30A 17th Street, Venkateshwara Nagar, Kottivakkam, Chennai – 600041, India

Phone: +91 988 402 2646 E-mail: ak_films[at]outlook.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/manusangadathefilm/

DOOBIE

2019, Short Fiction, India, English, Marathi (with English subtitles), 17 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 17:29 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

Living in a garbage world, a 5-year-old ragpicker dreams of owning a pair of shoes, but when conflicted by romance, he chooses romance and sets out in search of a 3-year-old city girl in the madness of Mumbai. This movie has been screened at various film festivals around the world.

Producer: Ashish Patwardhan

Director, Writer: Keith Gomes

Co-Producers: Marc Baschet, Golda Sellam, Sandeep Kamal, Bobby Talwar

Editor: Huzefa Lokhandwala

Sound Design: Resul Pookutty

DOP: Archana Ghangrekar

Cast: Rupesh Birade

Contact: Keith Gomes, A/3 Lourdes Villa, Trimurthi Marg, St. Pius Colony, Mulund West, Mumbai – 400080, India

EARTH CRUSADER

2016, Documentary, India, various languages (with English subtitles), 55 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 17:01 – Cinema Paradiso

Tucked away in the foothills of Dharamsala lives a very special woman, by the name of Didi Contractor. She has lived life on her own terms, mostly against the tide. Born in Germany and raised in the USA, she adopted India as her home over 60 years ago. For the past 25 years she has been tirelessly working and experimenting with sustainability in building homes, driven by a strong Gandhian ideology. A student at heart, she draws from traditional aesthetics and vernacular traditions and designs buildings using mud and other natural materials. This self-styled architect’s crusade is no ordinary sermon, but a practical demonstration of what one person can do to create change in society. With an urgent demeanour, without mincing words, Didi articulates her message to students across disciplines. She believes that the future rests in the hands of the youth and they are the ones who need to take her crusade forward.

Director, Writer: Shabnam Sukhdev

Contact: Shabnam Sukhdev, 5 Farmers Ave, Ajax – 411004, India

Phone: +1 647 518 8139 E-mail: shabnamsukhdev[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://filmfreeway.com/submissions/13269987

EARTHRISE

2017, Short Documentary, United States, English, 30 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 17:57 – Cinema Paradiso

EARTHRISE tells the story of the first image captured of the Earth from space in 1968. Told solely by the Apollo 8 astronauts, the film recounts their experiences and memories and explores the beauty, awe, and grandeur of the Earth against the blackness of space. This iconic image had a powerful impact on the astronauts and the world, offering a perspective that transcended national, political, and religious boundaries. Told 50 years later, EARTHRISE compels us to remember this shift and to reflect on the Earth as a shared home. It premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York.

Producers: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, Adam Loften

Director: Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee

Key Cast: James Lovell, Frank Borman, Bill Anders

Contact: Devin Tellatin, 2 Inverness Way, POB 1164, Inverness – 94937, United States

Phone: +1 415 250 2622 E-mail: evaughanlee[at]globalonenessproject.org

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/206458398

Website: http://earthrisefilm.com

EMBRACES & THE TOUCH OF SKIN

2019, Short Animation, Denmark, English, 3 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 17:26 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

EMBRACES & THE TOUCH OF SKIN is an animated poem about the vital need for embraces and contact with other beings.

Producer, Director, Writer: Sara Koppel

Composer: Sune Køter Kølster

Actor: Iben Hjejle

Vocals: Molly Koppel

Translator: Anders Theilmann

Animation: Sara Koppel

E-mail: ulydigefjaes[at]gmail.com (Sara Koppel)

Website: http://nakedlovefilm.com/

FACE À FACE

FACE TO FACE

2018, Short Documentary, France, French (with English subtitles), 16 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 21:24 – Outdoor Screen

A l’hôpital, dans un collège ou une maternité, Philippe Bazin a photographié pendant quinze ans des visages. Dans une forme simple et radicale, il interroge l’humanité dans toutes ses marges.

In a hospital, a secondary school and a maternity ward, Philippe Bazin has photographed faces for 15 years. In a simple yet radical format, he shows us people we don’t look at, questioning the margins of humanity.

Producer: Beppie Films

Director: Benjamin Serero

Contact: Beppie Films, 22 Rue Du 11 Novembre, Arcueil – 94110, France

Phone: +33 611 604 877 E-mail: benjamin.serero[at]gmail.com

INDUS BLUES

2018, Documentary, Pakistan, Urdu (with English subtitles), 76 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 21:41 – Outdoor Screen

Pakistani folk artists talk about their struggle to keep a fading art form alive while reminding the world what they are about to lose.

Producer, Director: Jawad Sharif

Writer: Haroon Riaz

Contact: Jawad Sharif, 698, St. 47, NPF, E-11/4, Islamabad, Federal Capital – 44000, Pakistan

Phone: +92 321 511 2535 E-mail: jawadsharif[at]live.com

Trailer: https://filmfreeway.com/submissions/12928686

Website: http://indusbluesfilm.com

Twitter: https -//twitter.com/IndusBluesfilm

Facebook: https://facebook.com/IndusBluesfilm

INTERVIEW

2019, Short Docufiction, student, Germany (with English subtitles), Arabic, 8 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 21:53 – Outdoor Screen

Located in a refugee camp in southern Lebanon, a group of kids are confronted with a camera man – a western eye on their story of war and crisis. They flip the script and take over the situation. What follows is a game, a chase and an interview where the children decide to ask the questions. The film was made possible by SWISS4SYRIA in a cooperation with director Anastasija H. Bräuniger. Working with theatre pedagogic tools and the medium film, and creating a script, ideas and means of expression together with the children, INTERVIEW is the result of an inspiring, challenging, fun and moving one-week-process.

Producer: SWISS4SYRIA

Director, Writer: Anastasija Bräuniger

Contact: Anastasija Bräuniger

E-mail: anastasijawna[at]googlemail.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/315850951

Website: http://www.anastasija.com

JOSEPH

2019, Comedy/Drama, France, French (with English subtitles), 30 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 16:46 – Cinema Paradiso

Liam, 24 ans, vient de se faire arrêter pour vol sur une personne âgée. Il est condamné à 3 mois de TIG dans une maison de retraite et va devoir s’occuper principalement d’un vieux retraité, nommé Joseph. Les deux hommes vont s’entendre sur un seul point, tenter de s’évader de la résidence…

24-year-old Liam has been arrested for stealing from an elderly person. He is sentenced to three months community service in a retirement home and will chiefly take care of Joseph, an old pensioner there. The two men will agree on one point, try to escape from the retirement home…

Producer: Jordan Anéfalos

Director: M. Padmakumar

Script: Maxime Janvier

Writer: Maxime Janvier

Music: Nicolas Laurençot, Yvan Lebossé

Chef opérateur, Lighting cameraman: Camille Jaulent

Sound Mix: Nicolas Laurençot

Editing: Jordan Anéfalos

Sound: Colin Barthe

Sound Editing: Colin Barthe

Contact: Jordan Anéfalos, Anefalos Production, 14 rue de Thionville, Paris – 75019, France

Phone: +33 494 681 552 E-mail: jordan.anefalos[at]gmail.com

SUOMEN HAUSKIN MIES

LAUGH OR DIE

2018, Drama / History / War, Finland, Finnish (with English subtitles), 103 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 21:05 – Cinema Paradiso

1918, Finland after the Civil War. The famous actor of the Workers’ Theatre, Parikka, is caught and sent to a prison camp where his remaining comrades languish on the verge of death. All the red rebels at the camp are going to be executed. Parikka’s situation among his comrades is not comforting either: the others consider him a traitor. Nyborg, a young warrant officer who admires Parikka as an actor, leads the execution squad, but he is unable to give the order to fire. Parikka defies death by cracking jokes in front of the squad, getting a laugh out of the guards. Captain Kalm, the camp commandant, unexpectedly decides to stop the execution. He makes a suggestion to Parikka, if the actor and his comrades will put on an entertaining play for his German guests, they will not be shot.

Producer: Inland Film Company OY

Director: Heikki Kujanpää

Writers: Heikki Kujanpää, Mikko Reitala

Editing: Jussi Rautaniemi

Cast: Martti Suosalo, Jani Volanen, Paavo Kinnunen, Leena Pӧsysti, Vesa Vierikko, Jussi Nikkilä, Tommi Eronen, Jussi Lehtonen, Panu Vauhkonen, Karri Meittinen, Rüdiger Klink

Contact: Delegation of the European Union to India, 5/5 Shanti Niketan, New Delhi – 110021, India

Trailer: https://youtu.be/5rSkgOtoAjw

LEGACY

2018, Short Fiction, Australia, English, 7 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 17:06 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

Children in a cave listen, as a woman who might be their aunty, tells the story of how their ancestors destroyed the world. This film has been screened at various film festivals around the world.

Producer, Director, Writer: Barry Mitchell

Cast: Eileen Darley, Freya Anthony, Joe Anthony, Lucy Taylor

Contact: Barry Mitchell, 25 Little Sturt Street, Adelaide – 5000, South Australia

Phone: +61 840 808 0201 E-mail: barry.mitchells[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnWRrxZuo-E

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/The-Legacy-Film-345661879519391/about/?ref=page_internal

LIVING IN THE FUTURE’S PAST

2018, Documentary, USA, English, 83 minutes

Screening on: Thursday 9 January, 16:55 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

In this beautifully photographed tour de force of original thinking, Academy Award winner, Jeff Bridges shares the screen with scientists, profound thinkers and a dazzling array of Earth’s living creatures to reveal eye-opening concepts about ourselves and our past, providing fresh insights into our subconscious motivations and their unintended consequences.

LIVING IN THE FUTURE’S PAST shows how no one can predict how major changes might emerge from the spontaneous actions of the many. How energy takes many forms as it moves through and animates everything. How, as we come to understand our true connection to all there is, we will need to redefine our expectations, not as what we will lose, but what we might gain by preparing for something different. The film has won many awards including one for Best Documentary on Climate Change, a Special Jury Award for Outstanding Cinematography and both Best Feature Documentary and Best Narrator at the Cannes AFI World Peace Initiative.

Producer, Narrator: Jeff Bridges

Director: Susan Kucera

Cinematographer, Editor, Co-producer: Susan Kucera

Executive Producer: Jim Swift

Music Composer: Keefus Ciancia

Sound Engineer: Ken S. Polk

Additional Music Composer: Bob Holroyd

Narrative Consultant: Anna Kirsch

Key Cast: Daniel Goleman, Dr. Nathan Hagens, Dr. Bruce Hood, Bob Inglis, Dr. Amy Jacobson, Dr. Renee Lertzman, Dr. Stephan Lewandowsky, Oren Lyons, Dr.Leonard Mlodinow, Dr. Timothy Morton, Dr. Rich Pancost, Dr. Mark Plotkin, Paul Roberts, Dr. Ian Robertson, Dr. Piers Sellers, Dr. Joseph Tainter

Trailer: https://www.livinginthefuturespastfilm.com/

Website: https://www.livinginthefuturespastfilm.com/

Twitter: https – //twitter.com/litfpfilm?lang=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LivingInTheFuturesPast/

LOVE

2018, Short Documentary, Spain, English, Spanish (with English subtitles), 27 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 21:35 – Cinema Paradiso

Los Salesianos de Don Bosco Fambul, en Freetown (Sierra Leona) comenzaron en septiembre de 2016 un programa para rescatar a niñas y adolescentes de la situación de prostitución, acogerlas y cuidarlas en un ambiente familiar. El objetivo es ofrecerles un futuro gracias a la educación y a la reintegración familiar. Aminata es una de las más de 110 chicas que ya han empezado una nueva vida siendo las protagonistas de su futuro y persiguiendo sus sueños.

In September 2016, the Salesians of Don Bosco Fambul in Freetown (Sierra Leone) started a program to rescue girls and adolescents from the prostitution situation, welcome them and take care of them in a family environment. The objective is to offer them a future thanks to education and family reintegration. Aminata is one of more than 110 girls who have already started a new life being the protagonists of their future and pursuing their dreams.

Producers: Alberto López, Amaia Remírez

Director, Cinematography: Raúl de la Fuente

Writers: Raúl de la Fuente, Natxo Leuza, Amaia Remírez

Composer: Mikel Salas

Sound: Natxo Leuza, Ernesto Santana

Edition: Natxo Leuza, Raúl de la Fuente

Contact: Freak Independent Film Agency

E-mail: internacional[at]agenciafreak.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/281254767

Website: http://agenciafreak.com/cortometraje/LOVE/814

RAHEEL

2018, Drama, Iran, Persian (with English subtitles), 30 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 22:28 – Cinema Paradiso

Raheel, an Afghan national, has illegally travelled to Iran to look for her husband, but there come up some problems that leave her no hope to move ahead.

Producer, Director, Writer: Ayat Asadi Rahbar

Editor: Porya Osati

Camera: Majid Yazdani

Sound: Pedram Jiravand

Cast: Darya Azimi, majid Seyfi

E-mail: Ayatasadi[at]yahoo.com

Trailer: https://shortfilmreviews.video/film/raheel/

Website: https://shortfilmreviews.video/film/raheel/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/shorts_reviews

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shortfilmsreviewed/

STOPGAP IN STOP MOTION

2017, Short Animation, United Kingdom, English, 5 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 18:23 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

Screening on: Sunday 12 January, 16:53 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

Photographs of performers in a disabled and non-disabled dance company come to life. The individual artists dance out of the photos and across table tops until the whole company meets and performs in unison. Completed in 2016, this is a promotional film for Stopgap Dance Company. This film has been screened at more than 40 dance film festivals and other film festivals around the world and has won a number of prestigious awards. It was also an official selection for the Global Short Film Awards in Cannes.

Producer, Director, Writer: Stephen Featherstone

Cast: Stopgap Dance Company

Contact: Stephen Featherstone, 191 The Chantrys, Farnham, Surrey – GU9 7AH, United Kingdom

Phone: +44 790 327 0783 E-mail: featherstonefilms[at]yahoo.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/175577783

Website: https://vimeo.com/featherstonefilms

Facebook: https – //www.facebook.com/featherstonefilms/

STYX

2018, Fiction, Germany/ Austria, English, German (with English subtitles), 91 minutes

Screening on: Tuesday 7 January, 21:20 – Cinema Paradiso

The transformation of a strong woman torn from her contented world during a sailing trip. Rike – 40, a doctor from Europe – embodies a typical Western model of happiness and success. She is educated, confident, determined and committed. Leaving behind her everyday life as an emergency doctor, she fulfils a long-held dream and sails out to sea alone in her sailing boat. Her goal: Ascension Island in the Atlantic Ocean. But her dream holiday is quickly broken off on the high seas, when, after a storm, she finds herself near a stricken fishing boat. Around a hundred people are about to drown. Rike follows maritime law and radio’s for help. As her request is going nowhere, she is forced to make a momentous decision. This film got a special mention in the ExtraVALUE Film Award, Viennale.

Producers: Marcos Kantis, Martin Lehwald, Michal Pokorny

Director: Wolfgang Fischer

Writers: Wolfgang Fischer, Ika Künzel

Cast: Susanne Wolff, Gedion Oduor Wekesa, Felicity Babao

Screenplay: Wolfgang Fischer, Ika Künzel

Cinematography: Benedict Neuenfels

Editing: Monika Willi

Contact: Delegation of the European Union to India, 5/5 Shanti Niketan, New Delhi 110021, India

Website: https://pro.festivalscope.com/film/styx

THE DEPARTURE

2018, Short Fiction, India, English, 23 minutes

Screening on: Tuesday 7 January, 20:56 – Cinema Paradiso

The film traces an unusual relationship between a frequent flyer and an immigration officer in a society still struggling with caste, age and sexual orientation.

Producer: Avishek Ghosh

Director, Writer: Pratim Dasgupta

Cast: Adil Hussain, Paoli Dam

Contact: Pratim D. Gupta, 5th Floor, 4 Tilak Road, near Deshapriya Park, Kolkata – 700029, India

Phone: +91 750 607 1902 E-mail: pratimdgupta[at]gmail.com

THE LAST PIG

2017, Documentary, United States, English, 54 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 22:02 – Outdoor Screen

THE LAST PIG is an achingly beautiful meditation on what it means to be a sentient creature with the power to kill. Deeply immersive and experiential, the film follows a pig farmer through his final year of slaughtering pigs. The bucolic life of the pigs on the farm is ruptured by weekly trips to the slaughterhouse. Through sparse, intimate musings, the farmer reveals his growing conflict of a life spent “peddling in death”. It has been screened at film festivals in the US.

Producers: Allison Argo, Joseph Brunette

Director: Allison Argo

Cinematographer: Joseph Brunette

Supervising Editor: Enat Sidi

Editor: David Kennedy, Allison Argo

Composer: Giovanni Spinelli

Contact: Allison Argo, 157 Owl Pond Road, Brewster, MA – 02631, United States

Phone: +1 508 240 1955 E-mail: thelastpigfilm[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/131246935

Website: http://thelastpig.com

Twitter: https//twitter.com/TheLastPigFilm

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLastPig/

LE SAINT DES VOYOUS

THE SAINT OF THUGS

2017, Documentary, France, French (with English subtitles), 34 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 17:17 – Cinema Paradiso

A travers l’expérience d’enfermement en pénitencier pour enfants qu’a vécu mon père entre ses 15 et ses 18 ans, ce film questionne la résilience et la transmission.

Confronting her father with his teenage experience of being locked up in a penitentiary for three years, the director questions resilience and transmission in this short documentary. It has been screened at Premiers Plans Film Festival, Angers and Doc En Courts, Lyon.

Directors: Audouze Maïlys, Natyvel Pontalier, Youssef Asswad

Sound Design: Youssef Asswad

Editor: Natyvel Pontalier

Contact: Nunes Jérôme, 14 rue Montgrand, Marseille – 13006, France

Phone: +33 4 84 18 30 33 E-mail: contact[at]films-de-force-majeure.com

THE UNUSUAL BATH OF MISTER OTMAR

2019, Short Animation, Croatia, Croatian (with English subtitles), 15 minutes

Screening on: Friday 10 January, 17:52 – Cinema Paradiso

Mister Otmar’s way of living is not aligned with the society he lives in. He’s been brought before court as being deemed as dangerous for the collective thinking and sentenced to a psychiatric treatment with the aim of returning him to socially acceptable frameworks. However, the prescribed therapy confronts with unexpected resistance. This film has won awards for best animation and best director and has been screened at various film festivals around the world.

Producer: Filip Gasparovic Melis

Director, Writer: Niko Radas

Contact: Niko Radas, Ivkančeva 4, Zagreb, Grad Zagreb – 10090, Croatia

Phone: +38 591 525 0594 E-mail: niko.radas[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://vimeo.com/311556430

TOKEI MARU

2018, Short Animation, Greece, English, Greek (with English subtitles), 16 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 16:50 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

Ένας Ιάπωνας πλοίαρχος, στην Σμύρνη, το 1922.Ένας Ιάπωνας πλοίαρχος, που δεν γνώριζε Ελληνικά, που δεν είχε καμία σχέση θρησκευτική ή άλλη με τους πρόσφυγες που ζητούσαν μια σανίδα σωτηρίας καθώς η πόλη καιγόταν από και τα Συμμαχικά πλοία στο λιμάνι της Σμύρνης τους έδιωχναν με βίαιο τρόπο στην προσπάθεια τους να σωθούν από βέβαιο θάνατο. Όταν οι Τούρκοι του ζητούν να πετάξει πάλι στη θάλασσα όσους ανεβαίνουν στο καράβι του, εκείνος θα πετάξει στη θάλασσα το πολύτιμο φορτίο του με μεταξωτά και πορσελάνες για να σώσει περισσότερους.

The year is 1922 and Tokei Maru, a Japanese cargo boat arrives at Smyrna on the coast of Asia Minor. It is only days since the Greek army has left and the Turkish army has entered the city. But the city and its inhabitants are doomed, as fate has left them on the edge of nothing. As the Japanese captain monitors the Allied ships anchored on the Smyrna Bay his thoughts travel back to his youth. The year is 1873, just ten years after the Anglo-Satsuma war. A young boy participates in the festival of the dead, remembering the last days of his father. As the British battleships have bombed the city of Kagoshima, fire and devastation spreads into the city. The once beautiful city and its inhabitants face sudden death from the British retaliation. The young boy’s father dies in battle, with an honoured death. The sound of gunshots awakens the Japanese Captain from his daydreaming. The executions, the cries of the innocent people and the sounds of the frenzied Turkish guerrillas who shoot and set fire to every Christian house fills the air. The flames reach up to the sky. The Allied ships (American, British, French and Italian) order the Japanese vessel to dock on the open sea. A great fire starts that sweeps across the Greek and Armenian sectors burning everything to the ground. People gather on the docks trying to flee, trying to save their lives from the fire and the Turkish army. The Japanese captain will not hesitate. He throws all of his cargo into the sea to rescue more than 825 men, women and children. Almost 100 years later his name is still unknown but his act of humanity remains. This film has won awards for best animation, best documentary, best artwork and more at various film festivals in Greece.

Director, Writer: Zahos Samoladas

Research: Nanako Murata

Music: Ryan Camus

E-mail: zachossamoladas[at]gmail.com

Website: https://genesispix.wixsite.com/tokei-maru

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tokeimaru/

TURUP

2017, Drama, Hindi (with English subtitles), 75 minutes

Screening on: Wednesday 8 January, 17:07 – Cinema Paradiso

Chess is a popular pastime in this neighbourhood in Bhopal, bringing together men to challenge each other in friendly and sometimes unfriendly matches. Against this backdrop, a domestic worker, a former journalist and a young woman in love, find themselves pushing boundaries and challenging the rules of the game.

Producer: Ektara Collective

Director: Ektara Collective

Writers: Rinchin & Maheen

Camera: Maheen Mirza, Sound: Bigya Dahal

Editor: Puloma Pal

Cast: Moulina Midde, Sayed Saim, Madhu Bhagat, Akash Jhamra, Anil Singh, Sheila Rawat, Hari, Hassan, Madhu Dhurve Geeta, Sanjay Rariya and Deepak Nema

Phone: +91 942 537 7349 E-mail: ektaracollective[at]gmail.com

UP DOWN & SIDEWAYS

2017, Documentary, India, Chokri (with English subtitles), 83 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 16:46 – Cinema Paradiso (plus Q&A with filmmaker)

‘If not for you, I have no other true love. When we work together the sun sets early. If not for you, I have no love.’ Close to the India – Myanmar border is the village of Phek in Nagaland. Around 5,000 people live here, almost all of whom cultivate rice for their own consumption. As they work in cooperative groups – preparing the terraced fields, planting saplings, or harvesting the grain and carrying it up impossibly steep slopes – the rice cultivators of Phek sing. The seasons change, and so does the music, transforming the mundane into the hypnotic. The love that they sing of is also a metaphor for the need for the other – the friend, the family, the community, to build a polyphony of voices. Stories of love, stories of the field, stories of song, stories in song. UP DOWN & SIDEWAYS is a musical portrait of a community of rice cultivators and their memories of love and loss, created from working together on the fields. UP DOWN & SIDEWAYS is the first feature film from the u-ra-mi-li project, a larger body of work that looks at the connections between music and labour through film, writing and archives. It has been screened at several film festivals around the world and has won multiple awards, including a Documentary Award for innovative use of media.

Producer: Manas Malhotra

Directors: Anushka Meenakshi, Iswar Srikumar

 

Contact: Anushka Meenakshi, 7/8 4th Seaward Road, Valmiki Nagar, Chennai – 600041, India

Phone: +91 984 070 0567 E-mail: uramili.project[at]gmail.com

Trailer: https://youtu.be/zJsCbJfICoY

Website: http://uramili.in/project/updownsideways/

WHEELED WINGS

2018, Short Documentary (Student), India, English and Hindi (with English subtitles), 12 minutes

Screening on: Saturday 11 January, 17:13 – S.A.I.I.E.R. Conference Hall

WHEELED WINGS is a documentary directed and shot by Aayush Dudhiya and Divy Bhagia. The story is based in Janwaar, a village in the heart of India witnessing and experiencing cultural change. The film explores the problems that rural India continues to face today, and Ulrike Reinhard, a lady from Germany, is trying to bring children of different castes together through highly unusual and unique techniques. It has been three years since India’s largest skateboard park in this small village has proved to be a means to educate children, slowly eradicating the stigmas that have victimized the country for generations. The film journeys through the problems, solutions, downfalls, acceptance and the current situation of Janwaar. It has been screened at Watersheds Cinema (UK) and has won an award in the Calcutta International Cult Film Festival (India).

Producer, Writer, Editor: Aayush Dudhiya

Directors, Camera: Aayush Dudhiya, Divy Bhagia

Contact: Aayush Dudhiya, A-1 Viharika flats, Krishna Colony, Navrangpura, Ahmedabad – 380009, India

Phone: +91 800 012 0707 E-mail: aayushdudhiya[at]gmail.com

Website: https://aayushdudhiya.portfoliobox.net/documentary