SAND on the FLOOR
Director Steve Rockstein
Virgin Islands, U.S.
Runtime 56:00
Completion Date: November 27, 2017
History, Spirituality, Personal growth
First-time Filmmaker
SAND on the FLOOR uses the living history of the oldest Synagogue in continuous use under the US flag, as a vehicle to take the you deep inside the Jewish heart and Jewish mind.
Historians, rabbis and congregants take us through time, from the Congregation's Spanish Inquisition roots, through its American Reform present to its uncertain future.
The film gives us an intimate look at Jewish life, shedding light on its traditions, rituals and mysteries. And in the process, it pries at the cracks dividing the Jewish world today.
The epilogue documents the role this Congregation and its historic Synagogue played in the filmmakers’ journey back to Judaism, 49-years after being targeted by a Jewish pedophile.
Path of faith
Director Asya Baigozhina
Kazakhstan
Runtime 53:30
Completion Date: August 6, 2016
Film about those who, in search of faith, left their house’s, considering themselves as soldiers of Allah.
MAN ENGINE
Director DIANA TAYLOR
United Kingdom
Runtime 17:00
Completion Date: 2017 - June
2016 Cornwall celebrated a decade of recognition as a World Heritage site for its contribution to the world
wide mining industry. A giant mechanical puppet of a miner was built to mark the event. This documentary film
weaves between the puppet and personal family histories of the miners who lost their lives.
Nussbaum 95736
Director Csibi László
Romania
Runtime 52:00
Completion Date: October 25, 2017
In the Fall of 1940, the family of László Nussbaum, a young man from the Romanian town of Turda, moved to the city of Cluj, which had just become part of Hungary along with Northern Transylvania. They were hoping for a better life in a country where they thought they would feel at home. Shortly after, they found themselves in a freight train, which was to carry them directly to Auschwitz. The only survivor of his family, László brings back to life the atmosphere of war-torn Transylvania and explores the meanings of such experiences as survival, hope, and forgiveness.
Mokum Aleph
Director Berenike Rozgonyi
Netherlands
Runtime 40:00
Completion Date: October 16, 2015
a film on vanished pre-war Jewish Amsterdam
"The Amsterdam Ghetto is the womb of Dutch Jewry. ... Whoever, in West Europe, wants to absorb the primal light of the Jewish soul, must enter the Amsterdam ghetto."
Entering the old Jewish ghetto of Amsterdam is not possible anymore. Even though the archives are full of material, the people are gone. This lost world is brought to life in the film. Amsterdam shows a hidden and almost forgotten but very own face.
The Bullying Epidemic
Director Alan Chriest
U S A
Runtime 30 min
Completion Date: Oct 2017
Every 7 minutes a child is being bullied on the playground. The noise of bullying echoes across our nation every day. The cries of victims fill the halls and school yards in every town. The goal of the bully is to take advantage of, and take control over, the victim. Bullying is here because we accept it, normalize it, and tolerate it. The good news is that the behavior of a bully is learned – and it can be unlearned.
My expedition to Bali
Director Marina Viatkina
Russian Federation
Runtime 29:59
Completion Date: October 23, 2017
Documentary, Short
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
This film is about time and about himself. When you are tired or have lost your way, you need to take a backpack and go where you've never been, listen to your heart and not be afraid of obstacles. So you can get back to yourself. Expedition around the island of Bali helped me again to hear my heart, meet new interesting people, meet cannibal and to eat exotic food from poop lyuvak. And…
Rebel of the Keys
Director Mark Charles
United Kingdom
Runtime 01:30:00
Completion Date: November 29, 2015
Biography, Opera, Classical Music, Piano
Rebel of the Keys charts the life and times of Warsaw Ghetto survivor André Tchaikowsky, a renowned pianist, composer and ‘enfant-terrible’. His story is interwoven with the modern day journey of bringing his opera ‘The Merchant of Venice’ to the world stage, some 30 years after his death.
70 years of silence
Director Sashko Balabai and Darina Balabai
Ukraine
Runtime 29:36
Completion Date: October 4, 2017
Documentary, Short
Shmuel Agnon , “A guest for the night”… The book is thick and few people understand what is it about. What is it telling about ? The book tells us about a guest for the night that arrives to Buchach from other country. He founds there Bet-Midrash absolutely empty, closed, abandoned, nobody comes there. A fire never burning there. And what he is doing ?
He is buying firewood, light up a fire and inhale a new life to these old walls. Then, in the end of the book, he returns home, behind the sea… But what he left after him ?
He left after a Bet-Midrash, that is again visited by people.
Now in this old Sambir`s synagogue we see people from Lviv, California, Kazan, Israel, Dobromyl, Sambir from different places… And we can feel like heroes of Agnon`s book, which came here and breath in the old walls of synagogue a new life ... Since 70 years of silence...
Uncle Jessie White - Portrait of a Delta Blues Man in Detroit
Director Ann Marie Hudak, Stashu Kybartas
United States
Runtime 60:00
Completion Date: March 11, 2017
Documentary, Feature, Web / New Media
First-time Filmmaker
Uncle Jessie White - Portrait of a Delta Bluesman in Detroit is a documentary film about the late Jessie White, an influential blues artist who has had a profound effect on multiple generations of musicians in the Detroit region. An allegory of survival and redemption this film traces Jessie White’s story from his impoverished rural youth in Mississippi to his migration to Detroit where his charismatic personality and musical integrity kept the spirit of the original Delta blues alive during some of Detroit’s darkest days.
Pratersauna - The final round
Director Heikel Ben Bouzid
Austria
Runtime 1 hr 3 min 36 sec
Completion Date: Sep 2017
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
Find out why worldknown DJs like Apparat, Kerri Chandler or Olivier Koletzki had a special relation to the nightlife scene in Vienna.
Get an unique insight to a subculture that also exists where you live through the eyes of the people that live it.
After seven glorious years, one of the most influential clubs in Austria, the Pratersauna, closed its doors in Vienna. For many people the Pratersauna became a hideaway from reality. For a lot of people this kind of environment developed a family feeling. The film lets outsiders take part of the life within a techno subculture which grew around the whole world.
Almost Cured
Director Tom Dierolf
United States
Runtime 29:25
Completion Date: October 7, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
“After the first touchdown, the crowd was a little less racist, and after the second touchdown, they were Almost Cured”. Almost Cured is an honest, personalized account about racial integration in a small North Carolina Appalachian community during the thick of the U.S. Civil Rights Movement in 1963. Against a distressing backdrop of the South in tumultuous upheaval with widespread protests, bombings, deaths, and thousands of arrests, the teenage African-American players on the newly-integrated high school football team have the “weight of the world on their shoulders” as the team and community navigate to the championship game. Told through firsthand recollections and archival media, this heartfelt and entertaining movie acknowledges that although we were and still are just ‘Almost Cured’, there is hope if we focus on what unites us.
The Woman Weighing Gold
Director Jacques Loeuille
France
Runtime 20:00
Completion Date: May 15, 2017
The Woman Weighing Gold is an essay documenting the influence of capitalism on the Dutch painting during the Golden Age.
The Chosen People? A Film about Jewish Identity
Director Joshua Gippin
United States
Runtime 01:09:00
Completion Date: July 3, 2017
"There's a thin line between love and hate."
'The idea of the Chosen People...should be viewed as the key defining concept of Judaism. It also remains, however, the central unspoken and explosive psychological, historical, and theological problem at the heart of Jewish-Gentile relations.' - Dr. Avi Beker, former Secretary General of the World Jewish Congress
What does it mean to say the Jews are God’s Chosen People? Chosen for what purpose? What are the biblical roots of this doctrine? How does the meaning of chosenness change across time and people? In the Ancient Near East? In Medieval Christian Europe? After the Enlightenment? In the wake of the Holocaust and the birth of the State of Israel? Why does the belief in chosenness remain so powerful among religious people in the 21st century?
Are all Jews inherently Chosen, or does it depend on forming a personal covenant with God, as the Israelites did at Mount Sinai?
What do Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jews believe about chosenness? Jewish Reconstructionists have gone so far as to remove it from their prayerbooks. How did the rest of the Jewish world respond? What about secular Jews? For those who don't believe in God or who view bible stories as myth, what relevance does any of this have?
There are competing narratives around chosenness in Judaism, Islam, and Christianity. What are the historical implications of this rivalry? What is the connection between 'The Chosen People' and 'The Promised Land?'
A Curious Woman
Director Ulrich Stofner
Italy
Runtime 01:12:00
Completion Date: July 9, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
Karolina (Line) Gasser Stofner, born in 1928 in a German-speaking valley in Northern Italy, recounts the turbulent events of the Great Depression that force her father to sell his home and move into his grandmother’s house with his young family. Deprivation and war shape Line’s childhood in South Tyrol, which became a part of Italy after the First World War. Under Fascism, the German-speaking Line has to attend Italian school and undergo the heart-wrenching “Option”, when South Tyroleans were forced to choose between remaining in Fascist Italy (giving up their language and cultural heritage), or to emigrate to the German Reich. Line becomes a handmaid at various mountain farms, dreaming of a better life. She falls in love with Hans, who makes her a farmer’s wife. She gives birth to nine children, an eventful time marked by hard work, narrow conventions, and an increasingly absent husband. But her keen interest in anything new and the "fun of being different" lead Line to question the traditions of her community. Openness, self-reliance and her desire to travel open her new perspectives. "The Wunderliche" is an intimate film about an amazing "woman, mother and farmer’s wife", demonstrating how curiosity can serve as a fountain of youth in old age.
THE LAW OF SURVIVAL
Director Max Royz
Canada
Runtime 39:58
Completion Date: August 29, 2017
The Law Of Survival is a documentary about Polina Gelman, the only Jewish woman who was decorated with Gold Star Hero of the Soviet Union.
According to the Red Army regulations, a bomber could receives a Gold Star of a Hero by only making a hundred successful military missions. Since 1942 to 1945 Polina Gelman’s flight log recorded 869 combat flights and 1300 hours in the air .
The film’s narrative unfolds through a series of storylines including documents from the Military Archive, parts of books written by Polina Gelman and her comrades that should allow the viewers to feel the heroism of this incredible women.
Our little town of Batory
Director Anna Dejczer
Poland
Runtime 01:12:00
Completion Date: July 1, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
Retired crew members of a polish transatlantic 'TSS Stefan Batory' ship cruise together for the last time to resemble old times. They play old roles and reconstruct well-known customs which were always present on their legendary ship. A bartender in his 80s gets involved in his old flame, an old dancer meets his favourite follower on a dance floor, a hairdresser invites guests to his salon. The passage of time slowly gets remarkable.
30 Years and Three
Director Dmitri Dubov
Israel
Runtime 24:00
Completion Date: July 17, 2017
Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein, a former Prisoner of Zion, 30 years after he made Aliya, comes back to Moscow, visits Butyrskaya Prison, where he spent several months before being sent to the Gulag. While in Moscow, Edelstein becomes the first Israeli to address the Russian parliament, speaking about the turnaround in ties between the two countries.
Rupa's Boutique
Director Glória Halász
Hungary
Runtime 52:53
Completion Date: March 20, 2017
In Rupa's Boutique there are dreams on the hangers. Dreams that meant hope for the victims of acid attacks even in the worst times. All the girls: Rupa, Soniya, Gita, Neetu, Dolly and Laxmi are back on their feet after their tragedy. They all found a way back to society, became independent and visible.
Rupa, living in the city of Agra in India, wanted to be a fashion designer since her childhood. The girl would like to open her own boutique so that she could become independent financially. In the boutique she would like to employ her fellow victims of acid attack. In the film we are getting to know her and her fellow victims’ life stories and dreams, meanwhile they are preparing for a monumental fashion show, where the Rupa designed clothes are showcased by the survivors.
According to the activists of Stop Acid Attacks helping the victims, in India there are 3-5 attacks each week. Many victims do not report the crimes to the police because they are afraid of being socially stigmatised. The campaign helps victims to find their way back to society, they have established a crisis centre which provides safe environment for victims, where they can receive medical help and can spend their time in a convenient and useful way. The centre also supports them in unfolding their ambitions be it activist aspirations or working in their café.
Forced Sterilisations: A Path to Justice
Director Rocio Westendorp
Spain , Denmark
Runtime 23:00
Completion Date: 01 January 2017
Luisa Pinedo and Milena Vázquez are shipibo women from Santa Teresita de Casibococha, Perú. Twenty years ago, nurses came and took them to hospital where they were sterilised. Women from all over Peru and doctors tell stories of sterilisation.
Ana María Moix, Passion for Words
Director ANASTASI RINOS
Spain
Runtime 60:00
Completion Date: 17 January 2017
Debut film
A journey through the life and literature of writer and intellectual Ana María Moix. Her work, her environment, her vision of the world. A poetic and personal look at an important era of our history: the transition to democracy, women’s liberation...
Seeing Daylight: The Photography of Dorothy Bohm
Director RICHARD SHAW
United Kingdom
Runtime 44:55
Completion Date: May 2017
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
An intimate portrait of a photographer who escaped Nazi Europe to spend a lifetime capturing humanity.
A film portrait of Dorothy Bohm, one of Britain’s finest street photographers. With contributions from friends and family, and reflections from Dorothy as – still active at 92 – she looks back at her most important images and revisits the places where it all started.
LIVING ON THE EDGE - DEGLAMOURIZING BOLLYWOOD
Director OPENDER CHANANA
India
Runtime 49:40
Completion Date:
First-time Filmmaker
My documentary is startling revelation about the abysmal working conditions in Bollywood which is now laying claim to be global giant and churning out thousands of hours of content. The technicians and workers are deprived of social security and long punishing working hours take their toll on their health. The basic and fundamental safety measures are absent leading to accidents with unfailing regularity. Basic facilities such as clean toilets and hygienically prepared food are not accessible. In nutshell human rights are violated on sets and locations with impunity
The Island
Director Adam Weingrod
Israel
Runtime 59:00
Completion Date: May 11, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
'The Island' is an intimate glimpse into the rich human mosaic of terminally ill patients who end their lives inside the St. Louis French Hospital, run by nuns this historical building is situated on the tense border between East and West Jerusalem across from the walls of the Old City.
The delicate portraits of patients and staff are crafted to convey the LIFE that pulsates within the hospital walls. Simon, a Tunisian Jew, decides that in the weeks remaining to him he will learn how to paint for the first time. David, an Italian monk who is one of the most beloved caretakers, confronts his own mortality. Yigal, a lifelong Jerusalemite, is sustained by his son's promise to take him to hear his favorite piece of music – Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. Jawaher, an East Jerusalem Muslim, spends her time painting the horrors of the outside world that she sees on TV. These are but a few of the captivating individuals portrayed through the camera's moving encounters.
The hospital windows look out on one of the most contentious areas in the world and there is strong dissonance between Jerusalem's streets, with their ever-present possibility of erupting into violence, and the grace and compassion that fill the hospital.
Lives Well Lived
Director Sky Bergman
United States
Runtime 01:12:00
Completion Date: January 7, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
Forty people aged 75 to 100, with a collective life experience of 3000 years, share their secrets, wit, and wisdom on how to live a meaningful life. Their thoughtful perspectives reveal a treasure trove of life lessons about perseverance, the human spirit, and staying positive in the midst of the great challenges. Their stories will make you laugh, perhaps cry, but mostly inspire you to think.
The Power Of Moths
Director Roman Romanov
Belarus
Runtime 35:00
Completion Date:
Main heroes - people with disabilities, take part as actors in theater. The “stage” for them is
not therapy or entertainment. This is the only way of life in which they do not have limited
opportunities, because for creativity no physical limitations matter. The viewer has the opportunity to immerse himself in the life of this community and to feel the true love, openness and power of people, who seemingly have nothing to hope for in their life. The film was shot with the participation of theatrical companies from Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine, and Belarus.
FROM BOHEMIA'S WOODS AND FIELDS
Director Ian Woodward
United Kingdom
Runtime 29:11
Completion Date: December 4, 2011
FROM BOHEMIA’S WOODS AND FIELDS uncovers the amazing story of Bedřich Smetana, the great 19th-century Czech composer of the operas Dalibor and The Bartered Bride and of the epic orchestral suite Má Vlast (“My Country” in English). Filmed throughout Bohemia, it reveals how, extraordinarily, Smetana wrote some of his most beautiful music during the last decade of his life when he was completely deaf and why he ended his life in a Prague mental asylum and was given a State funeral…an occasion which was marked as a day of national mourning throughout Bohemia. The underlying theme of the documentary is of how an artist can successfully overcome a profound disability and find worldwide recognition.
World Peace
Director Holger Klussmann
Germany
Runtime 01:29:12
Completion Date: August 26, 2017
A Journey to the World Religions
Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are among the world’s major religions. Although these individual religions differ significantly, they have some things in common. They are all looking for answers to questions about the soul of man, the meaning of life, and the origin and future of our existence. And they give people hope and strength.
In this movie, we learn about these religions and are introduced to people who share their understanding of religion.
Filmed in India, Israel, Palestine, Italy, Vatican, Germany, and USA.
In Search Of Indigo
Director Shaktiraj Singh Jadeja
India
Runtime 18:00
Completion Date: August 25, 2017
Indigo, is a colour of many faces. From the time it was discovered, it has led to many wars in its name. It has led to exploitation and rebellion in the same breath. The colour that once was so rare that only royal families were allowed to wear them, is now in danger of being overridden by chemicals. The age old traditions of making the colour naturally is fading away thick and fast and with its process, even all of its poetry and culture is being lost. And in a country like India, where Indigo was at the centre of all its culture, the colour in its natural form has been slowly disappearing. Yet, like in most tragedies, there has always been a sense of hope. And in this story, it has come in the most unlikeliest of sources. Little pockets across the country have rejuvenated this practise, and have gone on a journey to discover the colour in its most essential and pure form. We trace the life of Indigo, as we try unveil the mysteries of its making and live through the journeys of its makers.
MARE NOSTRUM - A Concert. A Journey.
Director Michelle Brun, Stefan Haupt
Switzerland
Runtime 58:00
Completion Date: June 16, 2015
In 'MARE NOSTRUM – A Concert. A Journey', students from the Scuola Vivante are preparing for a concert with the Catalan musician Jordi Savall and his ensemble from 11 different countries. Interviewed by the students, the musicians talk about their lives and the places they call home around the Mediterranean. They talk about their love of music and their instruments. One month later, a school trip takes the students to the sea and right up into the High Atlas region of Morocco to their partner school, the 'école vivante'. They venture out into the unknown and come into contact with that world that is expressed through music at the 'Mare Nostrum' concert.
Aghanashini
Director Ashwini Kumar Bhat
India
Runtime 41:17
Completion Date: August 6, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
This documentary is about a river of the Western Ghats of India – “Aghanashini”, which is a unique river from the perspective that it still flows in its natural course due to absence of any dams to change its flow and it doesn't have any industries along its path to pollute its water. In that sense, so far it remains untamed and unpolluted by man.
There has been no effort till now to document the uniqueness of this river through its entire length.
In the time when 'development' is the mantra of any government in the country, there exists this silent river which is holding onto its ground and nurturing the land and forest and thus becoming a river of life for hundreds of thousands of people along with its flow.
Made over a span of two years, the film covers the story of the river via various stories along its flow, some of which are shot for the first time.
Ima Miriam
Director Yoni Ben-Haim
United Kingdom
Runtime 10 min 30 sec
Completion Date: Nov 2016
The story of a 94 year old Iraqi-Jew, living her life in modern Israel.
OUT
Director Petros Niamonitakis
Greece
Runtime 22 min 17 sec
Completion Date: Jul 2017
Just another homeless person…
Just some visual noise by the trash and the smudged walls.
Every day we step over his sluggish body as we step out for the customary money hunt.
'OUT' might turn out be just a few minutes delay.
BALLAD (COUNTRY)
Director Evdokiya Moskvina
Russian Federation
Runtime 44:10
Completion Date:
Ballad (country) is a 45 min length documentary filmed by Evdokia Moskvina in Syria, Damascus, Palmyra and Homs, remarkable story of local civils living inside the war..
six after seventy
Directors Peter Jeschke, Pavel Franzusov
Germany
Runtime 23 min. 13 sec.
Completion Date: Jan 2017
But what about the memory of Holocaust in Germany, more than seventy years later?
Trump, Putin, Boris Johnson, Le Pen, Baschar al-Assad, Erdogan, AfD, Pegida: the worldwide wave of populism and right thought does not stop before Germany. And suddenly, one has to hope that enough people have taken care of history lessons so that the Third Reich does not happen again. But what about the memory of Holocaust in Germany, more than seventy years later? The filmmakers observed peoples behavior at the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin for one year. The spatial confinement led to a microcosm that contains all the themes and conflicts of the present memory culture. "Six after seventy" shows in six short episodes the radically different ways of dealing with the Holocaust more than seventy years later. Whether enough history lessons has remained in people's minds, everyone has to answer for themselves.
16 September in Bobrovy Kut
Director Borys Shusterman
Ukraine
Runtime 36 min
Completion Date: Dec 2016
This film about tragedy more than 900 Jews: women, elderly, kids – Who once lived in Bobrovii Kut village of Kalinin district, the Herson province (Ukraine, back then the USSR), who were thrown while still alive down the village well bythe Evgenievka hamlet on September 16, 1941.
A Few Stanzas To Our Mothers
Director Michael Brusilovsky
U S A
Runtime 1 hr
Completion Date: May 2015
Filmmaker Brusilovsky takes us for a nostalgic tour of his family history as he unfolds the life of his mother. Leveraging family photo albums and home movies, along with archival material, he brings his mother’s experience to life. The film is a saga revealing how history, culture and politics affected and shaped his mother’s impressive life in this heartfelt tribute.
Forgivness: The Secret of Peace
Director Patrick M Long
U S A
Runtime 58 min
Completion Date: Jun 2017
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
A documentary film on the life and work of Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga, a Catholic priest and a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide. He returned to his country to bring healing, forgiveness and reconciliation to victims and perpetrators alike. He has created a program of reconciliation that over 300 victims and perpetrators have successfully reconciled. A typical healing service when he prays with people in Rwanda, has 25,000-80,000 people in attendance. He lost 45,000 parishioners and 80 members of his own family during the genocide. He has forgiven the man who had his family killed and raised that man's children while he is still in jail. Fr. Ubald, not only preaches forgiveness, but continues to live it. This movie is a movie of hope and inspiration as to how one man's horror can be a catalyst for healing, hope, redemption and reconciliation for thousands in Rwanda and beyond. His message is now spreading throughout Europe and the United States as he travels the world to bring the healing power of forgiveness to others
Mrs Lei
Director Kailuo Zhuo
China
Runtime 1 hr 53 min
Completion Date: Jul 2017
Lei Suyun was born in 1934, and diagnosed with alzheimer's disease in 2010.
Her daughter took care of her,but she didn’t know her daughter any more. She suffered from memory loss and wanted to go home and didn’t know where she was.She repeated one thing all the time. She was sad and frightened.
Lei Suyun vaguely remembered she was a great person,and she was the director of the bureau of finance, NPC member. People used to call her Mrs Lei. She was tough and uncompromising . Now Lei Suyun didn’t remember things, she lamented the passing of time. She didn’t know why she end up like this.Her once brilliant achievements were gone with her memory.When she was angry, her tone and gestures can still show that she used to be a leader.
Lei Suyun missed her family. She caressed the old photos of her children, and whispered they all grown up,but couldn’t recognize them standing right beside her. LeiSuYun tried to figure out who she was. She had a proud heart and she knew she shouldn't be the old lady sitting on the sofa looking out of the window so sadly. She was stuck.
LeiSuYun couldn’t go outside. she looked out of the window of the living room.She cried in silence and spoke nonsense.However,she still knew her name. She was struggling against despair,and trying to seize the self.
Year after year, LeiSuYun’s condition was getting worse. she lay in bed, looking at nothing, gradually away from the pain, because she lost the ability to feel the pain.
Lino e Primo (English subtitled)
Director Emilio Tremolada
Italy
Runtime 01:27:11
Completion Date: March 13, 2017
From a young age, in the 1940s, Lino Giovannardi and Primo Panzacchi played the accordion. Many stories unfolded around them: the war, hidden accordions, emigrating to Belgium, music, "balli staccati" (typical dances of their area) and "ballo liscio" (waltz, polka and mazurka) They played to earn some money or something to eat or just for the pleasure of seeing people dance. Life on the Apennines was hard, but people sought fun amongst the fatigue and challenges. A story told with many witnesses, old and very young, with the sounds, the dancing, and the landscapes of the upland valley of Savena, over the crest of the Apennines, where the wind is the sound and breath that fills the bellows of the accordions.
Waking a Monster
Director Mirjam Clement
United States
Runtime 20:00
Completion Date: May 26, 2017
First-time Filmmaker
Saved by monsters !
Special-efx makeup artist Howard Berger turns into a puppet in his artist-wife`s first film.
“Waking a Monster” is a personal reflection of the early years in a man`s life, visualized by his wife.
Told in his own words, we are entering the mind of someone´s lifelong fascination for the classic movie monsters and the incidents in life that defined, inspired and shaped him.
“Waking a Monster” combines a variation of genres in its expression.
Containing elements from fiction-film, documentary and with a meta aspect this film unfolds with mixed media techniques from traditional puppeteering to animated illustrations.
Operación Flecha Rota. Accidente Nuclear en Palomares
Director JOSE HERRERA PLAZA
Spain
Runtime 96 min
Completion Date: 2007 - November
In January 1966 two American airplanes collided over Palomares (Almería-Spain) and as a consequence, four
H-bombs fell to hearth. Two of them explode their conventional charge and due to the strong wind radioactive
material is scattered over the region. An intensive search is started to find the fourth bomb. At the same time
decontamination process of the zone is starting and the residual contamination of persons and environment
begins to be checked and also the Indalo Project, still running 41 years later.
SHIFTING SHELTERS
Director KAMLESH UDASI
India
Runtime 47 min
Completion Date: 2016 - March
This documentary shot over a period of two years, vividly depicts the endless miseries, and unending
struggles of the Agariyas. This Film is an attempt to highlight the living condition of the Agariyas and suggests
how alternate recourse could be by empowering the machinery of the state rather than shouting anti-national
slogans. Caught in the barb of caste ostracism and official callousness Agariyas, the salt farmers from little
Rann of Kutch in Gujarat are forced to abandon their permanent as well their makeshift shelters time and
again. They are driven out of their village, treated like encroachers, deserted from their makeshift shelters
from/for a piece of land which is supposedly reserved for commercial and official use. Barely able to make
both ends meet through their traditional occupation - Salt farming, Agariyas literally break their backs, work
tirelessly for 8 months every year, year after year. They fight the ruthless work conditions, struggle against
nature and ruin their health to produce fistful of salt. This documentary shot over a period of two years, vividly
depicts the endless miseries, and unending struggles of the Agariyas, This Film is an attempt to highlight the
living condition of the Agariyas and suggests how alternate recourse could be by empowering the machinery
of the state rather than shouting anti-national slogans
On the track of Robert van Gulik
Director Rob Rombout
Belgium
Runtime 01:27:00
Completion Date: June 1, 2016
Robert van Gulik (1910-1967) is one of the world’s most popular Dutch writers, but relatively unrecognized in his own country. A diplomat, Chinese specialist and scholar, he became famous with his detective series about Judge Tie, which in many ways, are projections of his own life: a permanent duality between his real life and the hero in his books.
I, Lucas
Director LUCAS MALDONADO
Colombia
Runtime 1 hr 11 min
Completion Date: Apr 2016
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
I may be a madman, a sick person. I meant to be brutally sincere. To my mom, to my dead father, and to myself. I was able to get my ex-girlfriends in bed to talk about me. I made a film about the forbidden, about my best friend who passed away, and I achieved slandering my image in the process. I made a film, I accomplished it. Is it worth while making films?
Govan Young
Directors Cara Connolly, David Archibald, Martin Clark
United Kingdom
Runtime 30 min
Completion Date: Sep 2016
Govan Young follows a group of schoolchildren as they learn the rarely-told story of the Viking invasion of Central Scotland and the subsequent establishment of the medieval kingdom of Strathclyde, which had its spiritual centre in Govan. How will the children react when they discover that Vikings and kings walked on the ground below their feet?
When I Measure the Distance
Director Liat Daudi
Israel
Runtime 45 min
Completion Date: Apr 2016
1ST TIME FILMMAKER
This is a story about the complex relationships of a secular, feminist and queer woman with her nuclear family of 15 people. The scenes reveal a wide range of emotions – love, care, compassion, repulsion, anger and a much more. It is a narrative of similarities, differences, courage and acceptance.
Andreas Lentakis - A romantic Fighterecond Service
Director Menos Deliotzakis
Greece
Runtime 01:23:00
Completion Date: February 28, 2017
The life, the political actions and the spiritual journey of Andreas Lentakis. And through them, the course of the Greek Left and its political history during the second half of the 20th century.