Mehmet Can Bindal
20 min | 2020 | Turkey
A Uzbek man establishes himself as a dog walker in Cihangir, an area of Istanbul where the intellectual people live. After 10 years he is seen as a family member of his clients and when he decides to return home, how will they survive without him?
Judit Kalmár and Céline Coste Carlisle
87 min | Portugal | 2020
Set amongst the backdrop of a gentrified Lisbon we follow the footsteps of Céline - a local foreigner who has lived in Portugal for 20 years - we are introduced to Ivone Días and Marta Miranda, two artists from different generations who fight for the survival of their art and their community. Their common language is Fado, a traditional style of music that talks about the daily struggle of living. With the lyrics of fado songs taking us through the story, the film explores the relationship between fado singers and the ever-changing world around them.
SCREENED WITH
BLACK BOX
Can Deniz Atici
15 min | Turkey | 2019
Selin (11) is a young violinist who is preparing for her final exams as she tries to survive in İstanbul's chaotic atmosphere by herself. The burden of keeping her secret at home gets harder as the exam date approaches.
Norm Anderson
87 min | US | 2019
In 1968, two best friends joined an elite team and flew into a war zone wearing powder blue dresses. They were Red Cross Donut Dollies. These idealistic young women embraced their mission - to cheer up the GIs in Vietnam - with energy, creativity, compassion and resolve but had no idea what they were getting into. 47 years later, they reunite in Vietnam to retrace their steps; ask why they went; ask whether they made a difference; unlock buried memories and share their stories for the first time.
Awards and Official Selections: Palm Springs Int’l Film Festival, Palm Springs, CA; Best Documentary at GI Film Festival, San Diego, CA; Ashfield Film Festival, Ashfield, MA
SCREENED WITH
HORN
Ghasideh Golmakani
8 min | Iran | 2019 | US Premiere
An Iranian business woman tries to find a place to park her car; she is running late for an appointment. Men in the streets disturb her concentration while she is driving, thwarting her at every turn but she succeeds in finding a solution.
David Glossberg
American veterans are killing themselves by the thousands each year. It is a national tragedy on an epic scale. But a remarkable treatment is proving more powerful than ever imagined: Wild mustangs taken straight off the range! Pairing them with veterans, is miraculously turning despair into enduring hope!
SCREENED WITH
THE SAND CASTLE
Eliezer Katzoff
5 min | 2019 | US | World Premiere
A little girl engages in a fantasy of battling the ocean from destroying her sand castle with help from an imaginary soldier.
Denny Klein
107 min | US | 2019
An odyssey through the Holocaust of Ruth Ravina who was two years old when Germany invaded Poland in 1939. Living through three concentration camps by the age of seven, it is story of survival and triumph.
Awards and Official Selections: Best Documentary at Treasure Coast International Film Festival, Port St. Lucie, FL; Best Documentary at Bedford International Film Festival, Bedford, VA, Jersey Shore Film Festival, Asbury Park, NJ
SCREENED WITH
THE MIRROR
Joel Kohn
22 min | Australia | 2020
When a young girl discovers a mysterious antique mirror in the basement of her ailing grandmother’s house, she accidentally opens a window between time that allows her to cross over into war-torn Nazi-occupied Poland.
Awards and Official Selections: Jewish Int’l Film Festival, Melbourne, Australia; River's Edge Int’l Film Festival, Kentucky; Prague Int’l Indie Film Festival, Prague, Czech Republic; Gold Coast Int’l Film Festival, Long Island, NY; Best Costume Design & Best Post Production at Swindon Int’l Film Festival, UK; Rosarito Int’l Short Film Festival, Mexico; Semi-finalist at Rhode's Flicker Int’l Film Festival, Providence, RI; AFIN Int’l Short Film Festival, Brisban, Australia; Bucharest Shortcut Cinefest, Bucharest, Romania; Cyrus Int’l Film Festival of Toronto, Canada; Hobnobben Film Festival, Fort Wayne, Indiana; MOSFilmFest, Moscow, Russian; Chicago Int’l Children's Film Festival, Chicago, IL; YES Film Festival, Columbus OH; Jacksonville Film Festival, Jacksonville, FL; St Louis Int’l Film Festival, St Louis, MO; Eastern Europe Int’l, Warsaw, Poland
Bridgette Auger and Itab Azzam
75 min | UK / Lebanon | 2018
This refreshing film offers a unique peek into the private lives of women who have survived unspeakable sorrow, yet blossom through the healing power of art. During a theater workshop in a Lebanese refugee camp, four Syrian women discover they have a lot in common with the ancient Greek heroine, Antigone, and experience freedoms forbidden in their homeland. Told with humor and heart, We Are Not Princesses elicits intimacy and honesty from its unlikely group of thespians.
Antigone is a tragedy written by Sophocles in the year 441 BCE. The premise of the play for the purpose of this documentary: Antigone’s two brothers kill each other in battle. King Creon refuses to mourn and bury the instigator, Polynices. Antigone breaks the king’s law and properly buries her brother, for not doing so would be blasphemy. King Creon sentences her to death. She sadly takes her own life.
Awards and Official Selections: DOC NYC, New York; Ismailia International Film Festival, Egypt; Independent Film Festival of Boston, MA; Audience Choice Award at SF DocFest, San Francisco, CA
SCREENED WITH
BROOKLYN PARK
Nikola Duravcevic
15 min | US | 2019 | New England Premiere
Alone in New York, Somali rideshare driver Abdi begins his nightshift with the news of a tragedy back home. The faces in the backseat change as he wrestles, unable to connect, with whether the unthinkable can be true—until a vision provides the clarity he seeks. Poetic and lyrical, BROOKLYN PARK is a modern-day immigrant tale that explores alienation, grief, and transcendence.
Awards and Official Selections: Best Short Film at Unknown Film Festival, Ekaterinburg, Russia; Best Actor at GIFF – Geelong Int’l Film Festival, Victoria, Australia; Best Fiction Film at Small Axe Film Awrds, Dorset, UK; Best Int’l Short at Indie-Lincs Film Festival, Lincoln, UK; Palm Springs Shorts Fest, Palm Springs, CA; Urbanworld Film Festival, New York, NY; Indie Memphis Film Festival, TN; Faludi Film Festival, Budapest, Hungary; Amity Short Film Festival, Istanbul, Turkey; Regard Festival Int’l du Court Metrage au Saguenay, Canada; Newport Beach Film Festival, CA; Radical Frame Film Festival, Berlin, Germany; Busan Int’l Short Film Festival, Busan, South Korea; Deptford Cinema Film Festival, London, UK; Paleochora Lost World Short Film Festival, Crete, Greece; Fear No Film Festival, Salt Lake City, Utah; Doc Sunback Film Festival, Mulvane, Kansas, USA; Lanett City Film Fest, Lanett, USA; Calabria Movie Int’l Short Film Festival, Parco Pignera, Crotone, Italy; Busan Int’l Short Film Festival, Busan, South Korea; Prindie – Princeton Indie Film Festival, Princeton, NJ; Working Title Film Festival, Vicenza, Italy; Woodstock Film Festival, NYC, NY; Aaretaler Kurzfilmtage, Berne, Switzerland
David Ofek and Mia Webb
59 min | Israel | 2019
No Jewish divorce is complete without the man literally giving the woman her freedom back. The film follows several such ‘chained’ women together with Batya, a religious lawyer, who embarks on a struggle against the rabbinical courts.
Official Selections: Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Israel; International Documentary Film Festival of Buenos Aires, Argentina; Atlantic Jewish Film Festival, Halifax, NS, Canada; Berlin Jewish Film Festival, Germany
SCREENED WITH
REPRISE
Stanley Xu Ruiyang
14 min | Taiwan | 2019 | US Premiere
A man and a woman who run into each other on a film set were actually lovers in the past. As they play the roles of a couple in the movie, they are drawn back into thoughts of their relationship.
Official Selections: Busan Int’l Film Festival, Busan, South Korea; Salamindanaw Asian Film Festival, Gensan, Philippines; Silk Road Int’l Film Festival, Dublin, Ireland; Cambodia Int’l Film Festival, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; Larissa Int’l Film Festival, Greece; Courts d'un Soir – Montreal Int’l Short Film Festival, Montreal, Quebec, Canada; Still Voices Short Film Festival, Ireland; Elba Film Festival, Marciana Marina, Toscana, Italy; Kuandu Film Festival, Taipei, Taiwan; Miami Short Film Festival, Miami Beach, FL
Kay Rubacek
81 min | US / China | 2019
A former journalist for the Chinese Communist Party (YIFEI WANG), living in exile in San Francisco, struggles to settle into life in America while working to heal her family’s wounds from their tragic past. She is seeking justice for the murder of her sister at the hands of the Chinese authorities. Rare undercover footage of a meeting with the director of the labor camp where Yifei’s sister was killed reveals shocking admissions of torture, slave labor, corruption, and a general disregard for human life pervading the camp system today. Exclusive interviews with former Chinese Communist Party officials provide a unique insight into the hidden world of terror that many Chinese citizens live without ever knowing that life can, and does, exist with freedom outside their world.
Official Selections: Remi Winner Houston Festival, Texas; New Jersey Shore, Deal, NJ; Woods Hole, MA
SCREENED WITH
L'Oro di Famiglia - THE FAMILY GOLD
Emanuele Pisano
15 min | Italy | 2019 | US Premiere
A young petty thief and a male robbery. Among the stolen goods, an object captures his attention: not gold, not silver and not ancient memorabilia, but something much more precious and worth returning.
Rachel Rusinek and Eyal Ben Moshe
52 min | Israel | 2019
Yaakov Smith was an ultra-orthodox married man with six children and a pillar of his community, when he left his family, his community, and Israel. It took him 20 years to return - only this time as an observant woman. The documentary tells the story of Yiscah Smith and touches honestly and openly on a subject that is both relevant and unspoken. It is also a film about self-acceptance, compassion, love, and family.
Official Selections: Haifa Film Festival, Haifa, Israel; Jerusalem Jewish Film Festival, Jerusalem, Israel; New York Jewish Film Festival, NYC, NY; Boston Jewish film festival, Boston, MA
SCREENED WITH
NIGHT AND DAY
Peter Anthony
11 min | USA | 2019 | World Premiere
A story of two lives, an uncle and his nephew. Neither has ever met; in fact, the nephew never knew of his uncle's existence until his own coming out to his family. These two men lived very different lives…different generations. The story is uniquely told via a puppet stage and marionettes.
Barak Heymann
75 min | Israel | 2019
Goddamned communist! Internal enemy! Privileged Tel Aviv Ashkenazi! It seems Dov Khenin has been called almost everything during his 13-year tenure as Member of Knesset for the Jewish-Arab party ‘Hadash’. For years, director Barak Heymann has been following this leading legislator, creating a film that examines the open wounds of contemporary Israeli society: from the forced removal of the residents of Givat Amal to turbulent meetings of the Knesset’s Finance Committee, and down to the violent events at Umm al-Hiran. Comrade Dov is a surprising, thought-provoking portrait of a unique politician, who refuses to give up even as reality deals him one cruel blow after another.
Official Selections: Docaviv. Tel Aviv, Israel; Other Israel Film Festival, New York City, USA; Watch Docs Film Festival, Warsaw, Poland
SCREENED WITH
IL GRANDE PRESIDENTE - THE GREAT PRESIDENT
Giovanni Basso
5 min | Italy | 2019
Primo, a thirty-five-year-old politician, and his twin brother Adamo, are waiting for a phone call that will communicate whether Primo has been chosen by the President of the Republic to be the new Prime Minister. Of the two brothers, Adamo is the sensible and reasonable one, while Primo proves to be a deviant with fascist ideas, just like their father, who also was a ruthless politician. During a verbal confrontation, Primo makes an absurd proposal to Adamo, telling him that when the phone rings, if Adamo picks up first he can assume Primo’s identity and become the new Prime Minister. Being twins, no one will notice the difference, and Adamo will have the opportunity to govern the country as he pleases.
Official Selections: Cortinametraggio Film Festival, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy; Shorts@Fringe – Azores Fringe Festival, Azores, Portugal; Porto 7 – Oporto Int’l Short Film Festival, Oporto, Portugal; Great Message Int’l Film Festival, Pune, India; Short Story Film Festival, Providence, RI, USA; Alwar Int’l Film Festival, Alwar, India; Radical Frame Film Festival, Berlin, Germany; Reale Film Festival, Milano, Italy
Thomas Freundlich
53 min | Finland | 2018
A visual dance documentary that explores the work of internationally acclaimed Finnish choreographer and dancer Tero Saarinen. The film follows Saarinen over a five-year period through several premieres of new works around the world while bringing to light his approach to life as a global nomad in dance.
Official Selections: Premiere at Loikka Dance Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland; Helsinki Int’l Film Festival, Helsinki, Finland; Equilibrio Festival, Rome, Italy; Cinalfama Lisbon Int’l Film Festival, Lisbon, Portugal; Chhatrapati Shivaji Film Festival, Pune, India; Kinomorphia Film Festival, Sofia, Bulgaria
SCREENED WITH
RESPRINGENDO
Denise Ekale Kum
25 min | Germany | 2019 |US Premiere
A young musician, having lost faith in her calling, battles through an overbearing mother, a relentless friend and a bizarre encounter in the park in order to reconnect with her most precious possession: her late father's red guitar.
Official Selections: Vox Feminae Festival, Zagreb, Coratia; FICAIJ Audiovisual Festival, Mérida, Venezuela
Katrin Reichwald
88 min | Germany/Portugal | 2019 | US Premiere
“If everybody works together, great things can be achieved!" – 37 inhabitants of Ferraria de São João, a small Portuguese village that lies hidden amidst an enormous expanse of eucalyptus forest follows this principle. Eucalyptus, although lucrative for the booming paper industry, is easily flammable and is therefore an uncontrollable threat to the rural population. In 2017, the region was hit by one of the most devastating forest fires in Portugal, killing 66 people.
German filmmaker, Katrin Reichwald was vacationing with her family when unexpectedly affected by this disaster fled the village to escape danger. The residents stayed and fought to save their homes. Together they have initiated a groundbreaking project that aims to protect them from the consequences of climate change and globalization. A film that encourages us to ACT!
Official Selections: Another Way Film Festival, Madrid, Spain; Madurai Int’l Documentary and Short Film Festival, Madurai, India; Chambal Int’l Film Festival, Chambal, India; The Earth Day Film Fest, Chico CA; Espiello – Festival Int’l de Documental Etnografico de Sobrarbe, Spain
SCREENED WITH
ECHO
Barzan Rostami
8 min | 2019 | Iran | US Premiere
The understanding and perception of wildlife and environmental abuses and its consequences on the human race. A movie of empathy for the environment.
Daniela Broitman
90 min | Brazil | 2019
A passionate journey into the universe of the composer and singer who revolutionized songwriting in Brazil, leading the way to the Bossa Nova and Tropicália movements, contributing to the popularity of Brazilian music worldwide. The narrative is based on a previously unreleased interview in which Caymmi captivates us with amusing stories and improvised performances.
Awards and Official Selections: World Premiere at It's All True Documentary Film Festival, Rio de Janeiro & São Paulo; In edit Brasil Music Documentary Film Festival, São Paulo, Brazil; International Premiere at Doclisboa, Lisboa,Portugal; Bafici at Buenos Aires, Argentina; Sonic Scene Music Film Festival, Trani, ItalyMimo Festival, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; On Art Poland
SCREENED WITH
MAESTRO
ILLOGIC
2 min | France | 2019 | US Premiere
Deep into a forest, a gathering of wild animals begin a nocturnal opera conducted by a squirrel.
Drew Nicholas
107 min | USA | 2019
Battles over blood quantum and ‘best interests’ resurface the untold history of America’s Indian Adoption Era - a time when nearly one-third of children were removed from tribal communities nationwide and placed in Anglo homes. As political scrutiny over Indian child welfare intensifies, an adoption survivor helps others find their way home through song and ceremony.
Awards & Screenings: Cultural Impact Award at California American Indian & Indigenous Film Festival, Temecula, CA; Audience Choice Best Doc Feature at Kansas International Film Festival, KS; Big Sky Documentary Film Festival, Missoula, MT; Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Film Festival, MN; Santa Fe Independent Film Festival, NM; Duluth Superior Film Festival, MN; RISE Reconciliation Film Festival, Edmonton, Alberta Canada; NATIVE POP FESTIVAL Cinema Showcase, Rapid City, SD; Indigenous Film Festival, Pine Ridge Reservation, South Dakota
SCREENED WITH
THE PAINS OF THE SEA
Mohammadreza Masoudi
9 min | Iran | 2019 | US Premiere
Syrian and Iraqi immigrants try to cross the sea to reach Turkey. A mother has to choose between seeing and not, the death of her child in front of her eyes in the sea.
Dmitriy Shpilenok and Vladislav Grishin
51 min | Russian Federation | 2020
An exquisitely beautiful film…the cinematography extraordinary! Sockeye, a species of wild salmon, is born in Kamchatkan waters and spends its entire life in the Pacific Ocean. Only once does it return to fresh waters - to give offspring, start the circle of life, and die. It is an inexhaustible resource that feeds billions of people on the planet, restored every year! But soon, we may find ourselves facing the unimaginable: humans will exhaust the inexhaustible! The ecological and poaching stories are delicately interwoven…visually stunning!
SCREENED WITH
NAMES FOR SNOW
Rebecca Thomassie
6 min | 2018 | Canada | US Premiere
Rebecca Thomassie, an Inuk of Kangirsuk, Nunavik participates in Wapikoni workshops to document traditional knowledge and ensure the sustainability of her culture. This short follows Rebecca as she learns the 53 Inuktitut words for snow and passes this knowledge on to her daughter.
Karla Murthy
70 min | USA | 2019
Among the industrial ruins of America, a new generation is rebuilding home. When the steel mills shut down in Youngstown Ohio, it shattered a way of life. Over half the population left. Thousands of empty blighted homes were left behind, eroding the social fabric of this once mighty industrial base. Like many post-industrial towns, persistent joblessness, crime and poverty plague the city. Filmed over the course of 2 1/2 years, this film weaves the lives of a new generation of residents who have grown up in a world of post-industrial decline. Unlike their parents’ generation, haunted and traumatized by watching their way of life crumble around them, this generation is able to envision a new future, and they are working to make a life for themselves in their hometown. An inspiring testimony to the modest but profound resilience and dedication it takes to transform a community. A crucial story to be heard at a time of extreme inequality, divisiveness, upheaval and uncertainty, "The Place That Makes Us" is a meditation on the meaning of home in America today.
Official Selections: Woods Hole Film Festival, MA; River's Edge International Film Festival, Paducah, KY
SCREENED WITH
FYRVAKTAREN - BATHTUB BY THE SEA
Ole-André Rønneberg
15 min | 2019 | Norway | East Coast Premiere
Day in and day out Gunnar, a lighthouse keeper, does the same things. He drinks his coffee, fishes with his boat, and on Wednesdays and Saturdays he has his outdoor bath. But one day a mermaid comes in with the tides, and he must use his bathtub for her. When bathing day comes and the bathtub is occupied, it gets complicated for Gunnar.
Official Selections: Blue Sea Film Festival, Rauma, Finland; Festival Int’l du Film de Nancy, France; WENIFF, Ålesund, Norway; Indie-Lincs Int’l Fil Festival, Lincoln, Lincolnshire, UK; Cellu L'art Short Film Festival Jena, Germany; International Film Festival, New York, USA; Skepto Int'l Film Festival, Cagliari, Italy; Clujshorts Int’l Short Film Festival, Cluj, Romania; Myrtle Beach Film Festival, South Carolina; Prato Film Festival, Italy; Paleochora Lost World Short Film Festival, Paleochora, Crete, Greece; Doc Sunback Film Festival, Mulvane, Kansas; One Country One Film Int’l Festival, Apchat, France; Annual Reelheart Int’l Film and Screenplay Festival, Toronto, Canada; Geelong Int’l Film Festival, Geelong, Victoria, Australia; Working Title Film Festival, Vicenza, Italy; Aqua Film Festival, Rome, Italy; TISFF - THESS Int’l Shorts Film Festival, Thessaloniki, Greece; Aretaler Kurzfilmtage, Münsingen, Berne, Switerland
Presented at AIFF 2019
90 min | Switzerland/USA | 2018 | BOSTON PREMIERE
Synopsis: Anne-Frédérique Widmann is a Swiss investigative reporter and documentary filmmaker. Formerly, she was U.S. correspondent for European media, co-editor-in-chief, anchor of the current affairs documentary program Temps Présent and head of the investigative team of the French Swiss National Television and Radio RTS. With New-York Times editorial cartoonist Chappatte, she co-founded the art & documentation project, Windows on Death Row. FREE MEN is a portrait of two innocent African Americans who spent most of their lives behind bars in complete isolation, on death row. One of them, Ndume was freed in 2012. He is now supporting his fellow friend, Kenneth, who is still incarcerated and fighting for justice. Despite the inhuman conditions they have endured, what has kept them both alive is art, love, and an impressive resilience. In these moments of racial tensions outside and in the U.S., FREE MEN show how people can resist social and racial prejudices by finding inner resources and personal strength to move forward... a universal lesson of hope and humility.
Awards: Geneva Int’l Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights Champ-Dollon Jury Prison Award; Int’l Film Festival of Algiers Jury Award.
Presented at AIFF 2018
87 min | USA | NEW ENGLAND PREMIERE
Synopsis: Since the presidential election, the cultural divide in America has expanded with stereotyping and slurs rampant and finger-pointing and name-calling abounding. hillbilly goes on a personal and political journey into the heart of the Appalachian coalfields, exploring the role of media representation in the creation of the iconic American "hillbilly," and examining the social, cultural, and political underpinnings of this infamous stereotype. Filmed in Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia, hillbilly uncovers an unexpected set of artists, poets, activists, queer musicians, "Affrilachian" poets, and intersectional feminists -- all unexpected voices emerging from this historically misunderstood region. hillbilly is a timely and urgent exploration of how we see and think about poverty and rural identity in contemporary America, offering a call for dialogue during this divisive time in U.S. history.
Kenadie Niptanatiak, Derek Niptanatiak, and Midaiya Algiak
6 min | Reel Youth | Vancouver,Canada | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: A beautiful film that does an exceptionally good job of telling the story without inserting too much exposition. It is the story that make that audience connected with the story, the area, the culture and the music.
Drum Dancing was almost lost to this community until this group of women started gathering to sing together and carry this ancient tradition forward.
Nathaniel Sackson, Ana Burman, Chantrea Anderson, Emma Kaufman-Horner, Mallory Greene, Max Mongosso, Omara English, Ian Phillips, Yutong Dai, Ouyang Xuanjie, and Sarah Apple
7 min | Light House Studio | Charlottesville, VA (US) | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: Excellent creativity and excellent acting. This film will grab the audience and pull them in to the world of the film. It is really impressive that you were to pull off something to this scale. Very, very well done. Bravo!