Shady Srour
16 min | 2019 | Israel | MA Premiere
A Palestinian day laborer is denied entry into Israel for work that day. Not wanting to return home empty handed after promising his daughter meat for dinner, he needs to get creative. A poetic and tragic reflection on the everyday struggle of Palestinian breadwinners.
Fatemeh Tous
15 min | 2020 | Iran
In a border village between Iran and Iraq, a group of villagers practice animal husbandry. Saheb, the teenage boy who owns the only male American bull, is heavily dependent on his bull and earns money by its servicing for breeding.
Maurizio Ravallese
15 min | 2020 | Italy
An immigrant works in a laundry to buy a wedding suit. One day he is found stealing a suit from a sick groom who has just been left at the altar. To atone for his sins, he will have to avenge the robbed man.
Cristina Martin Barcelona & Maria José Martin Barcelona
10 min | 2019 | Spain
Ana is a 6 years old girl who is undergoing child therapy with a psychologist. Through games and drawings, she tells the psychologist about her family, in particular about her older brother, Juan. She describes what he’s like, how he feels about her, how they play together. But soon, it will be revealed that things are not always exactly what they seem.
Jonay García
4 min | 2019 | Spain | US Premiere
An intimate bath reveals a twist that takes this film out of cliche and into an unexpected place.
Zaza Urushadze
102 min | Georgia / Ukraine | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
One of the most anticipated foreign films of 2019 from award-winning director Zaza Urushadze, ANTON, explores a little-know period of Russian history shaped by political, ethnic and religious division. Revolution and revenge, fear and hope, love and hate all converge in a small Ukrainian village in 1919, played out through the friendship between two young boys, Anton and Jacob. Nominated for an Academy Award and Golden Globe
Official Selections: Toronto Film Festival and Jerusalem Film Festival
SCREENING WITH
ACTIVIZED
Eric Stange
38 min | US | 2019
Stories of seven ordinary Americans who, for the first time in their lives, have left their comfort zones and become involved in gun violence prevention, voting rights and immigrants’ rights. Interweaving their personal stories against the backdrop of the causes they fight for, we experience their motivations, successes and failures, their sacrifices, and victories. Above all, we celebrate these inspiring, courageous citizens for embracing one of the most basic of American traditions – dissent.
Maria Lafi
99 min | Greece | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
A film about faith, not in the religious sense, but in the sense of a deep human faith in survival… in an era when immigration and its different manifestations are featured at the center of international media, often in the form of tragic incidents, but also through ways it affects everyday life and the political scene.
With multiple storylines, taking place in a multicultural area of Athens during orthodox Easter, the lives of four strangers, who live in the same neighborhood, change dramatically when, on Palm Sunday, the neighborhood’s postbox is blasted just for laughs by Filipino teenager Ige. Documents of vital importance to all of them have been destroyed and the consequences are relentless.
Awards: Grand Prix at Festival Int’l du Film de Fès, Morocco; Best Int’l Feature at Festival de Cine de Zaragoza, Spain; Best Balkan Film at Tirana Int’l FF, Albania; Best Screenplay and Best Actress at Aswan International Women Film Festival, Egypt; Best Film at II Festival de Cine Chipriota y Griego, Barcelona, Spain; Best Director at Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, LA, USA; Best Director and Best Actress at Calella Film Festival, Spain; Best Director at Islantilla Cinefórum Film Festival, Spain; Audience Award at Festival Int’l de Cine de Quito, Ecuador; Audience Award at Festival Int’l de Cine de Calzada de Calatrava, Spain
SCREENING WITH
RECLAIMING THE NEGATIVE
Mike Beech
13 min | UK/South Korea | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
This film looks at a North Korean defector's extraordinary and harrowing escape from her country of birth and the artistic process of a large format photographer who captures a series of stunning portraits of North Korean defectors living in Seoul, South Korea. The film takes a more intimate look at the human side of the highly political subject matter.
Awards: Winner of London Indie Film Awards; Winner of LA Cinematography Awards, Gold Winner of Queen Pal, CA; Silver Winner of Latitude Film Awards; Finalist at Southport Film Festival, N.C.; Official Selection of Rome Independent Prisma Awards, Italy.
Linda Dombrovszky
74 min | Hungary | 2019 | East Coast Premiere
Anna, an elderly, village woman, is widowed. Her daughter, a big city doctor, believes that the best thing would be to take her mother in. But the relationship between Anna, torn from her environment, and Iza, living her city life, doesn’t work out; Anna is slowly withering and life has lost its purpose.
Official Selections of: Milan Int’l FF; Findecoin Independent Int’l Short FF; Puerto la Cruz, Venezuela; Santa Cruz Int’l FF, Argentina; South East European FF, LA, US; Indy FF, Indianapolis, IN, US
SCREENING WITH
EVERYBODY SHUT UP by George O'Reilly
13 min | UK | 2019
In an era where transparent communication is everything, it is seemingly becoming less and less regarded as our most essential component to human life. Uncovering the importance of social interaction, CBE Psychologist Cary Cooper and Linguist Bencie Woll explain the implications of a lack of interaction, and the current climate for such matters, looking into why London's "Tube Chat" Badge went so horribly wrong and exposing potential realities that threaten generations to come, drawing a strong correlation between Brexit and Donald Trump with the closed and unfriendly attitude we are experiencing in our daily lives.
Official Selections of: Hot Springs Documentary Film Festival, Arkansas, US; Aesthetica Short Film Festival, York, England
Florenc Papas
78 min | Albania | 2019 | US Premiere
The film takes place in present day Albania, a fast-developing country that attempts to navigate a delicate balance between traditional values and modernity. The story follows two sisters, Rudina and Elma, who are unable to visit their traditional father owing to the fact that the younger of the two, Elma, is pregnant and unmarried. Despite having grown apart, the sisters find that the strong link that once united them is still present and together, they will help each other face the circumstances.
SCREENING WITH
DAUGHTER
Daria Kashcheeva
15 min | Czech Republic | 2019 | US Premiere
Should you hide your pain, close yourself to your inner world that is full of longing for your father’s love and its displays? Or should you seek to understand and forgive before there is no chance?
Maryna Er Gorbach and Mehmet Bahadir Er
100 min | Turkey | 2019
Ismet, a Turkish soldier who worked at the Turkish-Greek border as a Commander of the Coast Guard has recently retired. Now a civilian, he struggles to communicate with his family and people around him. In the midst of this transition, two Syrian refugees (Omar and Mariye) move into the house next to his and the ‘human experience’ begins where he is forced to face his prejudices and political view.
Professional actors Taj Sher Yakub (Omar) and Hala Alsayasneh (Mariye) were Syrian refugees living in Turkey under temporary immigration status when this was filmed. Recently, the French Immigration Office has accepted Hala Alsayasneh as an “artist immigrant”; she is currently living in Paris and working as an actress.
Awards: International Competition – Best Film, Best Script, Best Actor at South East European Film Festival, Paris, France; Ecumenical Jury Award at Warsaw Film Festival (World Premiere), Poland; Audience Best Film & Best Script Award at Malatya Int’l Film Festival, Turkey; Best Film & Best Director Award at Kayseri Film Festival, Turkey; Best Film Award at Santa Cruz Film Festival, Argentina; Dialog Award Nomination at Cottbus Film Festival, Germany; International Competition at Kolkata Film Festival, India; Best Actor at Fantasporto Film Festival, Porto, Portugal; Official Selection at Haifa Film Festival
SCREENING WITH
MARASIM - BEYOND BORDERS
Priscilla Elias
9 min | UAE | 2019 | US Premiere
Expats from two nations at war, bond in a foreign land over a common love of cricket. Forming a camaraderie - their marasim (connection) fades their partition.
Jannah Muhammad
2 min | Wide Angle Youth Media | Baltimore, Maryland (US) | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: Particularly good personal film. We like how it introduces elements of the narrative and documentary, with a little experimental as well”. If you witness someone getting bullied after watching this video, will you stop it?. Keep up the good work and keep making films”. The world needs them.
Will Nordstrom
10 min | Pacific Palisades, CA (US) | 2020 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: This is a particularly good soft film with good technical execution and good directing skills. We all need relationships. This film explores friendship. Well done.
Awards: Westflix, Hollywood/CA/US - Founder Award | IndieFest Film Awards, La Jolla/CA/US - Awards of Merit | Screen Test Student Fest, Schaumburg, IL, US - Best Actress.
Casey Lock ledge, Bea McDowell, Isaac Russell, and Zack White
7 min | Light House Studio | Charlottesville, VA (US) | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: A particularly good take on the heist genre. The shooting and editing completed each other and strengthened the story. Overall, particularly good.
Aidan Bonner
4 min | Raw Arts Works Lynn/MA/US | 2019 | Boston Premiere
Jury Statement: Funny and snarky at the start. Great use of stopping/starting the music during the segment’s narration to add comedy. There is real talent here that you should continue to cultivate and develop… there is real promise in your future, and you should continue nurture your craft.
L-J ShenFilerman
9 min | Arlington MA | 2020 | World Premiere
Jury Statement: Technically not a script, but each person interviewed gets their point across clearly, and the film is amazingly easy to follow. Gives that perfectly tense, horror-movie feeling. Incredibly well-mixed, and the background music is a perfect fit.
The film follows the Arlington mandated stay-at-home order. A young man’s criminal past catches up to him and exposes him to unforeseen danger.
Tao Groves, Alex de Montbel, Alex Flamm, and Jack Snead
7 min | Light House Studio | Charlottesville, VA(US) | 2019 | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: A very well-rounded film. Love the way this film does a comedic take on the elements of a haunting-clinking spoons for a metallic horror-movie sound, using small fan to blow pages around while scrolling on a phone. The film has many great moments.
Aidan Stevens
5 min | New England Premiere
Jury Statement: Everything about the script makes all the issues [present] seem like they are on purpose. It’s a parody of bad student internship films, almost like that scene at the start of Spiderman: Homecoming but with a police officer. The way they explain away stuff like “why you have a squad car” is brilliant.
Awards: Rod Serling Film Festival (Binghamton, US, 2019) - Best Comedy