Category: Selection 2024

Synopsis: In the city of Oudhref in the north of the Governorate of Gabes, women struggle behind their looms to prove their existence and uniqueness… women there are as rare as the rain… the women of Oudhref are the incarnation of art and memory, and they are the secret of life and to survival…

Submitter Statement:  The implementation of this work did not start as the result of the present moment or as just a project to echo the calls for equality or other… it runs much deeper… it is a project in which we were born and with whom we grew up, so it has become one of us and we have become a part of it. This is work is significant in terms of awareness, existence and location… it is a form of faithfulness to this time and that time… it is in fact a debt that we owe and that we must fulfill with voice and echo. The story of this work does not date to recent present. It is rather an origin story since we grew up between the “here” and “there.” The scream of the khlala (iron beating comb) has awakened in us the spirit of research and documentation of heroes personified by “heroines” bearing an aesthetic and an artistic heritage that resonates between the duality of “child-bearing” and “protection.” The margoum and the female are a duality that is been renewed through meanings and stories where art and science inhabit a soft memory that has hardened as “warps” formed in the image of the chords of the hearts of these perseverant women. The essence of the margoum in its form and size is part of the spirit of the women and girls who have been struggling since time immemorial with a “kohl stick” and medal-like ragmas while jesting about what had happened and seeing good omens in what is to come… The elements of the story begin with the birth of “warps” and end when the yarn matures and the new god – i.e., the margoum of Oudhref – stands upright… squared or rectangular, bearing on its shoulders the signs of eternity and the symbols of finesse and dedication… The story is dialectical, like silence and clamor, like writing with repression… we went deep into the implementation of the “vision” of childhood and youth, where thought is a fantasy… where my grandmother sows spring before our eyes in bright shapes and colors… Despite the pain of prison and time… what the grandmother weaves in that quiet place between sand and sea is not devoid of novelty and wit, as if it were a legend worthy of narration in honor of the patient persevering women, and so that the sand does not flood our sea, narrowing our minds and throwing creativity into oblivion… the story also holds attempts to innovate… for a new untampered resurrection… Momentum and wealth are far-reaching… women, place and entity… Oudhref and the margoum… details, knots and a reduction of a conflict between an era and modernization, and talk of modernity… description, characterization, and employment of perception and cinematography… A context of reductionism… the story is worth safeguarding… 

Director: Akram Moncer

Writer: Akram Moncer

Producer: Akram Moncer

Country of Origin: Tunisia

Country of Filming: Tunisia

Language: Arabic

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 01:01:36

Akram Moncer

Synopsis: “Black Water Green Gold” is a feature length documentary about an indigenous community fighting to save Lake Patzcuaro in Central Mexico. Their traditional lifestyle is threatened by the effects of globalized economy and climate change. The documentary film follows the story of three individuals living around Lake Pátzcuaro. Carlos, Santiago and Tona. In the course of the movie the protagonists share their views on the situation at the lake. Their voices narrate the crisis that they and their communities are experiencing; the decline in water levels, ongoing wildfires and the insecurity haunting the region. The communities are connected by their Purépecha – heritage, the name of the indigenous group and language originating around the lake. Carlos represents the economic reality and youth of the community, balancing his love for his traditional way of life as a fisherman with his responsibilities to provide for his young family. Santiago represents the fight for independence and ecology, as he fights for the autonomy of his community and the protection of the lake. Tona embodies the cultural traditions of the lake, around the “Day of the Dead”. On a higher level the documentary shows an emotional and personal perspective of what it means to live in a region that has to sacrifice its environment to provide goods to the globalized market. The weight of the desperate situation however doesn’t stop the community from fighting for their lake, traditions and future.  

Submitter Statement:  The director’s vision is to give a voice to the people of the region that face the environmental impacts of pollution. The film is meant to show real people as close as possible to build a connection while having in mind that the topics touched are global phenomenon that affect the lives of all of us. Axel’s mother originates in Uruapan, the capital of the Mexican avocado industry and one of two large cities around the lake. He learnt Purépecha 4 years ago while working on a story about the indigenous community in Cheran. He also made a story about the avocado plantations for the German newspaper “GEO” while producing the documentary. The movie could be understood as a sequel to previous stories published by him. Additionally it is also a unique story of much larger scope produced by a young creative team. The relationship with the protagonists is like a friendship since Axel joined the protagonists on any occasion. He even got his Purépecha nickname “Chakins” due to his curly hair. One of the protagonists even named his newborn son “Axel” after our director. Journalism can be a dangerous profession in Mexico. We believe that we are privileged in our role as half-germans and half-mexicans, since more intense questions and investigations are less likely to be stopped. This is also a reason we felt the call to take on these topics because we see less dangers in covering them as we have another “life” on another continent. 

Director: Axel Javier Sulzbacher

Producer: Felipe Angeles Hamann, Nico Gerspacher, Kai Kraus

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Mexico

Language: Spanish

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 01:22:31

Project Website: http://blackwatergreengold.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackwatergreengold/

Axel Javier Sulzbacher

Synopsis: A documentary on Traditional Portuguese Popular Culture, Lisbon’s Regional Houses and the inherent pride in being a regionalist, portraying those who came from small villages to the country’s capital in search of a better life, particularly throughout the 20th century. These people were the main agents in the development and expansion of the city, making Lisbon the cultural patchwork quilt that it is today. 

Submitter Statement: While making a film is a work of love, it is also the fruit of very intense labour, so I am very grateful for your acknowledgement, which will most certainly help bring Chieira to an ever greater audience. Thank you.

Director: Luís Carlos Pereira Esteves

Writer: Luís Esteves

Producer: Luís Esteves, Rita Patacas, Diva Pinto

Key Cast: Mariana Carreira, André Pinto, Joaquim Brito, Eduardo Coelho, José Sá Fernandes

Country of Origin: Portugal

Country of Filming: Portugal

Language: Portuguese

Subtitles: English

Runtime: 00:39:43

Project Website: https://lsf.ulusofona.pt/filmes/299-chieira

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

Instagram: https://instagram.com/chieira_filme

Luís Carlos Pereira Esteves

Synopsis: “Deep in the Amazon, the last remnants of the Noke Koi ethnic group live, which is loosely translated as ‘True People’. Their ancestral knowledge about the powerful Medicine of the Forest remains alive, even though it is under threat of disappearing. It is an anthropological record of the culture, spirituality, and ancient medicines. It is a way to learn from the forest’s indigenous peoples, how to find healing and inner peace through self-knowledge and spiritual connection.”.

Director: Arthur Ribeiro

Writer: Daniel Henrique Lopes

Producer: Panã Kamãnawa, VarîViná Kamãnawa, Hoshonawa Kamãnawa

Key Cast: Edna Aguiar

Country of Origin: Brazil

Country of Filming: Brazil

Language: Portuguese

Subtitles: Portuguese

Runtime: 00:30:00

Project Website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gl4j7cjaEGg

Arthur Ribeiro

Synopsis: The creative man is always in search of. Everything created by him is his part, his undividable world, where everything is necessary. He finds himself in everything.

Director: Arsen Arakelyan

Writer: Arsen Arakelyan

Country of Origin: Armenia

Country of Filming: Armenia

Language: Armenian

Subtitles: English

Runtime: 00:10:50

Arsen Arakelyan

Synopsis: Musa Agun is a master of crafts. He considers the apprenticeship profjession as manual labor that requires skill, tact, and is transmitted with love, labor, and perseverance. He complains about not being able to pass on his profession to future generations because he didn’t grow up to be an apprentice. He expresses that he cannot teach the new generation the master’s works made with labor, and the role of the family is great for the upbringing of the apprentice. Nowadays, apprenticeship problems are experienced in every field where artisanship is tried to be maintained. One of those masters is Musa Agun. All he wants is for apprentices from all age groups to come and teach his profession and keep his profession alive in the years after that. At the same time, Master Musa attributes the failure of apprentices to families. He tells them to work hard for this and to be patient. As Master Musa said, “Where are those old apprentices?”
Musa passion for this job for years comes from the fact that he fell in love with his job. He wants education programs to be of high quality, government agencies to open vocational courses and support such lost professions. Together, he invites the masters to unite, join hands and solve the apprentice issue. ” Come, let’s all experience art together, solve it and produce as much as we can.” he says. He wants to keep art and traditions alive for as long as he can and train good apprentices.

Director: Ömür Gürgen

Writer: Ömür Gürgen

Producer: Ömür Gürgen

Key Cast: Musa Agun, Fatma Agun

Country of Origin: Turkey

Country of Filming: Turkey

Language: Turkish

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:20:00

ÖMÜR GÜRGEN

Ömür Gürgen was born in year of 1992, city of Turkey Tokat/Erbaa. He decided to become a director from the age of 11 . He finished primary school at which called ”Erbaa Primary School.” After he graduated from ”75th Year Erbaa High School” After he entered the Department of Radio, Television and Cinema at Ege University in 2013. In the same period, he worked as an assistant in the Oğuz Yalçın’s Art Workshop. He started his assistantship process, which he started during his school years, continued with the drama series which called ”Medcezir” in Istanbul and had the opportunity to work as a director’s assistant in many TV series, movies and advertisements. His short films;” Arayış, Kayıp Hazineler” (”The Search, Lost Treasures”) were entitled to compete in festivals. In the year of 2015, he worked as an assistant director in 2 different clubs ; ”Ege University Cinema Club” and ”Ege University Cartoon Comic Society.” In the same period he got education of drama and being scriptwriter. He has been living in Istanbul since 2016 and continues on the path of directing, starting from the lowest level.

Synopsis: The musician Tales Melati, travels around the pampa, carrying exotic sounds with the bagpipes of Cabral’s expedition. A powerful sound that reveals the missing link of Galician music in Brazil.

Director: Juan Quintán

Writer: Juan Quintáns

Producer: Juan Quintáns

Edition: Felipe Alvarez de Toledo

Sound: Juan Quintáns

Key Cast: Tales Melati (himself)

Photography: Pedro Clezar

Country of Origin: Brazil

Country of Filming: Brazil

Language: Portuguese

Subtitles: No

Runtime: 00:15:00

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/O-gaiteiro-que-desceu-da-caravela-o-curta-103235851474044

Juan Quintán

Spanish filmmaker, born in Galicia (Spain), in 1995 he studied at Escuela de Cine de A Coruña, where he specialized in sound.
He has worked as a direct sound technician and sound designer on several TV series, publicity and cinema. In Brazil he begins to direct his authorial projects.
Juan Quintáns is also a teacher, teaching sound for cinema and TV in several schools and university.
Some of his works were finalists and won awards at international film festivals, as the documentaries “No Amor” (2017) and “Arte Flamenca pasión Brasileira” (2016).

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Synopsis: Imbamba (Uthunyiwe) is an account of black dislocation/sorrow. Through a sound-performance relation in an urban setting, it interrogates the idea of messianic (holy) aesthetics, by way of thinking the Maskandian music form. It makes sense of Maskandian form and its bearing on social decay, its bearing on the contradictory nature of popular culture, politics and the market place. Ultimately, Imbamba (uthunyiwe) is a mode of asking and addressing the seemingly an un-answerable question, ie. whether or not music can condition the possibility or expresses the limits of liberation from politico-cultural domination..

Director Staement: Some songs emerge and find a Maskandi, for instance. They are the Maskandi – not because they want to sound Zulu in remote Kwa-Zulhostu-Natal or at a taxi rank or in a hostel. The hostel and the taxi rank are part of their history, to be sure. An inescapable history that they will want to forget, since a hostel or the rank are a constant reminder of the fact that they emerge from the cracks of life: the ‘urban setting’.

Director: Gabe Letswalo

Writer: Gabe Letswalo, Sive Mqikela

Producer: Gabe Letswalo, Sive Mqikela, Mbe Mbhele

Key Cast:  Manyathela Mvelase, Bheki Khoza, Sibusiso Mbhele

Country of Origin: South Africa

Country of Filming: South Africa

Language: English, Zulu

Subtitles: English

Runtime: 00:08:36

Gabe Letswalo

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Synopsis: Women living in Etrim Village of Bodrum have been weaving carpets for generations. Grandma Gülsüm, 87, is connected to life with the carpet that she has woven. While her 65-year-old daughter Ummuhan carries the burden of the house but she gets rid of all her troubles when she takes over the carpet bench. Ummuhan’s Daughter Belgin, took care of her 3 daughters at the age of 32. She teaches her daughters to weave carpets. These 3 women are closely tied together like the carpets they weave.

Director: Eren Aybars ARPACIK

Writer: Eren Aybars ARPACIK

Producer: Eren Aybars ARPACIK, Ali Tamer YARAR

Key Cast:  Ummuhan Başol, Gülsüm Uyar, Belgin Aslan

Country of Origin: Turkey

Country of Filming: Turkey

Language: Turkish

Subtitles: No

Runtime: 00:16:02

Eren Aybars ARPACIK

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