Category: Selection 2024

Synopsis: Cycle is a reflection of the human presence on earth, its evolution and consequent impact. It questions the place of man, not only in society, but as a living being. It is the representation of a cycle, giving the viewer space to choose which one.

Director: Raquel de Tapada Vieira

Producer: Raquel de Tapada Vieira

Country of Origin:  Portugal 

Country of Filming: Portugal

Language: None

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:08:06

Raquel de Tapada Vieira

Synopsis: Salim a Palestinian father after losing everything in an Israeli airstrike, his home, wife and newborn child, attempts to help ease his unbearable pain by telling his own personal story of growing up in Gaza under the occupation of an apartheid regime

Director: Richard Oliver Jr.

Producer: Richard Oliver Jr., ICP Entertainment

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:08:00

Project Website: http://icpentertainment.org

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/379880484478959/?ref=share

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/humanitygazanow

Richard Oliver Jr.

Synopsis: “My film tells the story of coexistence between religions in ancient Aden and how Aden brought together all religions and sects, where everyone accepted each other regardless of their different religions and sects. It is necessary for this harmony to return to the city, and we work on preserving the role of worship that these religions left in Aden because it is a part of Aden’s history.”

Director: Fatima Fadhl Abdullah 

Writer: Ali Abdulkarim bin Amer

Producer: This project has been realized as part of Yemen Creative Hubs funded by the European Union and co-funded by the Goethe-Institunt, Fatima Ali Abdullah 

Key Cast: Ali Abdulkarim bin Amer, Ahmed waleed Ahmed, MOHAMMED OSAMAH FAISAL, Ahmed ABDULHAKIM ALI, Abdullah Eyad Alkaladi, Abdulla Ahmed Ba-Qais, Najma Abdul Majeed, Akram Ali Bamatraf

Country of Origin: Yemen

Country of Filming: Yemen

Language: Arabic, English

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:08:11

Fatima Fadhl Abdullah 

Synopsis: Mother Nature gives gifts to those who treat her well: She distributes her fruits, her medicine, her fresh air and all her beauty. But human beings are exterminating all their children…

Submitter Statement: The film emerged from the revolt. Watching the world being destroyed daily for so many years, mainly by corporations and governments, makes me think about my children, grandchildren, friends and planet earth. The fight to preserve nature is daily and infinite. You need to use every means possible to report and try to STOP what is happening. One of the means I used was to produce this environmental catastrophe film, where nature revolts against human beings. But I also use theater, painting, texts, conversations, poetry, actions and whatever else is possible. Humanity has to realize that we are together on the same planet. Green resistance always!!!! 

Director: R. Fonte Mutt

Writer: R. Fonte Mutt, Zefel Coff

Producer: R. Fonte Mutt, 

Key Cast: Mother Nature, Human beings

Country of Origin: Brazil

Country of Filming: Brazil

Language: Portugues

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:09:23

R. Fonte Mutt

Synopsis: Robert, a 55-year-old man, refuses to let a cancer diagnosis define him. The film depicts Robert’s determination to live life to the fullest. He travels tens of thousands of kilometers on his bicycle with one goal: to savor the remaining time. During his journey, Robert encounters new people, experiences the kindness of strangers who offer him food and shelter, and faces various challenges that he overcomes with perseverance and a positive attitude. The documentary also presents Robert’s 

Submitter Statement: I’m Yevangelina Kovalchuk- a Kazakhstan-born filmmaker in Poland, and the director of “Journey to the End of Life”. This film started as a personal journey and became an unexpected source of inspiration. I stumbled upon Robert’s channel when life seemed pointless, and his zest for life struck a chord with me. Seeing Robert battling the illness yet savoring every moment, made me question my complaints. This experience led me to the idea of sharing his story to inspire others. “Journey to the End of Life” is a celebration of life, a reminder to embrace the beauty in our stories.  

Director: Yevangelina Kovalchuk

Writer: Yevangelina Kovalchuk

Producer: Maciej Ślesicki

Key Cast: Robert Lyczak

Country of Origin: Poland

Country of Filming: Poland

Language: Polish

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:10:17

Yevangelina Kovalchuk

Synopsis: In the south of Madagascar, in a very hostile environment where finding the next meal is a challenge, Zafisolo, a goat farmer, is fighting two battles: producing good cheese and perpetuating this neglected activity. He has followed a different path, a neglected activity: goat rearing, even though the zebu is both a symbol of power and wealth in his region. At the head of a herd of four hundred goats, he competes with ingenuity to develop his activities. The climate in Ambatoraty Jafaro is dry and arid. Zafisolo has to defy the elements to feed his herd. Under a blazing sun, and sometimes accompanied by the Tiomena (a sandstorm), he has to travel miles to reach a watering hole. These efforts are necessary to obtain good milk, because Zafisolo produces goat’s cheese. However, in his old age, Zafisolo is thinking about the future of this industry. He is sharing his knowledge with one of his grandsons, who is interested in goat farming.  

Submitter Statement: I’m delighted to have been able to submit my latest film to the FilmFreeway platform. A very practical tool for us filmmakers. I hope my film will be of interest to many festivals. Thank you 

Director: Ary-Misa Rakotobe 

Writer: Ary-Misa Rakotobe

Producer: Haingo Patricia Malalaharisoa

Key Cast: Louis Zafisolo

Country of Origin: Madagascar

Country of Filming: Madagascar

Language: 

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:10:33

Ary-Misa Rakotobe 

Synopsis: The wonderful nature of Finland, especially in winter, when clean, sparkling snow covers the entire surface and dry, cold air descends from the endless forests. In Lapland, there are zones of standing time, where it is good to take your time and experience the feeling of the here and now. The film shows the discoveries and states of travel to the Arctic Circle.

Director: Vigmantas – Balevičius

Writer: Vigmantas – Balevičius 

Producer: Vigmantas – Balevičius

Country of Origin: Lithuania

Country of Filming: Finland

Language: English

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:10:40 

Project Website: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiR8dtnW1DJ7a4Q_alHDiAA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/vigmantas.balevicius/

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

Twitter: https://twitter.com/vigmantas

Vigmantas – Balevičius

Synopsis: “As a child my grandfather took me to see his horizons. I came back as an adult and never found them again.” In the summer, a child from the city of Naples where he lives goes to spend his holidays with his farmer grandfather in a small village in the Campania Apennines on the border with Puglia. Every day of the summer holidays that they spend together, the grandfather and his grandson take long walks on the plateau and he tells him fascinating stories of that magical and mysterious place that was the land of their ancestors with its beautiful horizons that filled their eyes with amazement of the child, both enjoying the beauty and serenity that the place offered. As the child grows, he brings with him memories of the plateau with its beautiful horizons. He returns to those places after 40 years and no longer finds his horizons, lost among large wind mills. He finds those places violated in their beauty, he finds thousands of people forced to suffer the effects of the presence of large wind towers positioned a few meters from homes and places of life, which compromise landscapes, environments and rural communities. He finds an unbearable and uninterrupted noise, a constant and oppressive flickering inside the houses, he perceives risks for wild animals and sees a horribly compromised landscape. Wild wind energy is increasingly revealing itself to be the crazy self-destruction of a people who, trampling on the common good, are unable to see beyond the short-sighted and greedy robbery of every available resource. A rain of devastating projects, disguised as works of public utility, are unscrupulously overwhelming every environmental protection regime, erasing what for millennia were the horizons of our ancestors, horizons lost in the name of the dominant pseudo-environmentalist culture. Artificial Industrial Parks, composed not of flora and fauna, but of wind turbines with towers more than 100 meters high that have indiscriminately desecrated the most precious heritage these places have: landscapes, forests, ecosystems, nature, biodiversity. Mountains and hills have been gutted and contaminated not by tree plantations, but by steel towers more than 100 meters high. Goethe wrote in his ‘Journey to Italy’: “The Apennines are for me a wonderful piece of creation”.

Director: Vito Nicoletta

Writer: Vito Nicoletta

Producer: Vito Nicoletta

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Runtime: 00:10:55

Vito Nicoletta

Synopsis: “The Sweet Heritage” is a short documentary created as an international coproduction between BNT, COPEAM and ASBU „Inter-Rives9: People and Markets” about the Regional Open-air Ethnographic Museum “Etar” close to Gaborovo. The film tells the story of Boyan, a third-generation confectioner whose candy apples and roosters entice the young and old visitors who come to delight in the cobbled stone alleys of the Museum. Boayn is a rare example of a young man who decided to preserve the traditional family craft and develop it overcoming the difficulties in this type of business. Following his story the international audience will see the most beautiful and interesting spots on the market street of the Museum and will learn about water-powered tools such as the lathe, the fulling mill, the knife sharpener and other more complex tools used by the Bulgarians in that area in the past.

Director: Vanya Boycheva

Writer: Vanya Boycheva

Producer: Irena Marinova

Country of Origin: Bulgaria

Country of Filming: Bulgaria

Language: Bulgarian

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:11:32

Vanya Boycheva

Synopsis: The documentary “The Threads of Koyash” focuses on the carpet fields in the Döşemealtı region of Antalya. Behind the visual feast of thousands of carpets entrusted to the sun, there is a great labor and a cultural heritage passed down for thousands of years. The documentary aims to shed light on the roots of our weaving culture. In the nomadic life we adopted years ago, nature has been our best teacher, and we have mastered and passed on our skills such as obtaining yarn from what we find in it, dying them with root dyes and hand weaving them. Not only our weaving methods but also the patterns embroidered on the rugs tell and preserve ancient Turkish stories. In the film, we tried to decipher these stories through the rug patterns. The inspiring story of a few people who keep the culture alive was also the subject of the film. As much as the rugs need sun and moisture during the summer to get their pastel color, they also need us to pass on their heritage. To this end, the documentary aims to make visible and widespread our cultural heritage, which belongs to us but is mostly attracted by foreign countries..

Submitter Statement: Thanks to my relatives who continue to stay in tents and live a nomadic life, I had the opportunity to live in our cultural heritage that we have preserved for centuries. This situation made me very sensitive to material and spiritual cultural elements. My first research at university was on nomadic culture. The rugs produced with root dye and hand weaving method, which are the subject of my documentary, are among the most vibrant and colorful pieces of nomad culture. The carpets are left in the sun to turn pastel colors. Thousands of carpets laid out in the fields offer us an aesthetically enchanting view. Until they reach this stage, the local people sweat a lot to produce, dye and weave the yarn, and at the end of the process, they offer us the opportunity to look at the patterns formed in the minds of our ancestors centuries ago. In the film, we tried to decipher these patterns with the information passed down from generation to generation. Various burdens have accumulated on the shoulders of the carriers of our culture, whose numbers and visibility have decreased. In order to lighten their burden, I tried to include the difficulties they face during the production process in the documentary.  

Director: Tuğçe Talkan

Country of Origin: Turkey

Country of Filming: Turkey

Language: Turkish

Subtitles: 

Runtime: 00:11:46

Tuğçe Talkan