Footnote

USA, Rotterdam Harbour 2022

Documentary by Zhengfan Yang

Synopsis

An audio-visual portrait of a neighborhood in the city of Chicago. Life presents itself in two contradictory ways: as seen through the windows of an apartment filmed over the course of three years – peaceful, mundane, ambiguous; and as told through the local police scanner recorded during the last year of the Trump administration, also the first year of the ongoing pandemic – violent, tragic, absurd. From here, a neighborhood is observed, a city is echoed, and a country is footnoted. Continuer la lecture →

American Journal

France, Berlinale Encounters 2022

Documentary by Arnaud des Pallières

Synopsis

Think of America, I told myself. The cities, the homes, the people, the arrivals, the departures, the children coming and leaving, death, life, movement, speech. Think of the deep sigh inside of all things alive in America. Bend down. Pick up what others let go to waste from life. So the wind won’t blow it all away. Continuer la lecture →

The Plains

Australia, Rotterdam Tiger competition 2022, Bildrausch Film Basel Best Film

First docu-fiction by David Easteal

Synopsis

Every evening a man in his late 50s commutes home at the end of the working day in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. As the seasons pass in gentle rhythm we observe dramatic events of his life as well as mundane quotidian details, and learn more about the man, his inner conflicts and the relationships in his life—with his wife, his mother, deceased sister, and a younger co-worker whom he occasionally drives home. Within the microcosm of the car the film ultimately becomes a meditation on the passage of time, memory, work, and how love and the relationships in our life sustain us. Continuer la lecture →

Veins of the Amazon

Peru, DOK Leipzig competition 2021

Documentary by Álvaro Sarmiento, Diego Sarmiento, Terje Toomistu

Synopsis

In the Peruvian Amazon, the main means of transport for goods and people since the times of the rubber boom and the infamous adventures of Fitzcarraldo are the ferries navigating the majestic Amazon River. Continuer la lecture →

May God be with You

France, DOK Leipzig competition 2021- prize of the Interreligious jury, IDFA Best of Fests

First documentary by Cleo Cohen

Synopsis

I wonder if I have to choose between being French, Jewish or Arab. I visit my four grandparents, Jews from Algeria and Tunisia, who took up exile France in the 1960s. I want to discuss with them the meaning of these seemingly contradictory legacies they have left me. Unfortunately, my distress isn’t really contagious. Continuer la lecture →

Sons of Caïn

Albania, Venice Days 2021 – Special Screening

First docu-fiction by Keti Stamo

Synopsis

Sons of Cain is a film set in a small village in northern Albania. In this place time is suspended and the severe rules of an old code (KANUN) still dictate life and deathof the inhabitants. Continuer la lecture →

Zahorí

Switzerland, Argentina, Chile, France- Locarno Filmmakers of the Present 2021

First feature film by Marí Alessandrini

Synopsis

The Patagonian steppe is battered by a grey wind… Mora is 13 years old and intends to become a « gaucho ». She questions the school and asserts her individuality towards her parents, two environmentalists from Italian-speaking Switzerland whose dream of autonomy turns into a nightmare. Mora goes deep into the steppe to help the only friend she has, Nazareno, an old Mapuche who has lost his horse, Zahorí. Continuer la lecture →

Vedette

France- Cannes ACID selection 2021, IDFA international competition 2021

Documentary by Claudine Bories & Patrice Chagnard

Synopsis

Vedette is a cow. Vedette is a queen. In fact, she once was the queen of the queens of the Alpine pastures. But Vedette is old now, and in order to avoid her the humiliation of being dethroned by younger rivals, our neighbours asked us to take her with us for a whole summer. It was at this time that we discovered that every cow is unique.  Continuer la lecture →

The Perpetuel Leek

France- FID Marseille 2021- Special Mention French competition, High School Award & Special Mention GNCR 

Documentary by Zoe Chantre

Synopsis

The film starts on March 5th. Every year, on this very same day, an ant comes through my door and I observe her. To her springtime is coming, to me it’s my mother’s birthday. Continuer la lecture →

Garage, Engines & Men

France – Paris Cinema du Reel competition 2021

Documentary by Claire Simon

Synopsis

A pretty little village in Provence. Yes, I grew up there but it seems to me today that life has somewhat deserted it. Apart from here, at the garage, that everyone, meaning the men, comes to in order to get their cars looked after. What do they do? What do they talk about? A breakdown turns into a puzzle full of suspense. The garage becomes the place for male transmission. There are only men here, and they repair metal bodies. Continuer la lecture →