2023
SCREENING SCHEDULE
OFF ON Selection: Streaming 6-20 July 2023
As of 2023, our festival adds the 'OFF ON' selection to the line-up. This special section is available for streaming only for a duration of 2 weeks in July 2023 (exact dates to be confirmed). Streaming on Whush.com.
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NARRATIVE FILMS
DOCUMENTARY FILMS
EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
NARRATIVE FILMS
Troubled Minds (Latvia) by Raitis Abele, Lauris Abele
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Synopsis: Brothers Robert and Martin are a month away from their biggest contemporary art exhibition yet. To get creative juices flowing, Martin locks himself in a dark black 2 x 2-meter cube. Once out, his focus shifts and he decides to save the environment by finding Soviet Military chemical waste that was dropped in the Baltic Sea in the 90s. But through a series of strange ideas and sleepless nights, both brothers lose control over their artwork and their brotherhood. Martins’ behavior at an alarming rate has become extravagant and tensions between the brothers escalate to a troubled state. To seek tranquility Martin escapes to the very edge of the world – Northern Saami Lapland. Robert is forced to take a trip to find his older brother, who suffers from bipolar disorder. Running time: 01:46:00.
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Selections/awards: Tallinn Black Nights FF, Panorama of European Cinema, ShorTS IFF Trieste, Nòt Film Fest (Best Feature, Best Director - Special Mention).
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Dream Before Sunrise (China) by Guan Junjing
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Synopsis: In the midst of the pandemic, the mother and the daughter, laden with pressure and anxiety, embark on a journey with reality and illusion. Their misunderstandings increase on their way, and the daughter endures sufferings over and over. After a pelting rain, they have finally reconciled their differences, walking into the dawn together with the phantom of the father's long sleeve puppetry dance. Running time: 00:23:00.
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Unpoetic Poems (Germany) by Mu Wang
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Synopsis: A story about the Asian identity in Europe. Ming was going to leave Stuttgart. On a gloomy day she ran into Sandy, who just began her life as a dancer in this city with all her hope and excitement. The two girls found a strong mirroring in each other.The encounter inspired Ming continue to write her poems. Between the fantasy and actuality, they created poetry with their own languages. Running time: 00:17:46.
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These Colours Don't Run (Indonesia) by Difizckal Satriatama
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Synopsis: After coming home beaten and bruised, Joni is given an ultimatum by his father to retaliate against his bullies. When Joni got back empty-handed, his father taught him how to fight. Will Joni break the cycle of violence passed on from generations before him? Or will he be another cog in the machine? Running time: 00:14:55.
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Selections/awards: New York Shorts IFF, Jogja-NETPAC Asian FF, 100% Manusia Human Rights FF, and more.
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Feast of a Dying Man (Iceland) by Hjördís Jóhannsdóttir
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Synopsis: A late night drunken encounter between a dying man, his wife and his mistress. Running time: 00:13:37.
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Selections/awards: London New Wave FF, LA Independent Women Film Awards, Cannes Independent FF, San Francisco Indie Short Festival, Hollywood International Golden Age Festival (Best Student Dilm), and more.
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No New Wave (Singapore) by Ziwei Yao
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Synopsis: In the metropolitan filled with expired dreams, Ginny tries to find her path via different ways of life, but none of them deliver her to a pier of desirable future. Gone are the days where being yourself is being special, she is nothing but a tiny grain engulfed by waves washing up the shore. Running time: 02:14:41.
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Selections/awards: Sydney World FF, Brussels Independent FF.
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DOCUMENTARY FILMS
Go Through The Dark (China) by Yunhong Pu
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Synopsis: Guanglin is a blind boy in China who displays great skill at the ancient board game called Go, in which two players place black and white pieces on a grid in an attempt to dominate their opponent. Raised by a single father with limited means, Guanglin faces deep societal prejudice against the blind. Running time: 01:18:00.
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Selections/awards: DOC NYC, Big Sky Documentary FF, Annual WorldFest-Houston IFF, Thin Line Fest (Family Portrait Award), Middlebury New Filmmakers Festival.
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Space Walk (China) by Liu Zhiquan
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Synopsis: In the silence of the epidemic control, there was still a continuous sound of the flute, which made people dizzy and dizzy. In this special journey, they put on their space suits and walked in the space like field. Running time: 00:30:00.
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Selections/awards: Beijing IFF, Shanghai International Short Film Week, Florence FF, Space International Short FF, and more.
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Waiting for the Spring Breeze to Wake up (China) by Xiaolong Zhu
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Synopsis: This documentary records a confused, ordinary, contradictory and hopeful life of a small town family around the Spring Festival in 2022, because a new life is coming. Running time: 00:27:41.
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The Lovers under the Bridge (Taiwan) by Chia-Hui Lee
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Synopsis: This documentary short is about the love story between two residents that live under the bridge. Hong and Mei met at Wanli Homeless Shelter and soon fell in love. After they got kicked out, Hong and Mei moved to Provincial Highway 65, and together they started a challenging life under the bridge. Running time: 00:17:14.
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Armored Saint - A Band of Brothers (UK) by Russell Cherrington
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Synopsis: This is the story of Armored Saint, a band of brothers that created their own unique sound and image in the 1980's Los Angeles rock and metal scene. Running time: 02:24:00.
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Selections/awards: Doc.London, Doc.Sydney, New Jersey Independent FF.
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EXPERIMENTAL FILMS
The Joy of a Home (Portugal) by Ana Isabel Martins
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Synopsis: My grandparents are an elderly couple who have lived together for 50 years. Their home is the place where they spend more time together, where they share frustrations and their memories. Running time: 00:20:00.
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Selections/awards: Athens International Digital FF, Pravo Ljudski FF, International Short FF Peru, Madurai FF, Ljubljana International Short FF, and more.
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Body Rhapsody (Australia) by Yangming Liu
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Synopsis: This short film will visually materialize women’s pleasant sensation and break people’s desire to be ashamed of expression. With the collection of female fantastic imaginations and sounds, to explain the beauty of the female body. So this short film wants to encourage women should be boldly recognize their bodies and actively enjoy their own. Running time: 00:14:49.
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The Endless (USA) by Yvette Granata
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Synopsis: A speculative sensory ethnography film generated from AI models in the act of interpreting humans and vice versa. We become the digital fly-on-the-wall exploring a new, strange digital culture. Running time: 00:11:16.
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Selections/awards: Beijing International Short FF, Denver Underground FF.
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RE-MEMBERING: Meditation on a Triptych (Sweden) by Amra Heco
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Synopsis: A chance encounter with discovered video footage from 1983 of the Bosnian town Tesanj triggers unexpected emotions as the filmmaker recognizes her grandfather who died in the 90's during the war. This opens old wounds, but also creates an opportunities for healing. The film is a meditation that brings into question dominating visual narratives through the eyes of three characters whose destinies and fates merge in unexpected ways through the thin veil of digital celluloid. Running time: 00:10:15.
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Selections/awards: Sarajevo FF, Golden Horse IFF (Best Documentary Short), Gothenburg FF, Doc.Boston (Best Experimental Documentary), and more.
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Ride (Australia) by Jeno Kim
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Synopsis: A woman and a driver share a car ride. Whilst sharing the liminal space, the mysterious pair discover they may be more connected to each other than they realise. Running time: 00:07:10.
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Poise (Portugal) by Luís Soares
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Synopsis: A sad and restrained man lying on the bed in his empty room. Hesitates, ponder hypotheses in a cycle without deciding, stuck. In exhaustion all anguish equals. Another man is sitting at the window: he looks at him and to the street. Characters in broken situations. The key positions, the suspended sequences, are shown. The man almost decides - and they almost return, inside and out, to them and to the city, time and movement. Infinite dawn. Running time: 00:07:00.
Selections/awards: Slamdance FF, Indielisboa, Brussels Independent FF, Curta Cinema Brazil, Animac (Winner Audience Award), and more.
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The Sound of Nowhere (Brazil) by Thomas Webber
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Synopsis: A romance shot in São Paulo that revolves about the anguish, beauty and chaos of falling in love in a metropolis. It is an audiovisual experiment designed to be consumed in the most current way: on our cell phones. Running time: 00:07:00.
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Waiting for Spring; Persephone and the Pomegranate (Canada) by Nicole Dextras
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Synopsis: Experimental art video that looks at the environmental impact of climate change. This film celebrates one person’s ingenuity and adaptability in a desolate dystopian word. It is the first in an upcoming trilogy, which will in turn examine desertification and floods. Waiting for Spring was conceived and directed by environmental artist Nicole Dextras and it features the latest design from her Weedrobes series. Known for creating garments out of living plant materials, Dextras dresses her lead character in a a jacket made from Pomegranate peels, a skirt woven with Dates and boots fashioned out of Fruit Leather. The production design plays off of the conventional sci-fi genre with an earthy Steampunk look, where chairs are covered in moss and respirator masks are filled with herbs. Running time: 00:06:09.
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Where my friend made a painting (Portugal) by Pedro Florêncio
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Synopsis: Short and simple story: My friend made a painting from a photograph about a manifestation against the economic crisis and I made a film from that painting. Between these two objects lies a path, which began in a casual photograph and ended in a poorly-lit garage. "Where My Friend Made a Painting" is, in order of importance, a short film about a place, a friend, a creative act, a painting and the silence of one manifestation. Running time: 00:05:40.
Selections/awards: Naoussa IFF.
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Dreaming in Aspect Ratio (USA) by Gwendolyn Audrey Foster
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Synopsis: A hand-made diary film and experiment in disrupted stereoscopy; an adopted "found" home movie. A playful queer self-portrait in found dream memories. An experimental documentary and Surrealist détournement,Bright colors collaged with black and white imagery of the joy of female friendships evoke dreaming and reverie; a lost queer childhood regained through the magic of cinema, disrupting typical self-portraiture and auto-ethnography. Running time: 00:02:28.
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Selections/awards: Rencontres Internationales Paris / Berlin, Thomas Edison Black Maria FF, Revelation Perth IFF, NewFilmmakers at Anthology Film Archives NY, AltFF Alternative FF Toronto, LA Underground Film Forum, Berlin Indie FF, Austin Arthouse FF , and more.
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