Sheffield DocFest 2022

After the End of the World

Nadim Mishlawi

<p>Set amongst the constantly changing city of Beirut, this rousing film explores the knowledge and history spaces can hold, and what happens when those spaces disappear.</p> <p>In this depiction of a modern dystopian metropolis, the filmmaker and friends try to make sense of Beirut in the 30 years since the civil war. Nadim Mishlawi journeys through its recent history via a rich archive &ndash; capturing a place caught &lsquo;between states of being and fading&rsquo;. The textures of the environment are further enhanced through the use of an evocative soundscape. Stories held within the fabric of buildings and their surroundings emerge, begging us to consider the way we live, how we can learn from the past and the importance of finding some harmony between the natural and man-made world.</p>

Delikado

Karl Malakunas

<p style="text-align:start"><span style="font-size:18px"><span style="font-family:Georgia,serif"><span style="color:black">Within the idyllic Philippine tourist destination of Palawan, forests and wildlife are being destroyed by illegal loggers and President Duterte&rsquo;s cronies. Despite extreme mortal danger, a small troop of environmental crusaders risk their lives to catch the culprits in the act and prevent the thieving and destruction of their homeland.</span></span></span></p>

Earth Swimmers

Hermione Spriggs

<p><strong>Earth Swimmers</strong>, Hermione Spriggs with Nigel Stock, 2021, 23 mins.&nbsp;</p> <p>Earth Swimmers attends to the tricks and techniques that mole catchers use to access the underground world of the mole. Using tools as portals into the mole&#39;s vibratory world, probes, feet, noses and rain-making instruments lead the viewer into alternative ways of sensing and knowing the earth.</p> <p>Made collaboratively by artist Hermione Spriggs and professional molecatcher Nigel Stock, with sound art by Jez riley French.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

Exposing Muybridge

Marc Shaffer

<p>Exposing Muybridge tells the story of trailblazing 19th-century photographer Eadweard Muybridge, who changed the world with his camera. Muybridge set the course for the development of cinema when he became the first photographer to capture something moving faster than the human eye can see--Leland Stanford&#39;s galloping horses. He also produced a sprawling and spectacular landscape catalog, ranging from Alaska to Central America, Utah to California. Artful, resilient, selfish, naive, eccentric, deceitful--Muybridge is a complicated, imperfect man and his story drips with ambition and success, loss and betrayal, near death experiences and even murder. &quot;The machine cannot lie,&quot; Stanford declared of Muybridge&#39;s pioneering motion images. But what about the photographer? More than a century after his death, Muybridge&#39;s photographs have never ceased to seduce cutting-edge artists, scientists, innovators, and general viewers alike.</p>

Fawley

Chu-Li Shewring Adam Gutch

<p>With a multitude of voices, both human and non-human, this sensorial gem explores the environs of the soon-to-be demolished Fawley Power Station.</p> <p>With its giant 650ft chimney, Fawley Power Station was a striking Brutalist structure built within an idyllic marshland on the edge of the New Forest.</p> <p>Using interviews, archive, and observation, this poetic film explores Fawley&rsquo;s history and impending demolition through playful and profound discussion of themes of &lsquo;power&rsquo;, nature, environment, and unintended consequences. It addresses the deep psychological role architecture plays in our surroundings and asks, &#39;What is lost when a building disappears?&#39;</p>

Fragile Memory

Igor Ivanko

<p>Igor Ivanko discovers piles of old negatives at the dacha belonging to his grandfather Leonid Burlaka, a successful cameraman in the heyday of the Soviet studios. Igor, himself a Ukrainian filmmaker, gets this private collection printed and attempts to restore the images digitally. They form a document of the life of Burlaka, who from 1964 to 1999 made 30 features for Odessa Film Studio, a major producer in the glory years of Soviet cinema.</p> <p>At the kitchen table, Ivanko puts questions to his now-retired grandfather: What was it like to make films in those days? How much freedom did he have, artistically and in his private life? In many cases, these and other questions remain unanswered, because Burlaka has Alzheimer&rsquo;s and his memory is deteriorating quickly.</p> <p>This prompts Ivanko to dive into the archives, search for his grandfather&rsquo;s former colleagues, and talk with his grandmother about the past. He hopes that this blend of warm confrontation, clips of Burlaka&rsquo;s work, and especially his now-decaying private archive will enable him, in the nick of time, to resurrect the personal stories from behind the Iron Curtain.</p>

Como ver a Noite (How to See the Night)

Maria Casas Castillo

<p>When a mysterious creature stalks the night, a group of rangers employ camera traps and radio frequencies to enter this animal&rsquo;s secret world.</p>

Ikebana

Rita Ferrando Lily Jue Sheng

<p>This tranquil and inventive cinematic essay, focussing on the Japanese art of flower arranging, regards plants as a language of expression, channelling the past, present and future.</p> <p>A flower blows in the wind and a gentle voice floats in: &ldquo;soil is a bodily gift of the dead to the living&rdquo;. This poetic film fabulously matches its precise and caring form to the topic it revolves around: Ikebana, the ancient Japanese art of flower arranging. What might at first appear to be a simple pastime, is revealed as a profound vehicle for exploring the ephemerality of existence, the arrangement of creative expression, and the many languages of plants.</p>

I Didn't See You There

Reid Davenport

<p>Filmmaker Reid Davenport, a past honoree of DOC NYC&rsquo;s 40 Under 40 showcase, creates a diaristic portrait of his life, at times from his wheelchair. Candid and unsentimental, Davenport captures quotidian moments of human connection and frustration on the streets of Oakland. When a circus tent goes up outside of his apartment, his reflections turn to the legacy of the freak show and PT Barnum. Davenport&rsquo;s viewpoint is one we rarely see on screen.</p>

Jane

Brett Morgen

<p>Using a trove of never-before-seen footage, the film tells the story of Jane&#39;s early explorations and research in Tanzania, focusing on her groundbreaking field work, her relationship with her cameraman and husband Hugo van Lawick, and the chimpanzees that were the subject of her study.</p>

La Jetée

Chris Marker

<p>La Jet&eacute;e, is a 1962 French science fiction featurette by Chris Marker. Constructed almost entirely from still photos, it tells the story of a post-nuclear war experiment in time travel. It is 28 minutes long and shot in black and white.</p>

Laboratory No.2

Edris Abdi Awara Omar

<p>Having worked in the autopsy training department for 14 years and now nearing retirement, Hama reflects on his own mortality.</p> <p>For the last 14 years of his life Hama has spent each day working with the same corpse in the Anatomy Department of Sulaymaniyah University, Kurdistan. Despite one being dead and one still living, Hama feels they are close friends. With precision and sensitivity, the film&rsquo;s observations of Hama&rsquo;s daily work unfurls into a poetic meditation on life, death, and what comes after.</p>

Letter from Eusapia

Andrés Cornejo Pinto

<p>Surprising links between borescopic imagery of an underground Cold War&ndash;era bunker and human laparoscopic footage lead this investigation of distance and death to hidden new depths, as a surgeon father in Ecuador and filmmaker son in Belgium connect during COVID-19. Empty cavities, inside the body and under the city, leave space to understand what matters most in life: time.</p>

Making-With

Gregory Herbert

<p>The fungus that first facilitated life on earth, 470 million years ago, again inspires new worlds in this collaborative film by artist Gregory Herbert and mycologist Professor Katie J. Field.</p> <p>Amidst the rubble of broken symbionts, traces of a resurgence appear, flora pushing through. Multi-species assemblages signalling, exchanging, building.</p> <p>The fungus that facilitated life on earth, again inspiring new worlds. As we spiral further into climate catastrophe, how do we break away from these capitalist cycles. How do we channel this energy into cycles of reciprocity?</p> <p>Made collaboratively by artist Gregory Herbert and Professor Katie J. Field from the Institute for Sustainable Food at the University of Sheffield</p>

Man on Earth

Amiel Courtin-Wilson

<p>In this visceral, intensely intimate film, 65-year-old Bob has decided to end his own life after four years of living with Parkinson&rsquo;s Disease.</p> <p>Bob has lived fearlessly &ndash; he snuck off to Woodstock at 15, hung out with Blondie and the Sex Pistols and ended up designing bathrooms for Elton John, Janet Jackson and Versace. But when we meet him, Bob is being cared for by one of his sons. Trapped in a world of pain and unrelenting movement, he has decided to utilise the Death with Dignity law. Courtin Wilson&rsquo;s camera stays unflinchingly close on the anger, sadness and joy of Bob&rsquo;s last seven days while he continues to rail against his disease and says goodbye to family and friends.</p>

Mountains and Heaven in Between

Dmytro Hreshko

<p>An intimate portrait of life in a remote mountain village, seen through the eyes of four paramedics, as the spectre of COVID-19 looms over it.</p> <p>Mariia, Tetiana, Anna and Svitlana are well-known figures in Kolochava, a small village that sits on the edge of the Carpathian Mountains, in the southwest of Ukraine. The paramedics operate the only ambulance in an area that has changed little in decades. The women bear witness to the cycle of life, from births to deaths, treating illnesses and infirmities. But the growing threat of the pandemic, filling local hospitals, poses a threat to outpatients and visitors. Through its focus on the paramedic&rsquo;s daily routine, Dmytro Hreshko&rsquo;s film presents a compelling portrait of this remote world.</p>

Nuisance Bear

Jack Weisman Gabriela Osio Vanden

<p>Churchill, Manitoba, is famous as an international destination for photographing polar bears. We&rsquo;ve seen the majestic images and classic wildlife series captured here - but what do these bears see of us? Through a shift in perspective &#39;Nuisance Bear&#39; reveals an obstacle course of tourist paparazzi and wildlife officers whom bears must navigate during their annual migration.</p>

The Oil Machine

Emma Davie

<p>Emma Davie&rsquo;s urgent documentary explores our complex relationship with the oil industry, set against the backdrop of the ongoing fight for North Sea reserves.</p> <p>From the discovery of huge oil fields off the coast of Scotland to their mass privatisation during the Thatcher era, The Oil Machine highlights how oil became the invisible engine driving UK economic and public policy. In the wake of COP26 in Glasgow, demand for climate action has become a key societal concern and the pressure on both oil companies and the government continues to mount. Bringing together a wide range of voices, from industry executives and economists to young activists, Davie offers a visceral and thought-provoking interrogation into how this insidious machine might be dismantled.</p>

The Stone Bridge

Artur-Pol Camprubí

<p>A woman witnesses the birth of a horse in the stable where she works &ndash; an image so strong that it continues to haunt her.</p> <p>On the edge of a town in Aragon, Spain a streetlamp flickers on, heralding the coming night and marking the limits of the settlement. In a stable a foal struggles to free itself from the amniotic sac. Angelica, a Romanian woman living in the village witnesses the birth. The little creature&rsquo;s struggle to free itself, its condition of ghostly and borderline existence, pierce her to the extent that she will be unable to shake off the image. Taking its title from an old Romanian song, this film is an enchanted work of beauty, revelling in the liminal space it creates.</p>

The Territory

Alex Pritz

<p>A young indigenous leader and his environmental team fight against farmers involved in the wholescale destruction of vast swathes of the Amazonian rainforest.</p> <p>Alex Pritz&rsquo;s film focuses on the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous Surveillance Team as they set about challenging the way landowners are destroying environmentally rich areas for profit. It draws on intimate access to both the Indigenous community and the opposing farmers network, to track the enormous changes that have taken place in Amazon region over the last three years. The escalation of activity by the farmers forces Bitate and Neidinha, a young Indigenous leader and his mentor, to find new ways to protect the rainforest from a rapacious industry whose support reaches all the way to Brazil&rsquo;s President Jair Bolsonaro.</p>

The Visible Spectrum

Sarah Seené Maxime Corbeil-Perron

<p>The&nbsp;visible&nbsp;spectrum&nbsp;is a portrait of five people who survived the impact of the lightning,&nbsp;this &nbsp;documentary elaborates a sensible&nbsp;reflection about life when it has brushed&nbsp;so suddenly against death.</p>

When The Mountain Rumbles (El día que volaron la montaña)

Alba Bresolí Aliberch

<p>The quiet lives of three ageing brothers, the last inhabitants of a once vibrant Spanish village, are about to change thanks to the construction of a new motorway.</p> <p>The Guallar brothers are the only inhabitants left in the crumbling village of Esc&oacute;, in Northern Spain. In 1959, the village was expropriated under Franco&#39;s regime and the residents were forced to leave. The Guallar family refused, and now, with their parents long gone, the three ageing brothers live alone in the same family house, grazing their sheep among the ruins.<br /> <br /> Through stunning cinematography and sensitive interactions, we join the brothers as their quiet lives are about to radically change. A motorway construction begins that will cut directly through their village. After a lifetime in isolation, where will they go next?</p>

Geamăna

Matthäus Wörle

<p>Geamăna village, once home to 1000 people, lies buried beneath a copper mine&rsquo;s toxic waste. Only the church spire rises from the poisoned lake.</p> <p>Valeria lives alone with her dog and an ageing cow in what once was the village of Geamăna. Her life seems tranquil, but just beyond her garden gate lies a rising lake of industrial sludge that will eventually bury her house.</p> <p>In the 1970s the government of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu decided to open a copper mine above the village, and ever since the mine&rsquo;s toxic runoff has been filling the valley. Powerless to stop it, Valeria must begin to say goodbye to the land she grew up on.</p>

Gondwana

Riccardo Giacconi

<p>A primal scream; is it that of the blue men, that of a monstrous creature, or perhaps that of a changing territory? An hour away from Venice, in the province of Pordenone, lives the only Tuareg community in Italy. Although they are no longer nomadic, they maintain a singular relationship with their origins and the land, passed down and preserved through stories and music in the course of journeys and many movements.</p>

Dark Days

Marc Singer

<p>First time filmmaker Marc Singer creates a powerful, visually striking account of a large homeless community leaving beneath the streets of New York.</p> <p>The &lsquo;Freedom Tunnel&rsquo;, a disused Amtrak rail line that stretches from Penn Station to Harlem, had become refuge to New York&rsquo;s homeless. Singer first became aware of it when he saw someone emerge from a manhole in Manhattan. He ventured into this world, handing out video cameras for people to record their lives. The result, shot in black and white and with music by DJ Shadow, is a profoundly affecting experience.</p> <p>&lsquo;The filmmaker was so invested in the characters and the subject; the homeless people became the crew, and the filmmaker became homeless. The story and the passion that filmmaker invested in it really moved me.&rsquo; &ndash; AK</p>

Disarmed

Roel Wouters Alexandra Barancova Jae Perris Luna Maurer

<p>A playful virtual reality piece whose protagonists are your own arms: first in control, then not, illustrate the commodification of movement.</p> <p>Your arms at first don&#39;t complain. Many have had it tougher, they feel, condemned to a life of heavy lifting.&nbsp;&lsquo;Life is so repetitive,&#39; they sigh. &lsquo;If only we could make copies, that could act on our own behalf&rsquo;. Your arms multiply, start fooling around &lsquo;in flawless synchrony&rsquo;, until the day comes that they realise they miss touch. Then comes the unexpected... This playful work highlights the importance of movement: its intimacy as well as its capacity to carry our self-expression and identity. And demonstrates how the digitalising of movement brings about the possibility of exploitation.</p>

Eat Your Catfish

Adam Isenberg Noah Amir Arjomand Senem Tüzen

<p>This uncompromising portrait of co-director Noah Amir Arjomand&rsquo;s mother, who has ALS, shows a woman who has chosen to live a challenging life on her terms.</p> <p>The film&rsquo;s title is a line spoken by Julia Roberts in&nbsp;<em>August: Osage County</em>. For Kathryn Arjomand, Roberts&rsquo; overripe performance is both example and inspiration for her decision to behave how she wants. Having lived with the Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig&rsquo;s Disease, for years, she decides to embrace the life she has left in her own way. It&rsquo;s a decision that proves difficult for Noah and his father, Kathryn&rsquo;s husband Saeed. The film frequently adopts Kathryn&rsquo;s perspective &ndash; she is mainly present through a speech-generating device &ndash; an approach adds immeasurably to the film&rsquo;s intimacy, and accentuates Kathryn&rsquo;s wit, frustrations and affection towards her family.</p>

Dust & Metal (CÁT BỤI & KIM LOẠI)

Esther Johnson

<p>Esther Johnson&rsquo;s film brings together a trove of archive and contemporary footage for a thrilling, unorthodox portrait of Vietnam, screened with live music composed by Xo Xinh.&nbsp;</p> <p>Between tourist promotions and Hollywood films lies another Vietnam, whose stunning landscape has been evocatively captured from the country&rsquo;s most accessible form of transport: the motorbike. Like her ground-breaking 2016 work&nbsp;<em>Asunder</em>, Johnson&rsquo;s new film employs old and new footage in inventive ways to challenge preconceived stereotypes. It also explores the role of the motorbike &ndash; often the only suitable mode of transport for navigating Vietnam&rsquo;s vast arterial system of tiny country roads &ndash; within the country&rsquo;s history and culture.</p> <p>Accompanying Johnson&rsquo;s evocative montage is Xo Xinh&rsquo;s electronic score, performed live, conveying in equal measure the film&rsquo;s sense of wonder.</p>

Electric Malady

Marie Lidén

<p>From within a cocoon of layered blankets, William copes with a life consumed by electrosensitivity, in this touching experiential portrait of isolation and survival.</p> <p>Living alone in nature, accompanied by his music collection and candles, William sleeps inside a makeshift contraption that protects him from the effects of electricity. Visual artist Marie Lid&eacute;ns&rsquo; mother suffered the same condition, as do a significant proportion of the world&rsquo;s population, according to the WHO. William never leaves the house, and although his parents and the local priest come to visit, he lives a painfully lonely existence. Through a tactile language and Marie&rsquo;s sensitive connection with William,&nbsp;<em>Electric Malady</em>&nbsp;is a poignant reflection on isolation, faith and societies&rsquo; relationship to technology, explored through light, sound, memory and nature.</p>

You are on Indian Land

Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell Mort Ransen

<p>A group of Native Americans near the Canadian border attempt to blockade a road that runs through their land, resulting in a clash with Canadian police.</p> <p>You Are on Indian Land is a 1969 documentary film directed by Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell about the 1969 Akwesasne border crossing dispute and the confrontation between police and Mohawk of the St. Regis Reservation on a bridge between Canada and the United States, which stands on Mohawk land near Cornwall, Ontario.</p> <p>By blocking traffic from the bridge, the Mohawk sought to call attention to their grievance that they were prohibited by Canadian authorities from duty-free passage of personal purchases across the border. They claimed this right as part of their right of free passage across the border, as established by the 1794 Jay Treaty between Great Britain and the United States after the latter gained independence in the American Revolutionary War.[2] The film portrayed the rising activism of the Mohawk and demands for self-determination, which has continued.</p>

The Business of Birth Control

Abby Epstein

<p>Once seen as the drug that revolutionised women&rsquo;s emancipation, the politics of hormonal birth control has a more troubling history, as this film details.</p> <p>The appearance of &lsquo;the pill&rsquo; offered the freedom of choice to women and played a key role in the wider feminist movement. But the passing decades have witnessed more detailed examination of the drug&rsquo;s effects. Abby Epstein&rsquo;s film grapples with its history, from the racist legacy of hormonal contraception and its ongoing weaponization against communities of colour, to the potentially damaging effects on women&rsquo;s bodies. Weaving together the stories of bereaved parents, body literacy activists and femtech innovators, the film highlights a new generation of women seeking holistic and ecological alternatives, while redefining the meaning of reproductive justice.</p>

The Family Statement

Grace Harper Kate Stonehill

<p>The extremely private Sackler family, maker of Oxycontin, are put on the hot seat for their impact in the opioid crisis.&nbsp;</p>

The Dreamlife of Georgie Stone

Maya Newell

<p>Spanning 19 years in the life of transgender teen Georgie Stone. We follow her as she affirms her gender, finds her voice and fights to change Australia&#39;s unjust laws.</p> <p>Georgie Stone is a trans actress best known for her role in the Australian soap&nbsp;<em>Neighbours</em>. Filmed over 19 years, in close collaboration with Georgie and her family, this landmark work follows Georgie from her early childhood legal battles with the Australian state to the present day as she fights on behalf of other trans teens. Extensive family archives, elliptical editing, and astoundingly intimate access show the pain experienced by trans kids navigating state bureaucracy, but also the power of collective action.</p>

Dia da boa notícia (The Good News Day)

Lucas Zacarias João Paulo Vicente

<p>A Brazilian news website planned to post only positive articles for an entire day as an advertising campaign. That day was September 11th, 2001.</p> <p>In 2001, Brazilian news website IG decided to set up an advertising campaign called The Good News Day. For 24 hours non-stop there would be only and exclusively feel-good articles on the front page, against the will and recommendation of most of the website&rsquo;s journalists. Planned in advance, The Good News Day was arranged to take place on September 11th, 2001.<br /> <br /> Alongside the sensational irony of this decision, the film raises vital questions about how broadcasters not only frame what is considered newsworthy, but also inadvertently create new realities.</p>

The Great Abandonment

Shirley Abraham Amit Madheshiya

<p>Trapped without work, wages or food and facing the world&rsquo;s strictest lockdown, 140 million migrant labourers begin to leave Mumbai, the city they toiled to build.</p> <p>As Coronavirus hit India, with just four hours&rsquo; notice, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces a complete lockdown for over a billion people. In Mumbai, the city worst hit by Covid, the scenes on the streets reveal the deep structural inequalities the pandemic has thrown open. 140 million migrant labourers, stuck without work or food, begin leaving for their homes in faraway villages, sleeping on pavements or under the flyovers they once laboured to build. Their only hope is each other.<br /> <br /> Made by renowned documentarians Shirley Abraham and Amit Madheshiya,&nbsp;<em>The Great Abandonment</em>&nbsp;feels historically and culturally specific, but also tragically timeless in its sensitive portrayal of the displacement of desperate people.</p>

The Sound Voice Project

Hannah Conway

<p>A unique performance installation exploring powerful stories of voice loss and identity that features immersive, surround-sound and audio-visual settings.</p> <p>Working internationally with people with lived experience of voice loss, interdisciplinary professionals, arts venues, festivals and hospitals, The Sound Voice Project aims to expand our understanding of the value of the human voice. What is a voice and what happens when it is gone?</p> <p>Composer Hannah Conway and writer Hazel Gould collaborated with video designer Luke Halls and sound designer David Sheppard to set three operatic movements from The Sound Voice Project:Paul,&nbsp;I Left My Voice Behind, and&nbsp;Tanja.</p> <p>Each is a deeply personal and distinct experience. By turns uplifting and heart-rending, the works together celebrate the beauty and intrinsic value of the human voice whilst exploring the digital and synthetic.</p>

The Rightful (Quem de direito)

Ana Galizia

<p>For decades the landless workers of Guapia&ccedil;u, Brazil have been fighting for their right to farm the land. Now they must fight a dam project that threatens to flood their entire community.</p> <p>The Guapia&ccedil;u valley in Brazil has had a tumultuous history - the scene of land rights struggles, mass worker&rsquo;s movements, state violence, and death squads during the military dictatorship. The territory is marked with the resistance of residents.</p> <p>After decades of struggle a new adversary has emerged, a planned dam project that threatens the whole valley. Summoning the historical fights for land through archives, activist testimonies, and government documents, this powerful film connects the past with the present in an ongoing struggle for justice.</p>

The Unofficial Countryside

Nick Jordan Jacob Cartwright

<p>On the outskirts of Manchester, between the urban and the rural we find liminal spaces: forgotten, ignored and passed-by, but teaming with abundant life.</p> <p>A collaboration between Manchester-based visual artists Nick Jordan and Jacob Cartwright,&nbsp;<em>The Unofficial Countryside</em>&nbsp;is an observational portrait of the edgelands that exist between the urban and the rural. Titled after naturalist Richard Mabey&rsquo;s seminal book, the film documents the intrinsic characteristics of these places, where nature thrives on the fringes of the city. Filmed in a patchwork of urban woodland, ramshackle smallholdings, abandoned industrial sites, utility substations, scrapyards, open fields and informal riverside beaches, the documentary includes a voiceover drawn from Marion Shoard&rsquo;s essay &lsquo;Edgelands of Promise&rsquo;, and captures the rich biodiversity of both native and introduced species, in a landscape shaped by the activities and imprints of people passing through.</p>

These are My People...

Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell Willie Dunn Barbara Wilson Roy Daniels

<p>Released in 1969,&nbsp;<em>These Are My People&hellip;</em>&nbsp;was the first NFB film made entirely by an Indigenous crew. It was co-directed by Roy Daniels, Willie Dunn, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell and Barbara Wilson&mdash;members of the Indian Film Crew (IFC), an all-Indigenous unit established in 1968 as part of Challenge for Change, a broader organizational initiative to use media to effect social change. One of the first Canadian documentaries to foreground an Indigenous perspective on the history of Indigenous&ndash;settler relations, it features Standing Arrow and Tom Porter, from the Kanien&rsquo;k&eacute;haka (Mohawk) community of Akwesasne, who discuss longhouse religion, culture, government and the impacts of settler arrival on their way of life.</p>

TR333

April Lin 林森

<p>In collaboration with ecologist Dr. Nalini Nadkarni, artist-filmmaker April Lin 林森 presents &lsquo;TR333&rsquo;, a speculative documentary which imagines a new species of tree based on scientific literature on plants and climate hardiness. Their hybrid forms and body parts a patchwork amalgamation of different tree types, this tree is a climate adaptative response, a lifeform born out of resilience and hope. As the spirit inhabiting the tree emerges to converse with the viewer, they share with us their experiences of ecocidal generational trauma, urging us to reflect around the ways all the beings on the planet are deeply interlinked, and to honour our collective responsibility towards one another. Using a blend of 3D animation, found footage, and a musical score based on data sonification, &lsquo;TR333&rsquo; uses the speculative to recast the ecological crisis, asking &lsquo;Why is this important?&rsquo; from a multispecies and affective gaze.</p>

Vai e Vem (Swing and Sway)

Fernanda Pessoa Chica Barbosa

<p>Two filmmakers &ndash; one in Brazil, the other in the US &ndash; send each other video letters, each inspired by a woman experimental filmmaker, over the course of one year.</p> <p>Chica and Fernanda conduct an interesting cinematic experiment. From Brazil to the US, where Chica has recently arrived as a migrant, they exchange video letters and they have one rule: each letter will be inspired formally and thematically by the work of a different female experimental filmmaker. As the year progresses, they address elections in both countries, personal fears, the experience of migration and the idea of motherhood. The inherent violence of the Trump and Bolsonaro administrations is felt through the letters, but also the presence and inspiration of the women who surround and inspire them.</p>

Ravi and Emma

Kylie Boltin Ella Rubeli

<p>A world-first webdoc experience that celebrates diversity and inclusiveness through humour and a unique take on love.</p> <p>When art student Emma Anderson falls in love with designer Ravi Vasavan, she is quickly put to the test. Ravi, who was born Deaf, takes Emma to a party where she is the only hearing guest. A fish-out-of-water for the first time, Emma must decide whether she is willing to fully commit to Deaf culture and her new relationship. Told in three acts (each a 2-minute live-action video), the user can switch perspective at any time, and interact with the story by signing 14 Southern Dialect Auslan signs. These interactions are made possible using artificial intelligence and gesture recognition technology.</p>

Recharge

Dries Depoorter

<p>An interactive installation where your phone will only charge when your eyes are closed. Charge your phone while charging yourself.</p> <p>Like the phones that have become an essential part of our lives, we all need a recharge at some point. This work asks you to do both at once. Plug your phone into the charging station and make yourself comfortable. Using machine learning technologies&nbsp;<em>Recharge</em>&nbsp;will detect if your eyes are open or not. Open &ndash; no charge. Closed &ndash; charge. In an age when our devices demand so much of our attention, here&rsquo;s an opportunity to zone out while your phone powers up.</p>

Out of Body Experience

Photinus Studio

<p>Ukrainian artist collective Photinus Studio created an online performance where all participants become one malleable body and documented it in video.</p> <p>To maintain contact with one another and continue practicing their art through an extended period of self-isolation, the participants of Photinus Studio devised a concept that allowed collaboration, with everyone becoming a part of a shared body/collective character that can take any form, from anthropomorphic to informational, in accordance with the environment and the goals; the goal being the journey of the protagonist &ndash; a collective character &ndash; to the sea. By losing our subjectivity, we take a step towards creating a shared group structure which becomes a driver of change &ndash; spatial, social and cultural.</p>

New Pigs on the Block

Jimmy Kets

<p>Three pigs live a seemingly care-free life as part of an urban community project, unaware of what lies ahead.</p> <p>Neighbours bring their leftovers, volunteers feed and clean them, and children come to pet them. When they&rsquo;re alone, the pigs enjoy a playful, muddy life &ndash; scratching, wriggling and eating together. However, the outside world becomes a continual disruption. Director Jimmy Kets brings a tenderness and humour to the pigs&rsquo; existence, whilst highlighting their lack of agency in their relationship with humans.</p>

Midwives

Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing

<p>Against the backdrop of the Myanmar conflict, midwives Hla and Nyo Nyo&#39;s relationship is both caring and playful, bridging the divide between Buddhists and Muslims.</p> <p>Hla and Nyo Nyo usher in new life amidst one of the world&#39;s longest running conflicts. Hla is the sharp-tongued but warm Buddhist owner of a makeshift medical clinic in Rakhine State. Nyo Nyo is from the Muslim minority Rohingya community and a savvy apprentice midwife for Hla. Both dream of a better life for the women of their community. Filmed over five years, Snow Hnin Ei Hlaing&rsquo;s feature directorial debut is a subtle and beguiling portrait of two lives dedicated to the wellbeing of others in a society where their greatest risk is to be together.</p>

Monoliths

Lucy Hammond

<p>An exploration of landscapes as radical spaces for expression and reflection, presenting the English landscape in VR through the eyes of three northern women.</p> <p>Three women. Three voices. A striking landscape. This virtual reality experience by Pilot Theatre, in collaboration with One to One Development Trust, combines the soundscapes of real locations in the north of England with three women&rsquo;s singular stories. What does it mean to come from this place? To live in it? To belong to it? Each of these women&rsquo;s voices provide different perspectives. They are monoliths. Standing stones. Powerful, elemental and influential forces.</p>

My Paper Life

Vida Dena

<p>An Iranian filmmaker befriends a Syrian family in Brussels and they communicate past traumas and future dreams through drawings.</p> <p>Artist and filmmaker Vida Dena&rsquo;s subtle and intimate film focuses on the two eldest daughters of a Syrian refugee family living in precarious conditions in Brussels. Within the pink walls of their temporary home, Hala and Rima tenderly co-create a poignant and playful world drawn from a past that they knew and a future they imagine. Remembering their old home, and the journey from it, while dreaming of future studies and marriage, their colourful drawings take flight and come to life. This is a nuanced and involving sketch of lives unfolding between two realities.</p>