IndieLisboa 2019 international competition is closed. The section aims to screen the first, second and third films never before shown publicly in Portugal will feature a selection of 32 films that are a showcase for new names, ideas and artistic universes.
It’s worth highlighting the contamination of the international competition for short films with video game aesthetics, in a selection of films that bring the graphics, languages and habits of the gamer community to the big screen. Whether it is the question of perspective and the look of one scene in Fest (Nikita Diakur); or we see ourselves in a post-apocalyptic New York in Operation Jane Walk (Robin Klengel and Leonhard Müllner); or the discovery of a new form of online harassment that has spread in online streaming, in Swatted (Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis).
And as in previous edition, the competition is also marked with some returns. Such as Emmanuel Marre (best fiction short film in 2017 with Le film de l’été), with D’un château l’autre, a documentary about a young voter, undecided between Macron and Le Pen, which won the Golden Leopard in 2018; and Lawrence Abu Hamdan (Rubber Coated Steel, IndieLisboa 2017), who continues his investigation into the use of sound in a judicial context. In Walled Unwalled, a film where the walls serve as a pretext to discuss limits (of sound) between what is private and what is public. And it’s also worth mentioning Sara Fgaier (editor, among others, of Pietro Marcello’s La bocca del lupo, IndieLisboa 2010), who works with archive images in The Years, to tell the story of a woman and her decades by the sea of Sardinia.
International Short Film Competition
Je sors acheter des cigarettes, by Osman Cerfon
In Je sors acheter des cigarettes, 12 year old Jonathan lives with his mother and sister and also with a buch of monkey-men hiding in closets and the washing machine.
Swatted, by Ismaël Joffroy Chandoutis
Swatting is a form of online harassment in which a player is reported to the police while live streaming so that their house is invaded and he is arrested, for the whole Internet to see. Swatted is an inventive documentary consisting of several YouTube videos and testimonies of victims of this phenomenon.
Fest, by Nikita Diakur
A neighborhood party, music, drones, food and ice cream. And then, acrobatics. Fest is an animated simulation based on YouTube videos.
Turbine, Alex Boya
In Turbine, the obsession with work is clear: an airplane pilot has a turbine face and falls in love with a fan. What drastic measures will your wife take to get you back?
Tombent les heures, by Blanca Camell Gali
A girl was about to leave but then the bus was gone and she stayed. In Tombent les heures, we wander around the city and get to know to people, love is spoken and chaabbi music is heard with a glass in hand, a smile on our face and a suitcase in the corner of the room.
Foyers, by Paul Heintz
Paul Heintz (Non-contractuel, IndieLisboa 2016) returns to the festival with a trip to the universe of a pyromaniac, who tells us about his dreams and desires and how these are linked by the subconscious to his fascination with fire.
Huile sur vent, by Alejandro Perez
On an island in southern Spain, a lonely man collects olives from a landscape made of water and dry twigs. Huile sur vent makes us slide through the languid autumn in picturesque reflections.
Take Me Please, by Olivér Hegyi
The relationship is over, she’s got another person and he can not stop crying. Get me out of here! Take Me Please is a road movie through the surreal universe of depression, among bathroom clairvoyants and alien voyeurs.
Guaxuma, by Nara Normande
The sea breeze brings back memories and Brazilian director Nara Normande remembers her best friend from childhood, Tayra. Guaxuma is a sweet animated collection of when the whole world was made of sand and friendship.
The Flood is Coming, by Gabriel Böhmer
The psychotic animation by Gabriel Böhmer (Beetle Trouble, IndieLisboa 2018) returns to IndieLisboa with a premonition, The Flood is Coming: a hermit prepares for a catastrophe but his noisy eye only worsens his anxiety.
Les idées s’améliorent, by Léo Richard
A basement hides a bunch of people working in front of their computers. Their job? To identify human emotions in order to teach an artificial intelligence to read faces. But there is an expression that no one can decode.
Acid Rain, by Tomek Popakul
A young woman gets hitchhiked by a man of the weird but fun type. The conversion keeps flowing and all of a sudden they are both freaking out on an acid trip in Acid Rain. New worlds are discovered, some more beautiful than others.
Operation Jane Walk, by Robin Klengel Leonhard Müllner
‘Tom Clancy’s: The Division’ is a video game in which New York City has been recreated in detail. With a gun in our hands, we are guided by a post-apocalyptic city and the history of its buildings in Operation Jane Walk.
D’un chateau l’autre, by Emmanuel Marre
Emmanuel Marre returns to IndieLisboa with D’un chateau l’autre, an intimate documentary about a young voter, undecided between Macron and Le Pen. The film won the Golden Leopard in 2018.
Princesa Morta de Jacuí, by Marcela Bordin Island
In the Central Depression, the sun never ceases to shine. It was there that the archaeologist Margot Moreira was born and it is there that she returns, in order to cure her ‘Disability Syndrome’, thus rewriting History. Princesa Morta de Jacuí is an anachronistic sci-fi film about the astonishment of progress.
Past Perfect, by Jorge Jácome
Jorge Jácome (Flores, A Guest + A Host = A Ghost and Plutão) leads us, through a geography of melancholy, into a series of free associations that cross several centuries of History. Past Perfect finally asks the questions: where is the place for sadness?
Suc Syndria, by Irene Moray
A couple spends their summer holidays with friends, but a past trauma haunts their well-being. In Suc Syndria, tears and watermelon juice heal wounds and redefine sexualities.
Walled Unwalled, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan
After the extraordinary Rubber Coated Steel (IndieLisboa 2017), Abu Hamdan continues his investigation into the use of sound in a judicial context. Walled Unwalled is a performative documentary about the (sound) boundaries between the private and the public.
I Got My Things And Left, by Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo
A group of young people in Kigali (capital of Rwanda) meet for the wake of a mutual friend: he died young, but fought against conformism. I Got My Things And Left explored the vivid memories that look into the future.
Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous, by Mélanie Charbonneau
A woman dressed as a tampon joins a man dressed as an astronaut on a trip to the moon to lay the ashes of his mother while she prays for the period to return. Lunar-Orbit Rendezvous is a modern fairy tale.
Tonnerre sur mer, by Yotam Ben-David
In the evening, some bright tennis shoes illuminate the foliage. Three 19 year old friends meet and talk about the paths they have chosen for their lives. The lightning flashes in the distance, behind the hills. The future of their friendship is uncertain: Tonnerre sur mer.
Les petites vacances, by Louise Groult
Charlotte and her cousin go on a vacation, she meets a boy, who is older and has a girlfriend. But it’s summer and the desire tightens. Les petites vacances is a portrait of the turbulent ways in which sexuality is communicated.
De longs discours dans vos cheveux, by Alexandre Steiger
Paul and Adèle are two extras in the ‘Tristan and Isolde’ opera who roam the underground of the Garnier Palace. A labyrinthine path and a winding conversation about love, in De longs discours dans vos cheveux.
The Years, by Sara Fgaier
Sara Fgaier (film editor of such films as La bocca del lupo by Pietro Marcello, IndieLisboa 2010) works with archival images in The Years in order to tell the story of a woman and her decades by the Sardinian sea.
The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum, by Graeme Cole
Graeme Cole (honorable mention for It’s Nick’s Birthday at IndieLisboa 2009) returns to the festival with a haunting time travel through an amusement park made up of virtual realities of the immaterial heritage of mankind. Ruined holograms, divine cyborgs and smart statues make up this dystopia full of cardboard boxes and Super8 film: The Curse of the Phantom Tympanum.
Duerrenwaid 8, by Kirsten Carina Geißer and Ines Christine Geißer
Duerrenwaid 8 is an animated documentary that fuses stories about a house, a garden and a stream, and also about hives and huts in the forest: different times intersect in the shredded memory.
A Million Years, by Danech San
A river-side restaurant, a woman and a man, silence, trees fluttering in the wind, and the past projected on the other side of the river: reality merges and fear looms from the depths in A Million Years.
The Girl With Two Heads, by Betzabé Garcia (in the picture)
Anne is torn between two modes of femininity: that of her traditional and conservative family and the one she explores in the gym (and social networks) when she trains Greco-Roman wrestling. The Girl With Two Heads explores the issues of body representation and self-awareness.
The Sasha, by María Molina Peiró
In 1972, astronaut Charles Duke landed on the moon. His job? To take photos of Earth from the lunar surface. Today, almost nobody knows about his pictures. The Sasha is a story about this and other images of Earth.
Life After Love, by Zachary Epcar
The artist Zachary Epcar observes car fleets parked as symbols of individuality and collective alienation. Life After Love is a sad poem made out of hot asphalt, smudged glasses and self-help phrases.
La bala de Sandoval, by Jean-Jacques Martinod
Sandoval had a near-death experience because of a bullet. When he recovered from it, a broken bottle almost got him killed. But he survived. La bala de Sandoval is an enigmatic reflection on luck and destiny.
Octane, by Jeron Braxton
A man must race through hell and back to get what he wants in Octone.
