While bombs fell in Ghouta, a suburb of Damascus, civilians were hiding in their caves until hell was over. Tim Alsiofi was one of them and, with the help of his camera and poetry, was trying to survive and express himself.
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Douma is a city in Syria, near Damascus, which we often see in the news due to frequent bombings. More than the bang of the bombs, what shudders in this film is our interior. We see the trivialization of bombing for people living in Douma. The way it is normal for them that day to day, what they do in the waiting times between two attacks and the way they face and relativize the whole situation. Filmed in the first person, this film moves away from war reporting. Here everything is more raw, more skin-deep, more urgent. (Carlos Ramos)
How perfect can a magic car trip through the wonders of the state of Florida be? Acid irony, guided by the pits of Chernyak’s youth memory, where Disney’s sweetness meets vintage TV series such as Benji or Flipper.
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A possible treasure buried in a fictional attic, among other video tapes, that celebrates nothing but the power of cinema to transport us, with a sarcastic smile on its lips. Partly a Disney ride, partly a musical homage to the American state, the neurotic reality of adult life holds hands (and offers an orange juice) with the blindest optimism. For a vacation, or a sabbatical, the easy living is in Florida. (Ana Cabral Martins)
Taken from a train window, Petronin imprinted manually a single image strip, using a shutterless camera, exposing it to a continuous influx of light. The result is the dissolution of the space between frames, elements of landscape losing their solidity.
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Five minutes created from the manipulation of a 35mm photograph, taken during a train journey between Dordrecht and Rotterdam, without the shutter’s help. Photography gains the movement of cinema, absorbing the flow of light. It becomes molten and continuous. Forms lose their definition; they exist between figuration and abstraction. Five minutes that break down the boundaries between cinema, photography and painting. (Ana Cabral Martins)
Num estilo delicado, Moeschler ensaia o regresso de um jovem do campo à sua cidade de origem. O êxtase do reencontro, a possibilidade de recomeço, a amizade e o amor, as ruas nocturnas vazias.
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Num subúrbio francês, onde se pinta um retrato coral da juventude agrilhoada pela economia (há referências aos coletes amarelos, aos entregadores precários, às redes sociais), um rapaz decidiu ser pastor, longe dos mercados e das tecnologias da comunicação. Descreve-se o seu retorno, a um lugar, a uma comunidade a e a uma relação que fora deixada suspensa. A figura do reencontro constitui, portanto, o núcleo de “Abissu”: uma fábula sobre o voltar a olhar, a tocar, a sentir e a beijar um corpo amado. Um “West Side Story” ainda mais cheio de tesão. (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)
Nesta animação de final de curso de Erik Svetoft, os animais estão presos num zoo e servem de entretenimento e humilhação. Cá fora as cores fortes anunciam a destruição da natureza. Um filme de dança e libertação.
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Não fosse este filme ter sido feito antes do confinamento, poder-se-ia especular que era o resultado de muito dias fechado em casa e sob influência de substâncias estranhas. Algen é um filme frenético e divertido, tão bizarro quanto inventivo. Dois animais fogem de uma espécie de jardim zoológico, depois de humilhados pelos visitantes, em busca da liberdade. Dois animais que gostam de dançar. (Carlos Ramos)
Chloé Terren’s graduation film is a mix between Rear Window in times of gentrification, with a familiar love story. Raphaël is taking care of his grandmother’s apartment, while she stays in a nursing home and has to decide whether to tell her the truth or not.
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The square windows, with rounded corners, of the Aillaud Towers show us a dawning Paris. But they also show us the inside of Oda’s apartment, Rafaël’s grandmother, who takes care of the house while she is away. They also show us the daily affairs of Oda’s neighbours that Rafaël unveils. Or perhaps the adventures he imagines, to comfort her. (Ana Cabral Martins)
The oldest search in the world, a quest for happiness and knowledge. In this animation that invokes the aesthetics of the early video games, we follow the adventures of a pixelated little man that looks for spiritual consolation near a wise lion.
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In a world that looks like a videogame from a bygone era a boy wakes up and does not feel happiness. He does not know why and does not know what he can do to feel happy. He goes on an adventure with his dog, not unlike Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and finds anthropomorphic animals on his way to meet the Wise Lion. In a universe without distinct rules the boy searches for meaning in the most universal of questions that nobody really knows the answer. (Rui Mendes)
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The life of Rok Ajulu, a Kenian professor and activist, was an adventure film and a life of struggle against apartheid. His daughter pays him homage using 16mm, VHS, DV formats to capture many of the places that turned him into a freedom fighter hero.
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These are essential conversations whose meaning is revealed over time. Stories, laughter and silences recover a relationship that life has discontinued. Meeting in Kisumu, the daughter discovers the connection between her father, with whom she never had a close relationship, and the political activist he was, and the one who determined the separation between the two. In this film, the history of Africa and that of the family merge, testifying that what separates father and daughter does not revoke the complicity of the dialogue. (Margarida Moz)
The artistic collaboration Bambitchell explores, between fiction, fact and essay, a number of medieval trials were animals and inanimate objects were accused of different crimes such as trespassing, thievery or murder.
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The subject is legal, and the approach is methodical and impartial. The Bambitchell duo proposes a playful historiography of animals, pests and objects’ trials. Their mise en scène of ironic detachment exposes the contradictions of personifying the rights and duties of creatures. As the ridicule of the sentences becomes evident, the film reveals unexpected solutions: the editing, the graphics, the ovoid compositions, the musical soundtrack and the demonic invocations reflect on the flaws inherent to the sciences of law. (Ricardo Vieira Lisboa)
Two young men share different points of view of the same sexual encounter in a public space: a cinema.
