This is the list of the films screened at SHORT FILM FACTORY [by SHORT to the Point] in DECEMBER 2019.
Tina & Sendy | Croatia | 2018 | 18’
Director: Hani Domazet
Writer: Hani Domazet
Producer: Mirta Puhlovski
Cast: Tihana Lazović, Sanja Milardović
Synopsis: A journey through one day and one night. One porn audition, two girls and the big force that will put that female friendship on test.
How good that you are here! | Austria | 2019 | 06’
Director: Elias Rauchenberger
Writers: Elias Rauchenberger, Julia Graninger, Mara Uhl, Philipp Hafner
Producers: Elias Rauchenberger, Philipp Hafner
Cast: Lukas Michelitsch
Synopsis: “How good that you are here!” is about a young pianist, who starts to rethink past relationships, because he has to deal with a detuned piano string.
SMACK | 2019 | 04’
Directors: Marta Kaczmarek, Roberto Cura
Writers: Marta Kaczmarek, Roberto Cura
Producer: Papaya Films
Cast: Elżbieta Studniarek, Grażyna Jasiewicz
Synopsis: Music Video made for Papaya Young Directors competition’s 2019 edition.
It was a directorial debut of a creative duo Marta Kaczmarek & Roberto Cura.
Mummeh | United Kingdom | 2019 | 02’
Director: Kieran Stringfellow
Writer: Kieran Stringfellow
Producer: Malachy O’neill
Cast: amantha Vaughan, Daniel Bell
Synopsis: A young boy asks his mum some very tedious questions while waiting for his doctors appointment.
Title of the film: JOB
Genre: drama
Duration: 22 min.
Country: Republic of North Macedonia
Director: Aleksandar Andonoski
Synopsis: Slowly losing the battle with the waves amidst the open sea, Job evokes sequences from the past which had completely shattered his life – the loss of the unborn child, the alienation of his beloved wife, and loosing oneself. He is helpless, engulfed in despair because of his powerlessness to help his wife and his inability to find consolation and forgive himself.
Title of the film: A Leaf
Genre: Experimental
Duration: 18’
Country: Egypt
Director: Bishara Shoukry
Synopsis: A hand of a young woman moves on the chest of a man, lying on his bed coughing, the hand rubs the chest with a liquid.
An old woman’s hand pushes a goat’s skin milk bag, on which a child is swinging on it. From a bore in the belly of the bag, drips the milk on the old woman’s hand, and flows from the young one’s palm.
In the morning, when the house gets empty, Salma opens her eyes to the sound of a playful child swinging on the door of her room. When Salma attempts to fathom her, the child flees. Salma follows, yet couldn’t catch… and when Salma tries to trace the child’s footprints, following the same road the child went through, Salma herself disappears, leaving only an image on a water surface, or a reflection on glass.
And once the picture has restored life, and the belly gets enlarged with a life, the image leaves its place to another, and a life renounces its path to another… and a leaf falls, one of thousands that fall, daily, without being felt by anyone.
Title of the film: Ballad
Genre: Drama
Duration: 11:15
Country: Romania
Director: Bianca Mina
Synopsis: Burdened by his raging subconscious, Kirk, a grungy rock star, is about to kill himself when Mark, his biggest fan, finds him. As Kirk is getting ready to pull the trigger, Mark tries to convince him to see a future.
Title of the film: Prophecy of the Encounter 2019
Genre: Artfilm/Fiction
Duration: 14 minutes and 12 seconds
Country: USA
Director: Ati Maier
Synopsis:
This Film is inspired by the Creation Story of the Lakota Nation and is partly audible on the sound track, narrated by a Lakota Elder. According to the tale, a star is coming in close orbit with earth and warms it. The Space-Rider manifests on earth out of a solar eclipse as their star ancestor. The Lakota Horse Nation who lives on the Pine Ridge Reservation in SD, believe they came from the Pleiades star cluster. The Encounter with the Space-Rider initiates the return to their ancient spiritual ways and at last back to the stars…” a star will take us home”.
Title of the film: Your Smile
Genre: Drama, Youth
Duration: 25min 34sec
Country: China
Director: Haochen Yang
Synopsis: Boyang, a retro high school teenager in Beijing, is experiencing the rebellious phase of his youth. He refuses to change himself by having a cellphone to fit in the community. He is alienated by other people and he is unwilling to open up his mind. One day, he captures an unforgettable smile on a young girl’s face through his 35mm film camera. He decides to approach that smile. After the struggling of changing himself, Boyang finally shows his long-lost smile on his face.
Title of the film: ON EXILE, elsewhere within here
Genre: Experimental documentary film
Duration: 27 minutes
Country: USA/Portugal
Director: José Carlos Teixeira
Cinematography: Nicholas Wynia
Synopsis: As a quiet and poetic meditation, “On Exile, elsewhere within here” presents the moving testimonies of Muslim refugees from Syria and Somalia, resettled in the North America. This short documentary film creates intimate psychological portraits, carving space for empathy and intersubjectivity. At the intersection of art and politics, “On Exile” reflects on the overall refugee experience, expanding on issues of migration, displacement, and otherness. Concerned with the ethics of ethnographic encounter, the film asks: how to represent without patronizing or speaking on the behalf of others? As opposed to a dominant discourse which often denies refugees personal and political agency, this film attempts to restore their voices.
