BORN IN ADANA
Director: David Hovan
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Canada
A haunting, moving story of survival against all odds.
The film unfolds with rare archival footage from the era and some of the images will be indelibly etched in many viewers’ minds. What makes this film different from many others on the subject is that a pious, modest man tells the story in an unfailingly honest way, while talking about unimaginable atrocities with a gentle voice, as if he has already forgiven those who committed these crimes against his family and his ancestors.
The story of Antranig Teghararian begins with the deportation of his parents from their native town of Diyarbakir, Turkey in 1915. It reveals the difficulties encountered by his parents and how two of his very young brothers died from starvation during his parent’s deportation. It then follows his parents in their quest for safety through the Middle East and their next temporary location in the city of Aleppo, Syria.
His father is forced to flee Aleppo in the middle of the night, having been condemned to death by a Turkish Military tribunal, and being forced to leave his wife behind and seek refuge in the city of Adana, Turkey until 1918. After the declaration of the armistice, his parents are subsequently reunited in Adana, Turkey where he was born on July 4, 1921. The surrender of Adana to Turkey by the French, causes yet another upheaval and further deportation of the Armenians of that city, and his parents are forced to flee yet again and barely make their way to Beirut, Lebanon, their final destination.
To date, no one knows the final resting place of his two brothers who perished in the desert.
Fog of War
Director Viacheslau Makshun
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Belarus
Thirteen-year-old Bogdan Kobenko decided to document his family tree, and started looking for information about his great grandfather, a military pilot.
On the Internet there was an information about military pilot Ivan Kosenko, the Commander of the 223rd Close Bombardment Aviation Division, who had gone missing during a combat mission in 1942. His family began a search for more clues, contacting people and researching archives in Germany, Poland, the U.S.A, and France. The quest took 9 years.
MARIBOR IN NJEGOVA NAJSTAREJSA TRTA NA SVETU
MARIBOR AND HIS, WORLDWIDE OLDEST VINE
Director FRANC KOPIC
Slovenia
400 years old natural notability of Maribor and the events around it
The old couple lunch
Director: Roger Mas Quintana
- Spain
Una pareja mayor se dispone a comer. Su vida es simple y rutinaria. Reciben una llamada de una sobrina invitándoles a comer el próximo domingo. Empieza una discusión ya que salir de la casa dónde viven, cuál madriguera, supone un gran esfuerzo para ellos.
Holiday of Holidays
Director Talia Cohen-Vigder
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United States
Filmed in Israel, by an 11 year old young American film maker , Talia Cohen-Vigder, "Holiday of Holidays" documents the annual holiday festival at the primary school located in the village of Neve Shalom/Wahat Al-Salam, Israel's only purposely integrated community of Arabs and Jews. The festival, which exemplifies the school's values, brings together the students' families and enlists them to participate. Children perform together in both Arabic and Hebrew and engage the multiple cultures and histories of the groups inhabiting Israel, thus demonstrating the possibility not only for peaceful coexistence, but actual friendship and community among Jews and Arabs.
Picking Up the Pieces
Director: Joshua Tebeau
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United States
The film explores the perspectives of Jewish Child Holocaust Survivors as they rebuilt their lives after the Second World War. Answering the question, “How do you “live” after surviving the Holocaust?” the film builds a nuanced and complex portrait of the survivors’ struggles through the lens of key universal questions about Belief in God, Forgiveness, Home, Jewish identity and Memory. Nine survivor’s voices are interwoven together and merge into a choral ensemble telling the previously untold story of the efforts of child survivors to build normal and productive lives from tragic beginnings. Child survivors are now the last living witnesses of the Holocaust. Their struggle, bittersweet reflections, hope and energy are poignant and uplifting testament to the human spirit.
Bola Cá, Bola Lá
Director Luís Sousa
Portugal
"Bola Cá, Bola Lá" is a documentary project where the theme "disability", occupies a major role in the whole plot.
America We Thank You
Directors Bared Maronian
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United States
This film is about the herculean task of America's humanitarian relief efforts to the Armenians during the Genocide of 1915.
SLAVES
Director ALEJANDRO CHAPARRO
Colombia
"Slaves" is a documentary that looks into the aberrations of a system that keeps prostitution up. The protagonists reflect, based on their experiences, on the implications and consequences that prostitution has left in their lives. Their voices are the trigger for the analysis of a group of professionals dedicated to investigating and defending the position of women in the evolution of capitalism, a system that perpetuates this reality and has validated this type of violence. Under the gaze of the people who are committed to the abolition of this form of sexual slavery, in "Slaves" it is evide
Brothers
Director: Szymon Jan Sinoff
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Poland
For nearly 40 years Zenek is almost completely paralyzed. The only person who takes care of him is his older brother, intellectually disabled Irek. The brothers live in a symbiosis, in which one has healthy brain, the other, healthy body. Observing their struggling with daily life becomes a meditation about suffering, happiness and brotherhood.
MARSHLAND
Director Michito Tanaka
Japan
"La Liberacion de AlEXIS / The Discovery of Santos"
Director Ralph Isenberg
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United States
The uplifting story of how the Isenberg Center for Immigration Empowerment ICIE) worked to reunite a ten-eleven year old foreign national of El Salvador with his family that was domiciled in the United States. The short documentary provides technical background and personal insight into the rescue of the child that included the "El Gringo Schindler" going to El Salvador to deliver this young man to his family. While in El Salvador, the "El Gringo Schindler" discovered another human tragedy involving a mother and her four children that is introduced at the end of the film. ICIE is now working to resolve this matter that requires immediate attention.
VAN WATER DE DRUPPELS
Director JEANNICE ADRIAANSENS JEANNICE
Netherlands
"When Water turns into Drops" In 1995 Johnny Beerens painted The Oostburgse water tower in the idea of creating "eternity" with a mural, but the coating could not withstand the test of time. Twenty years later, in the summer of 2014, the fine artist again ascends the scaffold to renovate his brainchild. In order to be fully engaged in and to prepare for this former work, he feels the need to let go of his workshop and all it contains to utterly clear his head. Only then the mural can again completely take possession of him and vice versa. Resulting in a new "Source of Life" on the Oostburgse water tower. With "When Water turns into Drops" filmmaker Jeannice Adriaansens again delivers a personal document, revolving around the unspoken. Along with Johnny Beerens, she embarks this creative journey at lonely heights only to grasp the intangible - the complexity of what can not be put down in words. A touch of emotion, a dash of ratio, powered by an extremely accurate sound design which does not shun silence but dares to embrace it and at times confronts the audience with his own vulnerability and bare existence.
Making Falla
Director David Celma
Spain
The Fallas are the main festival of Valencia (Spain), Where tradition and powder are mixed.
Bom dia ! Looking for saudade
Director Patrice Le Saëc
France
Pierre goes to Portugal to look for his girlfriend. She left him a note: “I love you. I have the saudade, I’m going home.” With a photo, young French Pierre will travel through the country in crisis to find her and understand her message. Often link
WHITEOUT
Director: RAFAEL DUARTE
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Brazil
“Whiteout” is an inner journey into the
mind of an adventurous tropical journalist
The Brazilian documentary dives into the world of mountain
climbing through the personal experience of a regular guy
“Whiteout” is the story of the pursuit of a dream. The film is a trip into the mind of the adventurous Brazilian journalist and photographer Rafael Duarte during an expedition to Mont-Blanc, France, which took place at the end of the dangerous 2013 summer season. The documentary reveals a close relationship between man and nature. How he tried to reach his potential and understand the passion for adventure and love for the mountains.
The challenges he faced and the struggles he endured. The surprises along the way keep the spectator on the edge of his own seat. When we believe that everything is lost, anything can happen. “Whiteout shows that climbing is not about just going higher, but reaching further”.
The documentary (26’ length) is directed by Rafael Duarte and produced by Leonardo Edde in a co-production between URCA Filmes and Bambalaio Filmes.
The Cliff
Director: VOLGA KARANTSOVA
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Russian Federation
The film is about four generations of the family, about their relationship, of home, of the continuity and evolution of the beauty and transience of life. Meets childhood, adulthood and old age. On the solitude and communion. The film is suitable for any audience, aims to preserve family values.
VIRGILE DORT, 6 ESQUISSES POUR UN FILM
Director JEAN SEBAN
France
Virgile Novarina conducts for more than 20 years a survey on sleeping. His research lead him to produce some "night writings and drawings" during micro-awaking to sleep in a Bremen laboratory in order to researchers to analyze his sleep different forms and also to produce an image of the sleep in public places all around the world: the one from Virgile sleeping. The week of 21st to 26th January 2013 from 9 am to 6 pm he slept during the day in the Inlassable Gallery window 18 Dauphine street in Paris. For each of these days Jean Seban proposes a film as a vision of this performance.
UR ARTEAN
Directors JESUS MARI PALACIOS & IÑIGO JIMENEZ
Spain
A portrait of the last inhabitants of Santa Clara Island in San Sebastian. In September 2014, Santa Clara lighthouse celebrated its 150th anniversary, yet for the last 45 of these years, it has been uninhabited. Who were the last people to live there? For twenty years, the lighthouse-keeper José Manuel Andoin and his mother, María Torralbo, dwelled in isolation and harsh conditions on this island just 500 meters off the city of San Sebastian. "Ur Artean" is the story of the enigmatic relationship between a strong-willed mother and her mild-mannered son, who, in a now-forgotten chapter of his life, had been an Olympic champion.
CUBA SUN SEX AND SOCIALISM
Director DIANA TAYLOR
Cuba
Cuba the largest island in the Caribean and controlled by the Castro Brothers for over 50 years is changing fast.With over 3 million tourist pouring into the country each year Cuba struggles to adapt to the 21st century. The film explores the impact of tourism on the country , the political issues and the negotiations which are currently in progress to end the embargo with America which could change the country overnight.
Tony Windberg. A Painter in the Woods
Director: Thomas Schumacher
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Germany
In the midst of a vast Eucalyptus forest that lies deep in the heart of the great southern region of Western Australia, sits a cottage filled with test tubes, material samples, drafts, notes, indexed color samples and canvasses reflecting their surroundings: the trees.
Simply calling Tony Windberg a Landscape Artist falls short of the true essence of his work. Charcoals of burnt trees, the bark and resin of various Eucalyptus trees and the soil in which they grow and die are all transformed into materials for his works of art in long, well documented procesess of experimentation.
In addition to natural materials, Windberg utilises vinyl flooring, its varnish mimicking wood, onto which he applies a unique method of engraving complex patterns of lines to represent the impact of the timber industry on old growth forrests and the trail left behind by logging.
POOP ON POVERTY
Director: Vijay S. Jodha
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India
Set on the edge of the Thar desert and in the middle of world’s biggest camel fair, this film looks at the underbelly of one of the most visited and photographed tourist destinations in the world. The film highlight a challenge faced by 2.5 billion people on our planet everyday – access to cooking fuel. It is also a tribute to human ingenuity and sound environmental practice – turning animal waste into energy that reduces dependency on biomass and conserves natural resources.
NAZARETH
Director MARCIO TRIGO
Brazil
"I started to live when I turned 70, after I discovered dancing." Nazareth is a woman who after 46 years of an unhappy marriage, became a widow and rescued the joy of live performing an old dream, to dance. She forgot diseases and pains, met new friends, and today, from ballroom to ballroom, she faces the city traffic on the back of a motorcycle so she doesn?t miss a chord of the orchestra. So many new emotions came together with the discovery of vanity. "To me, jeans, a sweatshirt and sneakers, was ok. Not today. Now I buy clothes, I do make-up in my eyes, I use lipstick. Do you believe that I didn?t have pierced ear?" This recovery of self esteem, is told through images of our lady in the ballroom where she dances, interviews with friends who saw her reborn, beyond archival images. We follow Nazareth at the ball "Night of Dreams" where she will debut for the first time at 73. Showing beautiful images of her preparing for this special moment. "I hope it's a beautiful night, dance a waltz to celebrate my 15 years, since I didn´ t have one when I was that age." Is life without fear exploding in old age.
Life on Water
Director: Rafiqfuad Yarahmadi
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United Kingdom
Summary of this film:
This documentary is about a Catholic priest ‘Father John’ who lives on a houseboat in canal. While he could live in a house he decided to live on a houseboat, which we call it ‘Life on Water’.
BUDAPEST'S HOMELESS
Director COSTAS KYRIAKIDES
Cyprus
Loneliness is silencing. By giving people the opportunity to talk about their problems, you actually put them in a healing process, even if it's just temporary. In our documentary, Budapest's Homeless, the people that suffer by the crisis the most are placed in the forefront and we get to hear their stories. They are stories of every day people that where simply less fortunate.
Waiting for the (t)rain
Director: Simon Panay
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France
A small village lost in a dusty desert in Burkina's bush. Two times a week passes the train. Various food items and water bottles thrown by the passengers while passing by constitute the main income of the village, and the only source of water during dry season. Different portraits follow each others. The older one s have known slavery in the service of France, the young dream of distant horizons.
