All Films

Fish

2009 • 10 min • Sweden

Gerd’s only friend is a goldfish that recently died. She’s alone. Finally she decides to buy a new fish. Back at home she discovers that she has locked herself out – she has to climb up by the balcony pole! She falls, almost dropping the fish and a man appears to rescue...

The Fifth Hamlet

2009 • 55 min • Latvia

What does the question “to be or not to be?” mean? 86 year-old director Olģerts Kroders stages his fourth production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet at the Valmiera Drama Theatre. The theatre is more than merely his occupation, for he not only works there but also spends all of his time in it. The film depicts his routine and the rehearsal process up until the premiere, and provokes a dialogue using the four actors who have all played Hamlet in the different productions. Kroders’s life and the lives of the actors tell the history of Latvia and the fates of different generations.

Obsession

2009 • 50 min • Latvia

Peter is just another peter, so very ordinary. He works at the office where colleagues make fun of him, the boss makes sexual advances and the sick mother harasses him at home. Step by step his life becomes completely unbearable. Once by a chance Peter happens to try magic mushrooms and this adventure turns into new move towards a different life.

Amazon of the Avant-garde

2009 • 50 min • Latvia

A film about the great 20th century sculptor whose work was inspired by the cubism of the 1920s, and her life story which contains all possible dramas for a creative person living in the previous century.

Spirale

2009 • 21 min • France

On a beautiful summer day, Virginie joins her lover, Alexandre, wanted by the gendarmes and who is hiding in a ruined mill. No sooner had they had time to enjoy their reunion when a dark raven came to rest on the wings of the windmill, triggered a sinister mechanism. Day gives way to night, the flowery hill to an impenetrable forest of brambles. The worrying occupant of the premises then emerges from the darkness: the miller. The hunt can begin ... and the fairy tale turns black.

Troppolitani - Fuori dove?

2009 • 26 min • Italy

Path in progress on the intentions of those who think badly. The discomfort of the mind of those who have no discomfort is greater than that of those who make discomfort their natural expression. "Troppolitani Outside Where?" it is a journey through the folds of the human and inhuman mind. A one-way trip that does not allow for escape: you remain trapped in the thought of whoever is in front of you. One is stunned by the astonishment that the deviated mind is able to arouse.

The Secret Diary of the Holocaust

2009 • 51 min • United Kingdom

The Secret Diary Of The Holocaust tells the extraordinary tale of a 14-year-old Polish girl, Rutka Laskier, who was murdered at Auschwitz in 1943. In 2005, the school notebook in which Rutka recorded her last months in the ghetto of Bedzin was made public, six decades after she hid it under the floorboards of her home there. Rutka was immediately dubbed the 'Polish Anne Frank'. In her diary, Rutka wrote about her life in the ghetto in 1943, detailing not just the Nazi atrocities, physical hardship and hunger, but also how she was developing as a young woman. She also tells how she made a daring escape from one of the early 'aktions', Nazi round-ups of Jews for transportation. The documentary will unravel Rutka's story through the eyes of her half-sister, Israeli academic Zahava Scherz, on a journey to Poland in search of the sister she never knew.

80 Years of Slavko Avsenik

2009 • 59 min • Slovenia

Documentary on famous Slovenian accordionist and his musical family.

Mattresses

2009 • 14 min • Uruguay

A hot day at the beach town. Mariana and her family get together to spend Christmas Eve together, away from the city. Everything seems normal, the fireworks, the children playing, and the mother cooking, but nobody knows that Mariana wants something with her uncle and perhaps tonight is the opportunity to get it.

L'échappée belle

2009 • 15 min • France

Every afternoon, Clara climbs aboard a pleasure boat to gaze at Jacques, the gruff, aloof crew chief. When she learns he's leaving, to be replaced by Sophie, she's compelled to talk to him.

Land of Men

2009 • 24 min • Canada

Two police officers, Catherine and Patrick, patrol in Longueuil, a suburb of Montreal in Canada. During their shift, they arrest Jose Maria, a Mexican illegal immigrant who just crossed the border. The officers hold him at their station during the night, while waiting for the arrival of the federal police, the RCMP.

Película sudorosa II

2009 • 9 min • Spain

Two of my favorite films, A Movie by Bruce Conner and Fireworks by Kenneth Anger, include Respighi's “Pini di Roma” in their soundtrack, contrasting the epic of the music with the hilarious images. In the tradition of my favorite filmmakers, this is a film in the glory of the super-8 splendor, with some of the tricks and effects preferred by amateur filmmakers when playing with the camera.

Still Moving

2009 • 29 min • Germany

Still Moving is one of the director’s most personal films, offering some insight into her artistic process. It is an assemblage of her father’s African collection, photographs made by Ottinger in the 1970s, footage of a theatre play based on Johann Nestroy and a rare artefact: an 8mm film document of Lil Picard’s birthday celebration—an artist who mingled with the Dadaists and Warhol’s Factory alike. It is an exhibition in the form of a film, a dedication to an adventurer father, a secret art museum, a cabinet of wonder: a whole universe on its own.

The Final Word

2009 • 44 min

Moslem Mansouris second documentary film about the legendary late Ahmad Shamlou

Synesthesia

2009 • 4 min

Synesthesia is a condition where stimulation of one sense evokes a reaction of another. Filmmaking duo Terri Timely depict the fascinatingly intriguing happenings through a not so normal day in the life of a very normal family. You can expect books for dinner, music from fruit and cats flying out of speakers.

Margot and Bastien

2009 • 7 min

A summer day in the countryside. Margot follows her cousin wherever he goes. Looking for his attention, she chases him across the field. Bastien keeps going, leaving Margot behind. However, something will push him to take her hand and to never let it go.

The Fairytale of the Stolen Time

2009 • 20 min • Greece

Once upon a time, the Time of the World had a problem. But no one took notice, because everybody was part of the World, of Time and its problem.

Leitmotif

2009 • 8 min • Denmark

A lonely musician living trough his music and the daily visits of a cat. One day the nostalgia takes over; he gets a crazy idea.

First Flight: A Mother Hummingbird's Story

2009 • 47 min • United States of America

One of Nature's smallest birds, a Black-chinned Hummingbird, built her nest on a backyard clothesline. Stunning close-up photography brings you into the nest as the hatchlings emerge from their shells. This enchanting and remarkably detailed nature film reveals the tireless efforts of the mother who raises and cares for two chicks from their hatching to their leaving the nest.

Footage Found

2009 • 5 min • United States of America

On Friday, Sept. 21st Film Student Dean Micheals, his college roommate Jim Ryans, and Junior Abigail Martinez disappeared from their campus apartment. The following is an account of the disturbing events as captured by Dean on a High Definition Digital camcorder. Eventually the Footage was Found.

Utopia, Part 3: The World's Largest Shopping Mall

2009 • 13 min • United States of America

A tour of the world's largest shopping mall, located near Guangzhou, China.

Nikolai Gogol's Hand

2009 • 52 min • Russia

The film is based on a video made by Sergey Lando on the Petersburg Recording Studio at the end of March 2009, before the 200th anniversary of Nikolai Gogol. Next day, Oleg Karavaichuk took the footage and assembled film. It was first shown on April 1, 2009 in Gogol's birthday at a concert "Diary of a Madman" in Culture House "Lensovet" in St. Petersburg. This film is not about Gogol, but is dedicated to him: in the intervals of playing the piano, the composer talks about the true roots of the writer's work, about the common fate of the greatest people of art, about the synthesis of music and literature, about eternity and paradoxes.

The World Record Holder in the Lighthouse

2009 • 52 min

Lighthouse keepers are a dying breed all over the world, as automated equipment has been making their job obsolete. The story of Óskar- Iceland´s last lighthouse keeper, is the unique story of a recluse who has spent all his life in Storhofdi - lighthouse, the windiest weather station in Iceland, besides setting a world record in bird tagging.

To Become Firm

2009 • 15 min • Ukraine

Animation about a person whom society is constantly trying to "mold" to its own taste: at home, at school, at work. How do you put an end to this pressure and finally take on your own shape?