Category: Documentary

In the southwest of Madagascar, the Mahafaly plateau is an extremely arid land. Here, the rains fall only a few times a year. In these very difficult living conditions, the inhabitants of the small village of Ampotaka found a unique solution to store water..

Director: Cyrille Cornu

Writer: Cyrille Cornu

Producer: Cyrille Cornu

Music: Mina Vorimaro Nindry

Voice Over: Thüryn Mitchell

Film Fixer: Wilfred Ramahafaly

Malagasy translations: Sylvia Andriamampianina

Editor: Cyrille Cornu

Soun mixing: Cyrille Cornu

Color Grading: Cyrille Cornu

Cameramen: Cyrille Cornu

Runtime: 52 minutes

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: Madagascar

Language: Malagasy, English

Subtitles: No

Cyrille Cornu

Filmmaker, Cyrille Cornu is also scientist, explorer, naturalist and photographer. He has conducted research on the baobabs of Madagascar for ten years. Author of numerous publications on the subject, he organizes expeditions every year to the heart of the most remote forests of Madagascar to study the giants there. The island is a unique source of inspiration. Nature, lights, encounters and landscapes are exceptional. Since his arrival in Antananarivo in 2010, he has constantly crisscrossed the Malagasy territory to capture images with his camera. Released in 2015, his first film entitled “Baobabs between Land and Sea”, was selected by a hundred festivals in more than seventy countries and won thirty-five awards including four grand prizes. On the strength of this success, Cyrille left research to devote himself to the production of documentary films. At the same time, he works on photographic reports and books. He is currently directing a documentary series consisting of three 52-minutes films on the theme of the baobabs of Madagascar. Filming sessions took place between January 2017 and August 2020. “Mamody, the last baobab digger” is the first film of the series. The two other ones are in production.

Njuguna moved into the area 11 years ago and is still considered an outsider. He wants to understand why his town is stagnating, so he asks around. Elders tell him what has happened.

Director: Njuguna Ng’and’a

Producer: Noe Mendelle

Runtime: 11 minutes 32 seconds

Country of Origin: Kenya

Country of Filming: Kenya

Language: Shwaili

Subtitles: English

Caroline Akai

A.

Pauline is a first wife and a single mum, juggling several jobs to pay for her children’s education. Meanwhile, the men kill time and drink by the river. Thank goodness she has a faithful goat!

Director: Caroline Akai

Writer: Caroline Akai

Producer: Noe Mendelle

Runtime: 5 minutes 10 seconds

Country of Origin: Kenya

Country of Filming: Kenya

Language: Shwaili

Subtitles: English

Caroline Akai

A.

Ibu Wasidah wanted more than just being a mum, so she joined the Women Farmers group in her village and together they create a sustainable way of life. They get help from Anang, a photographer from Jakarta who uses his work to promote the products produced by the women and connect city and village through food and art.

Director: Anita Reza Zain

Writer: Anita Reza Zain

Producer: Noe Mendelle

Country of Origin: Indonesia

Country of Filming: Indonesia

Language: Indonesian

Subtitles: English

Anita Reza Zain

A.

An atmospheric portrait of labour and land in the West Country, told with reflections from local 13-year-old Conor. The film explores daily rhythms of nature and labour, and relationships between men and the land in early Spring.

Director: Rowan Ings

Producer: Marissa Keating

Runtime: 9 minutes 41 seconds

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: United Kingdom

Language: English

Subtitles: No

Rowan Ings

Rowan Ings is an emerging director of creative documentary. Her films concern memory, labour, trauma and land. Since 2016, she’s worked across television and feature documentary, with an emphasis on current affairs and investigative journalism. In 2019, she directed her first short film Never Actually Lost with the BFI DocSociety.
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Giuseppe is a shepherd who lives and works on the outskirts of Nuoro and has to deal with traffic and rigid town rules whilst leading his flock to the nearby pastures. The film tries, on one hand, to transmit the fading value of rural life, and on the other, depicts Giuseppe’s strong attachment to it. The town denies him the right to be himself, to continue living where he always has, doing things his own way. The images and Giuseppe’s own words describe the contradiction of a serene way of life pierced by bitter peeks of irony.

Director: Ignazio Figus

Writer: Ignazio Figus

Producer: Ignazio Figus

Runtime: 22 minutes 45 seconds

Country of Origin: Italy

Country of Filming: Italy

Language: Italian

Subtitles: English

Ignazio Figus

Born in Alghero (Sardinia – Italy), he lives and works in Nuoro (Sardinia). He learnt about documentary production at the Istituto Superiore Regionale Etnografico, where he was worked since 1987. He is responsible for the audiovisual activities of the institute. His first directing experience was in 1996 with the documentary Giorni di Lollove (Days of Lollove), wich focused on the daily life and festive occasions of a small outward lying ward of Nuoro. This first work was followed in 1997 by Il Lino a Busachi, about the production of working of linen in a small hamlet in central Sardinia, in 2000 by Toccos e Repiccos-Bell ringers in Sardinia, which proposed documenting what remains of the world of bell ringing in Sardinia, in 2004 Dogon in Barbagia, in 2008, Brokkarios, about a family of potters who live and work in Siniscola, in eastern Sardinia, in 2014, S’impinnu (The Vow) and in 2017, La cena delle anime (Supper for the Dead Souls).He has collaborated on several significant productions outside the ISRE, of these it is worth remembering Giuseppe, pastore di periferia (condiVisioni, 2004), Trittico Pastorale (condiVisioni, 2008), Il Coraggio e la Poesia ( Amm.ne Comunale di Ittiri, 2010) and Ab Origine – Biofilm (condiVisioni with the support of BioSardinia and Slow Food, 2015).
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Ågesta R3 is Sweden’s first commercial nuclear plant operating between 1964 and 1974. It is being dismantled according to the Swedish nuclear
industry practices for the clearance of material, rooms, buildings, and soil in accordance with the Swedish Nuclear Activities Act and the Swedish Radiation Protection Act.

Director: David Hodge, Hi-jin Kang Hodge

Writer: Joe Shepter

Producer: The national museum of science and technology in Sweden, New Story Space

Runtime: 34 minutes 04 seconds

Country of Origin: Sweden

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Subtitles: No

David Hodge, Hi-jin Kang Hodge

David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge have created video installations for artistic exhibitions around the world. Their pieces typically blend editorial materials and innovative uses of technology to explore complex human and social questions. Above all, they create cohesive work that identifies foundational principles and expands on them through multiple viewpoints.

Hi-Jin Kang Hodge (b. Seoul)
Nationality: Korean born, Swedish and American.
Education: Central Saint Martins, College of Art and Design BA (hon) Product Design (London/UK).

David Hodge (b. Niagara Falls NY)
Nationality: American and holds Permanent Swedish resident.
Education: RISD, Rhode Island School of Design BFA Industrial Design (Providence/US).

Nestled 3,500 meters high in the ancient Himalayan kingdom, India’s Zanskar valley has stayed isolated for centuries. But at the end of a perilous and icy road, a beautiful village opens its doors. It is home to a community of nuns whose joy and extraordinary generosity contrast with the hardness of their land. 15 years after her first journey there, director Caroline Riegel returns to visit these women, and shares their daily life over the course of one winter. She captures a moving testimony of a unique place where times seems to stand still.

Director: Caroline Riégel

Writer: Caroline Riégel, Vincent Pérazio

Producer: Valérie Abita

Runtime: 52 minutes

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: India

Language: English, French

Subtitles: No

Caroline Riégel

As an hydraulic engineer, Caroline Riégel has worked on various construction sites around the world. She engaged in humanitarian work. First with the Red Cross in South Sudan, then in Zanskar, in the Himalayas, with the association THIGSPA which she created herself in 2012. As a traveler at heart, she is a member of the Society of Explorers and has crossed Asia alone on water, donkey-back, horse-back or even camel-back.
With all her travelling experiences behind her, Caroline Riégel decided to relate the story of her wanderings through writing, photography and documentary filmmaking. In 2008, she wrote “Soifs d’Orient” (“Thirst for the East”) and “Méandres d’Asie” (“Twists and turns of Asia”), and in 2011, “Éclats de Cristal” ( “Crystal Shards”). In 2015, she directed “Semeuse de Joie” (“Sower of Joy”) in which she tells the story of her friendship with Buddhist nuns in Zanskar and their discovery of India. This award-winning first film met with great success.

The film M’Hamid Oasis Morocco documents the restoration and recording work undertaken by an international team of researchers and volunteers in the most remote oasis of the Draa Valley, at the edge of the Sahara Desert. In 2019, ArCHIAM (University of Liverpool) and the NGO Terrachidia (Spain) teamed up in conducting an “Earthen Architectural Heritage Workshop” in M’Hamid/Morocco. Involving the local community as well as architects, engineers and earthen-architecture enthusiasts from around the world, the team restored and documented the oasis’ endangered cultural heritage. In addition, the workshop provided an opportunity for local young people to get trained by master builders in earth building techniques, which otherwise would be forgotten.
The film creates awareness of the cultural significance of this place and its struggle of survival, highlighting its tourism potential. It will inform government bodies and public/private stakeholders to assist in securing funding to implement sustainable development initiatives that can reactivate the settlement through the synergy of heritage preservation/economic and infrastructural development/community participation and empowerment.

Director: Monika Koeck

Writer: Monika Koeck

Producer: Monika Koeck

Key Cast: the residents of Ouled Youssef and researchers, workshop participant from around the world.

Runtime: 22 minutes 32 seconds

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: Morocco

Language: English/Spanish

Subtitles: English

Monika Koeck

Monika is a professionally trained architect, dancer and award-winning filmmaker. She is a Cambridge University graduate whose artistic work is shown on festivals and exhibitions world-wide. Monika Koeck started her career as a professional ballet dancer, before entering the world of architecture and filmmaking. Monika taught architectural design as Visiting Professor in the US and Research Associate in the field of architecture and film at the University of Cambridge. Monika is founding director of the Liverpool-based film/architecture production and post-production company CineTecture Ltd and holds a part-time teaching position at the University of Liverpool. Monika has a large portfolio of academic, commercial, and art-based moving image productions. In her artistic Oeuvre, her work emphasises the creative use of the ‘body in motion’ as well as the use of ‘space’ and ‘screen space’ as a narrative expressive element. In terms of research, her specialty is the production of films, digital animations and motion graphics that emphasise and illustrate complex themes in an understandable and accessible way to allow for greater impact.Her artistic work regularly features at major international exhibitions, such as the Venice Biennale in Architecture (2000) and the German IBA Exhibition (International Building Exhibition 2004, 2005), The Beyond Media Festival (Florence, 2009), the Filmforum (Udine, 2009), The Architecture & Design Festival (New York, 2010; Chicago 2011), The Film Casino (Vienna, 2011), in a curated show in the Fondazione Maxxi (Rome, 2011) and recently at The Arts Institute of Guangdong, China. Monika won the prestigious TVe Global Sustainibility Film Award in 2013 and is this year again nominated for best film (outcome pending). More recently, her film ‘Liverpool(e): Mover, Shaker, Architectural Risk-Taker’ was the opening exhibition film for RIBA’s new branch and gallery space in the North. Since then she created audio-visual content (film and soundscape) for the second exhibition at RIBA North, Ceramica. Recently, she worked on 2 Virtual Reality projects, one was featured at Liverpool’s International Festival of Business in June 2018, making Liverpool’s iconographic pieces of architecture to experience in interactive immersive film (stereoscopic 360 degrees), the second is a project for FutureCity London and the London Bridge Team, featuring a Happening on 1 March 2018, over 100 people from over 20 choirs performed IMAGINE amongst the London Bridge Station concourse crowds, while Yoko Ono’s IMAGINE PEACE played across the screens, to announce a Culture Plan for the Front Stage of London. The VR film was presented to Yoko Ono as a present for her 85th birthday. Next to having being commissioned by major cultural organisations, her own artistic work is regularly featuring at major international exhibitions and festivals, such as the Venice Biennale (2000), IBA Exhibition (Germany, 2004, 2005), Beyond Media Festival (Florence, 2009), FilmForum (Udine, 2009), The Architecture & Design Festival (New York/Tribeca, 2010; Chicago 2011), The Film Casino (Vienna, 2011), The Fondazione Maxxi (Rome, 2011) and, recently, at The Arts Institute of Guangdong, China. Monika won seven film awards; the TVe Global Sustainability Film Award in 2013, 2019 and 2020 awarded at BAFTA; the Vegas Movie Award in 2020; The Impact DOCS Award in 2020; the Iconic Images Film Award in 2021 and the Golden Bridge Istanbul Short Film Festival in 2021, among several nominations and honourable mention.

URBAN ORISHAS is a poetic cine-essay that introduces artist, scientist and spiritual medium of Templo Guaracy of Umbanda Luz Castañeda. Castañeda’s series of paintings called Urban Orishas (forces of nature, orixás in Portuguese) maps the traditional African nature-based spirits to various places in New York City. The documentary also peeks into the mysterious world of Umbanda ceremonies. Finally, the narrative will take us into the artist’s studio to observe her creative process.

Director: Alexander Minkin

Post production: João Tavares

Camera: Vincent Moon, Tay Nascimento

Music: Ligiana Costa

Runtime: 9 minutes 54 seconds

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Brazil, United States

Language: Portuguese

Subtitles: English

Alexander Minkin

Alex Minkin is a Brooklyn-based anthropologist and cultural activist, focusing his research on the intersections between Jewish and Brazilian cultures. Alex is the founder of Ticún Brasil, which offers volunteer opportunities for travelers to Brazil, as well as cultural activities in New York www.ticunbrasil.com.