"Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way", dir. Hao Zhou, USA 2024, 20 min.
Having built a colorful life in Iowa, a costume designer returns to their island hometown, Guam, to make costumes for a children's theater show and reconnect with distanced parents.
"The Takeover", dir. Anders Hammer, Afghanistan 2023, 33 min.
Filmed over a year as the Taliban retakes control of Afghanistan, “The Takeover” documents the country’s rapid transformation and the women who refuse to lose their rights. Starting as the US leaves Afghanistan, this film shows the women's experience, protests, and daily life in the cities and countryside. We see how restrictions on women’s basic freedoms are enforced by the Taliban. Academy Award-nominated director Anders Hammer returns to his former home of Afghanistan to capture the development. “The Takeover” is the second part of Hammer’s trilogy on modern conflict.
"Papa – Notes on Life and Death", dir. Andreas Bøggild Monies, Denmark 2023, 19 min.
“PAPA” is a story of a birth told in pictures and short clips. A dramatic situation and a motion between life and death. The baby is healthy and a source of joy and life, but the mother suddenly falls seriously ill and are put in a coma. The film follows a hospital stay, which fortunately does not happen to most people, where the father who is the narrator of the film, stands with a new life and a big happiness in one hand and a big accident and possible death on the other.
"Isblink", dir. Olga Krüssenberg, Sweden 2024, 14 min.
On the Norwegian island of Svalbard, home to the world's northernmost permanent human settlement, time both stands still and is running out. In this meticulously shot study of how climate change is reshaping even the sturdiest environments, Olga Krüssenberg focuses on locals, who are surrounded by processes beyond their control and are forced to rethink the world they once knew.
"6000 lies", dir. Simon Rieth, France 2024, 5 min.
6000 mensonges comes to the spectator as lightning in a clear sky. What starts as a recollection of prenatal images we are used to seeing suddenly becomes a dive into an unknown territory, in which the border between reality and fiction is no longer relevant. The result is a striking, haunting and powerful testimony of a devastating experience that is lived by many in silence, told in the most contemporary possible way.
- duration:
- 91 min
- country:
- USA/2024 ("Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way"); Afganistan/2023 ("The Takeover"); Denmark/2023 ("Papa – Notes on Life and Death"); Sweden/2024 ("Isblink"); France 2024 ("6000 lies")
- director:
- Hao Zhou ("Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way"); Anders Hammer ("The Takeover"); Andreas Bøggild Monies ("Papa – Notes on Life and Death"); Olga Krüssenberg ("Isblink"); Simon Rieth ("6000 lies")
- cinematography:
- Hao Zhou ("Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way"); Anders Hammer ("The Takeover"); Andreas Bøggild Monies ("Papa – Notes on Life and Death"); Christine Leuhusen ("Isblink");
- producer:
- Tyler Hill, Caitlin Mae Burke ("Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way"); Anders Hammer / Field of Vision ("The Takeover"); Liv Lundholm Pedersen, Charlotte Pedersen / New Era Production ("Papa – Notes on Life and Death"); Mario Adamson, Paulina Knobloch / Sisyfos Film Production ("Isblink"); Ines Daien Dasi / Films du Poisson ("6000 lies")
- selected festivals and awards:
- 2024 – SXSW Austin, 2023 – Hot Docs Toronto ("Wouldn't Make It Any Other Way"); 2023 – Sheffield DocFest: International Short Film Competition Winner, 2023 – DOC NYC ("The Takeover"); 2023 – CPH:DOX, Copenhagen 2023 – EFA Awards and won the Audience Award at Odense International Film Festival ("Papa – Notes on Life and Death"); 2024 – Rotterdam IFF ("Isblink"); 2024 – Rotterdam IFF ("6000 lies")
