Hotel Al Naim                                                                                                                        Shirin Abu Shaqra / Manuel María Perrone                                                          Lebanon – France. 2017. 14 min

The octopus believes that the hand in front of it is a prey, but it
doesn’t know that behind every hand, there is an arm…

SHIRIN ABU SHAQRA

Shirin Abu Shaqra received her MFA with honors in 2010 from Le Fresnoy, National Studio for Contemporary Arts in France. Before entering the artistic field, she studied History and Political Science at Saint-Joseph University Beirut. She worked for a decade as archivist, librarian and researcher, publishing several academic articles.

In her artwork, she uses History for its collective memory, music for its Dionysian effect, and animation for its distanced wit. Thematically, exile and disembodiment are omnipresent elements, love and kinship a constant concern.

Her filmography includes: What Happens to a Displaced Ant? (2017), Sulayma (2014), Conversations with Changes (2010), Hold on My Glamorous (2009), Walking Distance (2008), Sabra’s Barrels (2007).

MANUEL MARÍA PERRONE

Manuel Maria Perrone was born in 1981 in Bellinzona, Switzerland. Italian and Swiss, Manuel is a film and stage director, poet and actor. Trained in the theaters, he started his career in the streets, which took him to Argentina where he lived for 5 years, exploring the world of masks and objects. He came to cinema by chance. He had a project with a group of old women which led him to a change of language from theater to cinema, for suiting the lack of memory and group energy. Afterwards, he settled down in France, and went on with cinema, while keeping a foot on stage. In 2011, he did a Writing residence with G.R.E.C. in Nice. Since 2011, he’s the artistic director
of Cappuccino Long Street Film Festival (7 editions, 350 Films).

Since 2013, he works with the Agency of Error, a cinema troupe. In 2015, he was part of the Filmmaker Academy at Locarno Film Festival. He’s developing his first feature film La Danza del Quijote.

CONTACT

Badih Massaad
Festivals Coordinator
badih@abboutproductions.com
http://www.abboutproductions.com

Welcome to Sajjanpur                                                                                                       Shyam Benegal                                                                                                                        India. 2008. 130 min

Sajjanpur (roughly translates to town of gentlemen) narrates its tale through the voice of a letter-writer, the only educated man in this village somewhere in interior India. Amidst the rural setting and the small-town problems, Benegal does what he does best – portray the human condition that is generalizable beyond the story he chooses. His protagonist is an aspiring novel writer, and we the audience become essentially his target readers as he publishes a novel with the story of his life. So, in effect, the satirical exaggeration of the village-ness of the characters, is through his eyes. Being the only one with education, he views a lot of the events with amusement. As a letter-writer, he is in a perfect position to observe, as all correspondence – personal or business – goes through him. Yet, despite himself, he does not maintain detachment from the people who come to him everyday.

Junoon                                                                                                                                        Shyam Benegal                                                                                                                      India. 1979. 140 min

Junoon, based on Ruskin Bond’s novel A Flight of Pigeonsis the story of Javed Khan (Shashi Kapoor), a pathan, who is smitten by Ruth (Nafisa Ali), a British girl and his obsession for her. Ruth’s father is killed by Sarfraz Khan (Naseeruddin Shah), an indian revolutionary and brother-in-law of Javed. Ruth, her mother and grandmother are all kidnapped by Javed Khan from a money lender’s home where they had taken refuge. Javed Khan, wants to marry Ruth and take her as a second wife but her mother Mariam opposes the marriage by laying out a condition. The rest of the movie is whether Javed keeps his word or will his obsession get the better of him.

Munda                                                                                                                                      Tinna Hrafnsdottir                                                                                                          Island. 2017. 18 min

Munda, a 60 years old woman pastor, has silently been harboring an obsession for over forty years. But one day when she finds out she is being forced to retire everything changes. On the brink of losing everything, Munda finally gathers the courage to confront her fears and hopeless desires.

TINNA HRAFNSDOTTIR

Tinna Hrafnsdóttir is an Icelandic director, screenwriter and producer both in theater and films. She is also a two time Edda Awards nominated actress, holds a MBA degree from Reykjavik University, runs her own independent theater company, Háaloftid, and film production company, Freyja Filmwork.

CONTACT

Tinna Hrafnsdóttir

tinna@internet.is

Retouch                                                                                                                                Kaveh Mazaheri                                                                                                                    Iran. 2017. 20 min

In the corner of the home, Maryam’s husband does weightlifting. Suddenly, the weight falls on his throat and puts him between life and death. Maryam tries to save him, but she just decides to stop helping and stand and watch her husband’s death. After she makes sure her husband is dead, gathered her stuff and goes out with her child. During the day, she pretends her husband is got disappeared and she does not have any news.

KAVEH MAZAHERI

Mazaheri’s first short film, TWEEZERS (2007). To date, he has made three independent short films and more than twenty short and long documentaries for some broadcasts. He is the editor and author of a great many projects aside from his own.
His documentary “A REPORT ABOUT MINA” was official selection of many international film festivals around the world, and won “Special Mention Prize” from Yamagata Documentary Film Festival (Japan 2015).

Some of the films he has directed include:

TWEEZERS (short fiction, Iran 2007)
Official Selection of Opolskie Lamy Film Festival (Poland 2009), Yari Film Festival (Sweden 2009), Third Eye Film Festival (India 2009), Jaipur International Film Festival (India 2009), Tasvir Film Festival (Iran 2014)
SOORI’ S TRIP (doumentary, Iran 2009)
Official Selection of Arsenal Film Festival (UK 2010), Kvinnor I focus Film Festival (Sweden 2010), IBAFF Film Festival (Spain 2010) *Nominated “Best Feature Film”, Extrema Film Festival (Spain 2010), Parvin International Film Festival (Iran 2014)
LABYRINTH (TV docudrama series, Iran 2013, 15 Episodes, for Iranian National Television)
COCKROACH (short fiction, Iran 2015)
Official Selection of 11st Celebration of Khaneh Cinema (Iran), Parvin Film Festival (Iran), Alborz Film Festival (Iran)
*Winner “Best Short Film”
A REPORT ABOUT MINA/GOZARESHI DABARE MINA (doumentary, Iran 2015)
Official Selection of Yamagata Documentary International Film Festival (Japan 2015) *Winner “Special Mention Prize” – Nominated “Ogawa Shinsuke Prize” / Black International Cinema Berlin (Germany 2015) *Winner “Best Film Expressionist Narrative” / Scandinavian International Film Festival (Finland 2016) *Winner “Award of Rcognition” / Cinema Verite Documentary Film Festival (Iran 2015) / 1001Documentary Film Festival (Turkey 2015) / 18th Celebration of Khaneh Cinema (Iran 2015) / Queens World Film Festival (USA 2016) / 6th Dada Saheb Phalke Film Festival (India 2016) / Livermore Valley Film Festival (USA 2016) / International Video Art House Madrid (Spain 2016) / Iranian Film Festival Zurich (Switzerland 2016) / Ferfilm International Film Festival (Kosovo
2016) / All Lights India International Film Festival (India 2016) / The 5th Persian International Film Festival (Australia 2016) / The festival Antropofest (Czech, 2017) / Festival of Iranian Films (Czech, 2017) / Docfeed Film Featival (Netherlands, 2017) / ETHNOCINECA International Documentary Film Festival Vienna (Austria, 2017)
FLIGHT TO PARDIS (TV doumentary, Iran 2016)

CONTACT

Contact Person: Peyvand Sholevar
Ph: +989123049139
marketing@darvashfilm.com

Nabikei                                                                                                                                        Shri Prakash                                                                                                                              India. 2017. 66 min

The American Southwest—especially the sovereign Indigenous nations of Acoma, Laguna, and the Diné or Navajo Nation—has a long history of uranium mining. Once home to a booming economy and proudly called the Uranium Capital of the World, these Indian reservations and poor White communities are now littered with old mines, tailings dams, and other uranium contamination, which is the legacy of this deadly industry.  On the Navajo Nation alone, there are more than 500 abandoned uranium mine sites that need to be addressed.
In spite of the US government’s Clean Air Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, and the Radiation Exposure and Compensation Act, supposedly strict and powerful regulatory agencies like the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and the United States Environmental Protection Agency are almost helpless to mitigate the contamination left by the nuclear industry.
This film explores how colonialism, which came to the Southwest with Spanish conquest, has changed face in modern time, as it is played out in a new quest for mineral resources.
Contaminated land, water, and air have left these poor communities helpless. Their  efforts to gain justice have failed. Indigenous and poverty-stricken communities who suffered the most are trapped and exploited, as new mining companies continue to disregard the health and environment of these people with the lure of a better economy, jobs and new In Situ Leach uranium mining methods.

Unfortunately, this is the same sad story repeated in other parts of the world including India, but in India it is the government itself undertaking the enterprise and repeating the same degradation in Jadugoda (Jharkhand).

SHRI PRAKASH

Shri Prakash is the first filmmaker from Jharkhand to bring a National Award in 2008 for his film ‘Buru Gara’ also his regional language fiction film ‘Baha’ received first international award for the state 2010. Using audio visual medium as a tool for social transformation and empowerment, National Award winner film maker, teaching film studies in St. Xavier’s College, Ranchi.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shriprakash,

CONTACT

Kritika Productions
Shriprakash
Add- Shatya Niketan
Madhukam Lane, near Shashtri Chowk
Ratu raod , Ranchi 834005
Jharkhand
India
+91 9431580434
http://www.shriprakash.com

Veil Done                                                                                                                                    Juhi Bhatt                                                                                                                                  India. 2017. 28 min

Three women from Nizamuddin basti, Delhi, take a decision that sets them on a journey to find themselves- they join a gym.

JUHI BHATT

Juhi Bhatt is a freelance filmmaker based in Mumbai, who has worked on documentaries, television commercials, TV shows and corporate films, on themes including environment, women’s rights, urban infrastructure and financial literacy in rural areas. She has written and directed for organisations such as UNICEF, SAARC, SEWA, Bharat Bala Productions, NDTV Goodtimes and Travelxp Channel.

Shmama                                                                                                                                      Miki Polonski                                                                                                                            Israel. 2017. 25 min

Leah works as a maid in the hotel during the day, while Meital, her daughter, sings at the hotel’s lobby at night. They live trapped in their relationship, surrounded by the Dead Sea.

MIKI POLONSKI

Miki Polonski, 35, born and raised in Bat Yam, Israel. He graduated with distinction from the Film Department of Minshar School of Art, Tel Aviv. He was chosen to participate in Fred Kelemen Master class at Tel Aviv University and graduated with distinction.
He directed:
“Ten Buildings Away” (Short fiction, 2015, La Cinéfondation in Cannes, winning 8 international awards, above 40 festivals, nominated for the Israeli Academy Awards).
“Albina 12” (Short fiction, 2012, nominated for the Israeli Academy Awards, special mention Tel-Aviv International Short Film Festival).
“1 Building and 40 People Dancing” (Documentary, 2015, won the Perlov Fund Prize, DocAviv Film Festival and the Israeli Documentary Filmmakers’ Forum competition, winning 5 international awards, above 10 festivals)
He was chosen to participate in the 2016 German-Israeli short film project, Storyvid, among 5 promising directors.
In 2016, “Shmama”, won best script in the Sam Spiegel and Gesher Multicultural Film Fund script competition.
Polonski received in 2016 a development from the Rabinovich Foundation for the Arts for his debut feature film.

CONTACT

KM Productions
Kobi Mizrahi
1 Simta Almonit St.
Tel-Aviv 6326637, Israel
kobmiz@walla.com
+972-525785388

Tradition                                                                                                                                   Lanka Bandaranayake                                                                                                        Srilanka. 2016.

An old woman decorates a bride with the traditional Sri Lankan jewelry. She describes the symbolic meaning of each jewelry piece. Those meanings carry the girl to her past relationships and their deep scars. The bride’s ultimate destiny seems something illusive.

LANKA BANDARANAYAKE

Ms.Lanka Bandaranayake was born in Anuradhapura, Sri Lanka. She started her career as an actress in 1998. Since then she has won several acting and costume designing national awards. Later she also became a national award Winning Drama Producer and Director.
Her first short film “Tradition” was produced in 2016.

CONTACT

Lanky Films :  lankabandaranayake@ymail.com

Hamja                                                                                                                                          Mehdi Ghanavati                                                                                                                  Iran. 2016. 58 min

The film tells the story of a man called Abdolhassan who has built a village for himself and his family. The village is located in the south of Iran in Boushehr. Their income comes from farming and livestock. There is a private school at the village where the students are all brothers and sisters. Abdolhassan has managed to electrify the village.He has four wives and 27 children.

MEHDI  GHANAVATI

Graduated in filmmaking from Ahvaz Soureh University, Ghanavati began his artistic career in 2002. He got his bachelor’s degree in filmmaking in 2013. He is a filmmaker and a photographer. His directorial film works include Usual Lunatics (2003), Jajim (2004), Sneeze (2013) and Yaft Abad (2013)

CONTACT

mohammad.fartousi@gmail.com