DOCUMENTARY SHORTS COMPETITION 2017 LINE-UP
We announce the line-up of the Documentary Shorts Competition of the 25th anniversary edition of the International Film Festival of the Art of Cinematography CAMERIMAGE.
The aim of the competition is to recognize the art of documentary filmmaking as creative interpretation of reality. Putting emphasis on the visual and aesthetic aspects of the selected nonfiction entries, the jury awards the best cinematographers in the competition.
The prestige of Documentary Shorts Competition was recognized by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which has chosen Camerimage Festival as the ACADEMY AWARD® qualifying festival in the Documentary Short Subject category. This means that the Golden Frog award winners in Documentary Shorts Competition at Camerimage will qualify for consideration in the Documentary Short Subject category of the Annual Academy Awards® without the standard theatrical run, provided that the given film complies with other Academy rules.
Bedtime Stories
During the conversation with his father, the director tries to find out which memories of his father are actually true. He goes to his father's apartment and stumbles across old video cassettes and photos. The things he sees in those videos differ considerably from what the father told him about his life. The material he finds becomes the narrative axis.
Original title: Bajeczki na dobranoc
Director: Marek Ułan-Szymański
Cinematographers: Filip Marek, Marek Ułan-Szymański
Director: Marek Ułan-Szymański
Cinematographers: Filip Marek, Marek Ułan-Szymański
Produced by: Warsaw Film School
Poland, 2016
Poland, 2016
Between Us
A young couple in their 20s are expecting a child, but don’t know if they’ll cope. Faced with unexpected pressures and emotions, they decide to separate and give the child up for adoption. They do not make this decision easily, with only two months remaining until the baby is due. The situation they find themselves in leads to conversations and experiences that will have a lasting impact upon the rest of their lives.
Director: Maciej Miller
Cinematographers: Martyna Krasińska, Maciej Miller
Produced by: Gdynia Film School
Poland, 2017
Poland, 2017
Cucli
Ramon lives with his parents, although he is away most of the week working as a truck driver. These are long and lonely trips until he meets a very special companion that changes everything. Cucli tells a story about love and companionship after death and its transformative effect. How, through memories, the supernatural can find its way into our mundane lives.
Cinematograpers: Oriol Colomar, Xavier Marrades
Produced by: Xavier Marrades
Spain, 2016
Spain, 2016
Edith+Eddie
Edith and Eddie, 96 and 95 years old, are America’s oldest interracial newlyweds. Their love story is disrupted by a family feud that threatens to tear the couple apart.
Cinematographers: Neil Barrett, John Larson, Laura Checkoway
Produced by: Kartemquin Films, Heart is Red LLC
USA, 2017
USA, 2017
Find Fix Finish
‘In Afghanistan, I saw a couple making love on a roof’: we know very little of the day-to-day work of the pilots carrying out ‘targeted assassinations’ with military drones. Three Americans agreed to testify in voiceover about their experience, which is paradoxically one of intimacy and cruelty, over aerial images that they could have filmed themselves, to ‘Find, Fix, Finish’.
Cinematographer: Nikolai Huber
Produced by: Veronika Faistbauer, Mariella Santibáñez
Germany, 2017
Germany, 2017
Good Fight, The
Alan Duarte was born and lives in the notorious favela community of Complexo do Alemão in Rio de Janeiro. The community lacks many basic facilities such as basic sanitation, and endures shootouts between police and armed drug traffickers on a daily basis. Alan’s family has been deeply affected by the conflict in the community and he has lost nine close family members to gun violence. Alan tried to define a different future for himself and he found salvation and hope through boxing. However, when his brother was killed in front of him, he decided that wasn’t enough and began his own boxing gym, calling it ‘Embracing Champions’. Without funding and with huge passion, he works to try and save others and to create both a better future and a better community for his son.
Cinematographer: Neirin Jones
Produced by: Beija Films
Brazil, 2017
Brazil, 2017
Inner Me
Butembo, North Kivu, DR Congo. While following Jemima, a curious little girl who wanders dusty roads, crowded markets, slaughterhouses, furnaces and bat hunters, we become acquainted with three women who describe the harsh realities of being born female and deaf in a society that discriminates against both women and people with disabilities. The stories of Immaculée, Sylvie, and Stuka are stories of the everyday struggle against marginalisation, abuse, and oppression. But despite the insurmountable obstacles imposed on them by society, the protagonists show us how their strong and undefeated will allows them to take hold of their fate every single day and reveals the beautiful resilience of the human spirit.
Director: Antonio SpanòCinematographer: Antonio Spanò
Produced by: Office Number Four
Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, 2016
Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, 2016
Lake, The
In the severe landscape of northern Russia, there is a huge lake and two people in mourning. The Filippovs are a middle-aged married couple who spend most of their time close to the beautiful, yet dangerous nature around them. Their life, far away from civilisation, is accompanied by a camera that records the tedium of their everyday reality. The lake is the centre of their existence – it provides them with food, but takes away life. The water claimed the life of their beloved son. He is shown in the photos and mentioned in his parents’ short conversations, which are filled with grief and mutual grievances.
Polish title: Jezioro
Director: Daria Blokhina
Cinematographer: Daria Blokhina
Director: Daria Blokhina
Cinematographer: Daria Blokhina
Produced by: Daria Blokhina
Russia, 2016
Russia, 2016
Land of the Wind
Patagonia. Further south than most people ever dare to venture, there’s a land of endless distance and beauty. When photographer Eliseo Miciu explores and shoots this mythical place, he also learns more about himself.
Director: Laura Belinky
Cinematographer: Theo Ribeiro
Produced by: Wild River Films Limited
UK, Argentina, 2017
UK, Argentina, 2017
Leocadia's Dream
Outside the store, the noise of Barcelona’s Las Ramblas promenade is audible. To one side there are stands with Catalan souvenirs ‘Made in China’. Inside, on the shop’s shelves, there are old vinyl records of classical and opera music. On the chair behind the counter sits Leocadia, with her beloved dog Neska on her knees. She used to say that she came to work here eighty years ago, when she was in her ‘mum’s womb’. She has always loved music. Now she is humming Beethoven’s fifth symphony and waiting for the next client to talk with. Once even DiCaprio was here...
Director: Krzysztof Nowicki
Cinematographer: Xavier Casas
Produced by: Ragusa Film
Poland, 2017
Poland, 2017
One Two Zero
Director: Anna Pawluczuk
Cinematographer: Piotr Żurawski
Produced by: Lodz Film School
Poland, 2017
Poland, 2017
Overprotected. 30 Years of Loneliness.
Directors: Maksym Musiian, Serhii Stetsenko
Cinematographer: Serhii Stetsenko
Produced by: International Media Center STB PJSC
Ukraine, 2017
Ukraine, 2017
Soukeina, 4400 Days of Night
After the Moroccan military occupation of Western Sahara, hundreds of people were made to disappear in secret jails. Soukeina was one of them: she went missing for 10 years. When she got her freedom back, the world had completely changed.
Director: Laura Sipán
Cinematographer: Costis Mitsotakis, Laura Sipán
Produced by: Promofest
Spain, 2017
Spain, 2017
Symbiophony
What sounds can you hear in silence? How does the world of humans sound to other beings? Is it possible to create a symphony from sounds that humans are unable to hear? Meanwhile, Homo sapiens and Atta sexdens ants are residing in a shared space in a homemade laboratory. The symbiotic dependence of these two beings takes on a completely unique form…
Directors: Eugeniusz Pankov
Cinematographer: Jakub Wójcik
Produced by: Lodz Film School
Poland, 2017
Poland, 2017
Watani: My Homeland
Watani: My Homeland tells the story of the Syrian Civil War through one family’s experience, following the lives of three young girls and their brother over three years. This remarkable film shows the wide-reaching impact of war, exploring the resilience of young children and their capacity to find hope and new beginnings in desperate situations. With the refugee crisis unfolding across Europe, there has never been a more relevant time to explore this gruelling journey.
Cinematographers: Marcel Mettelsiefen, Mahmoud Alhaji Othman, Mike Simpson
Produced by: ITN Production
USA, 2016
USA, 2016
White Helmets, The
As daily airstrikes pound civilian targets in Syria, a group of indomitable first responders risk their lives to rescue victims from the rubble.
Cinematographers: Franklin Dow, Fadi Al Halabi, Hassan Kattan, Khaled Khateeb
Produced by: Grain Media
UK, 2016
UK, 2016
Words of Caramel
In a refugee camp in the Sahara Desert lives a deaf boy who wishes to learn how to write. Welcome to Kori and his best friend the camel Caramel’s silent world.
Director: Juan Antonio Moreno Amador
Cinematographer: Javier Cerdá
Produced by: Making DOC Producciones, S.L.
Spain, 2016
Spain, 2016
Zhalanash - Empty Shore
Żalanasz (Zhalanash) was a beautiful fishing village on the Aral Sea. A place of prosperity, full of life. Owing to the absurd plans of the Soviet authorities, it became a desert village covered with pesticide-poisoned sand. The residents adapted to their new conditions, just like a person can get used to an illness. They settled in the void. In a place without time, where memories are dreams, and where everyday life involves waiting for the return of the sea. Its memory is tangible here - it is alive and much more important than the present. It allows them to survive.
Director: Marcin Sauter
Cinematographer: Marcin Sauter
Produced by: Studio Filmowe Kronika
Poland, 2017
Poland, 2017
