We announce the Documentary Special Screenings of the 32nd edition of EnergaCAMERIMAGE Film Festival.
AFTERWAR
The children transform into adults before our eyes. Yet they remain in limbo, haunted by memories, and dreaming of a better future. Combining raw realism and staged performance, Afterwar is a meditation on the long-term repercussions of war - a cinematic testament created over a period of 15 years.
Director: Birgitte Stærmose
Cinematographers: Troels N'koya-Jensen, Marek Septimus Wieser
Produced by: Danish Film Institute (DFI), Kabineti, Magic Hour Films, Oy Bufo, Vilda Bomben Film
Country and year: Denmark, Kosovo, Sweden, Finland, 2024
AGENT OF HAPPINESS
There is a tiny country in the Himalayas the ruler of which decides to measure the level of happiness of his people. Traveling around the country, 40-year-old Amber is tasked with surveying its inhabitants to determine the averaged level of their well-being. The film humorously tells the story of such an elusive and difficult-to-classify emotion, raising questions about whether feelings can be measured at all. Can the mere pursuit of happiness already be a state of happiness? The people of Bhutan have the answer to that.
Directors: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
Cinematographers: Arun Bhattarai, Dorottya Zurbó
Produced by: BNB Film, Match Frame Productions
Country and year: Bhutan, Hungary, 2024
AS THE TIDE COMES IN
The 27 residents of the Danish Wadden Sea island of Mandø experience the forces of climate change in the form of severe weather and the risk of flooding. However, they stubbornly cling to their identity as islanders, as they have done for generations.
Original title: Før Stormen
Director: Juan Palacios
Cinematographers: Juan Palacios
Produced by: Elk Film
Country and year: Denmark, 2023
THE BASEMENT
On the 3rd of March 2022, nearly 400 people of the Ukrainian village Yahidne are locked by Russian troops in a 160 square meters school basement for 27 days. The livestock is killed, the farms devastated. One year later everything appears peaceful. The dogs are running around and the gardens are green, but the wounds have barely healed. The children play war; the adults fluctuate between getting on with things and remembering. A testimony to strength and solidarity.
Director: Roman Blazhan
Cinematographer: Andriy Noha, Mikhail Volkov
Produced by: Elda Productions, Minimal Movie
Country and year: France, Ukraine, 2024
ECHO OF YOU
When 86-year-old Rene buys flowers, he always thinks about what color his wife would have chosen if she were alive. Like most people in this film, he spent more time with his partner than without. Through candid, revealing interviews, Echo of You presents a group of Danish men and women, all aged 80+. With poignant openness and honesty, they share their thoughts on their life partnerships; lost loves who, one way or another, are no longer with them. They discuss the heartbreak of losing a life partner, and the ways in which life goes on.
Original title: Ekko af kærlighed
Director: Zara Zerny
Cinematographer: Jacob Sofussen
Produced by: Manna Film
Country and year: Denmark, 2023
LIFE AND DEATHS OF MAX LINDER
After 8 years of frame by frame work using AI, neural networks, and other state-of-the-art technology, Life and Deaths of Max Linder is finally completed. The film was made as if it had been shot by an unknown filmmaker 100 years ago and rediscovered today. The entire work is based on carefully researched documentation. The story depicts Max Linder, the pioneer of early silent film comedy who was a mentor to Charlie Chaplin and first international screen star once revered in France, throughout Europe, and in Hollywood.
Original title: Vie et morts de Max Linder
Director: Edward Porembny
Cinematographers: Joo Joostberens
Produced by: AMP Polska Edward Porembny
Country and year: Poland, 2024
LOOK INTO MY EYES
Whether we believe in the possibility of communicating with the spirits of the dead or not, this film will not leave us feeling indifferent. Besides, it’s not about believing. The director doesn’t even attempt to convince us that the seven psychics the story is about are actually endowed with supernatural powers. What they are able to do is sit across from a stranger and give them a clear thought, direct them on a track to help them analyse their problems. What makes people pay for their services? This question also hangs in the air. The documentary cleverly shifts between irony and frank openness, telling the story of the everyday work of a psychic.
Director: Lana Wilson
Cinematographers: Stephen Maing
Produced by: A24, Drifting Cloud Productions
Country and year: USA, 2024
THE LOST LEGACY OF TONY GAUDIO
In 1906, Gaetano “Tony” Gaudio, a young man from Calabria, set out for the American Dream. Under the shadow of the Statue of Liberty, he quickly strengthened his passion for cinematography. He contributed to the founding of Hollywood, where his revolutionary talent was honored in 1937 with an Oscar®, the first in history for an Italian. Today, that statuette is missing. 75 years later, his descendants in Los Angeles and a detective begin the search for that precious award, piecing together the fascinating life of Tony Gaudio in the hope of reclaiming the lost legacy.
Director: Alessandro Nucci
Cinematographer: Gianluca Gattabria, Alessandro Nucci
Produced by: Open Fields Productions
Country and year: Italy, 2023
NEW KIND OF WILDERNESS
For years, a family of parents and their four children enjoy a self-sufficient life on a Norwegian farm, away from the hustle and bustle of the city, in harmony with nature. Then an unexpected tragedy turns their lives upside down. Their compassion for each other also extends to their animals, house and the surrounding nature. Personal photos and home video footage intertwined with the film’s narrative emphasize the psychological dimension of the passage of time. The film raises the question of how to manage oneself and one’s family in times of sorrow. It highlights the need to accept change and find a new path in life.
Director: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen
Cinematographers: Silje Evensmo Jacobsen, Karine Fosser, Espen Gjermundrød, Line K. Lyngstadaas, Natalja Safronova, Fred Arne Wergeland
Produced by: A5 Film
Country and year: Norway, 2024
THE NEW MAN
Quirino, 77, has lived for more than 30 years in an abandoned village in Cabo Verde, at the bottom of a deep valley, between the sea and the mountains. The film takes us on a journey through the days and nights of the past, present and future of a village, a land and a man, and finally, meditates on our ontological relationship with the finitude of time and space.
Original title: Omi Nobu
Director: Carlos Yuri Ceuninck
Cinematographer: Arilson Almeida
Produced by: Autentika Films, Black Balance Artistic Production, Korikaxoru Films, Neon Rouge Production
Country and year: Cape Verde, Belgium, Sudan, Germany, 2023
NO OTHER LAND
For half a decade, Basel Adra, a Palestinian activist, films his community of Masafer Yatta as it is destroyed by Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. During this struggle, he builds an unlikely bond with a journalist from the other side who joins his fight.
Directors: Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
Cinematographers: Rachel Szor
Produced by: Antipode Films, Yabayay Media
Country and year: Palestine, Norway, 2024
PER FOREVER
Per Forever offers a broad look at the life of Per Jonsson, a world champion and one of the most talented speedway riders in history. It has been over 30 years since the tragic accident that ended his sports career, but his legend lives on. This is an inspiring story with an important message, especially for the younger generation, who can learn from experiences, life, and career of a man who, despite unimaginable difficulties, never gave up.
Director: Tomasz Gezela
Cinematographers: Tomasz Gezela, Łukasz Śliwa
Produced by: Red Cow Media, Śliwers Pic.
Country and year: Poland, Sweden, 2024
SUGARCANE
A stunning tribute to the resilience of Native people and their way of life – Sugarcane, the debut feature documentary from Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie, is an epic cinematic portrait of a community during a moment of international reckoning. Set amidst a ground-breaking investigation into abuse and death at an Indian residential school, the film empowers participants to break cycles of intergenerational trauma by bearing witness to painful, long-ignored truths – and the love that endures within their families despite the revelation of genocide.
Directors: Emily Kassie, Julian Brave NoiseCat
Cinematographer: Emily Kassie, Christopher LaMarca
Produced by: Hedgehog Films, Kassie Films
Country and year: USA, Canada, 2024
ULA
Ula is a jazz love story shot in Super 8 and a film portrait of Urszula Dudziak, one of the greatest Polish jazz vocalists of all time. It’s a moving story about emancipation: of a woman, an artist and an emigrant. Woven from personal memories and home movies, it tells a story of finding one’s voice, between the facts and a state of mind. And all this being set in Western Europe and New York of the ’70s, with participation of jazz giants and voice of Jerzy Kosiński, the author of Painted Bird.
Director: Agnieszka Iwańska
Cinematographer: Urszula Dudziak
Produced by: Agencja Reklamowa Koma 2 Michał Szymanowicz, Telewizja Polska (TVP)
Country and year: Poland, 2023
THE WOLVES ALWAYS COME AT NIGHT
After a devastating storm wrought by climate change forces them from their home in the Mongolian countryside to the city, a young couple is forced to adapt to a new way of life in this breathtaking and heartbreaking hybrid film.
Director: Gabrielle Brady
Cinematographer: Michael Latham
Produced by: Chromosom Film, Guru Media, Over Here Productions, Storming Donkey Productions, WeirAnderson Films
Country and year: Australia, Mongolia, Germany, 2024