11th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2023
Documentary Section - International films
The Challengers
Dir : Rhonda Chan Soo; 21 min; Trinidad and Tobago; Documentary
Undocumented
Dir :Sampsa Huttunen, Ann-Mari Leinonen; 50 min; Finland; Documentary
In Finland, invisible to the majority, live undocumented people, whose daily lives are filled with hopelessness, uncertainty and fear of what lies ahead. How to build a life in a country, where you don't officially even exist?
At the Beginning of the End
Dir: Rebeka Bizubova; 22:00; Slovakia; Documentary
The documentary At the Beginning of the End opens up the topics of old age, love, and death. It offers the viewer a wide spectrum of knowing the relationship between mother and daughter in the final phase of their existence. It examines the lives of women, their unusual position in society, and at the same time reflects the life of an ordinary person against the background of the eastern Slovak village of Milhostov.
The Last Seed
Dir: Andrea Gema; 01:17:30; South Africa; Documentary
The Last Seed focuses on broad themes relating to the state of food and agriculture in Africa in the 21st century. Placing the struggle over the control of seed at the centre, it explains the processes that have led to this moment in human history and what it would take to interact with the planet in a way that does not threaten the very basis of life on earth.
The film raises two fundamental questions - what have we lost, and who can show us a better way? - and attempts to answer these questions using music, dance, moving visuals and the lived experiences and stories of African small-scale food producers.
The Caring Women of Udora
Dir: Anna Koryakovtseva; 45:00; Russian Federation; Documentary
Every year, an ancient rite dedicated to Saint Paraskeva Friday takes place in the village of Krivoe in the Udora district of Komi. her icon is washed with water from the local river with the help of... grouse feathers! The heroines of our film are 9 women of various ages, but even their seemingly everyday routine is permeated with the charm and amazing magic of the Russian North…
Las Abogadas: Attorneys on the Front Lines of the Migrant Crisis
Dir: Victoria Bruce; 01:34:00; United States; Documentary
Las Abogadas follows four immigration attorneys over a multi-year odyssey beginning in 2018 as the U.S. government under President Trump upends every law to protect those fleeing from violence and war – and into 2021 when things fail to get better (and in some ways get worse) under President Biden.
We watch the valiant efforts of our protagonists: Rebecca Eichler setting up a legal clinic in a Volkswagen van in the middle of 5,000 desperate migrants; Charlene D’Cruz forcing border guards to follow the law and accept three disabled children into U.S. custody; Mulu Alemayehu crossing the border to counsel African migrants stuck in Tijuana; Jodi Goodwin giving legal advice in the brutally hot Mexican sun to families desperate to see American soil.
It's Not About London
Dir: Tam Lai; 12:24; United Kingdom; Documentary
A Poetic experimental documentary that I compiled and re-wrote the interviewees' answers into a poem. Then, based on the poem, we shot the visual around London and in the studio with the minimum crew.
NAMARALI
Dir: Tim Mummery; 52:11; Australia; Documentary
NAMARALI is a documentary on the charting artist Donny (Yorna) Woolagoodja's quest to rekindle deep connections with his traditional ancestral culture. Yorna's spiritual beliefs revolve around the wandjina - creator beings whose images adorn the caves and rock ledges throughout the Kimberley in Western Australia. Refreshed with new ochre each year by his ancestors the wandjinas are now fading away with the absence of Yorna's people.
NAMARALI was created over 20 years by Tim Mummery and senior knowledge keeper Yorna Woolagoodja (2021 Red Ochre lifetime achievement award).
Fikirte
Dir: Yi Wu; 01:10:10; Ethiopia; Documentary
Fikirte, a 24-year-old single mother in Ethiopia. She lives in a container by the side of the road with her young children and sells coffee for a living.
After two failed marriages, she became pregnant unexpectedly, But her boyfriend went far away and lost contact. More unfortunately, the place where she lives is facing demolition, and the mother and her children are about to live on the streets. In the face of the cruelty of fate, how can she fight for her rights? Where should she go to find her home?
Bully
Dir: Alejandro Mendoza Llopis; 9:30; United states; Documentary
How does it feel when your classmates point at you, insult you, and hit you for being different, or even more unfair, just for fun? Bullying is a reality... Bullying is unwanted and aggressive behavior among school-age children that involves a real or perceived imbalance of power. The behavior is repeated or tends to be repeated over time. Both children who are bullied and those who bully can have serious and long-lasting problems.
A pain in the neck
Dir: Fernando Romero-Forsthuber, Pablo Zanon; 01:05:00; Austria / Mexico; Documentary
“La piedra en el zapato” is a feature documentary about the struggle and efforts of Mexican students and teachers to form children into critical thinking citizens, despite facing the -sometimes deadly - hostility of the Mexican State.
A Pile of Ghosts
Dir: Ella Raidel; 01:10:00; Austria / China; Documentary
A ghost story of urbanization. The last hotel, which has been condemned for demolition like the rest of the town, is still standing. The owner Charles imagines himself with a female visitor in the scenes of a Hollywood classic. The vexing interplay of documentary and fiction, in which construction workers, investors and real estate agents appear, takes place in contemporary China, where cities are built entirely on speculation, dictated by the fictions of capitalism.
Toang
Dir: Rizky Maulana; 36:40; Netherlands / Indonesia; Documentary
Toang is an intimate portrait of a rice paddy farmer (Edi Sutaryadi) and his family in Indramayu, Indonesia, who were in a precarious situation due to the cycle of indebtment and environmental degradation that the Green Revolution brought to Indonesia.
Anwar
Dir: Rosa García Loire; 01:10:00; Spain; Documentary
Alex Txikon’s winter ascension on Manaslu, Nepal, is the seed of a story that will bring sustainable light to two very different places: Newton, Sierra Leone, and a special school in Diamer, Pakistan. Alpinism, solidarity and renewable energy are key to this story.
80 YEARS LATER
Dir: Celine Parreñas Shimizu; 50:00; United States; Documentary
The feature documentary 80 YEARS LATER explores the racial inheritance of Japanese American family incarceration during World War II through multigenerational conversations with survivors and their descendants.
In the 80th anniversary of Executive Order 9066 that imprisoned 120,000 Japanese Americans in World War II, families still grapple with the legacy of their experience. How does one inherit traumatic history across generations?
Awadagin Pratt: Black in America
Dir: Michelle Bauer Carpenter; 25:25; United States; Documentary
Awadagin Pratt: Black in America is a moving documentary that combines performance and interview footage to provide an intimate view of prejudice in America and the racial injustice faced by famous concert pianist Awadagin Pratt.
Maka
Dir: Elia Moutamid; 51:56; Italy; Documentary
Maka presents Geneviéve Makaping’s life in Italy and perilous migration journey. By sharing Makaping’s experience as the first Black news editor in Italy, Maka speaks out against the media representation of immigrants and offers an evocative examination of the intersection between sexism and racism in Italy. From Moroccan-born Italian director Elia Moutamid, this riveting documentary offers a poignant exploration of displacement, identity, and belonging.
The adventures of saul bellow
Dir: Asaf Galay; 01:25:45; United States; Documentary
The film traces Bellow's rise to eminence and examines his many identities: reluctant public intellectual, 'serial husband', father, Chicagoan, Jew and American. Interviews with the novelist's family and friends will shed new light on Bellow's personality and the way he turned life into art.
LO QUE QUEDA EN EL CAMINO
Dir: Jakob Krese, Danilo Do Carmo; 01:33:00; Germany / Mexico; Documentary
LO QUE QUEDA EN EL CAMINO tells the story of Lilian and her four children as they migrate in search for a better life. The family leaves Guatemala, joining a caravan of thousands of other people trying to reach the Mexico-US border. Being a single mother, this is Lilian’s best chance to make the dangerous journey.
We follow LILIAN and her kids SERGIO (12), BLANCA (8), NOE (6), and ANALI (3) marching and hitchhiking through Mexico using trailers and trains, struggling to get further North. During the journey of 3000 miles we get to know their family bonds and witness how they master the difficult path in their very own way.
Unwell mind
Dir: Danna Levy; 38:52; Israel; Documentary
Danna (a student) and Yael (a woman with a mental disability) have difficulties in their romantic lives. They discover that it is their bond with each other that gives them the support they both needed.
Besetzt - Lobau bleibt!
Dir: Gerald Baumann, Aron Ebner, Matteo Molina; 30:00; Austria; Documentary
The 30min cinema verite documentary is about climate activists that occupied several construction sites in Vienna, Austria for almost a year to stop the construction of two highways, crossing the nature reserve Lobau.
The documentary gives an unfiltered view on how the daily life of an activist looks like and what few individuals can achieve in an extreme situation like an occupation.
The orphanage of records
Dir: Remo Carlo Notarianni; 19:15; Hong Kong; Documentary
Music lover Paul Au escaped war-torn Vietnam in 1975 to live in Hong Kong, where he fulfilled his dream of owning a record shop. His passion for vinyl has endured in an age of digital music. For Paul, downloading music is like “drinking champagne with a paper cup,” and vinyl not only reminds him of his youth, but also music that defines a lifestyle
Dear Audrey
Dir: Jeremiah Hayes; 01:29:00; Canada; Documentary
Acclaimed activist filmmaker Martin Duckworth has devoted his life to peace and justice. But now he’s put down his camera to fight for the most important cause he’s ever faced—caring for his wife, Audrey Schirmer, through the final stages of Alzheimer’s. Martin tirelessly embraces each new chapter with grace and resilience, demonstrating his unconditional loyalty as he finds new reasons to love her each day.
Globes
Dir: Nina de Vroome; 01:38:00; Belgium; Documentary
While dancing, bees tell each other stories about the world around them. People also claim a role in those stories, sometimes very close and intimate, sometimes distant and on an industrial scale. Nina de Vroome's thoughts also swarm with the bees: from the smallest cell in a honeycomb to the global economy, her essayistic nature documentary Globes charts the bond between humans and bees. As accomplished storytellers, they both give shape to their lives under the sun.
Freedom Squared
Dir: Anastasia Zverkova; 01:05:55; Russian Federation; Documentary
The plot is centered around two scientific experiments that simulate a long-distance space flight. Physiologist Nikolai Osetsky goes to Antarctica to study human vision in conditions closely resembling those of the Moon. Meanwhile, a group of testers from Russia and the United States are locked in a replica of a spaceship to test the effects of isolation on themselves. Both experiments led participants into a state of severe loneliness. It raises the question: is a human being ready for a long-distance spaceflight not only physically, but also spiritually?
When the dust clears
Dir: Leo Kang, Sam Lam; 39:46; China; Documentary
War is like the dust raised by the wheels that crush the pavement. As the dust settles, the pavement reveals its indelible scars. The children born in the cracks in the pavement are growing up with the dangers of war, but they are still trying to grow up in their own way, and it seems that more people need to help them in this effort.
Brave
Dir: Wilmarc Val; 26:00; France / Haiti; Documentary
This documentary tells the story of how, when a Haitian voodoo priestess, a Mambo, dies, it is up to the children to celebrate the deity she served. It’s time for my mother to come home to perform this ritual in honor of my late grandmother.
Strangers in Sendai - Andi and Me
Dir: Atsushi Kadowaki; 39:38; Japan; Documentary
I first met Andi in 2016 when I started to join an international interactive project connecting earthquake and tsunami affected Aceh (Indonesia) and Tohoku (Japan). The stories Andi san told showed me a different face of my hometown, Sendai. So I decided to shoot with him.
The documentary "Strangers in Sendai" is a community art project by contemporary artist Atsushi Kadowaki, who lives in Sendai. It is a series in which multiple directors shoot the "strangers" who lives in Sendai. It started in 2021, and a total of 7 works were produced by 4 directors in March 2022.
Sex Relish (A solo orgasm)
Dir: Ananda Safo; 11:50; France; Documentary
In this endless pandemic area, where our sexuality has sometimes had to evolve, has been tested, women from different backgrounds offer their intimate testimonies, addressing their desires and pleasures in solitude.
Kubra
Dir: Mélanie Trugeon; 11:11; France; Documentary
Kubra is an Afghan performing artist and a refugee based in Paris. Her body is the medium she's chosen to search for her own history. Her connection to the world and to the body is transformed by her current situation but her art remains condemned. Is fighting the only way for Kubra to be in this world?
Imad’s childhood
Dir: Zahavi Sanjavi; 01:17:00; Sweden; Documentary
Aktrissa
Dir: Oxana Gritsaeva; 11:11; France; Documentary
Short documentary about an actress who migrated to a foreign country and misses her former success. She finds comfort in mentally playing her different characters.
The Beyond
Dir: Daniel Maurer; 9:42; Switzerland; Documentary
The second wave of Covid significantly increased mortality in hospitals. What does this mean for the work of Mathieu, employed in the morgue of a regional hospital center? How does he relate to these people whose souls have recently left their bodies?
Flamingos 5895m N.N.
Dir: Fabian Rieke; 7:20; Germany; Documentary
The Film is about the archives we create of our lives. My grandfather projects his carefully numbered die positives in his basement. They are the proof of his mountain adventures back in the days of his youth. The positives are filmed on 16mm negative and come to live anew, while the memory fades. The reality of the everyday life of the protagonist in the suburbia of a german country town is in juxtaposition to the past. What will happen to our memories? What legacy can we leave behind?
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