ETHNOCINECA 2020 ONLINE EDITION
8 DAYS – 8 FILMS
We selected eight films for the Online Edition. Films that speak to us through political and poetic-sensory documentary approaches, telling stories of waiting and active resistance. Films that show the human perseverance of living in times of political upheaval, eviction and refuge. Films that engage with social controversies and the poetry of relationships between humans and nature. Especially in times when we are faced with uncertainties and many open questions, these films emphasise the power and beauty of the filmic narrative.
Information
The programme of the first online edition of ethnocineca presents eight Austrian premieres of contemporary documentaries from the ethnocineca 2020 festival programme. The films are accessible for eight days between May 7-14 via the video-platform vimeo for a national and international audience. There are also dates for live video chats with the filmmakers during the festival week (see below) – links to the chat rooms will be activated on the day of the Q&A.
The lending of one film costs 3,90€. Once you registered and made your payment you can watch the film within 48 hours. Available payment methods are credit cards and Paypal.
FILMS
LIVE VIDEO CHATS WITH THE FILMMAKERS
Sunday 10.5, 5pm (CET) – Boris Svartzman from A NEW ERA
Monday 11.05, 6 pm (CET) – Yehuda Sharim from SONGS THAT NEVER END
Tuesday, 12.05, 5 pm (CET) – Tiago Hespanha from CAMPO
Wednesday 13.05, 4 pm (CET) – Arash T. Riahi about SOLO
Wednesday 13.05, 5 pm (CET) – Sasha Kulak from QUICKSILVER CHRONICLES
Wednesday 13.05, 6 pm (CET) – Nicolas Graux from CENTURY OF SMOKE
Thursday 14.05, 5 pm (CET) – Parsifal Reparato from NIMBLE FINGERS
Thursday 14.05, 6 pm (CET) – Tomaso Clavarino from GHIACCIO – SWEEPING LIVES
A NEW ERA
Boris Svartzman | China, France 2019 | 72 Min. | OmeU
In the river Zhujiang, in the middle of the megapolis Guangzhou, lies a little populated island – a thorn in the side of the authorities of the growing metropolis. In 2008, the expropriation and eviction of two thousand inhabitants was initiated to make way for new urban planning projects – a fate shared by millions of Chinese citizens every year. Despite the demolition of their houses and pressure from the authorities, a few residents refuse to leave their homes. For seven years the anthropologist Boris Svartzman accompanied them through the struggle to save their homeland.
A new Era allows us to take part in the fate of dispossessed people and unadornedly documents their seemingly hopeless resistance.
TRAILER
CAMPO
Tiago Hespanha | Portugal 2019 | 101 Min. | OmeU
Where do the contradictions and mysteries of life unravel best? At the outskirts of Lisbon lies Campo, Europe’s largest military base. There military troops train their fictional missions, amateur astronomers appreciate the area for observing the starry sky above the military training area – while a boy plays the piano for the wild deer lurking in the dark.
Campo reflects on the nature of the mundane and the transcendental, and through impressionistic images reveals reality and the world of thought as inextricably intertwined.
TRAILER
CENTURY OF SMOKE
Nicolas Graux | Laos, Belgium 2018 | 90 Min. | OmeU
Laosan, a young family man, spends most of his time smoking opium. In his remote village in the heart of the Laotian jungle, opium farming is the only way to secure one’s livelihood. But opium is also the poison that leads the men to indifference and lack of prospects, while the women have to carry on their apathetic husbands’ work: the opium production.
Century of Smoke provides intimate insights into this social aporia, and its minimalist approach creates a dark and kafkaesque picture of an almost unbearable life.
TRAILER
GHIACCIO – SWEEPING LIVES
Tomaso Clavarino | Italy 2019 | 70 Min. | OmeU
The rock was delivered and came to a stop in the house. “Team Africa” wins the first set of the Italian C-League Championship of Curling with 2:0. Kebba, James, Edward, Seedia, Lamin and Joseph came from Gambia and Sierra Leone and decided not to spend their time just waiting for their stay and employment permit. On the frosty field, they can forget about their difficult and insecure situation for a moment and the slippery ice provides them with a apparent stability.
Ghiacco – Sweeping Lives is both a tense and humorous depiction of hopes and dreams of many African migrants in Europe, as most of them are damned to do nothing but waiting for their uncertain future.
TRAILER
NIMBLE FINGERS
Parsifal Reparato | Vietnam, Italy 2018 | 52 Min. | OmeU
The young migrant worker Bay earns her and her family’s living in Thai Long, a suburb of Hanoi and one of the biggest industrial production sites in the world. The work is hard and follows stringent rules that are strictly controlled. Particularly women are expected to work tirelessly and with absolute obedience. Only when Bay travels to her native village for the Tet-celebrations she finds time to reflect on her condition.
Through impressive animations, Nimble Fingers exposes the fundaments on which the global production chain is built and unveils the fears and dreams of the exploited producers.
TRAILER
QUICKSILVER CHRONICLES
Ben Guez, Sasha Kulak | USA, Russia 2019 | 75 Min. | OmeU
During the big gold rush in central California, the New Idria Mining Company opened the second biggest quicksilver mine in the USA. In the 1970s, when the mining company finally shut down, it left behind a contaminated region. In the following years, three locals dreamed of creating an ideal society as an alternative to the American dream. Kate, her brother Kemp and the photographer Tom are still living in the bleak landscape and chase their philosophical goals and the ideological glamour of past days in their bizarre conversations. All the while observing the world outside through their TVs.
Quicksilver Chronicles follows the residents in their quest to find out how differing life plans in neoliberal times could be shaped and introduces us to a force of friendship and visions of youthful enthusiasm, that reverberates long after the 1970s.
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SOLO
Artemio Benki | Argentina, Czech Republic, France, Austria 2019 | 85 Min.
Since his collapse four years ago, the young Argentinian pianist and composer Martín has been a patient at the famous but controversial psychatric clinic in Latin America, El Borda. The former wonder child is trying to overcome his diagnosed schizoprenia to return to a life outside the hospital walls. Working on his new composition Enfermaria he tries to get back to the big concert stages.
Solo tells the unique yet universal story of a person driven by perfection and creativity, who draws his strength from his own fragility.
TRAILER
SONGS THAT NEVER END
Yehuda Sharim | USA 2019 | 114 Min. | OmeU
Having fled their home in Iran, the Dayan family is now being greeted in Houston, Texas, with hurricanes and perilous politics. As the family comes to grips with life in the sprawling Texan metropolis, quick-witted nine-year-old Hana struggles to be heard, striving for all that has been lost, which should now slowly return: the hunger for the future and for songs about a peaceful world.
Through the direct interaction between the filmmaker and the family members, Songs that Never End develops a deeply human family portrait, a story of (non-)arrival and what we all have in common as human beings.
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