24th Ji.hlava International Documentary Film Festival
Borders
synopsis
An immobile camera monitors a path winding through the fields. The movements of the crowd are a harbinger of the interruption of the static image. The procession of refugees, under the watchful eye of military forces, winds in an orderly fashion through the Slovenian countryside. They march on, uninterested in the camera’s eye or in the revelation of their existence.
biography
The acclaimed Slovenian director Damjan Kozole (1964) is the creator of successful feature films such as Spare Parts (2003) and Nightlife (2016), winner of the Best Director award at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.
more about film
| director: | Damjan Kozole |
| producer: | Danijel Hočevar |
| script: | Damjan Kozole |
| photography: | Matjaz Mrak |
| editing: | Jurij Moškon |
| sound: | Julij Zornik |
other films in the section
Nomads in the seas of Indonesia say that when a women gives birth to a child, she also gives birth to its twin in the form of an octopus. A look at a cultural environment shaped by traditional folk beliefs. The camera follows a man swimming with his face submerged in the sea in a ritual honouring the octopus. Dishonouring your aquatic brother can lead to misfortune.
Oh Brother Octopus
Florian Kunert
Germany / 2017 / 27 min.
section: Short Joy
East European Premiere
Juan Medina’s photograph from 2006 shows a man crawling along a Mediterranean beach shortly after being washed ashore. The film further develops the scene, loosely inspired by the moment captured in the picture. Like frozen puppets, the people remain unaware of their callousness towards someone who is taking his first steps towards a better life.
Summer
Ronny Trocker
France, Belgium / 2016 / 7 min.
section: Short Joy
Czech Premiere
A grassy area fills with arriving cars. The passengers are given bread and wine and a programme for the religious service. All they have to do is tune in their radio to the right station, and the Sunday service begins. In Daytona Beach, Florida, the concept of drive-in theatres has been adapted for an unusual purpose. DeFilippo’s observational documentary takes a look at this modern church.
Clean Hands
Lauren DeFilippo
United States / 2016 / 9 min.
section: Short Joy
East European Premiere
The only things they left behind were their personal belongings. They speak volumes about what kind of people they were. What they liked. Who was close to them. What hobbies they had. A film without words. Footage of objects belonging to people who drowned in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of the island of Lampedusa in 2013 and 2015 - people whose lives were extinguished for good.
Mum, I'm Sorry
Martina Melilli
Italy / 2017 / 17 min.
section: Short Joy
International Premiere
A shop by the side of the road. One after another, people enter and exit the small building. The randomness and illogical nature of the action feels unreal. The sense of timelessness and of being in an unnamed place further heightens the dreamlike nature of the scene. The nearly motionless black-and-white camera records a fragment of life in a place torn from the context of the world.
Dream
Laila Pakalnina
Latvia / 2016 / 7 min.
section: Short Joy
World Premiere
Reality disappears before our eyes – all that remains is what’s preserved in our memories, the retelling of which allows us to bring it back to life. Camera in hand, the experimental filmmaker explores this abstract process in a stylized documentary with young boys in military uniforms and stories of war.
The Remembered Film
Isabelle Tollenaere
Belgium / 2018 / 18 min.
section: Short Joy
Central European Premiere
This short accompaniment to the intermedia project Serial Narratives reveals the real price of cheap goods from China. The testimony of an anonymous worker harmonized with hypnotic images draws attention to the frighteningly elaborate choreography as all phases of manufacturing process undergo rigorous mechanization.
Consumed
Richard Seymour
United Kingdom, China / 2016 / 19 min.
section: Short Joy
International Premiere
The Yiwu wholesale market in China is more than eight kilometres long. Short episodes follow buyers and the uncompromising negotiations between vendors. The observational documentary shows stalls so covered in goods they completely hide the vendors – and thus also the market’s other world, where their offspring spend their childhoods.
Commodity City
Jessica Kingdon
United States, China / 2016 / 10 min.
section: Short Joy
East European Premiere
A documentary study of the eye and its functions. A compilation of images from various places gives the function of the eye new meanings. It is a tool for instilling fear, the soldier uses it to find his target, and looking into the eye of your executioner can cause him to doubt his actions. What happens when the eye stops looking?
An Absence of Reciprocity in Vulnerability, Losses and Risks
Adéla Komrzý
Czech Republic / 2017 / 9 min.
section: Short Joy
World Premiere
Dawson City in Canada’s Yukon Territory abounds in goldmines and lack of sunshine. This portrait of the town is an audiovisual collage on the search for the sun and gold, history, and the everyday realities of its inhabitants. The atmosphere of cold, snowy Canada infuses the film with a dark mood reminiscent of Twin Peaks.
Optimism
Deborah Stratman
United States, Canada / 2018 / 15 min.
section: Short Joy
East European Premiere
In a Moscow apartment, Andrei Tarkovsky’s sister and brother-in-law remember the famous filmmaker. A film-collage consisting of family photos, visual impressions, narrative scraps, and vague and confusing memories reveals neglected fragments from the life of the Russian artist against a background of ambient music.
It all came to pass, All fell into my hands like a five-petalled leaf, But there has to be more
Sergei Sviatchenko, Noriko Okaku
United Kingdom, Denmark / 2018 / 12 min.
section: Short Joy
European Premiere
Lucyna and Krzysztof are a long-time married couple who operate a salvage yard in a socially excluded area of Łódź, Poland. Patrycja Polkowska’s observational documentary captures how the couple transforms the salvage yard every day into an eccentric microcosm where all those who are offended or humiliated can find help.
24 Praska St
Patrycja Polkowska
Poland / 2016 / 16 min.
section: Short Joy
International Premiere
