|
****** |
|
AWARD CELEBRATION
Student Jury
Sunday, December 6, 2015 / 6 pm
Maison de Portugal - Résidence André Gouveia
Cité Universitaire / Paris
|
|
Documentary Competition
Main Award:
Our Terrible Country
Baladna alraheeb
Mohammad Ali Atassi, Ziad Homsi
|
|
Our Terrible Country
Baladna alraheeb
Mohammad Ali Atassi, Ziad Homsi
Syria
2014 | 1:25:00
This road movie portrays the perilous journey of well-known intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh and young photographer Ziad Homsi through Syria, at a time when the country edges towards the brink. Yassin (53), who spent 16 years in prison for belonging to the Syrian left, goes underground in 2011 to serve Syria’s popular uprising, while Ziad (24) - occasionally fighting with the rebels - takes photographs in his hometown Douma. In this Damascene suburb – where Yassin and his wife Samira Khalil found shelter - the two men meet and become friends. Together, they embark on an adventurous journey through the desert to al-Haj Saleh’s native town Raqqa in Northeast Syria. Upon their arrival, Raqqa is occupied by the "Islamic State in Iraq and Levant" (ISIS), which also kidnapped two brothers of Yassin. Consequently, the thinker leaves for Istanbul to pursue his writing for the revolution, hoping for a reunion with his wife Samira who remained in Douma. Ziad – abducted by ISIS on his way back – rejoins Yassin after his release, hoping to return home soon. All hopes are shattered when Samira gets abducted jointly with human rights lawyer Razan Zeitouneh. And the film ends while Syria tumbles into a yawning abyss.
Extrait:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkKGxGDBXwQ
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
"Our terrible country" by Mohammad Ali Atassi and Ziad Homsi is a
moving documentary which has poignants images and touching story. It
shows a friendliness in Syria between a photographer and a
revolutionary through aerial bombardements, kidnappings an violents
attacks. the power of that documentary stands in its common political
approach very risked, in Ziad's engagement for free forces and his
discourse that leads the thinking about sacrifices during war. This
documentary is part of a wish of never give up, it demonstrate
declining of syrian economy. Courage and hope are the two key words
that comprise “Our terrible country“ and summarize a fight always
there in Syria today, even it has advanced. |
|
|
Documentary Competition
Signs Award :
Télécommande Telecommand
Anonyme |
The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject
in an original and convincing way. |
|
|
Telecommand
Télécommande
Anonyme
France
2015 | 0:49:00
Tehran, June 2013. The Iranians are preparing to elect the new
President of the Islamic Republic. Massed in front of their TV, they
comment the presidential campaign broadcast by
national channels : the jokes that accompany the parade of candidates
betray the spectator's disappointment. After the 2009 riots, the
Iranian people there still believe in politics?
In the privacy of their homes, facing the images relayed by satellite
feed, state propaganda, images of the West, Egypt or Syria, women and
men freely talk about their hopes, their anger and
their fears.
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
How to know the opinion of the people on the presidential elections as they are rigged? How to be heard as a citizen when he is oppressed? The Telecommand documentary deals with the vision that gives the media on elections, politics, and this censorship. In original form, passing screen display, the interviews of these Iranians are harvested in comments in response to these media. A touching film where one discovers and learns the hidden events without knowing the identity of those people who can not speak freely. |
|
|
Documentary Competition
Night Award :
Onder Ons
Parmi Nous
Guido Hendrix
|
The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity
and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and
subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving. |
|
|
Parmi nous
Onder Ons
Guido Hendrix
Pays Bas
2014 / 0:24:00
Three self- conscious, high-educated paedophiles give a mercilessly insight in their experiences. How do you cope with a sexual orientation that’s considered morbid by society and by yourself?
Extrait :
https://vimeo.com/114554013
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
An experimental documentary which immerse us in pedophiles mentality,
eat up by fustration and guilt. The ambivalence of its speech and its
way of highlighting the tension between voyeurism and the look of
others, sustained by voice over testimonies full of humanity makes the
strength of this work. Excluded and condemned by contemporary society,
this documentary questions those ill persons statement without
venturing any judgement, letting the spectator free to think this
symptom through an original and meticulous mise-en-scène. |
|
|
|
Documentary Competition
Edward Snowden Award :
In the Image
Judith Montell, Emmy Scharlatt |
The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensible (mostly) unknown informations, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future. |
|
|
In the Image
Judith Montell, Emmy Scharlatt
Israel
2014 / 1:01:00
Palestinian women in the occupied West Bank who use video cameras as a means of non violent activism. Le documentaire suit un groupe de femmes palestiniennes qui, travaillant avec l'organisme humanitaire israélien B’Tselem, utilisent la caméra en tant qu'outil non violent pour montrer avec beaucoup de courage les violations quotidiennes des droits humains dans leurs villages de la Cisjordanie occupée. Leurs vidéos sont postées sur YouTube dans le cadre du Camera Project de B’Tselem à Jerusalem. Devenues virales, ces vidéos ont secoué l'opinion publique et mené à la condamnation des militaires israéliens responsables d'abus et d'intimidations. côté des scènes alarmantes qu'elles filment, le film explore également la vie de Salam, Ayatt et Nariman, jeunes palestiniennes. Grâce à des séquences animées, des entretiens et des rushes, nous assistons à leurs luttes entre tradition et modernité, entre invisibilité et attention des médias internationaux.
Extrait :
https://vimeo.com/48892799
https://youtu.be/EWCug-rnC9Y
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
“In the image“ is part of women's documentaries films, that represent
an alarming situation in Palestine between civilians and israeli
securities forces. In the context of humanitarian body called
B'Tselemn (israeli), few cameras are used by women to reveal a
shocking and disturbing reality. This documentary annoy, discomfort
and hurt by it images that are both violent and unfair. Directed by
Judith Montell and Emmy Scharlatt, it unveils on one hand a hidden
situation by French media and on second hand defending the idea that
camera will be a political weapon which have a power by images. |
|
|
|
Documentary Competition
Special Mention:
Red Brigade
Joao Fontes |
|
Red Brigade
João Pedro Fontes
Portugal
2015 | 1:25:00
There are voices echoing over the neighborhood. They whisper on women's ears which clothes they should wear, what kind of wives they should be and blaming them for the rapes they are victim of. That happens in Madiyaon, a suburb of Lucknow, the capital of India's most conservative region. Usha Vishwakarma decides to raise her voice. Dozens of teenagers who were victim of sexual abuse and harassment answer to the call. Narguez is a young specialist in martial arts and she rejects to use the hijab. Afreen joins the Brigade to forget all childhood's traumas. Led by Usha the group struggles for women's rights. For a new conscience, against the old traditions and common sense
|
|
|
Statement of Jury :
"Red Brigade" is not is simple representation of the reality.
Traited in a realistic way, this involved documentary informs about
the women condition in India, by the rape, angainst her every day.
A disturbing realtity, that we become aware of.
The cultural differences between their and our country are represented
in a clever construction, with an impressive matury of the young girls
that Joao Fontes is meeting, and by a real desir to change this
reality represented on screen by the Red Brigade.
It's not simple to tackle such a big problematic, but the image can be
a great way of denunciation. And Joao Fontes is really sensible of
that point. |
|
Documentary Competition
Special Mention:
Above and Below
Nicolas Steiner
|
|
Above and Below
Nicolas Steiner
Switzerland, Germany
2015 | 01:58:00
Far, far away and out of sight, that’s where April, Dave, Cindy, Rick and the Godfather are creating life on their own terms. From the depths of the flood channels under Sin City, to a reclaimed military bunker in the middle of the dusty, heated Californian nowhere land, to beyond the stratosphere where Mars now lives on earth. Each individual has been flung into periling circum- stances on this rollercoaster ride called life. Through the hustle, pain, and laughter, we are whisked away to an unfamiliar world where we discover its inhabitants to be souls not unlike our very own.
Extrait :
https://vimeo.com/116763246
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
A movie in which the flexible and eastetic cinematic writing tend to
convince the spectator of those marginals richness, like a voice whose
echoes would reach us. Three underground communities which we know
nothing about, that we never come to meet, depicted through a perfect
style close to science-fiction. The opening proposes an immersion
experience in this epic documentary and we are allowed to believe that
those people either so close, and so far from us are the safeguards of
our society. We would like to attribute a special mention to this film
that has managed to depict the signs of a contemporary world vision. |
|
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Main Award:
The Golden Legend La légende Dorée
Alexander Hick
|
|
|
The Golden Legend La legende Dorée
Olivier Smolders
Belgium
2015 | 0:24:00
Collector of cursed musicians, unreasonable murderers, fairground freaks, paranoid revolutionaries, flatulists and suicidal hermits, a psychiatric patient presents a gallery of the historic figures he is haunted by.
Extrait :
https://youtu.be/Qft92-reorU
|
|
Student Jury Statement : :
Ce film qui propose une mise en scène minimaliste est percutant
d'efficacité. Le texte de la voix-off impose un rythme efficace qui
rend passionnant un récit torturé dont le fil conducteur n'est rien
d'autre que la digression. Des histoires morbides traitées avec la
légèreté formelle de l'illustration constituent des questionnements
sur la condition humaine. Durant un temps, on voit le monde par le
prisme de la folie. |
Directors Statement:
Merci pour ce prix. Je suis heureux que cette sombre "Légende dorée" ait pu
dialoguer avec le jury et le public de "Signe de Nuit".
C'est un encouragement à croiser encore les imaginaires.
Amicalement. |
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Signs Award :
Now Eat My Script Maintenant mange mon script
Mounira Al Solh |
The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject
in an original and convincing way. |
|
|
Now Eat My Script Maintenant mange mon script
Mounira Al Solh
Lebanon
2014 | 00:25:00
"Now Eat My Script is a precipice, a fluid solution in which some spectral noises of the self float adrift. Narration takes the role of a pregnant writer who continuously affirms her hunger and clumsiness towards language and history. Her body is crossed over by both the years to come and the stories that have been buried. As a would-be pirate, she navigates through the tumult of familiar waters. A faltering, yet seemingly omniscient text roams among cities, and between memories that cannot find a proper place, or a proper fiction: After Eight chocolates, children’s group showers, a yellow car that resembles a Dodge, or a pigeon rock where men kill themselves become the phantom limbs of the sacrificed visceral body of speech and story telling that surrounds them. Now Eat My Script is about knowing disastrously."
Extrait :
https://vimeo.com/93358829
|
|
Student Jury Statement ::
Composé de deux plans séquences lents et intriguants, Eat my script
illustre avec justesse les traumatismes,
beaucoup trop fréquents dans les pays du moyen orient, et les
conséquences qu’ils entrainent sur les populations. La richesse du
discours confronté à la sobriété de la mise en scène rend compte du
décalage entre réalité et persuasion de celle-ci dans une vie
post-traumatique. |
|
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Night Award :
The Dollhouse
Chad Galloway, Heather Benning
|
The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity
and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and
subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving. |
|
|
The Dollhouse
Chad Galloway, Heather Benning
Canada
2014 / 0:08:00
For nearly a decade, The Dollhouse stood in a frozen field just off of highway #2 in the Canadian Prairies. A match was lit and in a few breaths it’s walls and everything they contained were lost forever.
Extrait :
https://vimeo.com/138945620
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
The Dollhouse dégage une puissance unique. Ces images de solitude et
de perdition laissent le spectateur s'évader dans ce ballet
fantomatique sans jamais laisser place à l'ennui pour un résultat
exaltant, déroutant, et puissamment cathartique. |
Director Statement :
Hello and thank you very much for awarding The Dollhouse with the
Night Award. Your acknowledgment really does mean the world to us. We
were a very small team of three, working from our pockets only with
the goal of making a film that could be seen by a few people and could
offer a unique experience for each viewer. Heathers work speaks to
many unspoken truths and we hope we were able to capture some part of
that and offer you a small new perspective - be it personal or
otherwise. |
|
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Edward Snowden Award :
2183 Days 2183 Jours
Natasha De Betak |
The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensible (mostly) unknown informations, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future. |
|
|
2183 Days
Natasha De Betak
Inde
2015 | 0:25:15
Rare and unique cinematic observation by artist and award winning filmmaker Natasha De Betak; She has been filming a Holy man Nagnath Baba since last five years who has been on a hunger strike to save the sacred river Ganga. Year after year, his body crumbles. He is haunted by both dreams and nightmares. His sacred existence takes surreal shape. Life continues to flow around his body; temple, prayers, rituals… Then one day his hunger strike reaches climax and he dies. Expressionism and poetry meet to create a sublime journey of an unusual soul.
Extrait :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-nw7LoXIobk
|
|
Student Jury Statement : :
La représentation difficile d'un corps qui se meurt et d'une réalité
insupportable. Un film qui met en parallèle des destinées tragiques
duquel émane une spiritualité douloureuse. Une forme mystique en
accord avec le mythe humain dont elle traite, accompagnée d'une bande
sonore animée par des énergies impalpables et invisibles. |
|
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Special Mention :
Entrecorpus
Gustavo Raulino |
|
Entrecorpus
Gustavo Raulino
Brazil
2015 | 0:12:00
We are in a timeless scenario where a dry damof crackled soil represents a disintegrated city. We are in a timeless 2015, in a scenario where a dry dam of crackled soil represents the city of São Paulo. An only couple, Mariana and Renan, indwells this desert, the disintegrated city. In recognizing themselves in that context, both start to investigate the causes of the drought. Mariana writes a text to which Renan gives voice. They communicate in silence, while the voice-over poem weaves primordial images that alternate between the serene intimacy of the inside of the house and the arid hostility of the outer space. Little by little, their consciousness awaken to the lack that causes the lack of water: the lack of betweens, the disconnection of all bodies, the spiritual body and the material body, the body of one and the body of the other, the human body and the Earth body. The lack of water, substance of life, would also be the lack of the oceanic feeling of being part of a whole. As they start to see themselves in the problem and as the problem, the borders between dry and wet, life and death, spirit and matter, voice and text, begin to dissolve in the dust.
|
|
Student Jury Statement : :
Entecorpus plonge sans détour le spectateur dans un monde onirique
fort en représentation et puissant par ses images. Une métaphore d'un
monde inconsistant qui nous échappe perpétuellement. Entecorpus est
visuellement bluffant et interroge notre psyché avec une simplicité
efficace. |
Director Statement :
We're very happy to hear that ENTRECORPOS had a Special Mention from the Student Jury!
Many thanks to all that saw our film and felt at least a something special, like our feelings of making ENTRECORPOS.
And we want to say thanks for the people from the Festival Signes de Nuit!!! |
|
Cinema in Transgression Competition
Special Mention :
Sleep Sommeil
Julien Gallée-Ferré |
|
Sleep Sommeil
Julien Gallée-Ferré
France
2015 | 0:16:00
Fifteen people, alone or in a couple, are filmed during their sleep. Passing from one night to the next, these active sleepers reveal a secret and unsuspected choreography, abandoning their bodies to the bizarre dance invented by their dreams.
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
Un sujet universel trop souvent délaissé qui s'incarne dans une vidéo
ludique. Qui aurait-cru que des corps endormis pouvaient-être drôles,
fascinants, sublimes ? Un travail de postproduction métamorphose le
figuratif en abstrait, et le thème trivial prend une dimension sacrée.
|
|
|
Short Film Competition
Main Award:
Yes We Love
Hallvar Witzo |
|
|
Hallvar Witzo
Norway
2014 | 0:14:00
Four generations, each with a crisis, set in four different parts of Norway on Norwegian Independence Day.
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
Very efficient way of story-telling, sophisticated staging, a playful sense of humour and inspiring way of using still frame are the main artistic merits that made us give the main award to the film. Meanwhile, it gave us an amazing experience as spectators, and the short stories showed not only the beautiful landscape but also insights on the nation through portraits of different generations. |
Director Statement :
Wow! That's great news! We are so thankful for this recognition and
it's truly an honour! Read the mail while standing next to the
producer and cinematographer and we shared the moment together :)
again, thank you so much for this honour and a merry Christmas! |
|
Short Film Competition
Main Award Special Mention:
reCuiem
Valeria Carnelutti |
|
|
Valentina Carnelutti
Italy
2015 | 0:20:00
Lorsque Leo 7 ans et sa petite sœur Annetta se réveillent le matin, leur maman Emma dort. Ou morte ? Seuls, ils prennent le petit déjeuner, ils font des bêtises, ils jouent. Ils attendent, ils essaient de vivre sans maman. Jusqu'à ce que Gabriele arrive, son petit ami, jusqu'à ce que la grand-mère arrive. Jusqu'à ce que l'ambiguïté se desserre, avec des adultes et des mots, et que chacun trouve son chemin vers la nuit.
Extrait :
https://youtu.be/gqoJlI1RS2Y
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
“Recuiem“ highlights an ambiguity that erase slowly all along the film. Affecting and moving, It is an homage for all mothers in the world who have gone too soon. A remarkable staging full of life delivering us from a kids world to an adult world without feeling discomfort. |
|
|
Short Film Competition
Signs Award :
Take-me Prends-moi
Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, André Turpin |
The Signs Award is attributed to films treating an important subject
in an original, convincing and surprising way. |
|
|
Take-me
Prends-moi
Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette, André Turpin
Canada
2014 | 00:12:00
A male nurse is asked to assist a couple of partly paralyzed couple to make love. The irritated man look for advices by his superior, but quickly understands that this was only the first step to accept the rules of another world, marked by other rules.
Extrait :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0cL2vckZn0
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
Surprising and original, here are two words that qualify. A new breath in Canadian cinema. The ingenuity of Directors is to put the viewer into the heart of the action by confronting the same time that the new nurses to the discovery of medical practices that his job requires it. The characters in turn, transmit strong emotions throughout their history. The gripe about this film is the staging remains commonplace.
|
|
|
Short Film Competition
Sign Award Special Mention:
August Août
Jeroen Perceval |
|
|
August
Août Jeroen Perceval
Belgium
2014 | 0:20:00
Profound experiences, a rift is created between him and his family. The film was written, directed and mostly edited in 48 hours as part of sci-fi London's 48 hour film competition.
Extrait :
https://youtu.be/k5Y0StY7bfI
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
Children’s innocence is sometimes the very nest of a subtle violence. « August » touches us directly in our hearts by confronting a contrasted cinematography and a disturbing sound mixing that invites us to use our imagination, just as if we were children. |
|
|
Short Film Competition
Night Award:
Contes exceptionnels d'une équipe de jeunes filles Chapitre 1: Les araignées
Cuentos excepcionales de un equipo juvenil feminino Capitulo I: Las aracnidas
Tom Espinoza |
The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and
complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness,
which keeps mind and consideration moving. |
|
|
Contes exceptionnels d'une équipe de jeunes filles
Chapitre 1: Les araignées
Cuentos excepcionales de un equipo juvenil feminino
Capitulo I: Las aracnidas
Tom Espinoza
Argentina, Venezuela
2015 / 0:10:00
Arachnids, is a synchronized swimming team made up of 5 teenagers girls. One day, Nina, the new team member, discovers a dark connection between her companions and a nest of tarantulas.
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
A synchronized swimming team goes through a surrealistic change of power. The feminine psychology and rivalry suffer an unexpected and refreshing turn that made us shiver and doubt what is real and what is not. |
|
|
Short Film Competition
Night Award Special Mention:
The Crow Wrona
Przemyslaw Jan Chrobak |
|
|
The Crow
Wrona
Przemyslaw Jan Chrobak
Poland
2014 | 0:07:40
A kaleidoscope of human behavior to the unusual event on one of Warsaw's estates.
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
The film successfully showed the human reaction facing an strange event like a kaleidoscope and it continues to make us wonder after the projection. It differed itself by an original approach: shooting from only one point of view. We can see the human psychology facing a rare event as surprising, as unusual as we have never seen. Abnormality is only relative, and “The Crow” is a perfect example. |
|
|
Short Film Competition
Edward Snowden Award :
Sabra
Dae Gun Jung |
The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensible (mostly)
unknown informations, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for
which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future. |
|
|
Sabra
Dae Gun Jung
South Korea
2014 | 0:28:00
High school student Han-sol lives with a violent father who often beats him, and the only one he can talk heart to heart is with a friend named Gi-seok. Gi-seok is a rapper who speaks his heart through his music about his broken family. Han-sol decides to join Gi-seok's rap crew, but Han-sol's father doesn't approve of his son getting involved in rap.
Extrait :
https://youtu.be/zGZa98p-gj4
|
|
Student Jury Statement :
The originality of the film lies in the way in which the Director put emphasis on the issue of family violence. However, falling into the cliché, the characters appropriate rap as being a figure of speech. The scenario is interesting even if the prefabricated staging makes the bemused spectator. However, we come out in excited and deeply melancholy. A short film that deserves a prize due to the choice of his subject and the originality of his screenplay.
|
|
|