International Festival Signs of the Night - Paris
Festival internatinal Signes de nuit - Paris
 

22e Festival international Signes de Nuit - Paris / 4-13 Octobre 2024
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MAIN AWARD



Hong Kong - Final Days of Freedom

 

Sean Fleck
United States / 01:46:00


Hong Kong - Final Days of Freedom explores Hong Kong’s battle for democracy with interviews from protestors, professors, politicians, and activists telling how their new National Security Law has turned this international business mecca into a Chinese-controlled police state.

FRENCH PREMIERE

 

 

Jury Declaration

An impressive detailed, information dense and highly professional cinematic documentary which should be shown on the big screen worldwide. It shows the tireless and fearless fight of the Hong Kong citizens for freedom and democracy against the Chinese oppression. A fight that might sometimes seem in vain, but never hopeless, which the whole free world should be aware of.



SIGNS AWARD

The Signs Award for Documentary honors films, which express in an original, convincing and sensitive way the perturbing aspects of reality.



There Was Nothing Here Before

 

Yvann Yagchi
Switzerland / 2024 / 01:10:43


Yvann, a Swiss filmmaker of Palestinian origin travels to the Israeli settlements to come to terms with the break-up with his childhood friend, now a Jewish Settler, with whom he grew up in Switzerland. During his trip, he recalls moments spent with his friend and family in the settlement and tries to understand why their friendship didn't hold up in the face of the political situation. Throughout this exploration, Yvann reveals his own tragic family history in Palestine. An emotional exploration of friendship and identity, through the brutality of the occupation and a cry for the survival of Palestinian culture


 


Jury Declaration

A deeply moving and personal perspective on the impossibility of the endurance of a friendship within a complex reality. A new approach to a conflict, which due to its actuality, easily echoes and confronts the viewer with ambivalent feelings and questions. When facing a reality that leaves no space for ambiguity, one feels compelled to also take a stand. History and story come together in a search for identity through the brave confrontation of heartbreaking family tales. We’re left with the dream of a high kite flight which ignores a segregation wall.




NIGHT AWARD

The Night Award for Documentary honors films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions.



And How Miserable Is the Home of Evil

 

Saleh Kashefi
Switzerland, Iran / 2023 /| 0:07:00


The website of Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, is crammed with filmed sermons and speeches. Appropriating these official archives, Saleh Kashefi – exiled in Switzerland – has created a political fiction that is both hard-hitting and ambiguous. We bear direct witness to the dictator’s last moments before his downfall, as whispers fill the streets.




 

 

 


Jury Declaration

...for granting us insight in an unknown, personal world, all be it a manufactured one, and showing us a conceivable turn of events, through the creative use of real footage. Through brilliantly combining existing audio and video material the maker creates a believable, suspenseful new narrative.



EDWARD SNOWDEN AWARD

The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensitive (mostly) unknown information, facts and phenomena of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future.



142 Years

 

Stelios Kouloglou
Greece / 2024 / 1:14:00


In Greek prisons, thousands of refugees and migrants are convicted as traffickers. The internationally acclaimed rescuer Jason Apostolopoulos tries to save three innocent refugees. The first has been sentenced to 142 years in prison and the other two to 50. In a Courtroom drama that lasts over a year, will Jason and his comrades manage to free them?

FRENCH PREMIERE

 

Jury Declaration

A shocking document about the outrageous banana republic practice of judiciary in the so called democratic state of Greece, that has been sending refugees into prison on the account of absurdly constructed accusations. It shows the importance of documenting injustice, solidarity and the relentless efforts of brave people who won’t stop fighting for their fellow humans. A film which makes you want to yell: Stop that immediately!
Director Statement

I’m very honored to be receiving this prize, especially since it is carrying the name of a great defender of human rights and democracy. With the help of the documentary and the campaign, we have managed to free three innocent people. But at the same time, as my film states, there are 2000 immigrants and refugees slowly dying in Greek prisons. Please help us spread the word.

 



JURY AWARD


Shoe Shine Caddie

 

Leonard Manzella
United States / 2022 / 01:02:20


After decades of being incarcerated, Adrian is free, 61 years old, and homeless, struggling to gain custody of his three year old daughter and stay alive on the streets.

FRENCH PREMIERE

 


Jury Declaration

Special Jury award for its inspiring, deeply human and tireless protagonist. We follow with close detail and intimacy Adrian’s daily struggle for survival in the streets. His impressive bright character, and surprisingly unaffected class acts, despite the precarious situation, impregnate the viewer with an almost unbelievable good humour whilst the difficult fight for the custody of his daughter continues. A magnificent example of independent production with a dynamic and nicely editing pace.




SPECIAL MENTION


Sarura. The future is an Unknown Place

 

Nicola Zambelli
Italy / 2022 / 1:20:00


AAt the gates of the Negev desert, a group of young Palestinians fight against the Israeli military occupation. "Youth of Sumud” - the youth of steadfast perseverance - try to return to their people the land that was taken from their families, restructuring the ancient cave village of Sarura. They face aggression with nonviolent action, defending themselves from rifles with their video cameras; they oppose desolation and death with hope and life.Ten years after their first documentary on the nonviolent struggle in the West Bank, the directors return to the village of At-Tuwani and, using archival material more than 15 years old, tell how the children have grown up.

PARIS PREMIERE


 


Jury Declaration

...for showing in a hopeful manner the harsh reality of the Israeli occupation, depicting the Palestinian youth not as mere victims, but as an intelligent, powerful, determined and unyielding force, putting the documentary images to a metaphorical use - the candle light representing the flickering hope in the vast darkness of oppression and aggression - and demonstrating the undeniable importance and power of the camera.

Director Statement

There's nothing to celebrate.

As we write these words, we know that a fierce bombing is taking place in northern Gaza. Hundreds more people are losing their homes, their lives, their hope.

When we filmed “Sarura,” the world didn’t care about what was happening on the ground in Palestine, and ethnic cleansing continued quietly, without much coverage in the news. Today, despite all the global attention, or perhaps precisely because of it, Israel is speeding ahead with its project of ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian and Arab people for the construction of “Greater Israel.

It is doing this with our weapons and thanks to our complicity.

In At-Tuwani, settlers, dressed as soldiers, shoot at shepherds and residents. Across the West Bank, violence is escalating, and Israeli ministers are distributing weapons to far-right settlers, who have a license to kill.

In recent days, in Lebanon, Israel has fired on our UNIFIL soldiers using European weapons. Even then, we were unable to raise our voices. Israel is holding international law hostage, and perhaps every possibility for peace.

Today, there is nothing to celebrate.

We must loudly declare that Israel is our enemy, the enemy of peace, and it is being held hostage by the most extremist and fascist wing of the Israeli people. Israel today is even an enemy to itself.

We must stop Israel before it destroys any possibility of a future in the name of the blind madness of its most radical ministers, Ben Gvir and Smotrich. We must save Israel from itself.

No more weapons to Israel. No more war. No more genocides. Free Palestine.

 



SPECIAL MENTION


Re/Cinema

 

Mahan Khomamipour
France / 2024 / 0:26:06


With the war escalating and extremist Islamic forces threatening to execute cinema owners on charges of corruption and immorality, all cinemas in the city closed down and cinema owners fled the city to save their lives. But Carlos makes an important decision. He sends his family abroad and stays alone in the war zone to save his cinema from imminent death. Now Carlos is running his own cinema amidst the war in Syria while hearing the sound of shooting and firing is considered normal.

WORLD PREMIERE


 


Jury Declaration

...for discovering and portraying the powerful magic of cinema in the dystopic world of the Syrian civil war, showing what it can be like when a shared love brings people, who are separated painfully in everyday reality, together peacefully for at least the duration of a movie. A Cinema Paradiso-like glow of hope in the middle of destruction and suffering.



MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD

The Signs Award for Documentary honors films, which express in an original, convincing and sensitive way the perturbing aspects of reality.



Hyphen

 

Reine Razzouk
Lebanon / 2023 / 01:38:00


When Nicole reveals to her childhood friend and cousin, Reine, that she’s been addicted to heroin since she was 13, they decide to document Nicole’s rehab journey. Hyphen follows her struggle to move out into the world as an adult and grown woman despite the lack of economic opportunities and a poisonous cultural upbringing that teaches young women to suppress their ideas and sexuality and to follow a set of religious and cultural rules.

 


 


Jury Declaration

...for an honest, intimate and engaging story about both deep, human connections and the ongoing consequences of childhood traumas, and managing to keep the viewer invested in the protagonists struggle with addiction with empathy, humour and humanity, without ever judging or ridiculing her, showing her vulnerability as well as her incredible resilience and strength. Bringing lightness with poetic interventions and implicitly exposing the long history of violence, oppression and displacement of Lebanon.
Director Statement

I am truly honored that Hyphen has received the Mention for the Signs Award in the Documentary Section at the 22nd Festival international Signes de Nuit. This recognition means a great deal, as the film represents over a decade of personal and collective exploration into deeply-rooted themes of trauma, womanhood, and resilience.

Through Hyphen, I aimed to not only shed light on generational wounds but also contribute to the ongoing conversation about normalizing mental health struggles—particularly in cultures where they are often stigmatized. The film reflects a collective journey of healing, one that resonates far beyond its characters and location, and I hope it continues to open dialogue about the importance of understanding and confronting our inner battles and about the complexities of healing and identity. Hyphen is a reflection of a struggle shared by many. Thank you to the jury for recognizing these voices and their strories.





MENTION FOR THE SIGNS AWARD

The Signs Award for Documentary honors films, which express in an original, convincing and sensitive way the perturbing aspects of reality.



Incident

Bill Morrison
USA / 2023 / 0:29:52


"Incident" reconstructs a police shooting in Chicago in 2018, reassembling the event and its immediate aftermath from a variety of viewpoints, including surveillance, security, dashboard, and body-worn cameras as a continuous, synchronized splitscreen montage.



 


 


Jury Declaration

...for finding an inventive way of showing all too familiair images, creating a gripping story with very little means, through meticulous editing and carefully combining footage. Without manipulating the viewer it sheds light on multiple sides of an ongoing and unequal battle, laying bare the flaws and defects of a completely broken system.
Director Statement

I’d like to thank Signed de Nuit for screening INCIDENT both in Bangkok and here in  Paris, where it was recognized by the juries in both editions. 

In December 2023 a new law was ratified by the City of Chicago in their new collective bargaining agreement with the Fraternal Order of Police. The new law allows officers to turn off their body cameras during conversations that follow an incident, and further to delete any and all recordings where any conversations may have occurred following an incident. As such, it is very likely that a film like this will ever be made again using police footage in Chicago.


MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD

The Night Award for Documentary honors films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions.



Raat: Night Time in Small Town India

 

Arti Ahirwar, Ashraf Hussain, Rajkumari Ahirwar, Vikas Khatri, Tabassum Ansari, Kulsum Khatoon, Khushi Bano, Parmeshwar Mandrawaliya, Santra Chaurthiya, Rajkumari Prajapati, Manisha Chanda, Anita Sen, Rani Devi, Ajfarul Shaikh
India / 2022 / 0:34:17


What is that you can see at night? What is allowed, what is not? What do you become a witness to?
Camera in hand, some women and men from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand venture out to record the experience of nights in small town India. Who is watching and who is being watched? Are nights crafted in silence? Is there still movement, labour that is invisibilised? Who has access to the night? Who hides inside?
The film is born out of a pedagogical collaboration between The Third Eye's Learning Lab and its Digital Educators who belong to peri-urban and rural contexts across Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand.

EUROPEAN PREMIERE
 


Jury Declaration

Raat denounces, confronts, questions and puts up for discussion the condition of women through a collaborative, multi-perspective puzzle, already political in its form. With a brave and unprecedented look of nocturnal landscapes in India, we follow, with a feminist lens, an attempt to reclaim power through filmmaking and the inversion of existing hierarchies. ‘As if we were free’, sticks firmly in our minds as we travel alongside fear.
Director Statement

The idea of going out into the night and recording our experience was a special one. For the women in the group (a large majority); some of us hadn't ever stepped out of our localities after 8pm. For some, stepping out with another person was a tough negotiation. How can a young man and woman, specially single and of different castes, venture out alone to work at night? What would their families, their co-workers, their neighborhood think? Filming the night was as much an inward looking process. More than arriving at a film, for us, ‘Raat’ was a process of understanding and internalizing that Time, and the act of claiming it for oneself is a political act. Negotiating our realities within the everyday, is a political act.

MENTION FOR THE NIGHT AWARD

The Night Award for Documentary honors films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions.



Souvenir

 

Heidi Hassan
Cuba / / 2024 / 0:11:00


Fascinated tourists stroll through the GDR museum as if it were an amusement park, indifferent to the painful stories that occurred under the communist regime. Their casual attraction to vintage, their comfortable forgetfulness and their need for utopia make them complicit in the current Cuban reality.

PARIS PREMIERE

 


Jury Declaration

...for inventively combines footage of museums remembering the communist regime in the GDR with contemporary documentation and testimonies from present day communist dictatorship Cuba. Through the way tourists act it shows how, after more than a half century, people seem to have forgotten about the deep impact of the communists on everyday life in Eastern Europe. The same tourists that in Cuba hang on to the romantic idea of a communist society in Cuba, where its inhabitants daily suffer.