Iwm Short Film Festival 2017
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17–26 November Animations, documentaries, dramas 10 days 11programmes 37fi lms FREE SCREENINGS iwm.org.uk/film-festival #IWMFilmFest @I_W_M IWM SHORT FILM FESTIVAL 2017 From the Syria conflict to modern terrorism and from suffragette surgeons to war art, IWM Short Film Festival presents an imaginative, edgy and challenging selection of films responding to past and contemporary conflict. The Festival shows documentaries, dramas and animations by filmmakers from all over the world. Our screenings explore themes like displacement, hope and fear and our special evening events offer an insight into the challenges of documenting terror and a chance to experience a hostile environment workshop. Six awards will be given out to remarkable films, and at each screening you can cast your vote for the Audience Vote Award. Filmmakers will also be in with a chance of having their film screened at Picturehouse Cinemas. The Festival is part of Age of Terror: Art Since 9/11, a major exhibition season showcasing contemporary artists’ responses to war and conflict since the terrorist attacks on 11 September 2001. The films are presented within themed programmes, which cover animations, dramas and documentaries. All daytime screenings are drop-in and free of charge. Please note that some of our films are unsuitable for children or contain flashing images. They are marked as follows: – contains adult themes including strong language and scenes of a graphic, violent or sexual nature. – contains some strong language and scenes of moderate or brief violence. – contains sequences with flashing images. Courage 44mins of 93-year-old John Wilkinson invites the audience to question Two gripping stories of the and listen to those around horrific conditions of war us. Defined by its charismatic and the decisions to risk storyteller and interviewee, the everything for victory. film pays homage to one of the dwindling number of heroes SATURDAY 18 | MONDAY 20 from the Second World War. 02 The Orange Story SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER Eugene Park, Erika Street Hopman Displacement 46mins 17mins Set in the United States during Four personal tales that the Second World War, Koji explore the experience of Oshima is the owner of a small being forced to leave home grocery store, but as a Japanese and start anew. American he must abandon everything and report to an FRIDAY 17 | WEDNESDAY 22 assembly centre. A moving 01 Fray Bentos SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER story of friendship and fear in Callum Burn the midst of wartime hysteria. 27mins An edgy, claustrophobic First World War drama that portrays the struggle of a tank crew during the Battle of Passchendaele in 1917. Based on true events, the film captures the grim conditions and enveloping helplessness that 01 The Box overtakes the crew when they Merve Cirisoglu Cotur 03 Beauty of a Stateless Mind find themselves stranded in no 7mins Lutia Swan-Hutton man’s land for three days. A striking and stirring animation 10mins shot from the perspective of a WINNER: Annie Dodds Award child who finds his life forever for Best Documentary changed by the conflict in WINNER: IWM Special Category: Syria. Accompanied by his cat, Age of Terror and with no belongings except Sensitive and compassionate, for a cardboard box, the film Beauty of a Stateless Mind chronicles his journey from delves deep into the lives loss towards hope. of three artists living in ‘The Jungle’, Calais’ refugee camp. 02 The Gentleman Next Door Their day-to-day struggles and – The John Wilkinson Story dreams of a different future John Mollison are interwoven with reflections 17mins on art and creativity that Reliving his days as a Spitfire challenge our assumptions on pilot, this affectionate portrait what it is to be a refugee. 04 Fragments 01 Lula 03 Yara’s Home Carlos Cova Aoife O’Kelly Emilie Baillargeon 12mins 17mins 15mins Emir Kamenica and his family WINNER: Best Creative Response Forced to flee Syria in 2011, Yara were among the hundreds of WINNER: Best Student Film is passionate about photography thousands of refugees that Based on a true story, and set and its ability to capture a fled their homeland during the in German-occupied Poland moment in time. Yara’s Home Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. during the Second World War, eloquently explores concepts of Inventively shot and edited, the pregnant Lula receives displacement and memory, Fragments provides a deeply unwelcome visitors searching and the struggle between personal account of the for her husband. What will yearning for the past and the outbreak of war, its profound Lula do? As the encounter need to build a new future. and lasting effect on Emir’s unfolds, she is faced with family and how memories a moral dilemma and the fracture over time. tension mounts. Family 50mins A selection of films exploring the impact of conflict on those closest to us and 04 Hitler Was My Neighbour on future generations. Tom Young 8mins SUNDAY 19 | FRIDAY 24 02 Writing the Peace Hitler Was My Neighbour tells SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER A D Cooper the unlikely story of Edgar 10mins Feuchtwanger, a 92-year-old At the close of the Second German Jew who lived on the World War, the Allies found same street as Hitler during themselves without a the 1930s and escaped with surrender document for the his family before the outbreak Germans to sign. Combining of the Second World War. A archive material and family compelling and curious tale interviews, Writing the Peace of an incognito upbringing. tells the surprising story of John Counsell, an actor- turned-soldier, who had ninety minutes to choose the words that would formally put an end to the war. Fear 35mins Co-directed by Syrian refugees harrowing testimonies of those living in exile in Turkey, War Log fl eeing from confl ict. The fi lm A compelling set of fi lms condenses the thoughts and challenges our preconceptions visualising the agony caused experiences of a Syrian soldier. of what life as a refugee is like by having to fi ght for one’s life. Split into three chapters and using and stresses the importance of diary extracts, this challenging, understanding and empathy. SATURDAY 18 | MONDAY 20 abstract fi lm combines animated THURSDAY 23 NOVEMBER toy soldiers and images of confl ict to potent eff ect. Hope 45mins A series of fi lms that balance the atrocities of war with crucial moments of progress and triumph. FRIDAY 17 | TUESDAY 21 SATURDAY 25 NOVEMBER 01 Kitty’s Fortune 03 L’Hiver – Winter Sophie Shad, Adam Mario M.Maquedano Baroukh, Dalton Deverell 7mins 12mins During a lesson, a young dancer After being on the run for three is put through her paces when years, Kitty and her mother a door suddenly opens and Rosa are captured by the Nazis soldiers enter the room. In a and taken to concentration matter of seconds, her teacher camp Auschwitz-Birkenau. is ushered out and she is Based on real events, the fi lm dancing for her life. A tense and 01 The invisible killer of tells the powerful story of Kitty’s enigmatic exploration of artistic World War I: Blast injury fi rst night in the camp and her expression and violence in a Amanda Alfaro Córdoba encounter with a palm reader nameless, totalitarian state. 9mins who predicts the future. Using archival material, this meticulously researched documentary illuminates the impact of blast injury and highlights the pivotal role played by neurologist Augusta Klumpke. Concisely charting the developments in neuroscience and treatment of the ‘invisible 04 Do not come killer’, the fi lm reveals the 02 War Log to Europe decades of research that now Ahmed Otham, Pontus Joneström, inform modern medicine. Mustafa Abdullatif, Minna Lundberg, Hesham Eiras, Abdul Hanna Pousette Sattar Alherek, Ahmed 12mins Kanjo, Yara Ibrahim, Unearthing the current issues of Hibato Allah Joumaa displacement in the Democratic 4mins Republic of the Congo, Do not come to Europe relays the often Legacy 41mins Three contemporary interpretations of critical events in history, exploring how the past can help our understanding of conflict today. 02 Through My Eyes: 02 Deeds not Words: Hani’s Journey SUNDAY 19 | THURSDAY 23 The Suffragette Zahra Mackaoui SUNDAY 26 NOVEMBER Surgeons of WWI 30mins Alison Ramsey An intense and intimate 13mins portrait of blind Syrian refugee WINNER: Best Use of IWM Hani Al Moliya, who uses Archive Material photography to relate to the As part of the broader campaign world around him. Inspiring and for women’s right to vote, emotional, this documentary suffragettes Flora Murray and is a story of courage and Louisa Garrett Anderson founded determination set against the the Endell Street Hospital, run backdrop of the ongoing Syria 01 A Letter to Auschwitz entirely by women. Skilfully conflict and migrant crisis. Melissa Varela using rarely seen photographs, 3mins letters and archival film, it tells A Letter to Auschwitz is a the remarkable story of the poetic and personal reflection women who tirelessly worked on the Holocaust and how at the hospital. it has forever changed our understanding of history, memory and humanity. Powerful and thought- provoking, the film takes us 03 In Defense of through the modern-day, empty the Rocket corridors of concentration Martin Ginestié camp Auschwitz-Birkenau and 6mins invites us to reflect on what the 03 Boy Soldiers: voices The ebb and flow of the camp signifies today. from the Great War Middle East Peace Process is Mark Maxwell charted through a collection 25mins of photographs and set to Interweaving archival film the rhythms of Beethoven’s with extracts from original Symphony No 7. The iterative letters written by those at and circular nature of the the front, Boy Soldiers: voices process is expressed through from the Great War is a multi- the juxtaposition of imagery and textured and poignant film that deftly edited to the tensions reimagines the lives of young and repetitions of the music.