Hou’ley
Fond du Lac in northern Saskatchewan has one of the highest suicide rates among youth in Canada. One grieving mother tells the story of her fifteen year old son and his untimely and tragic death from suicide.
Directed by Alexander Sworik (Canada)
Los Angeles premiere
In the Shadow of the Tugtupite
A poetic documentary questioning the rationale behind past and future mining prospects in Greenland and how they are linked to the search for identity of the fledgling nation in a post-colonial world. This is a cinematic portrait of despair and anxiety towards an unknown future for the Inuit of the world’s largest island.
Directed by Inuk Jørgensen (Greenland)
Los Angeles premiere
Devil’s Gold
Roughly 300 miners a day climb two miles up the Kawah Ijen mountain and then descend more than 900 yards in their search for “devil’s gold.” This is one miner’s story of hard work, courage, and suffering all in the name of family.
Directed by Alexander Sworik and Daniel Agre (Canada)
Los Angeles premiere
Ankobo+Kaboo Wakangenei
A cataclysm has occurred on earth, destroying our civilization. A thousand years have passed: small tribes are fighting for their lives. The objects found in the sand left by the ancient civilization become objects of luxury for people. They believe that the day will come and the savior will come. And the Air will become clean again.
Directed by Felix Umarov (Russia)
The Clone…
A story about clones who are growing for organs. Eventually one of them is running away from the island.
Directed by Valerii Petrov (Russia)
Residue
Two avid meth users close a garage door to find find themselves trapped in an addictive horrifying loop of constant drug abuse. All hope is lost once our protagonist decides to continue to smoke rather than choose to leave.
Directed by Kai Lendzion (USA)
World premiere
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Notebook
In a dystopian future a man breaks free from a dominating bot. As he looks for a way to escape, something bursts inside his right eye, triggering a vision that allows him to access a higher state of freedom.
Directed by Mattia Fiumani (Italy)
North America premiere
Not Enough
A woman faces her reflection in the mirror and lapses into madness, overhead by the voices of her parents, her lovers, her friends : a society as a whole. Voices that lead her to follow the codes of beauty in order to be happy at last.
Directed by Jul & Gil (France)
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Paradoxical Dream
A deep dream of a middle aged depressed woman through a space and time between a gap of a single breath, from inhaling a tobaco and breathing it out.
Directed by Mohammad Khaki (Iran)
USA premiere
Embodiment
The story is placed in a near future when artificial intelligence has reached singularity and human lives become infinite, so nobody really dies.
Directed by Ced Pakusevskij (Italy)
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Kilter
Kilter explores the wreckage left in the wake of generational toxic masculinity. Following a violent crime of passion, a gentle young man descends into a tormented reality as he struggles to reconcile who he is and what he has become.
Directed by Rob Stanton-Cook (Australia)