International Competition.
Ostrovsky Family Fund, sponsor.
Established in honor of filmmaker, artist, author Chantal Akerman (b. Belgium; 1950-2015) this initiative recognizes international films that express an actual event or story through inventive, experimental means. Each year, this competition is juried by a fine artist whose oeuvre, like Akerman's, incorporates an avant-garde approach to moving image media.
An animated documentary film about invented islands. About an imaginary, linguistic, political territory. About a real or dreamed country, or something in between. ARCHIPELAGO is a film of drawings and speeches telling and dreaming of a place and its inhabitants, of our world and times.
On September 29 and 30, 1941, 33,771 Jews were shot dead in Babi Yar by Nazi and Ukrainian troops. Sergei Loznitsa’s new film reconstructs the historical context of this tragedy through archival footage documenting the German occupation of Ukraine and the subsequent decade.
Andrea Arnold’s documentary is an endeavor to consider cows. To move us closer to them. To see both their beauty and the challenge of their lives. Not in a romantic way, but in a real way. It's a film about one dairy cow's reality and acknowledging her great service to us.
Down in the American South, near the Mexican border, a number of homeless people live in constant danger; the poverty level is inconceivable, drugs and alcohol have become especially popular commodities, and violence dominates the streets. This debut film by Carlos Alfonso Corral is a lyrical documentary that makes use of spectacular black-and-white photography, beautiful music, and unconventional sound editing.
What if we are living in a simulation and the world it is not real? To tackle this idea, director Rodney Ascher (ROOM 237) dives down the rabbit hole of science, philosophy, and conspiracy theories. Leaving no stone unturned, the film uses contemporary cultural touchstones like THE MATRIX and interviews with real people shrouded in digital avatars.
During the war, Sonia, a young Yugoslav partisan, was one of the leaders of the resistance movement in Auschwitz. This film is a journey through her memories. Rather than delving into archival materials, film director Marta Popivoda employs the narrative voice of the protagonist to present contemporary landscapes emphasizing the relevance of the film to developments in present-day politics.
Over the course of six weeks in the summer of 1969, just one hundred miles south of Woodstock, the Harlem Cultural Festival was filmed in Mount Morris Park. The footage was never seen and largely forgotten – up until now. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
A brilliant cinematic reflection about technology and its impact on our lives. The camera follows jet streams, trains, trucks, and underwater cables that transmit information at the speed of light. But in the face of these scientific achievements, we are witness to ocean flooding, huge fires, scorched hills – a planet forced into a battle of survival. Winner of the Documentary Directing Award at the Sundance Film Festival.
