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.
Ten years after AMERICAN DUST, French filmmaker, Arnaud des Pallières brought AMERICAN JOURNAL to this year's Berlin Festival. The new film continues the colorful and historic style of his previous work as a cinematic essay - an interwoven tapestry of various private and anonymous archival material and intertitles reflecting thoughtful speculation and extraordinary poetry.
Imagine that animals took power. Would they behave like humans? Would they make similar mistakes, would they fight for power, rule by terror, devour everything? What would their artworks represent? Would the planet be more at peace? The new film by Oscar-nominated director Rithy Panh (The Missing Picture).
The extraordinary adventure of the young members of the Piedmont Speleological Group who, having already explored all the caves of Northern Italy, changed course in August 1961 and ventured south to explore other caves unknown to man.
“October 2019, an unexpected revolution, a social explosion. One and a half million people demonstrated in the streets of Santiago for more democracy, a more dignified life, a better education, a better health system and a new Constitution. The event I had been waiting for since my student struggles in 1973 finally materialized.”
A hybrid film about life under Myanmar’s terror regime in the aftermath of its military coup of February 1, 2021, as told through personal stories by a group of anonymous young Burmese filmmakers. Winner of the Best Documentary Award at the 2022 Berlin Film Festival.
Inspired by W.G. Sebald’s novel and based upon WWII archival footage, the film poses the question: Is it morally acceptable to use civilian population as a means of war? Is it possible to justify mass destruction for the sake of higher “moral” ideals? The question remains as relevant today, as it did 80 years ago.
