Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.
Audience Award Winners:
Best Feature Film: WE HAVE JUST BEGUN
Best Short Form Short Film: HOME FRONTS
Best Long Form Short Film: THE DISPUTE
Best Human Interest Film: JUNKIN’
Best Cinematography: LEAP OF FAITH
Best Experimental Film: BEHIND THE LOOM
Best Direction: THE ART OF SEEING, THE ART OF REMEMBERING
Best Original Story: CRY, ME BELOVED COUNTRY
Watch the Audience Feedback Video for each film:
WE HAVE JUST BEGUN, 82min., USA, Documentary
Directed by Michael Warren Wilson
In 1919, black workers’ decades-long efforts to challenge exploitation in the Arkansas Delta culminated in the nation’s deadliest racial massacre and labor battle. It’s legacy is deep, despite being hidden for over 100 years.
http://wehavejustbegun.com/
https://twitter.com/webegun
https://instagram.com/webegun/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
JUNKIN’, 17min., USA
Directed by Andy Heck
Mike Heck seeks redemption after suffering most of his life with alcoholism, depression, and hoarding disorder.
https://www.andyheckfilms.com/junkin
https://www.instagram.com/andyheckfilms
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE DISPUTE, 34min., Hong Kong
Directed by Fredie Chan
Shortly after moving from Hong Kong to Edinburgh and settling into his student flat, filmmaker Fredie Chan discovers a clash among locals and overseas students over the massive housing shortage in Edinburgh. Developers are converting empty lots and unused old buildings into new housing stocks for international students rather than the locals. Through an empathetic and personal documentary lens, Chan befriends 91-year-old Harry, a long-time resident and community councillor, and follows a group of grassroots housing advocates in order to understand the clash and today’s global housing crisis.
https://www.facebook.com/TheDisputeUKHK/
https://www.instagram.com/TheDIsputeukhk
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
LEAP OF FAITH, 28min., Austria
Directed by Joel Eggimann
A bucket list goal so big that others might think you’re crazy. The stunning journey of Joel Eggimann attempting to do a flip across the gap of a remarkable pinnacle on the Lofoten Islands in Norway.
https://instagram.com/joel_eggimann
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
THE ART OF SEEING, THE ART OF REMEMBERING, 23min., UK
Directed by Sascha Klamp
Working with two distinct Armenian communities, traditional border villages which hold up the potential resistance from its hostile neighbours, the film explores the set-up of a Community Archive with village Elders whilst juxtaposing how teenagers look at a single polaroid image in the world of social media. The Film explores the communities and the individuals’ understanding of Identity, Memory, and Self in adverse conditions and what Hope & Opportunities exist for their adolescence in particular.
http://www.up2imagination.com/khachik-archivehttps://www.instagram.com/up_2_imagination
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
HOME FRONTS, 12min., UK
Directed by Maria Sapouna
As news of the war in Ukraine breaks, people around the world come together to show their solidarity. This film follows the story of three women in Scotland who, at the wake of the crisis, show their support for the people of Ukraine in small but heartfelt ways. In following their stories, the film shows ordinary people finding meaning and overcoming powerlessness through everyday acts in their local communities. These stories show our deep need to connect and resist and, whether we can change the world or not, are a bittersweet yet hopeful reminder of our common humanity. In the words of Volodymyr Zelenskyy “home is also the front line”.
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
BEHIND THE LOOM, 11min,. USA
Directed by Heejoo Kim
An experimental animated short film about the impact of war on women underscoring rape as a war crime in 1945. Told from the perspective of one family, this common yet forgotten story surrounding the Siege of Berlin.
heejoo.kim@uconn.edu
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
CRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY, 62min., Documentary
Directed by Corrine Sandler
How South Africa went from a Cry for Freedom to CRY, MY BELOVED COUNTRY. An inconceivable story told in a feature length documentary about a South African Emigrant, Corrine who grew up in the Apartheid Regime in the 1970’s. Corrine returns to her birth country 30 years later with her Canadian children.
http://crymybelovedcountry.com/
WATCH HERE – The audience feedback video of the film!
Documentary Film Festival. Los Angeles & Toronto 