CAN YOU BREATHE – INTERNATIONAL SELECTION:
Alone, David Hofer, 10:00, Austria, 2020
George Monbiot coined the term "age of the loneliness". In the most economically developed countries, the phenomenon of loneliness is rapidly increasing and affects all social classes and age groups. In our movie "Traman" we showed how extreme use of social media can lead to social isolation and psychological problems. In the short film "Allan"/"Alone" we address the urban loneliness of mostly older people. Like Robinson Crusoe on an island, more and more of them are stranded in an apartment and loneliness. You don't have to be surrounded by a sea, even in the middle of a city you can lose contact with the outside world.
Robert Kreutzner died at the age of 71. He had lived 28 years all
alone in an apartment, cast into early retirement due to an illness.
As he considered his condition and the circumstances he was reduced to, he began to set the good against the evil, that he might have something to distinguish his case from worse.
Crisalida, Villiam Chahal, 12:05, 2020
This short film explores the emotional and physical circles a woman creates to avoid a volatile relationship. The narrative hovers between past and present, as the woman moves away from the external conflicts with her partner and inside her head. The story is based on real life experiences of women, their words woven into the script. Violent memories are accompanied by impossibly high heels tapping across the wooden floors of an old house.
City of Covid and Clay, Colin Morvan, 4:14, United States, 2020
A video portrait of New York City under Covid-19
Tato Taty, Dagomir Kaszlikowski, 5:20, Singapore, 2020
A day in a life of an estranged father during a pandemic lockdown. His teenage daughter nags him to make a telephone call to someone they both know. Reluctant at first, he dons a vintage leather jacket,
police shades and dials a peculiar number on an old rotary phone. The call is brief but the next morning
he is a different man.
A Strange Season, Burak Oguz Saguner, 10:00, Turkey, 2020
A marriage that spans over half a century cracks when the husband gets plagued by paranoia.
Song Sparrow, Farzaneh Omidvarnia, 11:43, Denmark, 2019
“Song Sparrow" is about immigration. People of different color and race and culture, old and young, embark on journeys, eager to find some place they can call home, or just some place they can live in. Many brave perils more formidable than the ones they ran for in the first place. It is not always weathering storms till and onto shores of calm and prosperity; many a time storms keep them company on and off shores. They dream of better lives while in reality having little choice.
It is about a real event which happened in Austria in August 2015, where flesh and bone of human and animal become intermingled.
This short movie may inspire the viewer to ask: "is it better to go or stay", or more accurately: "is it worse to stay than to go? Is a large chunk of humanity entrapped by events befallen their lands many centuries before they were even born?
"Song Sparrow" uses dolls to pose these questions. It is no less disturbing even though dolls have no life in them. But an attempt is made to show the situation faced by those that have no choice but to put their lives in peril to escape perils of staying, and to trade staying within chaos for a chaotic escape.
Panic Attack, Eileen O'Meara, 3:00, United States, 2019
You know the nagging thoughts that start with "did I leave the coffee on?" and turn in to "am I pregnant with a devil-baby?” This hand-drawn animation explores anxiety, obsession, and one woman’s slippery hold on reality.
Do You Like Poetry?, Eduardo Mattos, 15:00, Brazil, 2020
Do You Like Poetry? follows the daily routine of Roberto, one of the inhabitants of the largest city in South America. After starting a medical treatment, he realises that the result may not be as he expected.