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Genesis 2.0
 
Christian Frei and Maxim Arbugaev
Switzerland / 2018 / 1:53:00

On the remote New Siberian Islands in the Arctic Ocean, hunters are searching for the tusks of extinct mammoths. There is a gold rush fever in the air. The price for white gold has never been so high. The thawing permafrost not only releases precious ivory. The tusk hunters find a surprisingly well-preserved mammoth carcass. Such finds are magnets for high-tech genetic scientists. They want to bring the extinct woolly mammoth back to life à la “Jurassic Park”. Resurrecting the mammoth is a first manifestation of the next great technological revolution. Man becomes Creator. Genesis two point zero.


 

     



A Moon for My Father
 
Manila Akbari and Douglas White
Great Britain / 2019 / 1:25:00

Mania Akbari collaborates with British sculptor Douglas White to coin a tender fusion of langauge, where a meeting of cinema and sculpture investigates the processes of physical and psychological destruction and renewal. Begun a matter of weeks after first meeting, the film charts a deepening artistic and personal relationship exploring the nature of skin, family, death, water, desire and, throughout, a powerful will to form. Akbari looks into the connection between her body and the political history of Iran, investigating the relationship between her own physical traumas and the collective political memory of her birthplace. As she undergoes surgeries on a body decimated by cancer, remembrance and reconstruction provide a framework for investigating how bodies are traumatised, censored and politicized, and yet ultimately remain a site of possibility.

 


 

 




Almost Nothing
 
Anna De Manincor / Zimmerfrei
Italy, France, Belgium / 2018 / 1:17:00


When we think about science often we focus on the big discoveries: the Higgs Boson! Gravitational waves! Sometimes maybe we forget about what happens in between: there’s a bunch of people doing the systematic work. At the border between Switzerland and France there's a citadel called CERN, a global community of thousands of people working together towards a common objective. How can they work for years - sometimes decades - as a unique and enormous brainpower? What are they looking for ?


 


 

 





Srbenka
 
Nebojša Slijepčević
Croatia / 2018 / 1:12:00

During the winter of 1991, Croatia defended itself against the military aggression of neighbouring Serbia. Among the innocent victims of this conflict was Aleksandra Zec, a teenager of Serbian origin, who was hatefully lynched in Zagreb. A generation later, while in Croatian schools, Serbian pupils continue to be taken for the “enemies” of yesterday, Oliver Frljić adapts “the Zec affair” at the theatre, with Nina, a Serbian, born in 2001, in the title role. In front of Nebojša Slijepčević’s camera, the troupe’s rehearsals turn into collective psychotherapy, interspersed by shots of an empty stage haunted by personal accounts that build up in voiceover. Through skilful metatheatre that involves both the troupe’s acting and sense of self as they work on their own memories, distanced by the theatrical device, Srbenka delineates a public space likely to break the cycle of vengeance. Slijepčević’s film also constitutes a powerful reflection on one of the possible functions of art: to dry out, metre by metre, the cesspool of hatred fed by the entrepreneurs of ethnic cleansing who continue to act today.



 


 

 




To the Living
À l'usage des vivants
Pauline Fonsny
Belgium / 2019 / 0:26: 46

In 1998, Semira Adamu, a 20 year-old, so-called “illegal”, Nigerian immigrant on Belgian soil, was smothered to death by a police cushion as they attempted to evict her. 20 years later, in a combined female war cry, two women tell her story. Through their tales, they highlight the reality of detention centers intended for migrant people, the conditions of such imprisonment, the suffering of detainees, the abuse of guards and policemen.

 


 

 



Amelina
 
Rubén Guzmán
Argentina / 2018 / 0:25:30


Amelina "Coca" San Martín grew up in a remote Patagonian location inside the volcanic caldera of an extinct supervolcano, rich in archaeological and paleontological remains. Her humble life passes by amidst her world-famous archaeological collection, her cats, her fish and her beloved "choikes" (rheas).



 


 

 



 

By the Name of Tania
 
Mary Jimenez and Bénédicte Liénad
Belgium (Peru) / 2019 / 1:25:00

Based upon real testimonies, this hybrid film tells the story of Tania, a teenage girl who is forced into prostitution in the gold mining regions of Peru.

 


 

 


The Sleepers
Los Durmientes
Alejandro Ramírez Collad
Mexico / 2018 / 00:20:35

In a shelter on the southern border of Mexico, Central American migrants recover their strength to continue their journey to the United States.



 


 

 

 





A Dream of Spring
 
Shih Han Tsao
Taiwan / 2017 / 00:21:49

In 1949, the Chinese Civil War forced many teenagers to flee to Taiwan with the nationalist KMT. They never returned home and many of the men never got married. Today, the veterans' tragic stories fade into silence as each of them passes away, one by one.

 

Director Statement:

Thanks for the jury and International Festival Signs of the Night. I'm glad to get the main award in the short film section. My film "A Dream Of Spring" is about a veteran who face the loneliness and death, after the war. They were forced to leave family in the civil war, and I hope their story will not be forgoten too easily.

 

 




Wildcat
Fauvve
Jeremy Comte
Canada / 2018 / 0:16:0



Set in a surface mine, two boys sink into a seemingly innocent power game with Mother Nature as the sole observer.

 


 

 



Umbra
 
Florian Fischer and Johannes Krell
Germany / 2019 / 0:20:00

The film deals with rare and common optical phenomena that occur in nature. These phenomena evoke familiar images such as shadows or reflections on a water surface; but also unusual ones like the “Brocken spectre” or the pinhole effect during a solar eclipse. These ancient and natural projections can be considered as pre-cultural and independent of any apparatus. They occurred even before mankind and are united by their intangible, ephemeral presence. In their immateriality and fragility, they are precursors of the cinema image. UMBRA develops a visual dialogue between phenomenon and apparatus, archetype and image, self and self-perception.

 


 

 



 

Patision Avenue
Leoforos Patision
Thanasis Neofotistos
Greece / 2018 / 00:12:49

On her way to audition for a role as Shakespeare's Viola, Yannis's mum discovers that her son has been left home alone. Through a series of phone calls, she fights to balance the most important roles of her life, whilst walking in the most controversial area of Athens, Patision Avenue.

 

Director Statement :

This film is a letter to my mother and all the mothers out there, and I am so thrilled that it communicated with the audience of Bangkok! I am honored and happy to receive the Signs Award!

 

 



Viral Kids
 
Arjanmar Rebeta
Phillipines / 2019 / 0:18:08



Viral Kids is about the trending stories of five different street children who have their own past and dreams but being hindered and utilized by an unknown force behind the online scheme.

 

Director Statement :

Children need protection. They are one of the weakest parts of our society. They are prone to abuse and manipulation. The Philippine legislation is proposing to lower the age of criminal responsibility from 15 to 9 or 12 years old. We are opposing this as it will put
children in danger. With the "SPECIAL MENTION for the SIGNS AWARD" given to our short film “VIRAL KIDS”, we are grateful as this would call more attention from people to protect the rights of the children. We are happy that our humble short film would give impact to the life of the “little” voiceless population.

 

 

The Source
La Source
William S. Touito
France / 2018 / 00:17:10

In a popular neighborhood in the Paris suburbs, hours and days following an attack committed in Paris by Brahim, a young man from the hood. His family and friends are shocked and wonder...

 


 

 

 

Realms
Valtakunnat
Patrik Söderlund
Finland / 2019 / 0:20:28

A voyage through time, evolution and the kingdoms of life towards the natural destruction wrought upon the planet by the human species. Exploring geological epochs and kingdoms of life, Realms voyages through deep time from the primeval ocean to a post-human future. The film employs visual storytelling, seeking to replace the anthropocentric worldview with greater attention to the complex interrelationships and dependencies between organisms, and between animate and inanimate nature.


 


 

 



Meteorite
Meteorito
Mauricio Sáe
Mexico / 2018 / 00:14:56


Bird men suffer mysterious falls in the search for where the sun rises. An altered reality through rites that converge in one objective: die to generate life.

 




 

 

Heaven-Hell
 
Dirk de Bruy
Australia / 2018 / 0:22:24



A technological diary/found footage film scribed somewhere between outer and inner space. What future does technology extend our vision into? An incredible journey inside and outside our flesh. An apparition proclaimed by Walter Cronkite, America's benevolent voice of authority that colonized the 20th Century. Thoughts caught between heaven and hell. Within these technological shifts our bodies atrophy into lumps of meat, tended and seared.

 


 

 



Swatted
 
Ismaël Chandoutis
France / 2018 / 00:19:59



Online players talk about their difficulties in escaping "swatting", a cyber-harassment phenomenon that is sometimes fatal and threatens them whenever they play. The action takes shape through youtube videos and wireframe images from a video game.

 


Jury Statement:

A topic of an almost unbelievable and unreal game of cyber cave dwellers, in which unsuspected online gamers are tricked using a fake 911 call, is revealed to the audience using a design that evokes an unbelievable an unreal atmosphere of the online gaming world. The artist’s effort resulted in the effective wakeup call for all those who are busy immersing themselves in the unreal world.



String Figure of Time
 
Kieko Ikehata
Japan / 2018 / 0:13:30

This work shows the photos of four generations of women: The director herself, and her grandmother, mother, and daughter. Contained in one household's album were the memories of women from many generations - women who have passed, women who were newly born, women who became adults, and women who grew to become old. The times they lived were different, yet they were all someone's daughter and someone's mother. When we take and connect these moments that they share, the concept of time unravels, and takes on a new shape. These stories do not belong to anyone, yet they were all mine at the same time.

 

Director Statement :

Thank you very much to the judges! It is a great honor, and will be encouraging for my future work production! I used my childhood video (taken by my mother) and my daughter's video(taken by me) to make works. My own birth to a daughter also makes more sense in making works. In this work, my mother, me and my daughter are mixed. It does not matter which person's memory is. Rather, I want you to feel some kind of joy and awe in continuing endlessly while mixing. Then, as a motivation for the work, I wanted to have my grandmother meet my daughter  (the grandmother died before met my daughter). If I could change the time axis in the album, would my grandmother and my daughter meet? I made this while thinking vaguely.

 

 

 

 





 

 

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