Shorts 9: Family Friendly Animation – Better Together
Synopsis
All ages are welcome in this family-friendly program, full of colorful films that celebrate play, encourage curiosity, and emphasize the importance of communal bonds. Featuring works by Shira Avni, Lena von Döhren, Eva Rust, Guillermo Casarin, Seungbae Jeon, Christian Kaufmann, João Rodrigues, Afnan Bawyan, Adriel Meka, and Mitra Shahidi.
Two One Two (Canada) offers a poetic and deeply personal glimpse into motherhood in the form of a gorgeous, glimmering two-headed monster. A gassy fish allies with other sea creatures to fend off a hungry seagull in the hilarious and melodious underwater tale POND (Switzerland). A girl connects with her Mayan heritage on a camping trip with her father that turns into an exciting adventure in Balam (Mexico, U.S.). Peek into the inner lives of batteries with the oddball charmer Battery Mommy (South Korea). After a tiger escapes from the zoo, a bored subway worker gets the surprise of a lifetime in Town Hall Square (Germany). A curious girl gets sucked into the bizarre and magical world of the book she is reading in Ana Morphose (Portugal). A woman attempts to overcome language barriers by preparing a cultural dish that takes on a life of its own in Saleeg (Saudi Arabia, The Netherlands, Sweden). A friendly boy makes an unexpected connection when he attends a mysterious summer camp in Camp Kona (U.S.). In Starling (U.S.), a couple is visited by their child in her new spiritual form for a beautiful meditation on grief and eternal love.
Screenings & Events
Virtual Screening
This program will be available to stream from October 16 at 12:00pm CT to October 22 at 11:59pm CDT.
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Sponsors
Film Supporters
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Shorts 8: Architecture – Versions of Home
VariousFrance, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Ukraine, United States
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Shorts 4: Documentary – In Motion
VariousBhutan, Germany, Switzerland, Ukraine, United States
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Look Back at It [short film]
Synopsis
Following an unsuccessful date, a 40-something single mother gets her groove back with a little assistance from her teenage daughter. Along the way, she discovers the rewards of daring to take risks and the essential importance of savoring life’s pleasures. Look Back at It beautifully portrays loving intergenerational relationships and women rediscovering their emotional, social, and sexual empowerment.
This film screens as part of the Shorts 7: Black Perspectives – Resonance program.
Synopsis
Seven-year-old Sol spends the day at her grandfather’s house, helping her sprawling family prepare a birthday party for her dying father, Tonatiuh. Behind the closed doors of his bedroom, Tona attempts to gather the strength for a celebration he never wanted, yet may be his last. As the daylight fades, complex webs of family tensions begin to tangle and break as each of Tona’s loved ones is overwhelmed by the duality of this celebration of life and death.
The childlike illusion of a harmonious family fades from Sol’s vision, and as the celebration comes to a close, she must learn to embrace the essence of letting go. A film whose spirituality transcends its story, Tótem is a warm and delicate meditation on life and loss.
Screenings & Events
Digging Deeper into Movies with Nick Davis
Sat, Oct 14 @ 12:00pm
Join Northwestern Professor and film critic Nick Davis for an interactive conversation before the Oct 14 screening of Tótem.
Free and open to the public.
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Media
Film Credits
- Tatiana Graullera, Lila Avilés, Louise Riousse
- Lila Avilés
- Omar Guzmán
- Diego Tenorio
- Naíma Sentíes, Montserrat Marañon, Marisol Gasé, Saori Gurza, Mateo García Elizondo, Teresita Sánchez, Juan Francisco Maldonado, Iazua Larios, Alberto Amador
- Thomas Becka
- Limerencia Films, Laterna, Paloma Productions, Alpha Violet Production
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
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The Echo El Eco
Synopsis
In the small rural Mexican village of El Eco, a teenage girl, Montse, dutifully works alongside her family, caring for the sheep and her grandmother with the same sense of curiosity and devotion. While frost and drought punish the land, she learns the ways of life and death. As in her auspicious fiction feature Prayers for the Stolen, with this lyrical coming-of-age docu-fable acclaimed Mexican-Salvadorean filmmaker Tatiana Huezo beautifully captures both the preciousness of adolescence and the region’s unforgiving elements.
Exquisitely textured and deeply empathetic, The Echo unfolds like a dream, shifting between the sweet and the dark. In sumptuous, vivid images, Hueso observes how children’s lives in these hardscrabble towns mirror those of their parents and grandparents in a generational cycle of struggle and hope.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Tatiana Huezo, Dalia Reyes
- Tatiana Huezo
- Lucrecia Gutiérrez (AMEE), Tatiana Huezo
- Ernesto Pardo
- Montserrat Hernández Hernández, Luz María Vázquez González, Sarahí Rojas Hernández, María de los Ángeles Pacheco Tapia
- Leonardo Heiblum, Jacobo Lieberman
- Maya Scherr-Willson
- Radiola films
- https://lineup.the-match-factory.digital/berlinale-23/the-echo
Sponsors
Documentary Program Sponsors
Cynthia Stone Raskin
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Synopsis
In an act of desperation, impulsive black sheep Alejandro (Dario Yazbek Bernal) flees his home in Mexico. On the run from his unforgiving father, Alejandro ends up in New York City. There, he meets Jack, a pet store worker whose own, similarly wealthy family life is fracturing after his father (Willem Dafoe) betrayed his mother (Emmanuelle Seigner). Together, the two young men enter a whirlwind romance, sending them into a dead-end world of passion, drugs, and depravity.
With Pet Shop Days, first-time feature director Olmo Schnabel, son of artist and filmmaker Julian Schnabel, has crafted a gritty throwback to American independent cinema. (No wonder Martin Scorsese signed on as an executive producer.) Imbued with raw emotion and propulsive pacing, and led by an explosive performance by Yazbek Bernal (Gael’s half-brother) as the wild and wounded Alejandro, Pet Shop Days is a riveting portrait of lost young men in search of connection.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Galen Core, Alex Coco, Francesco Melzi d’Eril, Gabriele Moratti, Marie Savare de Laitre
- Jack Irv, Olmo Schnabel, Galen Core
- Sophie Corra
- Hunter Zimny
- Jack Irv, Darío Yazbek Bernal, Willem Dafoe, Peter Sarsgaard, Maribel Verdú, Jordi Mollà, Camille Rowe, Emmanuelle Seigner, Louis Cancelmi
- Eli Keszler
- Giovanni Corrado, Raffaella Viscardi, Moreno Zani, Malcom Pagani, Renato Ragosta, Livio Strazzera, Theo Niarchos, Aimone Ripa Di Meana, PJ Van Sandwijk, Peter Brant Jr., Michel Franco, Reka Posta, Jeremy O. Harris, Martin Scorsese
- TWIN, MeMo Films, Storyteller Productions, Tenderstories, 3 Marys Entertainment, ELA Films
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