Menu
By popular demand, the Marin County Fair International Film Festival is back in its 50th year. Films ranging from Animation, Documentary, Environmental, Narrative, and Experimental will be screened daily in the Showcase Theater from Noon to 6pm.
EL ASTRONAUTA (Ignacio González Ruiz, Mexico)
Kudryavka was mistaken for a stray dog. Scientists, thinking she had no owner, decided to adopt her for a grand experiment: to take the first living being to the moon. What they didn’t know was that Kudryavka has an owner, a child who will do the impossible to hug his dog again.
MANU DREAMS OF JAGUARS (Daniel Oliveira Garcia, Brazil)
Manu is a chuckling messy child who doesn’t want to sleep on a night too good to end, but in her dreams, an even bigger, fantastic adventure awaits…
MIDDAY (Nic Lindgrin, US)
Midday is a short film about tiny people who live in the woods. Sorrel wakes up from a nap and realizes that they’re late for a lunch date. As they fly to their partner’s place, snippets of the daily life of locals are seen as they go about their day.
THE VANISHING SPELL (Aaron Rogers, Michael Connolly / US)
From within the depths of a tower, an experienced wizard teaches a rising apprentice the basics of using magic.
PRINCESS LIONHEART (Martin Domingues Ball, US)
Enter the world of Princess Lionheart, where extraordinary adventures can be found even under the floor boards.
GAMES OF BAZAAR (Soroush Dianati, Iran)
A teenage boy in his room, enters the colorful and exciting world of games by opening the “bazaar” application.
LUCKY’S PLAN(E)T (Marko Vasić, Serbia)
Lucky the Gnome goes to a meadow every morning where he ritually waters a flower
HWA DON’T GIVE A DUCK (Pin-Yu Chang, Taiwan)
Hwa the kind cactus led three adorable ducks searching for water in the desert; however, these wild strangers almost drove him mad!
BAND (Abhinav Sai Kolla, India)
A Band set of forgotten Kondapalli traditional toys, yearning for the joy of children’s play, finds itself obsolete in the face of modernity.
WHEN IT COMES FROM THE EARTH (Katalin Egely, Argentina/Hungary)
A little girl, a cumbia and a sustainable, healthy world.
CALLIE AND BEE: HOOP DREAMS (George Maestri, US)
A short exploration of 1930’s rubber hose animation in 3D. Callie gets her dog Bee to jump through a hoop with surprising results.
NICKEL AND DIME (Audrey Lowell, Kai Smith, Esha Vaikhary, David Bloom / US)
In the environmentally conscious, wealthy city of San Francisco, some of its poorest residents spend their nights collecting empty beer bottles and soda cans in exchange for nickels at Our Planet Recycling Center. Some say it’s a win-win—less trash on the street and cash for the poor—but there’s more to the story. This emotionally charged mini documentary analyzes how the success of one environmental law reflects San Francisco’s deep wealth inequality.
FASHION BACKWARD (Augusto Calçada, Brazil)
One of the world’s largest textile factories, located in Brazil, serves as a starting point for reflecting on the profound impact of the fashion industry on the social, political, cultural, economic and environmental. Reimagining fashion means ensuring our future. And it is high time we unite forces and take action to get it done.
JOURNEY TO ITHAKA (Michael Westreicher, Jenny Ioannou / Austria)
From devastation to paradise: Epic sea cleanup restores pristine beauty of Greek island with the removal of 76 tons of debris!
RUINS (Karim Lazaar, France)
The lament of a world ravaged by human activities. Set against a haunting and dystopian backdrop, the video unfolds as an artistic narrative that aims to serve as a poignant commentary on the aftermath of industrialization and the unchecked disposal of toxic waste.
WADI RUM: FIGHT AGAINST WASTE (Nicola Pan, Italy)
The incredible story of the Bedouins of the Wadi Rum desert in Jordan who every day with love for their land clean the desert from waste left by tourists.
REMEDIATE (Kevin Lucero Less, US)
Paper or Plastic? It’s not too late to remediate.
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER (Alistair Kerr, UK)
On a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland a solitary lighthouse keepers whiskey supply attracts an uninvited guest.
DEEP TROUBLE (Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman / US)
A submarine adventure to the deepest depths of the ocean.
MAGIC SCUFFLE IN DEEP WATERS (Pietro Rotelli, Italy)
Inspired by Verne and Melies, a submarine and its magical adventures at the bottom of the oceans, which will take it to unexpected places.
WAVES AND TIDES (Rahmon Abdulazeez, Nigeria)
This film explores the life of people living on the coastline in Lagos.
PROJECTIONS #2: WATER (Italy)
36 anonymous artists from all over the world were asked to use any animation technique as a means of interpreting the theme of water and its lack, producing a “short film” of a maximum duration of 15 seconds that could reflect and interpret the world, life, today and the future observed through the white, black and blue of the element-water.
SEA, OH SEA (Nat Grego, Brazil)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
LINES OF SOUL (Luc Godonou and Olivier Kandyflosse, Switzerland)
Jasm One is a visionary artist. He created the largest urban open art museum in the world.
AIR BARE (Ash Broadbridge, Australial)
Lucy and Sarah Jenkins generously share a little of the story behind Air Bare Studio drone photography work and what’s next to come.
BIRD GIRL (Alexis Grusby, US)
An experimental dance film, partially documentary, featuring a college dancer and how she choreographs her work.
POINSETTIA – HOLLYWOOD’S REFUGE (Derrick Jones-Nelson, US)
Poinsettia Park became a refuge for the talent throughout the diaspora of black Hollywood in the early 70’s and 80’s. This is a first hand telling of the times and the impact that an area, in a single era, can intertwine so many lives.
BICYCLE (Zainab Entezar, Afghanistan)
Freedom
CRITICAL MASS, NBO (Alex Kanyi Kanyi Maina, Kenya)
Every so often cyclists from all walks of life, creed, sexual orientation converge to ride on the streets of Nairobi in hordes, to raise awareness of inclusion, equity, and diversity in infrastructural planning and consideration.
LA UNIÓN DE LAS NUBES (Cristina Cardín and Pablo Fernández, Spain)
The clouds, when they join together, bring rain in the form of hope, just as women with their union give hope to the world. On this trip to Mauritania we meet incredible women who, through their work, teach us that we must learn to collaborate more and separate ourselves less.
PUBLISH WHAT YOU PAY (Dereck Nziyakwi, Zimbabwe)
There is a growing recognition that extractive companies need to engage, build partnerships and co-create services with communities and stakeholders in order to improve public policies
and services. Deals in the oil, gas, and mining sectors are worth billions of dollars but they often do not translate into human development and economic opportunity for citizens.
HARTSDALE PET CEMETERY (Elizabeth Telbizova, US)
A documentary short film about the oldest pet cemetery in United States.
THE MUSHROOM MAN (Petros Niamonitakis, Greece)
The predestined path of a boy from the moment he is born. Will he finally be able to discover his true self?
TROPICAL MIND (Bryce Mackie, US)
One man’s dream for a tropical paradise.
BALLOON MAN (Stephen Bobinski, US)
Robyn Hitchcock makes his way through New York accompanied by Balloon Man
THE LAST STRAW (Louis Frost, UK)
A mockumentary about a most unusual hobby.
INTERVAL (Hugo Dray, France)
A man breathes in and out, immersed in a singular meditation.
LESSON IN MENTAL FORTITUDE (Jacob Garcia, US)
Professor Squigglesworth gives a lecture on how to develop ones mental fortitude through a self-evaluation.
THE REHEARSAL OF ZAC DRAC (Craig Whatley, US)
Zac Drac does his thing…
EL ASTRONAUTA (Ignacio González Ruiz, Mexico)
Kudryavka was mistaken for a stray dog. Scientists, thinking she had no owner, decided to adopt her for a grand experiment: to take the first living being to the moon. What they didn’t know was that Kudryavka has an owner, a child who will do the impossible to hug his dog again.
MANU DREAMS OF JAGUARS (Daniel Oliveira Garcia, Brazil)
Manu is a chuckling messy child who doesn’t want to sleep on a night too good to end, but in her dreams, an even bigger, fantastic adventure awaits…
MIDDAY (Nic Lindgrin, US)
Midday is a short film about tiny people who live in the woods. Sorrel wakes up from a nap and realizes that they’re late for a lunch date. As they fly to their partner’s place, snippets of the daily life of locals are seen as they go about their day.
THE VANISHING SPELL (Aaron Rogers, Michael Connolly / US)
From within the depths of a tower, an experienced wizard teaches a rising apprentice the basics of using magic.
PRINCESS LIONHEART (Martin Domingues Ball, US)
Enter the world of Princess Lionheart, where extraordinary adventures can be found even under the floor boards.
GAMES OF BAZAAR (Soroush Dianati, Iran)
A teenage boy in his room, enters the colorful and exciting world of games by opening the “bazaar” application.
LUCKY’S PLAN(E)T (Marko Vasić, Serbia)
Lucky the Gnome goes to a meadow every morning where he ritually waters a flower
HWA DON’T GIVE A DUCK (Pin-Yu Chang, Taiwan)
Hwa the kind cactus led three adorable ducks searching for water in the desert; however, these wild strangers almost drove him mad!
BAND (Abhinav Sai Kolla, India)
A Band set of forgotten Kondapalli traditional toys, yearning for the joy of children’s play, finds itself obsolete in the face of modernity.
WHEN IT COMES FROM THE EARTH (Katalin Egely, Argentina/Hungary)
A little girl, a cumbia and a sustainable, healthy world.
CALLIE AND BEE: HOOP DREAMS (George Maestri, US)
A short exploration of 1930’s rubber hose animation in 3D. Callie gets her dog Bee to jump through a hoop with surprising results.
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER (Alistair Kerr, UK)
On a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland a solitary lighthouse keepers whiskey supply attracts an uninvited guest.
DEEP TROUBLE (Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman / US)
A submarine adventure to the deepest depths of the ocean.
MAGIC SCUFFLE IN DEEP WATERS (Pietro Rotelli, Italy)
Inspired by Verne and Melies, a submarine and its magical adventures at the bottom of the oceans, which will take it to unexpected places.
WAVES AND TIDES (Rahmon Abdulazeez, Nigeria)
This film explores the life of people living on the coastline in Lagos.
PROJECTIONS #2: WATER (Italy)
36 anonymous artists from all over the world were asked to use any animation technique as a means of interpreting the theme of water and its lack, producing a “short film” of a maximum duration of 15 seconds that could reflect and interpret the world, life, today and the future observed through the white, black and blue of the element-water.
SEA, OH SEA (Nat Grego, Brazil)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
JOURNEY TO ITHAKA (Michael Westreicher, Jenny Ioannou / Austria)
From devastation to paradise: Epic sea cleanup restores pristine beauty of Greek island with the removal of 76 tons of debris!
FASHION BACKWARD (Augusto Calçada , Brazil)
One of the world’s largest textile factories, located in Brazil, serves as a starting point for reflecting on the profound impact of the fashion industry on the social, political, cultural, economic and environmental. Reimagining fashion means ensuring our future. And it is high time we unite forces and take action to get it done.
CUBAN BEES: THE ORGANIC REVOLUTION (Daniesky Acosta, Hugo Rivalta / Cuba)
Cuban beekeepers are committed to organic and sustainable apiculture, avoiding chemical contaminants. This brings huge benefits to the island’s bee population and contributes to the overall well-being of the ecosystem. In this documentary, Laura Rivalta takes viewers on a journey through Havana to hear from beekeepers and farmers about Cuba’s unique beekeeping practices. While, Emma Shannon, who did research on about Cuban apiculture at the University of Glasgow, compares the Cuban experience with the challenges faced by bees in Scotland and elsewhere. Through the exploration of Cuba’s beekeeping traditions, this documentary sheds light on the island’s sustainable apiculture.
ENDANGERED SONOMA: MISSING MOLLUSKS (Aaron Nelson, US)
Sonoma County’s Abalone are endangered. Find out why and how we can help.
WANDEL (Maria Korporal, Germany)
The title of this video WANDEL, translated CHANGE, may have at least two possible meanings. The first concerns climate change, the second and connected are the social and cultural changes we have to undertake to avoid a global environmental crisis, caused by climate change.
The Austrian poet Erich Fried wrote in 1981: “Wer will, dass die Welt bleibt, wie sie ist, will nicht, dass sie bleibt.“ (Those who want the world to remain as it is, do not want it to remain). This is a timeless statement. It is written at my feet on an infinite asphalt planet, and I stand there with my bicycle. When I begin cycling, the planet starts moving itself and while rotating a transformation is taking place. One sees animated images emerge. They suggest alternative energies and evolve into breathing life forms. The world is revitalized, the asphalted planet begins blooming again!
SPACE COAST (Michael Westreicher, Jenny Ioannou / Austria)
People from around the world gather on the Space Coast to witness the launch of Artemis-1, the ‘World’s most powerful rocket.’ ut Mark, a veteran of the Space Shuttle Program, doubts this ‘moondoggle’ will ever fly.
FROM THE OBSERVATORY THEY SAW ME (Augusto Calçada , Brazil)
Niginho is a ufologist, artist and, until then, an unknown uncle of Thaís. Under the starry sky of the mysterious country town of Passa-Tempo, the meeting of these two strangers brings to light a rural Brazilian sci-fi that creates a curious reflection on existence.
IT IS THIS (Rizza Alee, US)
Set against the stunning backdrop of the Himalayas in Kashmir, IT IS THIS chronicles the history of snowboarding in Kashmir.
PROJECT CONTROL: THE GREAT BRAZILIAN FREE SOLO (Silvio Armando Davi, Brazil)
This is the story of Anderson, who was separated from his family at a young age, having to work hard and face all the difficulties alone. With a lot of struggle, he graduated as a nurse and worked for many years in emergency rooms in the city of São Paulo, where he discovered that life is tenuous. Accustomed to the loneliness that the hustle and bustle of big cities provides, feeling distressed and unhappy until he discovered climbing and Free Solo, which gave him an immense desire for life and overcoming. The moment he was alone, without equipment in the middle of the immense rocks, he felt himself bathing in blessing.
Immersed in concentration and extreme mental capacity, known as State of Flow, he decided to record the moment of a great Solo climb.
And so the first documentary about a Free Solo climb in Brazil was born, which showed the world the beauty of Brazilian climbing. With the support of an all-volunteer team, The Great Brazilian Free Solo is a story of faith, friendship, dedication to training, healing and rebirth through complete dedication to a radical activity.
GEARS & DUNES (Mário Bock, Portugal)
“Gears & Dunes” is a captivating and action packed documentary following a group of adventurers on an epic journey from Portugal to Dakar. Set against the breathtaking landscapes of the Moroccan and Mauritanian deserts, the film documents the challenges and triumphs of the expedition team as they navigate through remote terrains and forge deep bonds amidst mechanical mishaps and encounters with local cultures. Through stunning cinematography and intimate interviews, the documentary captures the essence of adventure and showcases the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. As the journey culminates in Senegal, “Gears & Dunes” leaves viewers inspired by the transformative power of exploration and the beauty of the open road.
GRIZZLY BUSINESS Kyle Nelson, US)
A grizzly bear escapes from the city zoo. A man works late on his wedding anniversary.
NICELY AWFUL (Tobias Schlange, Japan)
Fed up with the struggles of daily life, a little duck finds utopia, and so his trouble begins.
SPIKE (Kevin McGuiness, Canada)
a monstrous dog with a heart of gold.
BUBBLY (Alexis Grusby, US)
A girl will do anything to cheer up her pet fish.
BIRD DRONE (Radheya Jang Jegatheva, Australia)
A heartfelt story of unrequited love explored through a lonely seagull struggling to accept that his newfound object of affection is a human-operated drone with a limited battery life.
MOMO (Lejla Gyarmati, Hungary)
The story of a racoon who is obsessed with cleaning.
MEOUCH! (Rodrigo Lobato Toporov, Brazil)
An unlucky black cat lives in a constant bad mood, until a crazy event makes him get lost from his home and meet an optimistic stray dog who proposes to him a new way of looking at life.
MOUSE HOUSE (Timon Leder, Slovenia)
A gluttonous mouse traps himself in a cheese wheel while his starving friend stranded outside must contend with a hungry cat.
CHECKMATES (Cler Reizale, Brazil)
The Cat just lost his beloved owner, Mr Mario, in the middle of a chess game they used to play every afternoon. Not knowing how to go on without him, the Cat tries to meet with him again in paradise, but that’s a hard task for someone with more than one life.
CALLIE AND BEE: HOOP DREAMS (George Maestri, US)
A short exploration of 1930’s rubber hose animation in 3D. Callie gets her dog Bee to jump through a hoop with surprising results.
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER (Alistair Kerr, UK)
On a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland a solitary lighthouse keepers whiskey supply attracts an uninvited guest.
DEEP TROUBLE (Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman / US)
A submarine adventure to the deepest depths of the ocean.
MAGIC SCUFFLE IN DEEP WATERS (Pietro Rotelli, Italy)
Inspired by Verne and Melies, a submarine and its magical adventures at the bottom of the oceans, which will take it to unexpected places.
WAVES AND TIDES (Rahmon Abdulazeez, Nigeria)
This film explores the life of people living on the coastline in Lagos.
PROJECTIONS #2: WATER (Italy)
36 anonymous artists from all over the world were asked to use any animation technique as a means of interpreting the theme of water and its lack, producing a “short film” of a maximum duration of 15 seconds that could reflect and interpret the world, life, today and the future observed through the white, black and blue of the element-water.
SEA, OH SEA (Nat Grego, Brazil)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
CALLIE AND BEE: HOOP DREAMS (George Maestri, US)
A short exploration of 1930’s rubber hose animation in 3D. Callie gets her dog Bee to jump through a hoop with surprising results.
EDISON’S GRAVY (Ryan George Kittleman, US)
Based on Russell Edson’s classic poem, “Gravy” is a whimsical ode to a timeless condiment.
NEW WATER MUSIC (Dan Rule, US)
A lush journey
A STEP STORY (Varuna Nigam, India)
A not so typical love story
NIGHT FOR A LOST ONE (Nenad Obrad Nedeljkov, Serbia)
A video diptych, a part of the “Bounds” cycle.
The audiovisual presentation follows the bird to its final and undefined outcome.
INTERVAL (Hugo Dray, France)
A man breathes in and out, immersed in a singular meditation.
THE MUSIC THAT YOU PLAY (Nikolaus Jantsch, Austria)
‘The music that you play’ is a song by Austrian band Yellow Mellow, the music video is created by animation artist Nikolaus Jantsch using a technique called “direct animation”, or “drawn on film”. The footage was produced by painting, drawing and scratching directly on 16mm film. With the help of nowadays software, this century old technique supports the character of the engaging music with a fresh approach, turning great sound into a rousing visual imagery.
HUNKY DORY (Steven Vander Meer, US)
Hunky Dory juxtaposes scenes of animal life with images of human existence, observing the quirky and unexpected ways in which we are similar. The meticulously hand-drawn animation is a visual smorgasbord, moving and morphing in perfect time to the banjo music of Béla Fleck and his bandmates in My Bluegrass Heart.
HOMEWORK (Elliot Cowan, US)
An abstract argument featuring the music of Too Many Zooz.
ULYSSES ALPHABET (Christof Theiler, Austria)
Based on the stylistic complexity of James Joyce’s Ulysses, the music to the film supports the rhythm of the circular movement on the one hand, and on the other hand it repeatedly drifts away from this strict time scale.
DOWNTIME | LÅGTIG (Yuvia Maini, Sweden)
Downtime” (Lågtid) is a work dedicated to the low points of time. The short film examines the space between existences in the visual artist Ellisif Hals dry-needle printed world. What happens when life gets flooded with low tide? What happens between the layers of work in off-season? What are we doing with our downtime?
FRUITING BODIES (Mia Milardo, Canada)
A vivid exploration of transformations and aesthetics in nature and the female body.
WANDEL (Maria Korporal, Germany)
The title of this video WANDEL, translated CHANGE, may have at least two possible meanings. The first concerns climate change, the second and connected are the social and cultural changes we have to undertake to avoid a global environmental crisis, caused by climate change.
The Austrian poet Erich Fried wrote in 1981: “Wer will, dass die Welt bleibt, wie sie ist, will nicht, dass sie bleibt.“ (Those who want the world to remain as it is, do not want it to remain). This is a timeless statement. It is written at my feet on an infinite asphalt planet, and I stand there with my bicycle. When I begin cycling, the planet starts moving itself and while rotating a transformation is taking place. One sees animated images emerge. They suggest alternative energies and evolve into breathing life forms. The world is revitalized, the asphalted planet begins blooming again!
GRIGETTE’S RECIPE (Alba Melis, France)
A young witch falls in love and decides to create her own love potion.
DANCING QUEER TO INDIA (Irena Mihalkovich, UK)
A queer contemporary dancer from Portugal falls in Love with India and dedicates years of his life trying to find belonging as a gay man in its rural state of Kerala. A story about unrequited love, dance, and hope…
EMMA & ELLIE (Dominique Spooner, US)
Heartfelt moments and lingering uncertainty between two characters, Emma and Ellie. A day filled with shared memories, serenity, and a touch of melancholy, creating a beautiful and poignant and uncertain narrative.
PUT ON THE COSTUME (Ian Floodgate, UK)
The transformation of a Drag Queen.
ON SUNDAYS | OS FINAIS DE DOMINGIS (Olavo Junior, Brazil)
Domingos, an elderly man with fragile health, follows his solitary routine on a Sunday afternoon, until he receives a visit from a love from the past.
FRUITING BODIES (Mia Milardo, Canada)
A vivid exploration of transformations and aesthetics in nature and the female body.
WHAT A BEAUTIFUL DUCK (Holo Wang, Hungary)
A transnational, elder gay couple manage their pastoral life in Hungary countryside as poultry farmers, while struggle to come out their true identities to their grown-up children. – Taiwanese filmmaker and his crew encounters at the country side of Hungary, Zoltan and his partner having a bohemian life. Holo explores of their existence, dialogue, love and bringing smile to viewer’s mind. Duck is the essential part of the film, But its a metaphor of the gay relationship conflict.
A STEP STORY (Varuna Nigam, India)
A not so typical love story
PROJECT PICK UP (Faivale Atualevao, US)
Join us following the film for a conversation with filmmaker and cast.
The Trash Punx is partnering with Sabore Ole Oyie, Maasai elder and warrior, of Kenya, to clean up the town of Ewaso Ngiro, outside of Nairobi. Ewaso Ngiro is a small town approximately 60 miles from the famous Maasai Mara National Reserve and is the lifeblood for thousands of people who attend the weekly livestock and produce market where they buy their food. the challenge this town faces is they have no trash service, no trash bins and no means of trash disposal. The trash is thrown on the ground and the town is filthy. Follow along with The Trash Punx as they travel 10,000 miles from the San Francisco Bay Area to Kenya!
PIG (Jorn Leeuwerink, Netherlands)
A big group of animals makes itself dependent on a power grid, hooked onto the socket-shaped snout of a single sleeping pig… How long will that last?
ENJOY YOUR MEAL (Sofie Kienzle, Christian Manzke / Germany)
Enjoy your meal. …to the last bite!
A creature in space overexploits its own planet with existential consequences: as it sinks into plastic waste, it realises that the planet’s resources are finite.
The film is the result of a 48-hour challenge with the given themes “banana, machine, future”. The film also had to contain the sentence “Unfortuately that’s impossible”.
ARBOLITO – AUSTRALIA (Katalin Egely, Spain)
Little Tree’s trip to Australia, where he meets the magical instrument, the didgeridoo.
THE STRAIGHT POOP (Sue Orloff, US)
Our animated short entertains while presenting eye-opening information on one of the fastest, most effective ways to slow the rate of global warming. Individuals concerned about climate change can make relatively small personal choices that can have a huge positive effect.
SICK SUN (Marwa and Mahmoud Africa, Egypt)
The film’s story tells about the rise in the temperature of the sun due to the increase in pollution in nature, which results from carbon dioxide from car exhausts and factory smoke – This film is one of the outputs of a storytelling and drawing workshop to teach Sudanese children in Cairo to make animated films to express their ideas, dreams, and vision of their world and what surrounds them.
WHERE ARE YOU FROM? (Juan Cristiani, Uruguay)
An immersive cinematic journey, effectively conveying the urgency of addressing environmental disasters and their consequences through realism and fantasy. In just 2 and a half minutes, it aims to captivate the audience’s attention and encourage them to rethink their relationship with the natural world while offering hope for future generations.
HUNKY DORY (Steven Vander Meer, US)
Hunky Dory juxtaposes scenes of animal life with images of human existence, observing the quirky and unexpected ways in which we are similar. The meticulously hand-drawn animation is a visual smorgasbord, moving and morphing in perfect time to the banjo music of Béla Fleck and his bandmates in My Bluegrass Heart.
WE’RE ALL INVOLVED IN THIS (Argenis Figueira Nunes, Merícia Lucas Andrade / Portugal)
Exploration of the fragility of marine ecosystems in the face of human pollution. It encourages reflection on the urgent need to adopt sustainable consumption practices and promotes hope for a world where collective awareness preserves the oceans for future generations.
HWA DON’T GIVE A DUCK (Pin-Yu Chang, Taiwan)
Hwa the kind cactus led three adorable ducks searching for water in the desert; however, these wild strangers almost drove him mad!
WHEN IT COMES FROM THE EARTH (Katalin Egely, Argentina & Hungary)
A little girl, a cumbia and a sustainable, healthy world.
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER (Alistair Kerr, UK)
On a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland a solitary lighthouse keepers whiskey supply attracts an uninvited guest.
DEEP TROUBLE (Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman / US)
A submarine adventure to the deepest depths of the ocean.
MAGIC SCUFFLE IN DEEP WATERS (Pietro Rotelli, Italy)
Inspired by Verne and Melies, a submarine and its magical adventures at the bottom of the oceans, which will take it to unexpected places.
WAVES AND TIDES (Rahmon Abdulazeez, Nigeria)
This film explores the life of people living on the coastline in Lagos.
PROJECTIONS #2: WATER (Italy)
36 anonymous artists from all over the world were asked to use any animation technique as a means of interpreting the theme of water and its lack, producing a “short film” of a maximum duration of 15 seconds that could reflect and interpret the world, life, today and the future observed through the white, black and blue of the element-water.
SEA, OH SEA (Nat Grego, Brazil)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
IT IS THIS (Rizza Alee, US)
Set against the stunning backdrop of the Himalayas in Kashmir, IT IS THIS chronicles the history of snowboarding in Kashmir.
PROJECT CONTROL: THE GREAT BRAZILIAN FREE SOLO (Silvio Armando Davi, Brazil)
This is the story of Anderson, who was separated from his family at a young age, having to work hard and face all the difficulties alone. With a lot of struggle, he graduated as a nurse and worked for many years in emergency rooms in the city of São Paulo, where he discovered that life is tenuous. Accustomed to the loneliness that the hustle and bustle of big cities provides, feeling distressed and unhappy until he discovered climbing and Free Solo, which gave him an immense desire for life and overcoming. The moment he was alone, without equipment in the middle of the immense rocks, he felt himself bathing in blessing.
Immersed in concentration and extreme mental capacity, known as State of Flow, he decided to record the moment of a great Solo climb.
And so the first documentary about a Free Solo climb in Brazil was born, which showed the world the beauty of Brazilian climbing. With the support of an all-volunteer team, The Great Brazilian Free Solo is a story of faith, friendship, dedication to training, healing and rebirth through complete dedication to a radical activity.
GEARS & DUNES (Mário Bock, Portugal)
“Gears & Dunes” is a captivating and action packed documentary following a group of adventurers on an epic journey from Portugal to Dakar. Set against the breathtaking landscapes of the Moroccan and Mauritanian deserts, the film documents the challenges and triumphs of the expedition team as they navigate through remote terrains and forge deep bonds amidst mechanical mishaps and encounters with local cultures. Through stunning cinematography and intimate interviews, the documentary captures the essence of adventure and showcases the resilience of the human spirit in the face of adversity. As the journey culminates in Senegal, “Gears & Dunes” leaves viewers inspired by the transformative power of exploration and the beauty of the open road.
LOVE AND DEATH (Greg Radi, US)
The respective heirs of two warring kingdoms fall in love.
HEADLESS (Roope Sorvo, Finland)
A knight tries to get ahead in life in a comedic tale of self-discovery.
ONELUV (Varya Yakovleva, Russian Federation)
One little crack results in a myriad of shards.
RETURN TO SENDER (Olivia Williams, US)
Western style rotoscoped animation that consists of vintage postcards and scrapbook materials.
CHECKMATES (Cler Reizale, Brazil)
The Cat just lost his beloved owner, Mr Mario, in the middle of a chess game they used to play every afternoon. Not knowing how to go on without him, the Cat tries to meet with him again in paradise, but that’s a hard task for someone with more than one life.
DOUBLE-O BO (Stephen Bobinski, US)
A psychedelic trip through the world of spy/detective Double-O Bo
JOHN WICK MEETS DAN AND THE DINO (Connor Ryan, Chile)
John Wick, is that you?
BAND (Abhinav Sai Kolla, India)
A Band set of forgotten Kondapalli traditional toys, yearning for the joy of children’s play, finds itself obsolete in the face of modernity.
SEA, OH SEA (Aleksandar Vukašinović, Serbia)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
COUNT TO TEN Andreia Dobrota, Netherlands)
A woman who finds herself annoyed by those in her vicinity attempts to calm down by counting to ten. However, the effectiveness of this calming ritual depends on her ability to envision the irritating people going through some amusingly peculiar scenarios
CALLIE AND BEE: HOOP DREAMS (George Maestri, US)
A short exploration of 1930’s rubber hose animation in 3D. Callie gets her dog Bee to jump through a hoop with surprising results.
MANU DREAMS OF JAGUARS (Daniel Oliveira Garcia, Brazil)
Manu is a chuckling messy child who doesn’t want to sleep on a night too good to end, but in her dreams, an even bigger, fantastic adventure awaits…
EL ASTRONAUTA (Ignacio González Ruiz, Mexico)
Kudryavka was mistaken for a stray dog. Scientists, thinking she had no owner, decided to adopt her for a grand experiment: to take the first living being to the moon. What they didn’t know was that Kudryavka has an owner, a child who will do the impossible to hug his dog again.
WATER MONSTER | MONSTRUO DE AGUA (Kotik Villela, Mexico)
A young girl experiences bullying from other kids. One day, she has an accident and falls from her canoe into the river. This incident leads her to encounter a gigantic axolotl, which is also facing bullying. This unexpected meeting sparks a friendship that empowers them to overcome the challenges they both face.
MEOUCH! (Rodrigo Lobato Toporov, Brazil)
An unlucky black cat lives in a constant bad mood, until a crazy event makes him get lost from his home and meet an optimistic stray dog who proposes to him a new way of looking at life.
LOVE IN THE TIME OF BOILING | EL AMOR EN LOS TEMPOS DE EBULLICIÓN (Juan David Almanza Lamo, Camilo José Rivera Varona, Colombia)
The time for cooking is set. The stoves are lit, the sharp knives are ready, and the vegetables await in distress their fate. All of them, except for one, a hopeless tomato on the run. Its sorrowful runaway will suddenly become merrier by the power of love.
ALPHA GENERATION (Débora Resendes, Iuri Moreno, Brazil)
Rebeca, a girl passionate about reading, tries to convince her neighbor and best friend, Marcelo, to read a book.
WHEN IT COMES FROM THE EARTH | SO VIENE DE LA TIERRA (Katalin Egely, Argentina/Hungary)
A little girl, a cumbia and a sustainable, healthy world.
CADIM (Luiza Pugliesi Villaça, Brazil)
Cadim tells the story of Seu Zé, a man who is looking for a land for his livelihood followed by Chico, a bird trapped in a fragile cage. One day, a fuit falls into the cage and breaks it, allowing Chico to escape…
THE BOAT (Rodolpho Pinotti, Brazil)
An isolated island, a teenager, and her mother. A boat docks at the pier, bringing promises and desires. Against her mother’s wishes, the girl sets off to explore the world, and a few years later, she returns with passions, memories, and a daughter in her baggage. The film delves into rites of passage and the inherent transformations of life.
RED BICYCLE | BICICLETA VERMELHA (Rodolpho Pinotti, Brazil)
An old man, lonely and solitary, reads his newspaper every day on the balcony of his house. There, he has an unusual experience: he recognizes passersby who remind him of people from his youth. Initially frightened, he gradually allows himself to be carried away by the images of his memories, and time regresses to his youth – Exploration of themes related to rites of passage, the challenges of urbanization and old age.
IT’S UP TO THE FUTURE (Nat Grego, Brazil)
Animated music video about a human in a surreal and existencial contemplation of live, love and memories.
THE LIGHTHOUSE KEEPER (Alistair Kerr, UK)
On a barren rock off the west coast of Scotland a solitary lighthouse keepers whiskey supply attracts an uninvited guest.
DEEP TROUBLE (Michael Dorfman, Maxwell Dorfman, Emmett Dorfman / US)
A submarine adventure to the deepest depths of the ocean.
MAGIC SCUFFLE IN DEEP WATERS (Pietro Rotelli, Italy)
Inspired by Verne and Melies, a submarine and its magical adventures at the bottom of the oceans, which will take it to unexpected places.
WAVES AND TIDES (Rahmon Abdulazeez, Nigeria)
This film explores the life of people living on the coastline in Lagos.
PROJECTIONS #2: WATER (Italy)
36 anonymous artists from all over the world were asked to use any animation technique as a means of interpreting the theme of water and its lack, producing a “short film” of a maximum duration of 15 seconds that could reflect and interpret the world, life, today and the future observed through the white, black and blue of the element-water.
SEA, OH SEA (Nat Grego, Brazil)
An animated music video that deals with the eternal discrepancy between desires and possibilities, between the created image of the world and reality, between imposed desires and real needs…
29ºS,71ºW (Sandy Williams IV, Chile)
29° S, 71°W documents the filmmaker’s 2018 journey to Totoralillo Norte, Chile to witness a solar eclipse, and considers the historical legacy of a typically tranquil coast that became the site of pilgrimage for thousands of tourists from all over the world.
NOSTALGIA 98 (José Alejandro Quintero, Venezuela)
A young man reminisces about his life as he says goodbye to his hometown and emigrates.
US | NOSOTROS (Tania Ángeles Begún, Mexico)
José, an 8-year-old boy, is sent to live with his grandfather, a grumpy and distant man. As they face life’s difficulties together, their relationship grows stronger through their shared experience.
TIME (Ileana Andrea Gómez Gavinoser, Argentina)
Time passes…
CHECKMATES (Cler Reizale, Brazil)
The Cat just lost his beloved owner, Mr Mario, in the middle of a chess game they used to play every afternoon. Not knowing how to go on without him, the Cat tries to meet with him again in paradise, but that’s a hard task for someone with more than one life.
40º TO THE SHADOW | 40º A LA SOMBRA (Eduardo lli, Argentina)
A summer Sunday with 40° to the shadow. In a parking lot, a little girl invokes her recently deceased grandmother and waits for something extraordinary to happen.
MEXRRISSEY: THE BOY WITH THE THORN IN HIS SIDE (Oscar Hudson, UK)
Fans of Morrissey have always tended towards the obsessive. Now the theatrical indie singer has become hugely popular in Mexico, where musician Camilo Lara formed his band Mexrrissey to celebrate the work of the British star, in Spanish, giving each song a Latin arrangement that is radically different to the original. The response has been packed houses around the world, as the band’s translations breathe new life into classics including 1985’s “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”, which they play here as they wait for the 100 bus in London on a suitably melancholy English evening.
AMÉRIKA – ES SEI (Eduardo lli, Argentina)
A video collage born in the heat of the Latin American struggles of yesterday and today.
PROJECT CONTROL: THE GREAT BRAZILIAN FREE SOLO (Silvio Armando Davi, Brazil)
This is the story of Anderson, who was separated from his family at a young age, having to work hard and face all the difficulties alone. With a lot of struggle, he graduated as a nurse and worked for many years in emergency rooms in the city of São Paulo, where he discovered that life is tenuous. Accustomed to the loneliness that the hustle and bustle of big cities provides, feeling distressed and unhappy until he discovered climbing and Free Solo, which gave him an immense desire for life and overcoming. The moment he was alone, without equipment in the middle of the immense rocks, he felt himself bathing in blessing.
Immersed in concentration and extreme mental capacity, known as State of Flow, he decided to record the moment of a great Solo climb.
And so the first documentary about a Free Solo climb in Brazil was born, which showed the world the beauty of Brazilian climbing. With the support of an all-volunteer team, The Great Brazilian Free Solo is a story of faith, friendship, dedication to training, healing and rebirth through complete dedication to a radical activity.
SEA, RIPE & DARING (Franz Idra, Germany/Chile)
Love does not bite.
Love does not tear.
But love constantly eats one after the other.
Matthias Santiago Staehle writes poems bilingually – in his mother’s Chilean Spanish and his father’s German. “Sea, ripe & daring” follows his lyrical odyssey of longings from Santiago, the capital of Chile, along the coast via Valparaiso to Patagonia – Tierra del Fuego.
CANOE CONNECTIONS (Reeva Billy, Canada)
An essential element of maintaining culture in First Nations communities is nurturing the practice of knowledge keepers passing on their cultural wisdom. For the Canoe Cultures program in Vancouver Canada, an Indigenous-lead non-profit carving centre, Mike Billy Sr. and Jr. are an example of the transference of knowledge from one generation of Squamish Nation War Canoe builder to the next. Through this age-old tradition the uninterrupted connection between ancestors and the present generation is maintained and flourishes.
VALDO (Emilia Ferrari, Brazil)
Valdo and his family are among the last residents of Parati, a traditional fishing community on the coast of Paraná. Being the only one in his family to have completed higher education, Valdo’s daily life is divided between taking his daughters to school by boat and preserving the continuity of his community, surrounded by the convergence of the Atlantic forest and the mangrove
THAT IS MY FLAG (Alejandro G Jusino Mass, Puerto Rico)
A short narrated Documentary about Puerto Ricans’ pridE in their flag.
THE VALLEY (Juan Zabal, Argentina)
Amidst a world completely consumed by virtual reality, Thomas, a solitary man who has lived in a secluded valley for decades, reflects on his life and impending mortality as he records a video memento of his last days. This memento is both an ode to the things he loves and a farewell to a way of living that will die with him.
