LIDF

Saturday 30th November

10.00
Bright Lights
Charby Ibrahim | 2019 | Australia | 14min
A 25 year addiction to poker machines has cost ‘Sharon’ almost everything… and very nearly her life in this short, fully animated documentary, voiced by Claudia Karvan.
Mother’s Day Gift
Anniina Kauttonen & Otto Heikola | 2018 | Finland | 19min
Mother’s Day Gift tells a touching story about the special relationship between Jaana and her daughter Liisa who died in a traffic accident at the age of 16. At an early age the sensitive and peculiar girl said she received signs, premonitions of things to come. Jaana took these signs lightly and was amused by them until Liisa had a premonition that she would die young.
Across the Andes
Henrik Dahlbring | 2019 | Sweden | 25min
Seven years after their father’s suicide, siblings Anna and Henrik Dahlbring meet to discuss their father and his impact on their lives.

11.00
Svalbard, the last stop before the North Pole
Martin Gouzou | 2019 | France | 7min
A few minutes around the Svalbard Archipelago, located 900 kilometers away from the North Pole where I had the chance to put my camera in Ny-Alesund, the northernmost village on the planet and in Pyramiden, a Russian ghost mining town, lost in the heart of the Arctic…

El Hor (The Noble One)
Dianne Lucille Campbell | 2019 | UK/Ireland | 14min
The Saluki is a sighthound, one of the world’s oldest dog breeds and the perfect guide to lead this monochromatic tribute to pedigree, cosmology, history and dynasty. El Hor takes the viewer on a strange trip through the ancient past and alien future, into life and death itself, where man and beast share an afterlife—a tomb that looks like a womb. Guiding us in love, preparing us in death and transforming us in life.
Discovery Award, Dublin International Film Festival (Feb 2019) 
Best Experimental Film Award, ÉCU – The European Independent Film Festival, Paris
On Exile
Jose Carlos Teixeira | 2018 | USA | 27min
At the intersection of art, anthropology and politics, “On Exile” is an experimental documentary film that reflects on the refugee experience, expanding on issues of migration, displacement, and otherness. As a quiet meditation, it develops intimate psychological portraits of Arab Muslims from Syria and Somalia, resettled in North America, while unveiling their moving testimonies.
Jury Award, Best Documentary Award, The Artists Forum Festival of the Moving Image, New York

12.00
Aether
Ruken Tekes | 2019 | Turkey | 82min
Hasankeyf is a 12,000 years old conservation area nestling in the valley of the Tigris River, in the Kurdish region of Turkey. A filmmaker’s 21-day homage to capture the ethereal essence of her unique ancient homeland soon to be submerged by a hydroelectric dam, Aether is instinctively carried and driven by emotions, feelings and observations. It reveals the place’s truths following its own unencumbered chronology. An invitation to a free-minded voyage into nature’s cycle of birth-death-rebirth.

13.30
London in Motion

Güzel Derman (Beautiful Cure)
Nataša Cordeaux, Cheyenne Ritfeld & Ricarda Theobald | 2019 | UK | 11min
Outside the Comfort Zone
Nataša Cordeaux, Cheyenne Ritfeld & Young Creators UK CIC | 2019 | UK | 14min
Driving Us into Poverty
Valeria Bevilacqua & Camilla Macciani | 2019 | UK | 10min
Here to Stay
Jorge Rodriguez Solorzano, Christen Phaneuf & Fabiola Midulla | 2019 | UK | 10min
Ahmad
Chen Zhan, Tom Hanson, Caitlin Marlene Robinson | 2019 | UK |10min

14.15
Filmmaking for Social Change
Born in Gambia 
Natxo Leuza | 2018 | Spain | 27min

14.45
The Healer and the Psychiatrist
Mike Poltorak | 2019 | UK | 75min
In the South Pacific Island group of Vava’u, the traditional healer Emeline Lolohea treats people affected by spirits. One day away by ferry, the only Tongan Psychiatrist Dr Mapa Puloka has established a public psychiatry well known across the region. Though they have never met in person, this film creates a conversation between them on the causes of mental illness and spiritual affliction. Their dedication and transformative communication offers challenges and opportunities to help address a growing global mental health crisis.

16.15
Waves
Jessie Ayles | 2019 | South Africa | 5min
Short documentary following three young girls growing up in one of South Africa’s most violent communities.
Best Short Documentary, Encounters South African International Documentary Festival
Faces Without Visage
Hesam Rahmani | 2019 | Iran | 8min
How come a somber silence drowns me and my memory ?
How come the faces lose visage in this dark dungeon of memory ?
Street Surfers
Egon Feiner | 2019 | South Africa | 9min
Frank Solomon, a big wave surfer and marine activist from Cape Town, travels to meet two exceptional men, Thabo and Mokete, who indirectly serve the environment through recycling as a means of income. This is the untold story of new friendships, shared experiences and common interest between individuals that are worlds apart.
Kamikaze
Neel Cockx & Guillaume Vandenberghe | 2019 | Belgium | 22min
Philippe Vandenberg is one of the most radical post-war Belgian artists. In June 2009 he decides to take his own life. Ten years later, his studio opens its doors again. One long shot glides over his works, belongings, sources of inspiration and memories. Video archives are projected on the way and bring the painter back to his studio.

17.00
Neighbours
Tomislav Zaja | 2018 | Croatia | 75min
Neighbors is an observational documentary about people with mental illness who leave their institution in the Croatian city of Osijek; after decades spent in isolation they try to put their shattered lives back together. When we first meet these ex-patients, they introduce themselves with their diagnoses rather than their names. As the film progresses, their individual personalities emerge as they integrate in new neighbourhoods.
Audience Award for the Best Documentary, ZagrebDox, Zagreb
Best Documentary, Best Cinematography in Documentary, SEEfest, Los Angeles
Human Rights Award, Days of Croatian Cinema, Zagreb
Best Cinematography in Documentary, Liburnia Film Festival, Opatija
Best Documentary, DRUK International Film Festival, Bhutan
Best Feature Documentary, I Will Tell International Film Festival, London
Special Mention, Innuendo International Film Festival, Milan