LIDF

The festival programme ranges from harrowing exposes of human rights abuse and hard-hitting investigative journalism, to uplifting, comical and sometimes bizarre stories of life and family.

LIDF2016 Official Selection (Part 1 & 2 ….. films added daily)

Overwhelming Majority | 11 | Joseph Irvin | USA

Overwhelming Majority is an experimental documentary short dealing with issues of loneliness, alienation, and social anxiety. A young woman recounts a suicide attempt, muses on the nature of connectedness, and ultimately yearns for understanding

Flâneurs – Street Rambles | 79 | Matthew Lancit | Canada-France

Between film projects and following the birth of his daughter, a Canadian in Paris must confront his slacker lifestyle and decide if there is something in it worth passing on to the next generation, or if he is better off getting a job. In search of the remaining traces of flâneurs (19th Century wanderers of Paris), he takes his daughter on a series of poetic strolls in which he crosses the path of people who help reveal the relevance of such a figure today.

Mum, Me and the House | 38 | Marjolijn Prins | Belgium

When Debbie (47) is diagnosed with cancer her son Sam (27) decides to postpone his plans to travel the world. He is convinced the incessant work renovating her dream house on the French countryside is the main cause of her illness. Together they undertake a journey to find the right course of treatment. Though this brings them closer together than they’d ever been, whenever they get back to the house, Debbie falls straight back into her old, industrious habits.

Transit Zone | 32 | Frederik Subei | UK

Set in the mysterious murky confines of the ‘jungle’ in Calais, Transit Zone follows Teefa, a young man who fled the regime in Sudan with big dreams of a new life in the UK.

Sit and Watch | 37 | Francisco Forbes / Matthew Barton | UK

Six everyday scenarios play out in modern London summoning ideas of representation, spectacle and human behaviour. Each character depicted unwittingly becomes observer or observed. Contrasting recording techniques muster doubt about the invisible line of fact and fiction. These opposing storylines and their intrinsic cast urge the question: what leads men to be constantly creating and consuming an image of themselves?

Persona. Primary Structures (Persona. Estructuras primarias) | 39 | Mikel Belascoain / Miguel Goñi Aguinaga | Spain

Directed by the spanish artist Mikel Belascoain and the photographer Miguel Goñi Aguinaga ‘Persona’ was filmed during the process of creation of the artwork work of the same name. Inspired by a dialogue between the artist and people who suffer severe neurological diseases. This film is part of the experimental project of the same name initiated by Manuel Murie, Neurologist and President of the Spanish Society of Neuro-rehab and the artist Mikel Belascoain.

Making Waves | 8 | Harri Grace | UK

Oumaima Erhali is a 17-year-old Moroccan woman determined to surf. She’s part of a generation that is pushing boundaries, in a country where many believe a surfboard is no place for a young Muslim woman. Oumaima won’t let stereotypes hold her back from the sport she loves, nor the life she wants to lead.

For a Few Chocolates More (Pour quelques barres de chocolat) | 63 | Vanessa Gauthier | France

For fifteen days during the summer holidays a group of young children retreat to a summer camp. What unites theme is that each child suffers from diabetes. Fifteen days to give an insight into their daily life, their fears, and to capture it in their own words. At the age when you have everything to learn.

A Love Worth Giving | 23 | James Newton | UK

A young newlywed couple build a life around the challenges of waiting for a new pair of lungs, but are torn apart when an organ donor can’t be found in time.

In Love as in Live (Canto alla Vita) | 60 | Turi Finocchiaro, Nathalie Rossetti, Nicolas Liguori | France-Belgium

Raymond and Raymond love each other. When one of them, already HIV positive for the past 27 years, gets cancer, their struggle becomes a joint one. Expressing their love to their friends, they try to shape a new life, full of the unknown. Their journey sweeps us along on an amazing sentimental odyssey.

Other Than Our Sea | 10 | Valentina Ferrandes | Italy

From the relics of an ancient greek colony in Southern Italy, to modern day shipwrecks in the Mediterranean Sea, a story of exploration told through fragments of classical literature, flashes of ethnographic films and manipulated excerpts of current newsreels. Referencing the recent tragic circumstances that have drowned thousands of migrants departing from Northern Africa to seek asylum in Europe, the film looks at the idea of traveling at sea in times of conflict. A journey that can be a leap into the unknown, a voyage of discovery, or forced migration, death as well as rebirth.

Downtown Village (Pequena Aldeia) | 13 | Luciana Nanci/ Priscilla Pomerantzeff | Brazil

Enrique looks at Roosevelt Square from his window. The gaze of an immigrant upon one of the most diverse and one of the only actually occupied public spots in São Paulo. Before his eyes an unusual village-like life in the heart of South America’s largest megalopolis unfolds. Enrique contemplates life away from his origins and the passing of time through his memories and the digital impressions taken amongst the urban noise.

I Have a Weapon | 22 | Ahmad Shawar | Palestine

The story of the Palestinian village “Kafar Kaddoum”, which enages in a weekly march to demand the retrieval of land after it has been confiscated by Israeli occupation forces. The film foucuses on the popular resistance techniques that participants are adopting.

Repoman | 15 | Giacomo Gex/Bruno Gex | Spain

A day in the life of a repoman in Los Angeles, USA.

The Dream of Shahrazad | 107 | Francois Verster | South Africa

Weaving together music, politics and storytelling, the film explores recent Middle East events through the metaphor of THE 1001 NIGHTS. Drawing on Shahrazad, the storyteller princess who saves lives, a Turkish youth orchestra conductor, an Egyptian storytelling troupe, a troubled Lebanese actress and others put creativity to new political use.

A Tale of Love, Madness and Death (Un cuento de amor, locura y muerte) | 22 | Mijael Bustos Gutiérrez | Chile

The film director’s uncle is schizophrenic and his grandmother suffers from a terminal illness. The grandfather who is unable to take care of both, must decide between his wife or his son.

Dream of Sara (Sonho de Sara) | 8 | Gabriel Sanna | Brazil

A car crosses the landscape, images converge in the unknown. An experimental visual poem.

Nowhere Place | 27 | Susanne Opstal | Netherlands

Where do you find the essence of your existence? On the peaks of the highest mountains in the world? Even higher, on an uninhabited planet from which you can never escape? Or is it in the deepest sorrow, by leaving a trail of destruction that will never be forgotten. This essay documentary follows various people on their quest and inevitably leads to the question: how far do you want to go?

White Nights | 20 | Rola Shamas | Iran

Street musicians on New Year’s Eve play to make a living. They face a difficult situation but in the end the show must go on.

Dissonance (Dissonans) | 29 | Theis Mølstrøm Christensen | Denmark

Søren and Malene met and fell in love by playing and improvising music together. They had a child, but were shortly after both diagnosed with cancer. They haven’t played music together since. This film creates three rooms where the participants can play and once again find their common tune.