UNKNOWN HAND (U.K.) BY SAUL PANKHURST

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Synopsis: An individual reflects on the inevitability of change, how we know ourselves and how we wish to be known. This film discusses the impact of degenerative illness on one's sense of Identity and Authenticity, asserting an individual's right to approach a major change in their health in a way that remains true to them. Running time: 00:03:19.

Selections/awards: The Scottish Mental Health Arts Festival, Doc.London.

About the director: Saul Pankhurst is a cinematographer, film editor and animator currently based in Glasgow.

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CELENTANO'S SEASICKNESS (ITALY) BY SAVERIO CAPPIELLO

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Trailer

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Synopsis: Loredano, known as Celentano, due to seasickness has never been able to be a fisherman, his dream since he was a child. Now he works in a bar and waits for Alex, his nephew, who has recently started working as a fisherman, to give him a gift that initiates him into that world that is water and that he has never been able to touch.Running time: 00:12:05.

Selections/awards: Venice Film Week (Winner Best Documentary Short Film), Brussels Independent FF, Super Shorts FF London, Ghent Viewpoint Documentary FF, and more.

About the director: Saverio Cappiello (1992, Italy) graduated from Civica Scuola di Cinema Luchino Visconti (Milan). His first short film Clinamen (2015) was presented at about thirty festivals worldwide, and he's won several awards with his subsequent shorts and documentaries. He is currently working on his first feature, L’altra via.

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TODDLER TALKS (USA) BY DIANA REICHENBACH

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Trailer

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Synopsis: A documentary animated short based on audio recordings of a toddler-aged boy named Henry. The film is animated in a way that mimics the development of language and emotions—which aren’t always clear and articulated at first. Running time: 00:03:33.

Selections/awards: RiverRun IFF, Detroit Int Fest of Animation, Ramsgate Int Film & TV Fest, Something Wicked DocuFest, Vanilla Palm FF (Best Short Film), Red Movie Awards (Best Microfilm), Chambal IFF, Mabig FF (Best Short Film).

About the director: Diana Reichenbach is an award-winning multimedia artist specializing in immersive and architectural media. She uses time-based, interactive, and immersive platforms to explore digital technology and its relationship to memory and perception. Navigating between animation and anthropology, she seeks to present narratives that ask how we have come to understand culture through our dependencies on digital media.

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AMAR (FRANCE) BY JUSTINE MÉRY

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Synopsis: Self-employed to be in charge of her hours, her services and her prices, Amar has been a militant escort (sex worker) since she was 18. She always felt a strong will for freedom and independence, but recent laws have been preventing her from doing her job in good conditions … Running time: 00:10:20.

Selections/awards: Paris Filmmaker Festival, Montreal Feminist FF, Argenteuil IFF, Festival Filministe , Underground Cinema Film Awards Dublin, and more.

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MY FATHER’S NAPLES (ITALY) BY ALESSIA BOTTONE

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Synopsis: Giuseppe used to stare at the horizon as if there was something liberating about it. His daughter Alessia would often see him staring out the window like that, wondering what could attract his attention so intensely. Giuseppe’s story revolves around the themes of exile and fear of the unknown, which bind Italy’s 20th century migrants, cardboard suitcases in hand, to today’s migrants landing on the country’s southern coast. As the train devours the rails mile after mile, Alessia comes to understand what her father was thinking and seeing: his memories. The return to Naples becomes the opportunity to tell his life’s journey and thus discover her own origins. Because no matter how far we go, we always come back to where it all began. Running time: 00:20:00.

Selections/awards: Brussels Independent FF, Verona International FF (Best Italian Film), Festival Filoteo Alberini (Best Screenplay, Best Film Editing), Ethnos Festival (Best movie), Sedicicorto Film Festival, Coffi Film Festival (Best Documentary), and more.

About the director: Alessia Bottone is a director, screenwriter, journalist and graduate in Institutions and Policies for Human Rights and Peace. In 2017 she won a number of prizes for her journalistic inquiries. In 2018 she was among the finalists for the “Premio Cesare Zavattini” for a project involving the creative re-use of archive cinema, as well as the “Premio Luzzati” for short films. My Father’s Naples is her first short film using archive images.

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THE STORYLESS LAND (IRAN) BY MITRA ROOHIMANESH

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Trailer

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Synopsis: The Storyless Land is about a faraway, ancient deprived village with no facilities, not even electricity, clinics, schools, bathrooms. Where most of the people are blind, mentally retarded or disabled and Golmah, their omniscient, who is an old 98 years woman, is involved with their birth, marriage and death… But despite all suffering, they love their land and soil and fight to stay and live in their ancestors' village . Running time: 00:35:00.

About the director: Mitra Roohimanesh is an Iranian woman documentary film producer and director . Most of her films are about Iranian people.

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