PIMFF 2020 SELECTION
A Voyage Against Time (2020)
Country: Kuwait
Duration: 87 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
This pioneering documentary follows a physically and mentally challenging kayaking expedition led by Bashar Al Huneidi through six countries from Kuwait to Oman. This spiritual journey raises awareness of the region’s natural beauty and rich biodiversity and highlights the urgent need for a sustainable strategy to protect the environment so fundamental to the region’s heritage and culture. Bashar overcomes treacherous physical, mental, and logistical obstacles to bring himself to connect with nature.
Directed by Steve MacKay
With over 20 years TV, News, Sport & Corporate Video Production experience, Steve has filmed & been a creative director in the areas such as TV Adverts, News, Sport, Politics, Fashion, Wildlife, Art History, Sci-Tech, Environmental, Property, History, Weddings, Education, Events, Music, Food & Drink, Film and many others. Steve has a passion for wildlife & adventure documentaries and was hired as DOP on the conservation adventure expedition A Voyage Against Time and also co-Directed a 6 x 30-minute series shot in the Arabian Gulf, and started in Kuwait and finished in Oman. This is broadcast on MENA Discovery channel in Kuwait.
Badar (2020)
Country: Pakistan
Duration: 6 minutes
Language: Urdu, Balochi
Synopsis:
Badar lives in a small village, this village is known for its mountains and sea. A micro-artist, Badar didn’t learn from anyone he has God-gifted talent. Often ignored for his skill, disregarded as an hobby for idlers, today the entire town acknowledges him for his skill.
Directed by Shabir Anees
Shabir Anees is a first-time Pakistani documentary filmmaker based in Lasbela, Baluchistan.
Bare Trees in the Mist (2019)
Country: Nepal
Duration: 15 minutes
Language: Nepali
Synopsis:
A young mother, Kaali, and her young son hear that a villager who has returned home from abroad has brought them gifts. At first Kaali rejects this possibility. But a combination of poverty, desperation, and hope makes her walk miles to greet him. At the onset of winter, out of contact with her husband, himself somewhere in Saudi Arabia, Kaali finds herself on the brink.
Directed by Rajan Kathet
Rajan is a Kathmandu-based filmmaker working in fiction and documentary film. He lived in Europe between 2014-2016, when he was earning his MA in Documentary Film Direction at DocNomads. Since returning to Nepal, Rajan has focused on his professional filmmaking career. Bare Trees in The Mist is his first film to participate in major film festivals. He is currently working on a feature documentary, No Winter Holidays. Rajan is also a Berlinale Talents alumnus 2017.
Cicliste per Caso – Grizzly Tour (2020)
Country: Italy
Duration: 88 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
The documentary tells the story of two women travelling by bike across the United States, from Canada to Mexico along the Great Divide. A unique adventure through the most remote areas of the Rocky Mountains, between pristine nature and wild animals. An epic journey that led them to travel 4,000 km and climb 60,000 meters and that, day after day, forced them to face their own limits, their strength and fragilities, and tested their relationship. Because every journey is always a love story.
Directed by Silvia Gottardi
Silvia Gottardi was born in Padua in 1978. A former basketball player on the Italian national team, today she is a journalist and owner of the newspaper “Pink Basket”, a filmmaker, a tireless traveler and co-founder of “Cicliste per Caso”. She was one of the “Women at the Wheel” for the Candido Cannavò Foundation and has traveled overland all over the world for humanitarian purposes. In 2015, she signed the documentary film “She Got Game” about the protagonists of women’s sports. She comments on women’s basketball on Sky Sports. Always a supporter of women’s emancipation, in 2020 she directed the documentary Cicliste per Caso – Grizzly Tour, where she takes part in a cycling adventure.
Dialogue Earth (2019)
Country: Germany
Duration: 75 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
Featuring incredible photography of spellbinding landscapes, extensive archival footage and a soundtrack by the Oscar nominated artist Hauschka, Hank Levine’s latest documentary Dialogue Earth accompanies the internationally acclaimed earth painter Ulrike Arnold on her expedition into the wilderness of southern Utah.
Directed by Hank Levine
Hank was born in Bonn, Germany, and his Berlin-based production company Hank Levine Film GmbH was founded in 1995. Hank produced the Lucy Walker directed the documentary “Waste Land” ( 2010, “Lixo Extraordinario”) Academy Award Nominee for best feature length documentary, and the Maggie H. West directed “War Zone” (1998), as well as the feature films “Rosa Morena” (2010, nominated for Best Danish Film/Robert Award) by Carlos Oliveira, “Praia do Futuro” (2014, “Futuro Beach”) by Karim Aînouz and “City of God” (2003, “Cidade de Deus”) by Fernando Meirelles, Academy Award Nominee for best director, best-adapted screenplay, best editing and best cinematography.
El Gran Hito (2020)
Country: Spain
Duration: 13 minutes
Language: Silent
Synopsis:
An ambitious mountaineer attempts to climb an impossible mountain. A woman sets out to tackle a more modest one. Both of them will do their utmost to succeed, although the outcomes will be very different.
Directed by Ignasi López Fàbregas
Ignasi is a Spanish filmmaker and visual artist who graduated in Illustration from Illustration for l’ Escola Massana in 1993. He has made several films included Moscardenos and Mano Killer.
Face au Vide (2020)
Country: France
Duration: 59 minutes
Language: French
Synopsis:
In the collective imagination, mountaineering is seen as an elitist and dangerous activity. When the mainstream press talks about mountaineering, it is generally to relate a drama or an exploit. The mountaineers are then placed in two categories. On the one hand, reckless supermen, engaged in a death struggle with the mountains. On the other, irresponsible unconscious people, that it is too often necessary to get out of a bad patch by mobilizing important means of rescue. But does this negative image of mountaineering match reality? What if mountaineering had another face, that of a little-known practice, more widespread than one think? What if mountaineering was not only a matter of supermen, but had also a feminine face?
Directed by Marc Brulard
From a very young age, Marc was passionate about images. Drawing, photography, and videography are his preferred means of expression. As a regular practitioner of outdoor sports, he settled in the Alpes-Maritimes (France), a magnificent playground between sea and mountains. As of 2020, Marc works as an engineer in the space industry. In the meantime, driven by demand from potential customers, he launched an independent videographer activity in 2018.
Gando (2020)
Country: Iran
Duration: 8 minutes
Language: Balochi, Persian
Synopsis:
Due to water scarcity, girls in the Sistan and Baluchestan province of Iran must travel far from their village to get water. Most of the watering holes are inhabited by a type of Iranian crocodile called Gando. Gando is the story of Hawa, a 9 year old girl who lost part of her arm to a Gando while fetching water. Nevertheless, she and others of this province honor the Gandos. They believe when there is a Gando, there is Water.
Directed by Tayemour Ghaderi
Teymour Ghaderi is an Iranian filmmaker who graduated in screenwriting and photography. Has directed 11 short films and is the winner of 116 national and international awards for his films.
Harmony of the Woods (2020)
Country: Ecuador
Duration: 5 minutes
Language: Silent
Synopsis:
Upon discovering that the forest reacts to his music, a child will form a new connection with nature. ‘Harmony of the Woods’ is a 2D animated short that features the story of Cooper, a boy who doesn’t seem to care about nature, even though it is always surrounding him on his bike rides. This will change when he discovers the secret that lies inside the forest.
Directed by Mateo Barragán
Born in 1997, Mateo Barragán is an animator and illustrator based in Quito-Ecuador. Harmony of the Woods is his debut film made through the last year of his digital animation four-year course at USFQ (Universidad San Francisco de Quito). He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 2020.
Harria Herria (2020)
Country: Spain
Duration: 8 minutes
Language: Spanish
Synopsis:
The aesthetics and spectacular nature of vertical dance, set in a quarry, a place destroyed by humankind. The beauty of dance substitutes the crudeness of the rock. Attention is focused upon the figure of a woman, demanding a leading role –as is happening in today’s society–. Women that dance, women that climb, women that even lift rocks, as if they were heaving high a country. Harria is the rock, Herria the country.
Directed by Janire Etxabe
Janire Etxabe since an early age has been climbing “dressed in white” mountains, almost always her rope as her companion. Her passions being rocks and rope, she spends most of her time climbing. Although for years she has received classes in flamenco and stylized dance, since 2017 she has been totally immersed in vertical dance, thus fusing her passions in different performances. Writer of the short film Harria Herria, she works at the cultural organization DIMEGAZ that she created to manage the production and direction of her projects.
Help is on the Way (2020)
Country: Indonesia
Duration: 91 minutes
Language: Indonesian, Japanese, Mandarin
Synopsis:
Choosing to leave your family behind… your children, your husband, your parents… to work overseas for what may be many years, is a difficult decision to make. But for 1000’s of women in rural Indonesia, there are few alternatives. Help Is On The Way explores the lives of the various women that undertake the required training and development, following them from their village to the school, into Jakarta and eventually working abroad in Taiwan. It also explores the role of the agents, teachers, and personnel at the school as well as current workers in Taiwan. It is at times an emotional journey, but also funny, enlightening and a little competitive, offering a unique insight into a lifestyle not often seen on screen.
Directed by Ismail Fahmi Lubis
Ismail is one of Indonesia’s premiere documentary filmmakers. Upon graduating from Institut Kesenian (Institute of Arts) Jakarta in 1993, majoring in Film and Directing, he directed several Indonesian drama series before switching his focus to documentary in 1998. As a cinematographer, Ismail has worked with notable filmmakers including Leonard Retel Helmrich and Cathy Henkel. He has also worked as a tutor for Documentary Master Classes at the Jakarta International Film Festival (JIFFEST) in 2006 and 2007.
Ismail has directed two feature documentaries; Masked Monkey – The Evolution of Darwin’s Theory (2014) and Tarling is Darling (2017). Tarling is Darling premiered at Busan International Film Festival. Both films screened at the Taiwan International Film Festival with Tarling is Darling winning a Special Jury Mention award in 2018.
Highways of Life (2020)
Country: India
Duration: 52 minutes
Language: Metei, Hindi
Synopsis:
Highways of Life is a detailed look at the high octane lives of Manipur’s Highway truckers. Being a landlocked North-East Indian state, the two Highway 2 & 37 connect Manipur to the rest of the world as its lifeline. Economic blockades, lightning general strikes, armed extortion, robbery, abduction, killed for ransom and bad road conditions make these two highways a life-threatening terrain for the truckers. The film journeys a group of truckers as they maneuver through the highways, putting their lives on the frontline, ferrying essential commodities to serve the three million people of Manipur in the two intense public movements played out on the highways.
Directed by Amar Maibam
Amar Maibam is an Indian Filmmaker and Cinematographer from Manipur. He was born in Imphal into a Meitei family. Starting his career as an assistant to his late Film maker father M A Singh, Amar was drawn more into independent Filmmaking because of the creative freedom to tell stories of the human experience and how we get by in this crazy world we all live in. He made his directorial documentary debut with City of Victims (2009) based on the extrajudicial killings in Manipur. He also worked in several documentaries and fiction serial for Doordarshan Kendra Imphal, Program production centre Guwahati Doordarshan and recently worked as a cinematographer for a travelogue for DD Arunprabha
Hill 314 (2020)
Country: Israel
Duration: 28 minutes
Language: Hebrew, Arabic
Synopsis:
My childhood’s view – Latrun’s hills. “Oasis of Peace”, A settlement set on hill 314, has founded on coexistence between Arabs and Jews. Ibrahim, a herder Bedouin, lives there with his family for 51 years. Since 1999 the settlement and Silence Monastery, the landowners, has made an agreement therefore Ibrahim has been threatened to be deported.
Directed by Omrie Levy
Omrie was born and raised in 1992 in `Maztliah,`a settlement near latrun area and now lives and work in jerusalem. During his high school he studied cinematography. In the army he served in IAF as a video Editor . with his release from the army he started his path as an independent. Omrie Studied one year in Sappir College and then moved to Bezalel Academy in Jerusalem at screen-based art department.
Hunza: Ski and Culture in Pakistan (2018)
Country: France
Duration: 52 minutes
Language: English, French
Synopsis:
The Hunza Valley is recognized as one of the most beautiful and wild in the world. In the far north of Pakistan in the Karakoram massif, this valley is home to the largest mountains in the world. But it is also recognized for these hundred-year-old inhabitants who continue to transmit their knowledge and their morale to the future generation. This is also what Sam Favret, Leo Slemett and Julien “Pica” Herry came here to look for. Accompanied by their skis and snowboards, for them, the goal of traveling and discovering the culture and of course walking the snow-capped corridors of its endless mountains at more than 5000m altitude. With their guide Javed Ali they will immerse themselves in a unique culture in a breathtaking environment. But beware! The road will be long and tedious to reach their goal. In this film produced by Invade Media, discover an exceptional place that lives up to your expectations.
Directed by Alexis Blaise
Cameraman, director, and producer for Invade Media, is specialized in outdoor sports for more than 10 years, Alexis is today a benchmark in the market. He has followed Sam Favret on all his previous projects around the world and he is the main cameraman of “les nights de la glisse”. He also shot for the award-winning films “Frozen Mind”, “Waking Dream,” “Hunza”, and “Mount Logan.”
Irakli’s Lantern (2020)
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 22 minutes
Language: Georgian
Synopsis:
High in the Caucasus mountains of Georgia, 78-year-old Irakli Khvedaguridze spends the long winter months alone as the last inhabitant of Europe’s highest village.
Directed by Ben Page
Ben Page is a London based documentary filmmaker whose passion for immersive storytelling and adventure has found him capturing stories of unique individuals in extreme environments around the world.
Iron Khan (2020)
Country: India
Duration: 72 minutes
Language: Kashmiri, Hindi, English
Synopsis:
Parvez Khan Alias “Iron Khan” aka ‘Raja’ was an Area Commander of JKLF (Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front) in the early Nineties fighting an armed rebellion against India for Freedom. His younger brother Tariq Khan was killed by a rival Pro-Pakistani group and that is when he decided to live a non-violent life for the future of his family. He started a backpacker’s lodge in the ski village of Gulmarg. A popular tourist destination between travelers. Dedicating his life to peace and channeling his energy in cooking for people. Growing up amongst international riders his elder son ‘Dada’ caught on to snowboarding at an early age. Dada started guiding foreign riders on the mountain living in the hut. Ashraf the younger son on the other hand fully administered and supervised operations at the lodge. The trio of the father and sons together become a sustainable team finally gaining traction in the tourist industry. However not for long as the GDA (Gulmarg Development Authority) deems them Illegal and seals the hut, leading to frustrating times for Parvaiz Khan and Family.
Directed by Naseer Khanday
Naseer Khanday is an Independent Filmmaker and Producer from Indian administrated Kashmir. Autodidact from young age, Naseer learned filmmaking by watching lot of world movies and worked with International film crews in Himalayas as an Editor and Line Producer. Storytelling in his genes, His grandfather was a storyteller telling stories in villages Kashmir. Since childhood, Naseer was curious about his grandfather’s stories and that is what influenced him to be a storyteller.
King of Beasts (2018)
Country: United States
Duration: 86 minutes
Language: English, Swahili
Synopsis:
Aaron, an American hunter, enters the dark heart of the African bush, on a surreal neocolonial expedition, emulating 1000s of years of indigenous rite of passage rituals, as he hunts the ultimate trophy – the king of beasts. Many hunters consider themselves conservationists, and animal lovers. They justify their right to hunt as central to the preservation of the species and defend the benefits of their concession fees.
King of Beasts is an observational portrait that digs deeper, beyond sensationalism and politics, observing the facts and the many shades of the truth on the ground in Africa, with regards to wildlife and lion conservation efforts, amidst the ever-declining animal populations. With intimate access and never before seen footage, the film question man’s very nature, as well as our place in the animal kingdom.
Directed by Nadav Harel and Tomer Almagor
NADAV HAREL is an award-winning documentary filmmaker based in Israel. Nadav’s shorts and TV work screened worldwide in high venues such as BBC World, Museum of Natural History NY, Harvard Medical School, Berlin Film Festival, SBS, YLE, CH8, and Museum of Modern Art NY. KING OF BEASTS is his feature documentary debut.
TOMER ALMAGOR was born in Israel and has traveled extensively, Tomer’s short film played festivals and won awards. He wrote and directed the critically acclaimed 9 FULL MOONS with Amy Seimetz, Bret Roberts and Donal Logue. He also directed the lion documentary, KING OF BEASTS. Based out of Los Angeles, he is an accomplished screenwriter and the creative director at Urban Tales, where he has been developing a slate of films including his next project, Reciprocal Beat.
Lock Down, Rock Up (2020)
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 10 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
Jerome Mowat takes us through the challenges he faced as a front-line paramedic during the pandemic, and how he used climbing as an escape.
Directed by Nico Hambleton
Nico Hambleton is an award-winning lighting cameraman who specializes in factual and documentary filmmaking. Nico is also experienced across a broader spectrum of projects such as entertainment, sports and live/pre-recorded studio. A qualified ski and kitesurfing instructor, he love the outdoors and extreme sports therefore am able to adapt and cope with a wide range of demanding scenarios and climates.
Mission Everest: The Legend of Sherpa Jangbu (2020)
Country: Nepal
Duration: 32 minutes
Language: Nepalese, English
Synopsis:
In the Spring of 2019, when Mt. Everest expedition was going to have a record season with highest number of climbers, 14 members from SSI Mt. Everest Team went upto Summit the highest mountain in the world, unfortunately 2 of them never came back. The film tells a story of a Nepali mountaineering guide, Mr. Jangbu Sherpa, who is climbing Mt. Everest for the 16th time to support his family. And his client Mr. Karma Tenzing, a social entrepreneur and businessman with no mountaineering experience nor any training. As their expedition begins, they start facing multiple challenges along the way and will have to make precise decisions at every step to avoid serious obstacle and complete their mission.
Directed by Sonam Sharma
Sonam recently graduated from an IT college but has always been fascinated by films, mountains and their culture. She has been working as a filmmaker professionally since 2014 with Shirupatey Cuts production.
Mothers of the Land (2019)
Country: Peru
Duration: 74 minutes
Language: Quechua, Spanish
Synopsis:
Mothers of the Land accompanies five women from the Andean highlands in their daily struggle to maintain a traditional and organic way of working the land. In the Andean Cosmovision, women and earth are strongly interrelated. Both, a women’s body and the earth’s soil are capable of giving and nurturing life. In the context of an ever-growing industrialization of agriculture, the use of chemical pesticides and genetically modified seeds it is women, who, connected to earth through bounds of sisterhood, take on the role of protectors.
Directed by Álvaro and Diego Sarmiento
Álvaro and Diego Sarmiento are two Peruvian filmmaker brothers. GREEN RIVER. THE TIME OF THE YAKURUNAS their debut feature premiered at the 67 Berlin Film Festival (Forum 2017) and the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight in New York.
Diego directed several short films, two of which screened previously at the Berlinale: EARTH’S CHILDREN (Generation 2014) and SONIA’S DREAM (Culinary Cinema 2015).
Alvaro is a visual artist and screenwriter recipient of the Rockefeller Foundation Bellagio Center Arts & Literary Arts Residency and the MacDowell Colony Fellowship
Pamir to Karakoram (2020)
Country: United Kingdom
Duration: 61 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
Let us take you on a journey across two of the wildest highways in the world: the Pamir and Karakoram Highways. We will take you through Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Western China, and Pakistan, along the two highest international roads on the planet. Travel by bicycle across breathtaking landscapes, encounter some of the world’s most isolated populations and experience their cultures, cycle over passes above 4,650m, and descend on broken, muddy roads, all without leaving the comfort of your own home.
Directed by Antoine and Clare Cottet
We are a Scottish/French couple who are always on the lookout for our next adventure. This trip combined our love of cycling, mountains, remote places, and interacting with people. We knew this was a once in a lifetime journey (or so we thought…), and so Antoine, a passionate photographer already, decided it was time to take on the challenge of making his first film. All of the footage was shot by Antoine (or by me under his direction) and he was also heavily involved in the post-production process.
Peaceful Glide (2020)
Country: Croatia
Duration: 51 minutes
Language: Croatian
Synopsis:
Up until a hundred years ago, the Eurasian griffon vulture could have been seen all over Croatia. Out of four species of vultures, they are the only survivors. Today they live only on five islands in the northern part of Adriatic coast in Croatia and every “new flight” brings hope to the survival of their species. Its simple but perfect movement emanate from almost invisible use of its own energy. Like some kind of Zen master, he indulges in wind and turns the air resistance into harmonious sailing.
Directed by Sandi Novak
Sandi Novak was born in 1961 in Zagreb, Croatia and obtained the Master of Arts degree in cinematography on the Academy of Dramatic Art in his city of birth. Since then he works as a documentarist and has filmed a number of documentaries; some of them as the author, some as the cinematographer. He is a member of HDFD, Filmmakers Association of Croatia and HZSU, Croatian Union of Artists.
Project Wild Women (2020)
Country: India
Duration: 23 minutes
Language: Hindi, English
Synopsis:
The filmmaker, 26 , born and raised in a small village, wanted to escape the stifling surroundings of her orthodox family. She thought to herself if she is the only one fighting to keep her passion for sports alive or are there other girls like her.
With many questions in her mind, she went on a journey across India to find women like her and start a dialogue with them. During the journey, she found 13 women practicing 11 different extreme and alternative sports. The film explores her conversations with these women and gives us a glimpse into their life of practicing extreme and alternative sports, and what drives these women in a country such as India where women pursuing extreme sports are still looked down upon.
Directed by Kopal Goyal
Born in a small town in Bihar, Kopal left her home for further studies because her village didn’t offer schooling beyond 8th grade. After completing high school, she pursued journalism. She made her first climbing film on Ganesha 8b+ – India’s hardest route, which was supported by communities and magazines around the world. It won the Best Climbing Film award at IMF Festival, 2018. This built her confidence, and she went on to make her mark in sports documentaries with Project Wild Women, Kokankada, and Durga: Forging New Trails. Her past films also include Free Soul, which was awarded as Best Extreme Sports Film at IMF film fest 2020. She has founded “Inspire Crew’’ – a local media platform and agency to bring and connect people who practice in the outdoors with compassion where anyone can practice regardless of age, gender, or social status.
Simurgh (2020)
Country: Pakistan
Duration: 6 minutes
Language: Urdu
Synopsis:
Simurgh is the story of a young philonoist girl who embarks on a mystical adventure in the seven valleys and finds the spiritual meaning of her existence. Farid-ud-din Attar’s Sufi poem “Conference of the Birds” inspired the valleys that are the subject of the story.
Directed by Saleema Nawab
Saleema Nawab is a first-time Pakistani filmmaker and visual artist. A management student and a banker, she developed a strong passion for Illustration & Animation. Self-taught in various Adobe tools, secured a job at one of the gaming companies as a Production Coordinator. Serving Pakistan gaming industry for almost two years, Saleema pursued Masters in Multimedia Arts at National College of Arts, Lahore.
Some Lover to Some Beloved (2018)
Country: Pakistan
Duration: 100 minutes
Language: Urdu
Synopsis:
Some Lover to Some Beloved is a seven year in the making documentary chronicling the life and work of two extraordinary Pakistani artists – veteran actor Zia Mohyeddin (‘Lawrence of Arabia’, ‘A Passage to India’) and revolutionary poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. The work of the two men find congruence one night in Lahore, Pakistan on December 31, 2010 as Zia recites Faiz’s poetry during his annual readings from Urdu literature. Weaving Faiz’s poetry into an exploration of Zia’s life, and taking six years to complete, Some Lover to Some Beloved explores the challenges facing artists in the contemporary Muslim world, the idea and implications of nationhood and what it means to persevere through difficulties even at the very end of your life.
Directed by Umar Riaz
Umar Riaz is a Student Oscar nominated filmmaker and photographer from Lahore, Pakistan. In 2009, he graduated as a University Honor’s Scholar with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature and Cinema Studies from New York University’s College of Arts and Science. He then graduated from the prestigious Graduate Film Program at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts with a Master’s in Fine Arts in Filmmaking and Production where he was awarded an Ang Lee Scholarship for ‘exceptionally talented graduate film students.’ His award-winning films have screened at film festivals internationally including at the Locarno Film Festival, the Raindance Film Festival, the Woodstock Film Festival, Cinequest, HBO and BET’s Urbanworld Film Festival amongst several others. Riaz has also been visiting faculty for filmmaking at the renowned Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) as well as at the historic National College of Arts (NCA) in Pakistan.
Spellbound (2020)
Country: New Zealand
Duration: 5 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
Wingsuit BASE jumping is often presented as a thrill-seeking adrenaline rush. Spellbound takes us deeper into the more contemplative aspects of jumping, as David Walden and friends venture into the mountains around his home in New Zealand.
Beautiful scenery and hypnotic cinematography eject us from our daily lives into a world of air, earth and flight.
Directed by Richard Sidey
Richard Sidey is an award-winning conservation, adventure and wildlife filmmaker based in Wanaka, New Zealand. Living in this picturesque alpine town and local adventure hub, Richard naturally sources artistic inspiration from his surrounding environment. Environmental themes and a strong connection to nature are clearly evident in his work. A keen adventurer, bike-packer and paragliding pilot, he is rarely seen far from the wilderness.
Sweet Home Kamchatka (2016)
Country: Spain
Duration: 25 minutes
Language: Catalan, English
Synopsis:
Ekaterina Osichkina, 19 years old and Ski Mountaineering Junior World Champion. She has made Kamchatka well known inside this sport’s community. Is it because her overwhelming dominance? or her great charisma? We follow her in the Russian far East, where we are all going to discover the wild beauty of this remote place while we climb a few volcanoes more active than we thought.
Directed by Pep Cuberes and Xavier Esgleas Tarifa
Pepe is a Nature, sport, and audiovisual lover. From rider to filmmaker, since he was a kid he’s been involved with extreme sports. His first films as a director are “Joyride, The Short Film” (2014) and “Himalaiaski, the beginning of a new adventure” (2015). He works as a filmmaker in Salomon Running International, having also worked with different brands like Buff, Suunto, Atomic, Scott or Wilson… He has a wide experience on filming outdoors.
Xavier is a mountain lover, especially in winter, and civil engineer by profession. He has collaborated as an actor, high altitude cameraman and as a producer in previous projects before Himalaiaski. Due to his profession, he’s been more than thirty times in the Balkan region, a fact that pushed him to produce his first documentary as a director: Balkan Mountains, Himalaiaski Episode 2. Later on, he has kept filming and editing smaller personal projects about different civil engineering constructions.
The Beloved Daughter (2019)
Country: Finland, Norway
Duration: 79 minutes
Language: Bhojpuri, Nepali, English
Synopsis:
Rekha has a dream. She wants to become an English teacher. However, she is already 14, and time is running out to find a husband for her. Although child marriage is forbidden by law, the practice is still common in the remote Nepalese village near the Indian border in the Terai region.
Directed by Tiina Madisson
Tiina Madisson is a filmmaker, graphic designer, and animator. From 2000 to 2012, she worked as a writer for the Basaari series for the Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE. The Beloved Daughter is Tiina’s first feature-length documentary.
The Cull (2020)
Country: United Kingdom, Scotland
Duration: 58 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
The Cull explores the different approaches to deer management taken by landowners and managers, and the reasons behind those differing approaches. Talking to people from all over Scotland and on all sides of the debate, the film presents the issues as seen by real people on the ground.
Directed by Ted Simpson
Ted Simpson is a self=shooting director, working across commercial and documentary, and is the founder of UK based production company, Just Trek. Ted’s main interests lie in exploring stories of human connection to wild land and wild spaces. Ted’s style has been described as cinematic yet personal, with an ability as a self shooter to capture authentic moments in often hostile environments and difficult conditions. Since 2019 Ted has been working on his first feature documentary, The Cull – Scotland’s Deer Dilemma, which explores the future of land management and rewilding in Scotland, through the prism of the management of red deer in the Highlands. This feature encompasses cinematic capture of the incredible Highland vistas and marries those with intimate and personal characters from all sides of the debate. The Cull is on the international festival circuit, with a world premiere to follow in Autumn 2020.
The Frozen Giants of Karakoram (2020)
Country: Pakistan
Duration: 10 minutes
Language: English, Burushiski, Wakhi
Synopsis:
The Indus river system relies heavily on the glaciers in the Karakoram and the Himalayas mountain ranges. This fragile glacial ecosystem gives rise to life from the Northern Mountains to the entire Indus River Basin but is under the threat of climate change. Produced as a part of the Dawood Foundation’s Explore Nature series, this film focuses on the importance of these glaciers and the mysterious phenomenon of the Karakoram Anomaly, featuring renowned glaciologist Kenneth Hewitt.
Directed by Haroon Riaz
Haroon Riaz is a documentary filmmaker and a blogger. He has written and directed several short documentaries and commercial films and contributed to the award-winning feature documentary film “Indus Blues” as a screenwriter and associate producer.
The Silhouette (2020)
Country: Iran, Philippines
Duration: 79 minutes
Language: Persian
Synopsis:
At the height of the USSR’s invasion of Afghanistan in 1982, 1.5 million Afghans took a long journey to the border of Iran to flee war. TAGHI, born after that generation, and unwilling to inherit the limitations of his parents’ refugee status, navigates outside the protective walls of his family to trace his identity and the doors to his future in the homeland he never knew. As war continues to rage in Afghanistan, what future awaits him in which land?
Directed by Afsaneh Salari
Afsaneh Salari is an Iranian director, producer, and editor. She has a BA in editing from Tehran University of Art, a MA in creative directing from Paris 8 University, and a MA in documentary directing from Docnomads joint masters. Afsaneh is the co-founder of Docmaniacs collective of filmmakers in Iran since 2015, a collective that accompanies other filmmakers from the region in order to help produce independent documentary films.
Wintopia (2019)
Country: Canada
Duration: 88 minutes
Language: English
Synopsis:
A box of tapes uncovered. A lifelong Utopian obsession. A daughter’s attempt to complete her father’s final film. Wintopia traces the enigmatic footsteps of renowned documentary filmmaker Peter Wintonick through the lens of his daughter, Mira, as she tries to decipher the map he has left behind. Reverberating with emotion and whimsy, the film guides us on a journey through possible worlds in pursuit of reconciliation, both between artist and family and between dreams and reality.
Directed by Mira Burt-Wintonick
Mira Burt-Wintonick is an award-winning radio producer and filmmaker living in Montreal. She is the co-creator and senior editor of CBC’s Love Me, a podcast about the messiness of human connection. She sometimes makes videos that make people laugh and cry (How To Age Gracefully) and absurd comedy podcasts (WireTap, Pen Pals).
Water Wears Rock (2020)
Country: Spain
Duration: 23 minutes
Language: Spanish
Synopsis:
Water Wears Rock is a story about Alberto, a climber who suffers from multiple sclerosis since he was 17 years old. Against his own limitations, his goal is to climb the Naranjo de Bulnes in Asturias, Spain (It has a height of 2,510 meters and its summit is one of the most famous for the Spanish and European mountaineering).
Directed by Alvaro Crespo Garcia
Alvaro is a video producer from Madrid living in New York City. Alvaro has over 7 years of experience specialized in providing a wide range of production services for film, documentary, short films, corporate material, and television with education in the field of mass media, motion graphics, lighting, social media, and digital marketing from institutions such as San Pablo – CEU University in Madrid and the School of Visual Arts in New York.