Electric Swan / Director Konstantina Kotzamani
We Are One: A Global Film Festival is a free 10-day online festival, exclusively on YouTube, born out of the idea that the film community can come together in times of crises – both in celebration of films and in support by providing much needed relief for Covid-19 efforts.
The 10-day online festival is from May 29 – June 7 on YouTube. Each film or program will have a first screening at a scheduled time but don’t worry if you miss it! Many of the films will be available on VOD to watch at your leisure through the course of the festival.
All the films and programs are made available for free during this limited time to raise funds for Covid-19 relief. Donation are collected by The United Nations Foundation (UNF). YouTube covers all transaction fees.
Bridges of Sarajevo
Bridges of Sarajevo
Online Premiere, Documentary, Bosnia And Herzegovina, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Switzerland, 114 Mins
Directors Aida Begic, Leonardo Di Costanzo, Jean-Luc Godard, Kamen Kalev, Isild Le Besco, Sergei Loznitsa, Vincenzo Marra, Ursula Meier, Vladimir Perisic, Cristi Puiu, Marc Recha, Angela Schanelec, Teresa Villaverde
The June 2014 centenary of World War I was commemorated in Sarajevo, where the inciting assassination of Franz Ferdinand took place. It was Cahiers du cinéma critic Jean-Michel Frodon who suggested marking the memorial with an omnibus film, Bridges of Sarajevo, in which a varied group of 13 European directors gives voice to the modern ghosts and historical echoes of the Bosnian capital. One hundred years of Sarajevan history is accounted for here in immersive detail, and the range of generations and backgrounds offer exceptionally singular styles and visions – including masterful figures in world cinema.
45 Days in Harvar / Director César Aréchiga
45 Days in Harvar
Online Premiere, Documentary, 78 Mins
Director César Aréchiga
In a maximum-security prison just outside of Guadalajara, Mexico, the contemporary painter César Aréchiga initiates an ambitious plastic arts project with the help of fifteen inmates: a hands-on installation that recreates his living room and studio. As the group immerses themselves in the tactile processes of clay modeling, sculpting, and painting, the collaboration opens up space for deeper dialogues – and over the course of their work, the inmates open up about their backgrounds, share their personal experiences with the world of drug trafficking, and debate whether or not prison aims to truly rehabilitate the incarcerated.
Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight / Director Eliza Hittman
Forever’s Gonna Start Tonight
Special Presentation Premiere, Drama, USA, 16 Mins
Director Eliza Hittman
Set in Brighton Beach, Eliza Hittman’s (Never Rarely Sometimes Always) sensitive and atmospheric short follows a 17-year-old Russian teenager as she escapes the close-quarters tension between herself, her father and his many cats into a Brooklyn night charged with freedom and desire.
Cru – Raw / Director David Oesch
Cru – Raw
Online Premiere, Drama, Switzerland, 10 Mins
Director David Oesch
Full of hope, diligence and hunger for more, Jeanne Werne, a young chef from a good family, lands a plum job in a Michelin-starred restaurant. To rise up in the brutal pecking order, she has to impress her merciless Chef de Cuisine, which sparks a war of differences both inside and outside of the kitchen.
The Light Side / Director Ryan Ebner
The Light Side
World Premiere, Comedy, Drama, Fantasy/Sci-Fi, USA, 6 Mins
Director Ryan Ebner
A long time ago in a borough far, far, away, a man (Joseph Ragno) struggles to find redemption from his dark past. Now stranded in the Bronx, he grapples with an imbalanced ego that threatens to destroy not only himself, but also those around him. In order to survive, he must master his dangerous skills and use them for good. And in the process, he soon discovers that humility may be the greatest force in the galaxy after all.
Air Conditioner / Director Fradique
Air Conditioner
Online Premiere, Drama, Music, Angola, 73 Mins
Director Fradique
It’s a sweltering day in Luanda, the capital of Angola, when air conditioners mysteriously start to detach from building windows and, without warning, tumble to the ground below. In a sense, the clock starts ticking when breezy, affable security guard Matacedo (José Kiteculo) is sent to fetch a replacement unit by the end of the day, but Air Conditioner flows on the city’s currents: what begins as an errand evolves into a pleasantly surreal, jazz and rap-inflected journey through the city streets.
Dantza / Director Telmo Esnal
Dantza
International Online Premiere, Drama, Music, Spain, 98 Mins
Director Telmo Esnal
In northern Spain, the storm breaks after a hard day’s work in the fields. When the rain eases and the clouds clear, life springs up from the previously barren land: Fruit grows and ripens, survives disease and flowers into the apples which lead to cider. It’s time for the harvest; to offer toasts and celebrate love.
A City Called Macau / Director LI Shaohong
A City Called Macau
Special Presentation Premiere, Drama, China, 127 Mins
Director LI Shaohong
In early 2000s Macau – a city that runs on gambling, and as a consequence, never sleeps – a VIP client servicing manager Xiao-ou (Bai Baihe) works in a casino. Originally from Beijing, she’s recently left Las Vegas with her young son for a fresh start after a rough separation from a gambling addict (Geng Le). Although she’s hoping to keep this next phase of her life as practical and straightforward as possible, everything she’s built is jeopardized when she meets a charismatic gambler (Huang Jue, Long Day’s Journey Into Night) on a fateful business trip.
Anna / Director Dekel Berenson
Anna
Special Presentation Premiere, Drama, Ukraine, UK, Israel, 15 Mins
Director Dekel Berenson
Anna (Svetlana Alekseevna Barandich), a middle-aged single mother living in war-torn Eastern Ukraine, is lured out of her home by a radio advertisement for a party organized for foreign men.
24 Frames Per Century / Director Athina Rachel Tsangari
24 Frames Per Century
Special Presentation Premiere, Experimental, 3 Mins
Director Athina Rachel Tsangari
A pair of film projectors discuss their impending obsolescence in Athina Rachel Tsangari’s (Chevalier) elegiac homage to Jean-Luc Godard’s Contempt, commissioned by the Venice International Film Festival for their “Venezia 70 – Future Reloaded” project in 2013.
Ticket of No Return / Director Ulrike Ottinger
Ticket of No Return
Online Premiere, Drama, Germany, 109 Mins
Director Ulrike Ottinger
A solitary woman – enigmatic and statuesque, known only as “She” (Tabea Blumenschein) – wanted to forget her past. So she purchased a one-way ticket to Berlin, a city in which she was a complete stranger. With a statement wardrobe somewhere in between ’40s Hollywood glamour and angular ’70s punk, she wanders the city alone to pursue her greatest desire: binge drinking.
Awake / Producer Vikramaditya Motwane
Awake
Premiere, India, 23 Mins
Producer Vikramaditya Motwane
Professional photographer Sameera (Ishika Mohan Motwane) is happily married to Vikram (Yudhishtir Urs), who has a peculiar condition. All seems well until it isn’t in this tense exploration of patriarchy and power dynamics within a marriage.
Electric Swan / Director Konstantina Kotzamani
Electric Swan
Global Festival Premiere, Drama, Argentina, France, Greece, 40 Mins
Director Konstantina Kotzamani
Buildings are not supposed to move. But on Avenida del Libertador – one of the main drags in Buenos Aires – the penthouse suite of a high-rise begins to tremble, almost as if it’s shivering. These otherworldly tremors provoke a strange nausea in the building’s residents, who live at the mercy of the structure. With a deft touch, Konstantina Kotzamani swathes this short feature in a hallucinatory grace, familiar from her prior Cannes-screening shorts. As the building’s residents struggle to survive, Electric Swan sharpens its soft edges into a magical realist skewering of the city’s class divisions.
Ivory Burn / Nicholas de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky
Ivory Burn
Global Festival Premiere, Documentary, Activism/Social Issues, Canada, 6 Mins
Directors Nicholas de Pencier, Jennifer Baichwal, Edward Burtynsky
On April 30, 2016, the largest ivory burn in history took place in Nairobi National Park. Eleven pyres – comprised of 105 tons of confiscated elephant tusks and 1.35 tons of rhinoceros horn – were set on fire as a clarion call to halt all trade in ivory. The street value of the pyres was estimated to be between 105 and 150 million dollars, representing between 6,000 and 7,000 elephants. This film captures this deeply symbolic and visceral message to the poaching and illegal trade syndicates, and bears witness to the loss of animal life and the diversity it embodied.
The Distance Between The Sky And Us / Director Vasilis Kekatos
The Distance Between The Sky And Us
International Online Premiere, Drama, Greece, 9 Mins
Director Vasilis Kekatos
In this Short Film Palme d’Or winner, two strangers (Ioko Ioannis Kotidis, Nikos Zeginogolu) meet one night at a gas station. One is there to refuel; the other is stranded.
The Stories That Prepared Us / Director Jack Nugent, Andrew Fernandez
The Stories That Prepared Us
Premiere, Documentary, 9 Mins
Director Jack Nugent, Andrew Fernandez
We live in an unprecedented time. In moments of change like this one, it helps to look to our favorite stories for ways to cope. Let’s see how film helps us understand what it means to be alone, how to hold leaders accountable, and what we can do to protect one another.
Bloodless / Director Gina Kim
Bloodless
Online Premiere, Experimental, Drama, Activism/Social Issues, South Korea, 12 Mins
Director Gina Kim
Shot on location where the crime took place, Bloodless traces the final living moments of a real-life sex worker who was brutally murdered by a US soldier at the Dongducheon Camptown in South Korea. This VR piece deals with historical atrocities through a concrete personal story, and arrestingly brings to light ongoing experiences at 96 other camptowns near or around US military bases.
Violettina / Director Alice Rohrwacher
Violettina
Special Presentation Premiere, Italy, 4 Mins
Director Alice Rohrwacher
This delicate film – created for Alice Rohrwacher’s production of Verdi’s La traviata – conjures the protagonist’s interiority and spontaneity through sun-kissed 16mm images of a young girl’s hands (Rohrwacher’s own daughter, Anita).
The festival will feature programming curated by the Annecy International Animation Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Cannes Film Festival, Guadalajara International Film Festival, International Film Festival & Awards Macao (IFFAM), Jerusalem Film Festival, Mumbai Film Festival (MAMI), Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, Locarno Film Festival, Marrakech International Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival (IFFR), San Sebastian International Film Festival, Sarajevo Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival, Tokyo International Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival, Tribeca Film Festival and Venice Film Festival.
We Are One / A Global Film Festival
Starting May 29, 2020 / YouTube
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