JOURNEY TO NAGALAND
DIRECTOR: ADITI CHITRE
RUNNING TIME: 26 MIN, LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ANIMATION/INDIA
Dipped in colours and sounds from the Naga Hills, which lie on the north-east of India, Journey to Nagaland is a visual story about the sensation of drifting away from the place of one’s physical location, driven by the desire for a journey.
VESTIGE OF LIFE
DIRECTOR: MAKI SATAKE
RUNNING TIME: 12 MIN, LANGUAGE: JAPANESE
ANIMATION/JAPAN
My grandparents left the house they had lived for many years. It contains their memories as well as mine.
THE DREAM IN THE DREAM
DIRECTOR: IKUE SUDIDONO
RUNNING TIME: 8 MIN, LANGUAGE: NO DIALOGUE
ANIMATION/JAPAN
“To imagine is to supply daily shortage”
GAKI BIWA-HOUSHI
DIRECTOR: REIKO YOKOSUKA
RUNNING TIME: 6 MIN, LANGUAGE: JAPANESE
ANIMATION/JAPAN
The Gaki is a “biwa” player of the ogre, who plays the instrument well. When he starts to play it at the veranda, surroundings transform into the profound and remote world.
Characters come out from the electric wire and then they start to dance to the melody on the line. The music turn into the wind and the wind calls the waves. The gaki integrates with the waves.
DO FLOWERS FLY
DIRECTOR: PROSENJIT GANGULY
RUNNING TIME: 5 MIN, LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ANIMATION/INDIA
A livid commentary on our primary education system, one that struggles to understand the deeper needs of a child!
This film was made as a Graduation project at the National Institute of Design, India. Academic Guide: Arun Gupta.
DRIFTING
DIRECTOR: LAM SUM
RUNNING TIME: 25 MIN, LANGUAGE: CANTONESE
FICTION/HONG KONG
“Drifting” Fai, a ten years old boy who’s a new immigrant from mainland China, he lives in a narrow suite with his mother and his step-father. The stepfather loves gambling, the mother works long hours and seldom at home, Fai vaguely has the idea of “family”. One day, he met a Pakistani boy Khan, who was born and raised in Hong Kong. Khan, as a local, he shows Fai Hong Kong, and brings him to family dinners. However, while the friendship is building up, Khan’s family has to move out of the community because of the city redevelopment and the expensive property price. The city seems lonely and helpless for everyone. The only thing he wants to do is to bid Khan farewell, the only connection between this city and him.
A WOMAN SINGS UNDER THE ICE
DIRECTOR: MARYAM KALILZADE
RUNNING TIME: 10 MIN, LANGUAGE: NO DIALOGUE
ANIMATION/IRAN
A touching story about a little boy living alone with his father in the forest on a hill. It is a lonely life, and although the father tries to love the boy and take care of him, the little boy is distant and has a preoccupation: to figure out where the voice he hears below the ice is coming from? And from whom? As the boy tries to unravel the story of the voice below the ice, another story unravels- the dark and sad past of the father.
SUCH A GIRL LIKE ME
DIRECTOR: MAN UEN CHING
RUNNING TIME: 15 MIN, LANGUAGE: CANTONESE
FICTION/HONG KONG
Yin has great passion towards Kwan. However, she covers it up because of her fear. She is afraid to be left behind and chooses to be a liar. It is all because of her job – she is a mortician doing make-up for the dead. Can love bring them together?
I HOPE THIS MATCH NEVER ENDS
DIRECTOR: NG CHUN, OSCAR
RUNNING TIME: 30 MIN, LANGUAGE: CANTONESE
FICTION/HONG KONG
Big head’s parents have divorced for a long time. Since then, he has been living with his mother and stepfather in harmony. His father is a stunt man in the film industry and has been coping his living with an unstable income. Big Head always finds it uneasy to see his father in messy situations and financial insecurity. Having to leave for Australia for his study very soon, he tries very hard and finally succeeds in getting a job for his father as a security guard. But all ends up in frustration: his father is totally uninterested in the job and almost gets fired. Father and son start blaming each other until each sees his own childishness and inadequacies.
COLORS
DIRECTOR: NGAHMEH DEHGHAM
RUNNING TIME: 4 MIN, LANGUAGE: PERSIAN (FARSI)
FICTION/IRAN
Family dispute over a chid’s drawing and psychologocial impact a child’s drawing
LAST DRAGON KINGDOM
DIRECTOR: ÁINE CAREY & DAVID EMERY
RUNNING TIME: 7 MIN, LANGUAGE: NO DIALOGUE
DOCUMENTARY/ BHUTAN & USA
This short film is a meditation on the nature of change and the Buddhist precept of impermenance. A visual journey through the ancient Kingdom of Bhutan, a Buddhist country experiencing dramatic changes in their society. This film is a metaphor for the rest of us in the Global Village. How can we embrace change consciously and learn from this brave little country the ways to balance our needs and desires as we navigate this changing, evolving world? Hopefully this film might encourage all of us to ask the same important question facing Bhutan: What is the Middle Way?
GULLAK
DIRECTOR: MANISH SAINI
RUNNING TIME: 19 MIN, LANGUAGE: HINDI
FICTION/INDIA
Gullak tells the tale of little Dipu and Chini’s struggle to pay off their debt to the local bully. Times are tough, but Chini finds a piggy bank to help them save money. With their grandfatherís help, the children begin collecting cash in the hopes of escaping Gagan, their tormentor. But will the “Gullak” help them or will it eat up all their savings?
This film was made as a Graduation project at the National Institute of Design, India. Academic Guide: Arun Gupta.
DOPAHAR
DIRECTOR: SIDDHARTH SINGH
RUNNING TIME: 17 MIN, LANGUAGE: HINDI
FICTION/INDIA
A summer afternoon, a lonely homemaker, an unexpected guest, mango pickles and memories…
Suman is trying to fit into the role of the ideal wife in an arranged marriage. Both Suman and Rakesh are living a very functional relationship. One summer afternoon, a chance buying of raw mangoes and a visit by a mysterious old woman leads to making pickle and remembering a forgotten memory from the past which might possibly bring some change in Suman’s mundane life… The film revolves around the themes of memories, remembering, forgetting and storytelling. The film uses pickle making as a metaphor for memory keeping. The pickling of fruits and vegetables becomes analogical to the way we preserve memories. Like the pickle changes its flavor with time, our memories keep changing their flavor as well every time we remember them.
This film was made as a Graduation project at the National Institute of Design, India. Academic Guide: Arun Gupta.
BIDAYA
DIRECTOR: DHEERAJ KUMAR
RUNNING TIME: 12 MIN, LANGUAGE: UDIYA
FICTION/INDIA
A student film from the recently established State Institute of Film and Television (Rohtak, India), this short film is about a young school girl’s growing attachment and fascination to an old street musician’s music. While her mother tries to keep her away from the street musician, the little girl is drawn to his melody, as though connected to the music or man in another life.
THE LAST DAY
DIRECTOR: SIDDHARTHA GIGOO
RUNNING TIME: 12 MIN, LANGUAGE: HINDI/KASHMIRI
FICTION/INDIA
Set in 1994 in a camp for Kashmiri Pandit exiles, the film portrays four frayed lives in a scrawny 8 x 10 tent. Gossamer memories of a glorious past taunt their tawdry and uncertain present. An old patriarch is battling dementia on his deadbed. His wife has lost the will to live. His son and daughter-in-law struggle for personal space. Will they ever find deliverence? Will they rediscover love? Will tomorrow be any different from today or yesterday? The river has all the answers, yet flows, eternally silent
WAKE
DIRECTOR: NOUSHIN MERAJI
RUNNING TIME: 12 MIN, LANGUAGE: IRANIAN
FICTION/IRAN
A young boy wakes up his father who is resting in the forest to tell him that Mother has gone wandering and is lost. As they search for Mother they argue, and when they finally find Mother they realize they have lost something else.