The Barcelona Independent Film Festival, l’Alternativa, is now in its 31st edition. For over three decades we have been offering filmgoers and professionals a unique opportunity to discover and enjoy screenings and activities that value creative freedom, diversity, innovation, commitment and thought-provoking reflection.
This year we will once again be running a hybrid edition: onsite screenings and activities from 14 to 24 November 2024 plus a selection of films from the 31st edition available on Filmin during our online fortnight in January 2025.
L’Alternativa has three competition sections in l’Alternativa Official: Spanish Films, International Feature Films and International Short Films.
L’Alternativa Parallel presents tributes, premieres, little-known films, work by new directors and a programme of family screenings.
And l’Alternativa Hall offers a rich, varied programme of free screenings, performances and debates in the CCCB Hall.
Hall Selects is a bridge between l’Alternativa Official and l’Alternativa Hall. Whittling down the many entries we receive for the official sections is a painstaking process designed to produce a final selection that showcases a wide range of striking films that reflect the spirit of the festival. Here we open up a space in which we can share an additional selection of impressive films and offer the Hall audience the chance to engage directly with the filmmakers and others members of the creative and artistic teams.
Hall Selects Tuesday 19 November, 6 pm, Hall CCCB, 111 min
Presented by Jorge Moneo, Patxi Burillo and Tamara García
Madwomen in the Attic Tamara García Iglesias
Contractions Lynne Sachs
Nafura Paul Heintz, Witt Anne-Catherine, Witt Anne-Catherine
Exergo Jorge Moneo Quintana
Year and Time Patxi Burillo Nuin, Proyecto Landarte Urroz
Each year, Cinema Eye Honors spotlights the best nonfiction short films on its Shorts List, the organization’s annual list of semi-finalists for its Nonfiction Short Film Honor. Discover this year’s Shorts List films across three programs!
Program One – 101 mins
A Swim Lesson
Directed by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack • POV • 21 min
A Swim Lesson is an ode to an everyday hero: Bill Marsh, a swim teacher who helps children manage their fears and discover their own power when submerged in an overwhelming unknown. He has taught thousands of kids and their families to instill confidence and safety in their lives.
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World
Directed by Julio Palacio • Netflix • 23 min
Makayla, a teenage girl, who has spent her life grappling with a rare form of autism that rendered her essentially nonverbal until her parents, filled with unwavering belief in their daughter’s potential, embarked on a transformative journey to discover the true depth of Makayla’s inner world.
Instruments of a Beating Heart
Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki • NY Times Op-Docs • 23 min
First graders in a Tokyo public elementary school are presented with a challenge: to perform “Ode to Joy” at a school ceremony. Their journey reveals the Japanese educational system’s tenuous balance between self-sacrifice and personal growth as it teaches the next generation to become part of society.
The Only Girl in the Orchestra
Directed by Molly O’Brien • Netflix • 34 min
Trailblazing double bassist Orin O’Brien was never one to seek the spotlight, but when Leonard Bernstein hired her in 1966 as the first female musician in the New York Philharmonic, she inevitably became the focus of media attention and, ultimately, one of the most renowned musicians of a generation.
Program Two – 96 mins
Love in the Time of Migration
Directed by Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas • LA Times • 21 min
Ronny and Suly are in love. The only problem is that Ronny is in the US, while Suly is in Guatemala. Love in the Time of Migration illustrates the modern-day romance between two individuals from a community deeply impacted by migration, and asks the question: Can love conquer all?
The Medallion
Directed by Ruth Hunduma • New Yorker • 19 min
A single piece of jewelry holds the story of generations. Together, filmmaker Ruth and her mother go back to Ethiopia and explore her mother’s story as a survivor of the Red Terror genocide.
A Move
Directed by Elahe Esmaili • NY Times Op-Docs • 26 min
Elahe returns to her hometown in Mashhad, Iran, to help her parents move to a new place after 40 years. Influenced by the Woman-Life-Freedom movement, she’s also hoping for a bigger move beyond just a new apartment.
Eternal Father
Directed by Ömer Sami • New Yorker • 30 min
Having started a family late in life, Nasar fears he won’t live to see his children grow up. He decides to be cryonically frozen after death, hoping they can someday reunite. His family’s dilemma: follow suit or be left behind? As the future overshadows the present, Nasar must reassess what truly matters.
Program Three – 79 mins
Contractions
Directed by Lynne Sachs • NY Times Op-Docs • 12 min
In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. In a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, a group of activist performers “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.
I Am Ready, Warden
Directed by Smitri Mundhra • MTV Documentary Films • 37 min
Directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Smriti Mundhra for MTV Documentary Films. In the days leading up to his execution, Texas death row prisoner John Henry Ramirez seeks redemption from his victim’s son.
Incident
Directed by Bill Morrison • New Yorker • 30 min
Through a montage of surveillance and police body-camera footage, a reconstruction of a deadly shooting by a Chicago police officer becomes an investigation into how a narrative begins to take shape in the aftermath.
Saturday, November 16, 2024 5:45 PM CST Crosstown Theater
Program Hometowner Shorts: Autonomous
HOW TO SUE THE KLAN by John Beder The Legacy of the Chattanooga Five.
FREEDOM’S VILLAGE by Kristen Hill A historical fiction film that tells the story of the civil rights movements in Fayette County, Tennessee.
SHADOW PEOPLE by Aaron Baggett Through an intimate dialog between mother and son Shadow People explores Dorian’s story about what it means to be brought to the United States without documents and the daily challenges he faces living in the shadows.
CONTRACTIONS by Lynne Sachs Forthright yet intimate confessions, paired with experimental choreography outside a women’s clinic in Memphis offer a glimpse into post Roe v. Wade America, a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body.
16 of the Year’s Most Acclaimed and Talked About Docs Named to Longlist Unforgettable Honorees Revealed Girls State and Ren Faire Top Broadcast Nominations Annual Shorts List Revealed
Los Angeles, CA, October 24, 2024 — Cinema Eye Honors, the organization that recognizes outstanding artistic achievement in nonfiction and documentary films and series, kicked off its 18th annual celebrations today with its first awards announcements for 2024. Among the announcements were the 16 films on the Audience Choice Prize Longlist, the unveiling of this year’s Unforgettables Honorees, nominees in five Broadcast categories, and the annual Shorts List — spotlighting 11 of the year’s top documentary short films.
Cinema Eye announced its first Honorees of the season, their annual list of the Unforgettables – the on-camera collaborators from eight feature documentaries. The winners include Brian Eno from Gary Hustwit’s Eno, Lhakpa Sherpa from Lucy Walker’s Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa, Chris Smalls from Stephen Maing and Brett Story’s Union and Harper Steele from Josh Greenbaum’s Will & Harper. Filmmakers Shiori Ito (Black Box Diaries) and Basel Adra & Yuval Abraham (No Other Land), who are also onscreen in their films, were also among those named to the list.
For the first time, Unforgettables who attend Cinema Eye’s Awards Ceremony in New York in January will be presented with a special medallion honoring their contribution to their Cinema Eye winning films.
In today’s Broadcast Film and Series announcements, Apple TV+’s Girls State and HBO’s Ren Faire led with three nominations each. Girls State, the follow-up to the Cinema Eye-winning Boys State from filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss, received nominations for Broadcast Film, Broadcast Editing and Broadcast Cinematography. Lance Oppenheim’s Ren Faire was also nominated in Broadcast Editing and Cinematography, along with a nod for Nonfiction Series.
The nomination for Ren Faire was one of two for director Oppenheim, who was also nominated for Hulu’s Spermworld. Filmmaker Dawn Porter, who was recently honored by President Biden with a National Humanities Medal, also received two nominations, in Broadcast Film for Hulu’s The Lady Bird Diaries and in Nonfiction Series for Showtime’s Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court.
Other notable nominations in the Broadcast categories include the third Anthology Series nod for HBO’s How To with John Wilson, the first program ever to accomplish that feat. The series, which ended earlier this year with its third season, previously won Cinema Eye Honors for Broadcast Editing for Season One and Anthology Series for Season Two.
Filmmaker Steve James once again claimed the record for the most Cinema Eye nominations in history. He received his 14th nomination this year in the Nonfiction Series category for ESPN’s The Luckiest Guy in the World. Filmmaking team Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi scored their 11th and 9th nominations with recognition in the Anthology Series category for National Geographic’s Photographer.
HBO led all networks and streamers with twelve nominations in all. Apple TV+ scored six nominations, while Netflix received five. Other films and series receiving multiple nominations include Netflix’s America’s Sweethearts: The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders, Apple TV+’s The Enfield Poltergeist and HBO’s Telemarketers.
In addition to the Broadcast nominations, Cinema Eye also announced this year’s Audience Choice Award Longlist which includes 16 of the year’s most acclaimed and talked about documentaries.
Each year, tens of thousands of nonfiction fans have the opportunity to select the final ten nominees and the ultimate winner.
The last six winners of the Best Documentary Feature Oscar – 20 Days in Mariupol, Navalny, Summer of Soul, My Octopus Teacher, American Factory and Free Solo – were all first nominees for the Audience Choice Prize.
This year’s list includes a number of the most talked about and lauded films of the year, including Copa 71,Daughters,Frida, Grand Theft Hamlet,Piece by Piece,Porcelain War, The Remarkable Life of Ibelin,Skywalkers: A Love Story,Sugarcane andSuper/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story.
Finally, Cinema Eye also announced the eleven films on this year’s Shorts List, the organization’s annual list of semi-finalists for its Nonfiction Short Film Honor. Of those eleven films, five or six will be announced as the official nominees. For the second year in a row, Cinema Eye will screen all of the Shorts List films in both Los Angeles and New York, with series of screenings at Vidiots in LA on Sunday, December 7 and in New York at DCTV on Sunday, November 24.
Last year’s Oscar winner for Best Documentary Short, The Last Repair Shop, was one of the films on the 2024 Shorts List.
Cinema Eye will return to the historic New York Academy of Medicine in East Harlem for its 18th Annual Awards Ceremony, to be held on Thursday, January 9, 2025. Cinema Eye Week, which includes a number of events and activities for Cinema Eye nominees and honorees, kicks off on Monday, January 6.
Today’s announcements were made at the 7th Annual Cinema Eye Fall Lunch in Downtown Los Angeles. The event was hosted by Amazon MGM Studios, Apple Original Films, Hulu and Netflix.
A full list of this year’s announcements and nominees follows.
Audience Choice Award Long List
Black Box Diaries Directed by Shiori Ito
Copa 71 Directed by Rachel Ramsay and James Erskine
Daughters Directed by Natalie Rae and Angela Patton
Eno Directed by Gary Hustwit
Frida Directed by Carla Gutiérrez
Grand Theft Hamlet Directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane
Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa Directed by Lucy Walker
No Other Land Directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor
Piece by Piece Directed by Morgan Neville
Porcelain War Directed by Brendan Bellomo and Slava Leontyev
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin Directed by Benjamin Ree
Secret Mall Apartment Directed by Jeremy Workman
Skywalkers: A Love Story Directed by Jeff Zimbalist
Sugarcane Directed by Julian Brave NoiseCat and Emily Kassie
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story Directed by Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui
Will and Harper Directed by Josh Greenbaum
The Unforgettables Honorees
Shiori Ito Black Box Diaries
Brian Eno Eno
Lhakpa Sherpa Mountain Queen: The Summits of Lhakpa Sherpa
Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham No Other Land
Patrice Jetter Patrice: The Movie
Jenna Marvin Queendom
Chris Smalls Union
Harper Steele Will and Harper
Broadcast Film Nominees
Bread & Roses Directed by Sahra Mani Apple TV+
Girls State Directed by Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss Apple TV+
Great Photo, Lovely Life: Facing a Family’s Secrets Directed by Amanda Mustard and Rachel Beth Anderson HBO
The Lady Bird Diaries Directed by Dawn Porter Hulu
Slave Play. Not a Movie. A Play. Directed by Jeremy O. Harris HBO
Spermworld Directed by Lance Oppenheim FX
Nonfiction Series Nominees
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Directed by Greg Whiteley and Chelsea Yarnell Netflix
Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court Directed by Dawn Porter Showtime
The Enfield Poltergeist Directed by Jerry Rothwell Apple TV+
The Luckiest Guy in the World Directed by Steve James ESPN
Ren Faire Directed by Lance Oppenheim HBO
Telemarketers Directed by Adam Bhala Lough and Sam Lipman-Stern HBO
Anthology Series Nominees
Conan O’Brien Must Go Executive Producers Conan O’Brien, Jeff Ross HBO
De La Calle Executive Producers Nick Barili, Jared Andrukanis, Picky Talarico, Lydia Tenaglia, Christopher Collins, Amanda Culkowski, Bruce Gillmer, Craig H. Shepherd Paramount+
God Save Texas Executive Producers Lawrence Wright, Alex Gibney, Richard Linklater, Peter Berg, Michael Lombardo, Elizabeth Rogers, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, Nancy Abraham, Lisa Heller HBO
High on the Hog Season 2 Executive Producers Roger Ross Williams, Geoff Martz, Craig Piligian, Sarba Das, Fabienne Toback, Karis Jagger, Jessica B. Harris, Stephen Satterfield, Michele Barnwell Netflix
How To with John Wilson Season 3 Executive Producers Nathan Fielder, John Wilson, Michael Koman, Clark Reinking HBO
Photographer Executive Producers Elizabeth Chai Vasarhely, Jimmy Chin, Pagan Harleman, Betsy Forhan National Geographic
Broadcast Editing Nominees
Girls State Edited by Amy Foote Apple TV+
The Greatest Night in Pop Edited by Nic Zimmerman, Will Znidaric, David Brodie Netflix
Ren Faire Edited by Max Allman, Nicholas Nazmi HBO
The Saint of Second Chances Edited by Alan Lowe, Jeff Malmberg, Miles Wilkerson Netflix
Telemarketers Edited by Christopher Passig HBO
Time Bomb Y2K Edited by Marley McDonald, Maya Mumma HBO
Broadcast Cinematography Nominees
America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Director of Photography Jonathan Nicholas Netflix
The Enfield Poltergeist Director of Photography Ruben Woodin Deschamps, Carmen Pellon Brussosa, David Katznelson Apple TV+
Girls State Director of Photography – Nominees to be Determined Apple TV+
Photographer Director of Photography Michael Crommett, Rita Baghdadi, Peter Hutchens, Melissa Langer, Pauline Maroun National Geographic
Ren Faire Director of Photography Nate Hurtsellers HBO
You Were My First Boyfriend Director of Photography Brennan Vance, J. Bennett HBO
Shorts List Semifinalists
Contractions Directed by Lynne Sachs / NY Times Op-Docs
Eternal Father Directed by Ömer Sami / New Yorker
I Am Ready, Warden Directed by Smriti Mundhra / MTV Documentary Films
Incident Directed by Bill Morrison / New Yorker
Instruments of a Beating Heart Directed by Ema Ryan Yamazaki / NY Times Op-Docs
Love in the Time of Migration Directed by Erin Semine Kökdil and Chelsea Abbas / LA Times
Makayla’s Voice: A Letter to the World Directed by Julio Palacio / Netflix
The Medallion Directed by Ruth Hunduma / New Yorker
A Move Directed by Elahe Esmaili / NY Times Op-Docs
The Only Girl in the Orchestra Directed by Molly O’Brien / Netflix
A Swim Lesson Directed by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack / POV
In Payal Kapadia’s radiant Cannes Grand Prix Award-winning “All We Imagine As Light,” three women navigate life in modern-day Mumbai. Lonely senior nurse Prabha has an absent husband working in Germany. Roommate and younger nurse Anu has a semi-secret romance with a Muslim boy. Cook Parvati faces the prospect of losing her home to a greedhead developer. Events cause these women to grow and change as people, including discovering traditions aren’t as helpful in life as expected.
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Was it living under apartheid, pigeonholing as the “racism photographer,” or something else that permanently shadowed the life and career of talented South African photographer Ernest Cole? Raoul Peck’s newest documentary “Ernest Cole: Lost And Found” attempts to answer these questions using Cole’s own words (voiced by Lakeith Stanfield) and Cole’s extraordinary photographs. Can these two sources explain why Cole lived a life of precarity or how 60,000 of Cole’s negatives were found in a Swedish bank safe?
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Peck’s newest film is showing as part of this year’s SFFILM’s Doc Stories film series. The director had appeared at a previous documentary film event with his seminal James Baldwin documentary “I Am Not Your Negro.”
Aside from Peck’s Baldwin documentary, over the years of its existence Doc Stories has shown such powerful films as Matthew Heineman’s “The First Wave,” Ben Proudfoot’s “Almost Famous: The Queen Of Basketball,” and Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ “The Mission.” This year, Doc Stories presents its 10th program from October 17-20, 2024 at the Vogue Theater in San Francisco.
One of the films shown at the very first Doc Stories series was Amy Berg’s “Janis: Little Girl Blue.” This electrifying biopic of rock legend Janis Joplin mixed together the late musician’s personal letters (read by Cat Power), stories from the likes of Pink and Melissa Etheridge, and footage from Joplin’s concerts and studio sessions. This screening is free, but tickets must be requested.
Opening Night honors goes to “One To One: John & Yoko” from directors Kevin Macdonald and Sam Rice-Edwards. The film follows post-Beatles breakup John Lennon and Yoko Ono as they undergo both a spiritual awakening and a political radicalization during the course of the early 1970s. Aside from personal phone recordings and home video, the film will mix in footage from the 1972 full-length charity concert Lennon and Ono put on for the children of Willowbrook Institution.
When Proudfoot’s Academy Award-winning short film was shown at Doc Stories, it was as part of the New York Times Op-Docs shorts block. This year’s package of shorts includes: Elahe Esmaili’s “A Move” (what results when the film’s Iranian director appears at a family gathering sans hijab), Lynne Sachs’ “Contractions” (a timely and poetic expression of grief and dismay made by reproductive rights activists during the overturning of Roe v. Wade), and Raquel Sancinetti’s animated “Madeleine” (the titular old woman’s refusal to leave her retirement home doesn’t stop her decades-younger companion Raquel from finding a creative way to take the older woman on the journey of a lifetime).
Doc Stories’ other short film block is called “The Persistence Of Dreams.” It includes such shorts as Mona Xia and Erin Ramirez’ “Kowloon!” (would you believe America’s largest Chinese restaurant is located in…Saugus, Massachusetts), Amelie Hardy’s “Hello Stranger” (while her clothes are drying at a local Nova Scotia laundromat, Cooper shares the story of her gender affirmation journey), and Kyle Thrash and Ben Proudfoot’s “The Turnaround” (the story of how Philadelphia Phillies superfan Jon McCann’s plan to turn things around for his beloved baseball team became the stuff of legend).
A different kind of institution saving is chronicled in Elizabeth Lo’s “Mistress Dispeller.” It follows Wang Zhenxi (aka Teacher Wang), a woman who’s part of a growing Chinese industry dedicated to repairing failing marriages. But if Wang’s tactics are anything to go by, her methods raise plenty of ethical red flags. The case followed here involves an errant husband and his mistress, and how Wang manipulates the extramarital lovers to end their affair.
Benjamin Ree’s film “The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin” begins with a different sort of ending: the death of online gamer Mats Steen from a rare muscular disease. But when Steen’s grieving parents Robert and Trude accessed their late son’s blog posts, they discovered that their son didn’t lead a lonely life playing the online game “World Of Warcraft.” Mats was the avatar known as Ibelin, and he wound up forging unexpected bonds with both fellow gamers within the game and beyond.
A different sort of teamwork with far different stakes gets chronicled in Brett Story and Stephen Maing’s “Union.” This documentary follows the efforts of aspiring rapper Chris Smalls to convince the workers at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island to join the Amazon Labor Union. Motivational speeches and offers of free marijuana may sound like dubious ways of getting workers to sign up. But the Amazon bosses are notoriously anti-union to the point of using anti-organizing tactics to stop the union. So all’s fair in love and worker relations.
A far more intractable conflict is depicted in the Berlin Film Festival award-winner “No Other Land.” Made by a Palestinian-Israeli filmmaker collective (Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor), the film documents the struggle over several years by Palestinian residents of Masafer Yatta to prevent the IDF from evicting them and seizing the land for a “training ground” (aka land to be given to Jewish settlers). This film promises to be a hot ticket partly thanks to current interest in Israeli-Palestinian friction. Also, no US distributor has as yet stepped forward to pick up the film for mass distribution.
Speaking of taboo subjects, talking about climate change has led to actual death threats against meteorologists reporting on the subject. In hopes of digging past the heated rhetoric and get back to “what happened and why,” “The White House Effect” from local filmmakers Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos, and Jon Shenk exhume the decades of failed U.S. policy that led in a way to Hurricanes Helene and Milton. The filmmakers show why repeated policy failures on fighting climate change effects can’t be blamed solely on greedhead polluters. There was political maneuvering involved, as seen in what happened to Jimmy Carter’s environmental agenda and George H.W. Bush’s initial support for the EPA.
A country’s government may be a big fan of building grandiose architectural projects. But as Victor Kossakovsky’s new essay film “Architecton” shows, building grandiose physical structures has been a continual human obsession over the centuries of humanity’s existence. Will humanity ultimately pay a price for attempting to satisfy its unending urges to build bigger and allegedly better?
A person who paid a different sort of price is Sara Jane Moore, who was imprisoned for attempting to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Filmmaker Robinson Devor wanted to tell Moore’s story on film. However, the former assassin would agree to an interview only if she was the only person filmed. Devor agreed to Moore’s terms but turned these limitations into Doc Stories’ Closing Night Film “Suburban Fury.” The viewer understands from the start that Moore is an unreliable narrator. But figuring out what parts of Moore’s story are true and which fable is made harder by an inability to verify her story. Was Moore actually an FBI informant whose job was gaining the confidence of political radicals?
(“All We Imagine As Light” screened as part of Mill Valley Film Festival 47. It next screens at 3:00 PM on October 19, 2024 as part of the Third I Film Festival at the Roxie Theatre (3117-16th Street, SF). Following that screening, it will begin a theatrical run on November 22, 2024 at the Roxie Theatre.
(“Ernest Cole: Lost And Found” screens at 11:00 AM on October 19, 2024 as part of SFFILM’s “Doc Stories 10” at the Vogue Theater (3290 Sacramento Street, SF.))
The program includes short films from Portugal, Poland, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Brazil, China, Croatia, and the United States. From a lockdown love story, Gen Z manifesto against patriarchal norms, to a sharp social commentary on gender struggles. The length of the film demonstrates an attitude, from there extends a myriad of different universes.
What’s softest in the world rushes and runs over what’s hardest in the world. Singapore|2024|DCP|color|15min
My First Funeral South Korea|2023|DCP|color|38min
Such Miracles Do Happen Poland|2023|DCP|color|14min
VALERIJA Croatia|2023|DCP|color|16min
Quebrante Brazil|2024|DCP|color|23min
Contractions USA|2024|DCP|color|13min
Postcards from the Verge Poland|2023|DCP|color|40min
Those Who Loved Me Japan|2024|DCP|color|15min
Myself When I Am Real USA|2024|DCP|color|18min
A Message from the Co-Curator of the Festival
Thank you for your powerful work! It reminded me of how a work of art is really a dialogue with the contemporary and is a voice of resistance:
“The four shorts tonight shared unique perspectives on the relationships between women/human kind and the body, time, history, and even the universe.
Unlike some of Lynne’s other works, with fluid space and poetics, in Contractions, we are hit with testimonies, plain and clear, combined with a visual and audio experience just as direct, about the predicaments of women and the medical system in Tennessee since June 24, 2022.
I noticed that in the beginning of the film, there is deep breathing sound. Then we see an open sky so blue and suffocating, with the voices of women, about the restrictions on women’s rights, on their bodies, and on what they can imagine about their own lives.
Lynne’s works are very charismatic with her organic, empathetic, and breathing-like camera eye. In Contractions, the camera is static or moves very slowly. It has a sense of control and horror, but at the same time, the static shots become a steadfast and unwavering gaze; steadfast and unwavering, like those women that are “standing still” in the film, some alone, some leaning on each other.
I am truly touched by those strong women that continue to help each other despite the danger, and refuse to take it as it is. And it is strangely cathartic to hear the additional audio piece We Continue to Speak, knowing that we are all shaken with anger and we will continue to fight!
SFFILM’s celebrated collaboration with the New York Times continues into its tenth year to present another showcase of their award-winning short-form documentary series, NYT Op-Docs. This year, SFFILM has curated five films that provocatively explore the complex and precarious spaces that various women occupy in an ever-modernizing world. The constant ebb and flow of progress and regression characterizes these stories of perseverance in the midst of trauma and heartache, collision with antiquated tradition, the murkiness of a new digital frontier, a fight for bodily self-determination, and a friendship uncompromised by generational boundaries. As women continue to fight for autonomy globally, we invite you to this appropriately bold addition to our festival program. —Jordan Klein
Guests Expected
Director Faye Tsakas and Producer Rowan Ings for short Christmas, Every Day are expected to attend. Films are listed in order of play.
Christmas, Every Day Faye Tsakas, USA 2024, 14 min A quotidian exploration of what it means to be an influencer, from the perspective of two tween girls from rural Alabama
A Move Elahe Esmaili, Iran 2024, 26 min Iranian filmmaker Elahe Esmaili challenges long-standing cultural norms when she arrives at her family’s gathering without a hijab.
Contractions Lynne Sachs, USA 2023, 12 min Reproductive rights activists present a timely and poetic expression of grief and dismay in the midst of the overturning of Roe v Wade.
The Final Chapter Frøydis Fossli Moe, Norway 2024, 14 min Frøydis receives a phone call that her father is dying from cancer, which forces her to confront her past traumas experienced during her upbringing.
Madeleine Raquel Sancinetti, Canada 2023, 15 min Madeleine stubbornly refuses to leave her retirement home. Her friend Raquel, who is 67 years her junior, finds a creative way to take her on the journey of a lifetime.
PERSO is an international event dedicated to documentary and auteur cinema that will involve three historical theatres in the city of Perugia and numerous other locations for nine days of free admission programming, with two competition categories, 55 national and international titles, 13 Italian premieres and an official selection with works from 22 countries. But that’s not all, the festival also includes a theatrical performance, 1 cine-concert, 1 retrospective, special events and more than 50 guests in meetings with the public.
The PerSo – Perugia Social Film Festival aims to play an active role in cultural transformation processes both within and outside its own community, towards a fairer and more inclusive society. Going beyond the audiovisual aspect, the Festival sets out to foster dialogue within the realm of art, creating a space for creative social development, discussion, and knowledge exchange among the most diverse perspectives.
This past weekend was the Chicago Underground Film Festival, which I look forward to every year. Partly, of course, for the appropriately motley programming, and partly because I always know a lot of people whose work is in the festival, so I get to see them and other mutual friends over the span of a few days at the place I love most: a movie theater.
This year and last, the festival took place at the Harper Theater in Hyde Park. I hadn’t been there in a while, so the reclining chairs—complete with self-controlled heating!—were a welcome surprise. (Looks like it’s recently been renovated.) Such features at a soulless multiplex trying to re-create the comforts of home at a movie theater? Bad. But at a small arthouse theater kept just cool enough for the heated seats to feel like a kiss on the forehead? Perfection.
Anyway, my husband and I had a festival guest staying with us this year, friend and brilliant filmmaker Lynne Sachs. (No relation.) On Saturday, we caught a few shorts programs. At the first, I especially liked films by Kelly Sears, Saif Alsaegh, and Usama Alshaibi. Sears, whose collage-based animation accounts for some of my favorite experimental work ever, explores the dystopian effects of climate change in The Lost Season (2024). Her conceit is a world experiencing its last winter, which filmmakers are hired to document so that these now-fleeting moments can be streamed. It’s a simple but evocative premise. Alsaegh’s film, The Mother-fucker’s Birthday (2024), explores a similar kind of inanity but in the not-so-distant past as opposed to the disconcertingly not-so-distant future. In showing footage of Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush dancing, he reflects the humanity of evil—it’s terrifying that such people can even still hear music amid the roar of their atrocities.
Alshaibi’s short, Testimony (2023), is an ethereal take on the idea of AI becoming sentient and wanting the full human range of physical and emotional dynamism. Specifically, Alshaibi’s use of footage of ballerinas from the early 1900s creates a dreamlike effect that to my mind seems like something a sensitive robot might have stored in its subconscious.
My friend Lynne’s film screened in the second program. Contractions (2024), featured earlier this year as a New York Times Op-Docs selection, beautifully—and woefully—considers the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic in Memphis two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned. There’s a certain tempo to her work that makes still the subjects she explores; in this stillness, they become ripe for contemplation, in the purest sense of the word. Time spent with her work is time spent deep in thought on some of life’s most pressing subjects.
Before seeing Lori Felker’s Patient (2023), I had no idea what standardized patients were. They’re people specifically trained in acting as patients so that med students can practice patient care. Felker’s short does a lot with this concept, shedding new light on questions of veracity, performance, and even health care itself.
So that was great. I also made it out to Roy Ward Baker’s Inferno (1953), playing as part of Noir City at the Music Box Theatre. It was in 3D, so I got to experience not only the newly renovated Theatre 1 but also its incredible, recently installed 3D capabilities. It was a great night back at one of my favorite places to be—now with cup holders!
Otherhood | Deborah Stratman Mother and child confront the other. Meanwhile, some ladies are thinking.
Retracing Our Steps | Kelly Gallagher A woman reflects back on her time spent assisting abortion seekers when Roe v. Wade was law of the land in the US.
Contractions | Lynne Sachs What happens when women and other who gestate no longer have control of their bodies? In 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ended a woman’s right to a safe and legal abortion in the United States. “Contractions” takes us to Memphis, Tennessee where we contemplate the discontinuation of abortion services at a women’s health clinic. We listen to an obstetrician and a reproductive rights activist who movingly lay out these vital issues. We watch 14 women and their male allies who witness and perform with their backs to the camera. In a place where a woman can no longer make decisions about her own body, they “speak” with the full force of their collective presence.
We Continue To Speak | Lynne Sachs In this sound collage Filmmaker Lynne Sachs records the participants and producers of her film Contractions as they vocalize their reactions to the reduction of women’s bodily autonomy in the United States.
Patient | Lori Felker Fiction, reality, the private, and the performed overlap on a routine but emotional day at a medical center.
What Went Down | Danièle Wilmouth Beauty is pain – at least in the world of Dance. WHAT WENT DOWN takes a humorous and irreverent approach to unpacking ideas of suffering in pursuit of physical virtuosity. A collaboration between choreographer Peter Carpenter and filmmaker Danièle Wilmouth, WHAT WENT DOWN features a group of middle-aged dancers who navigate the tense relationship between their chronically injured bodies and the barked orders of an uncompromising film director. Exposing the strenuous labor of the cinematic process both in front of and behind the camera, WHAT WENT DOWN devolves from constant action to profound inaction… all for you!
Ashes of Roses | Sasha Waters This movie is about loving things that are embarrassing and people who are inappropriate. It’s an essay film reflection on popular trash.
I Was There (Part 1) | Chi Jang Yin “I Was There” is a trilogy of experimental documentary films that explores the problem of radiation, our society’s fading collective memory of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the unresolved debate between ethics and science. These series concern the immediate effects of weaponized nuclear technology, as invisible poison, on the human body. Meditating on the survivor’s memories, “I Was There” (Part I) traces the experience of a physician for the past 70 years, who recounted his day as a rare witness when the atomic bomb was dropped in Hiroshima. The poignant and thought-provoking evidence of the secret war tactics reveals the human value during times of war in conflicts. Saving American lives is the commonly known and acceptable narrative of why the United States government dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. However, this narrative contradicts the finding in personal and petitions letters, and arsenal photography housed at the Truman Presidential Museum. The evidence uncovers a rather surprising reason for testing the atomic bomb on humans – competing for war power against Russia and securing the US dominant role in global politics.
