SCREEN

Shorts Program 6: Through the Eyes of a Child - What wonders lie in the mind of a child? Making ample use of the fertile imaginations of kids and the camera's potential for impressionist storytelling, these eight shorts range from the hilarious to the heartbreaking while always retaining their magic. A bike ride through town becomes an enchanted voyage, while a boy's bedroom becomes a land of a thousand mysteries. Children convince themselves they are mischievous cats, use magic books to deal with the grown-up world around them, and have epiphanies at the breakfast table or on the edge of a diving board. Comprised of fables, poetic riddles and comic skits, this series looks back at our early years and ahead to the future of film. The Shorts Program 6 features the following films: A Bike Ride - dir. Bernard Attal (United States), The Day I Grew Up - dir. Martti Helde (Estonia), The Devil's in the Details - dir. Jean-Pierre Joubert (Canada), Good Advice - dir. Andreas Tibblin (Sweden), I Do Air - dir. Martina Amati (United Kingdom), The Kitty - dir. Didem Erayda (Turkey), My Father's Son - dir. JorDan Fuller (United States), and Photographia - dir. Stefanos Sitaras (United States).

Shorts Program 3: DocuNation - The natural and the uncanny come together in this exceptional set of shorts from around the world. Growing old (and in love) together is the subject of Undertow Eyes, a beautiful poem that follows an elderly Brazilian couple's reminiscences over the decades. Memory figures in a completely different way in Clandestine, a virtuosic mini-masterpiece about family and identity that emerges from a unique case of espionage. Just as fascinating is Notes on the Other, a sharp and witty anecdote that zeroes in on an annual Spanish celebration of a certain famous writer and the secrets he may have carried with him. Within a Perfect World, the "imperfect" pupils of Centre Academy Special School poetically imagine their own ideal world. Finally, How Green Was Our Valley takes us through an entrancing tour of an Iranian valley where ancient tradition is engaged in a tug of war with encroaching modernity.

Applause - “Even though you can’t tell, I am a good mother.” The reason for the emotional impact achieved in Applause can be summed up in two words: Paprika Steen. One of the world’s most vibrant actresses (having starred in such films as Adam’s Apples, The Substitute and Open Hearts), Steen has the innate ability to make us laugh, cry and, yes, even to fear her with just a glance. Steen’s tour-de-force performance as Thea in Martin Pieter Zandvliet’s debut film is, in short, fearless. A celebrated actress, Thea has been battling alcoholism for years—an addiction that led to her divorce and the loss of custody of her two sons. Pampered at work and lacking even the most basic social skills, Thea does not suffer fools gladly and fills the lives of those around her with a caustic, venomous sarcasm. But Thea wants her children back desperately and pleads with her ex-husband to let her spend time with them. But how far is she willing to go?

Cellar - Down but not out, three friends come together to create a new beginning. Using intimate and imaginative cinematography to create a vibrant depiction of New York’s Hell’s Kitchen, director Steve Staso (Celluloid #1, Cinequest 2007) unveils a moving and lyrical tale where three very different lives intersect to find friendship and redemption. Wael, a political refugee from Beirut, works as a short order cook, while his daughter has forgotten what he looks like. Luz, a wannabe novelist who works as a manicurist, hopes for her daughter to join her from Columbia. And Syl, burnt out from three tours in Iraq, manages a tenement building. As the three come together, bonds develop. And with strength, hope and purpose, they each start finding their way in the sometimes harsh world they inhabit. Their stories unfold in a city which is dirty and loud, allowing us to feel their pain and incipient triumphs as they learn to care about themselves.