SYMBOLIC THREATS, Mischa Leinkauf, Lutz Henke & Matthias Wermke, documentary, Germany, 2015, 15'
Poetry or threat? An act of surrender or perhaps art? These were the theories that New York puzzled over last summer. How can one incident be interpreted in so many ways? By means of press reports, SYMBOLIC THREATS allows the public at large to express their extreme disparity of interpretation. Inspired by the heated debate over the two „White American Flags“ that suddenly appeared on the towers of New York City’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge, the film asks what kind of societal scope art has in the present day. What happens when threatened freedom reinstates art with the element of danger? Who or what makes it into a threat? Are we safe in the city? What is next?
FIELD STUDY, Eva Weber, fiction, United Kingdom, 2014, 20'
Martin, a shy Englishman in his early 20s, is in Poland doing a field study on river pollution when he sees a woman and her son bathe in the river, a moment of pure joy. Later, he discovers that Ewa works at the guest-house he’s staying at and he warns them not to bathe in the river due to the pollution from the nearby factories. Jacek, Ewa’s son, helps Martin with his research and he becomes something of a father figure to him. As a thank you for letting Jacek help him out Ewa invites Martin for dinner before he is to return home to England. Martin misunderstands the invitation and at the end of the night, a little tipsy, he tries to kiss her - but is rejected. The next day he speaks to a lab technician in the UK about the samples he’s sent back for testing– there is some pollution but not where Ewa and Jacek have been swimming. When Ewa doesn’t show up for work and still hurting from the rejection Martin leaves without passing on the message that the river is fine to swim in.
PICNIC, Jure Pavlović, fiction, Croatia, 2015, 13'
Sarajevo, rush hour. Emir (15), accompanied by a social worker, is on his way to meet his father Safet for a weekend picnic at Igman, a semi-open penitentiary. Due to the heavy traffic they are late ...
SMILE AND THE WORLD WILL SMILE BACK, Yoav Gross, Ehab Tarabieh and the Al-Haddad family, documentary, Israel, Palestine, 2014, 20'
One cold December night, Israeli soldiers come up to the al-Haddad family home in a Palestinian neighbourhood of Hebron and knock on the door. They’ve come to search the house. Diaa, the teenage son, reaches for the family’s video camera. As the search unfolds, a strange power struggle evolves, pitting gun against camera. The night grows colder, and the soldiers take Diaa outside and order him to face the wall. They won’t leave until he stops smiling.
WASHINGTONIA, Konstantina Kotzamani, fiction, Greece, 2014, 24'
WASHINGTONIA starts when the giraffe’s heart can no longer be heard. WASHINGTONIA is an alternative name for Athens, a place where people, like animals, fall into summertime sadness because of the heat. WASHINGTONIA is the only palm tree that its heart is not devoured by the red beetle. Because it’s heart is small and dry and no one likes small and dry hearts.
Films will be screened in the original language with English subtitles.
More info: http://2annas.lv/en/partner-screenings/short-matters-iii/