70 minutesReal stories, real subjects, real emotions. Reality is the birthplace of these short animated documentaries.
Short Docs could have referred to small doctors, but instead it refers to an often overlook genre in the film industry: short animated documentaries. Animation can help bring real stories to life and deal with traumas, memories, unresolved conflicts and so on. Reality is the birthplace of these short docs. Real stories, real subjects, real emotions.
Showing in this program
Blush – An Extraordinary Voyage
For 18-year-old Finnish-Kosovan Fatu, a simple visit to the grocery store feels as nerve-racking as a lunar expedition: for the first time in his life, he's wearing full glam makeup in public. Luckily his best friend Rai is there to support him through the voyage. Making full use of stop-motion puppetry, the film shows how no one should be afraid to show their true self. Most of the dialogue in Blush is documentary and was recorded during a real trip to a grocery store.
Finding Home
Telling the personal story of Antonia Jardenia da Silva from Brazil, and of how she was forced to relocate, Finding Home is the first film in a series that features testimonies of climate refugees from around the world uprooted from their homes. Director Maria Stanisheva highlights both environmental and human issues with the raw power of animation.
Once There Was a Sea…
With the use of a wood-carved etching art style, Joanna Kozuch tells the story of the vanished Aral Sea by collecting the stories of the last people of the Uzbek town of Mo'ynoq who remember the original shore. Now, only a cemetery of ships remains. A melancholic tale of tracing a glorious past destroyed by ignorance and mismanagement.
The Best Grandfather in the World
Felix has had a very close relationship with his grandfather since childhood. However, everything changes when he tells his family he's gay. Based on a real story, the film is perhaps - first of all - about the possibility of dialogue and the restoration of family ties when politics have destroyed them.
The Glazier’s Daughter
After growing up in her father's glass shop, Lucía López observes her childhood twenty years later, which she tries to treasure using paint and glass, elements that she will soon discover are just as fragile as her own memory. By getting closer again to her family memories, she recognises her greatest fear: the passing of time.
The Harbourmaster
In a mix of live action footage and animation, The Harbourmaster recounts the true story of its titular swan, and of how he went from a local celebrity and mascot to a wanted criminal in the Norwegian town of Osøyro. The story of his planned euthanisation stirred up Norway's most polarising debate in 2017. A creative exploration of wild animal life in cities.
The Heights
Starting from the grim reality of the anomalous trade on the borders of Ceuta and Melilla that separate Africa from Europe, The Heights depicts the repetitive pilgrimage that hundreds of "mule women" carry out every day in the area while pondering over the impossibility of achieving a better life. Using dehumanised silhouettes, this errant journey into the night is a mysterious and mythical meditation on female suffering, and visualises the Islamic concept of Al Araf, a wall dividing paradise and hell.
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