Saturday, 14 March, 8:00 pm
+ Q&A with directors
Curatorial Statement
by Inmensidades
In the face of the advance of horror in the world, the category of activism takes on the task of bringing forth images that still have the capacity to humanize us. How can we continue to believe in love, in friendship, in the world and in life after witnessing death turned into spectacle? How do we pause to look at life amid the global surge of hatred and fascism?
Perhaps this is the most eclectic selection in the short history of my curatorial work at Vierte Welle, but I believe in it. And I do so because I believe in the intention of the filmmakers to show us images that place us within territories, bodies, and realities. In the face of horror, intimate stories; in the face of indifference, a reminder of how much life is worth.
What could set us free? I invite us to listen, to look, to cry, and to play; to think about the body, injustice, war, childhood, migration, old age, precarity, and grief. Perhaps there lies the key to discussing what they are trying to normalize as truth.
If what is considered “normal” is to dehumanize ourselves, I would like to quote the beloved travesti activist Susy Shock, who tells us: “let others be the normal ones.” Who is left outside?
SHORT FILMS
Safe Zone
Armenia, 16.36 min
director: Arpi Bekaryan
The words “enemy” and “Azerbaijani” had always been synonyms for me until I went to Tbilisi.
This story is about a “hidden” community of Armenians and Azerbaijanis who can only meet in a third country, who have the need to talk to each other, to listen to the other side and who eventually become friends.”
Yasak Aşk / Forbidden Love
Austria/Turkey, 12.11 min
director: Yavuz Kurtulmus
“Yasak Aşk – Forbidden Love” is a quiet yet powerful short film about queer love in a country that denies its existence. Amid fear, repression, and social pressure, the film tells the story of two men who meet in secret – tender, vulnerable, and defiant.
My Magnolia
Germany, 5.18 min
director: Doria Nollez
After her husband’s death, Betsy deals with her grief through revisiting her own past. As the world around her struggles to understand her sudden and bold transformation, Betsy’s story unfolds as a tender portrait of grief on one’s own terms.
La búsqueda de una palabra que me narre / The search for another word that tells my story
Perú/Argentina, 19.28 min
director: Alejo caos de mar
The search for another word that tells my story.
It is a quest to narrate myself/us from different places. It is an invitation to a deep reflection on the bodily transformation of brown transgender identity experiences, shaped by an expulsive context that insists on molding our bodies, our stories, and our potentials. It is an autobiographical piece that narrates and encounters collective experiences.
Agua Fría
Chile, 18.35 min
director: Meme Cabello & Antonia Martinez Valls
At a settlement camp in Talagante, Chile, Ángel (9) and Kimberly (11), two children of immigrant families, turn a parked van into their imaginary spaceship to embark on a journey to find their friend Sofía (9), who recently had to return to her home country, Colombia.
