Off-site means a character, an object, or an act that is not visible on the screen, but is part of the scene. "Gniele baila" presents a story about women, immigrants and abandoned Peoples who are invisible but are the most involved in life. This story is related to us by a stubborn and ambitious dancer. Gniele dances regardless of on-site or off-site. As the world turns and everything happens Gniele gets her strength from dancing.
Living in downtown Toronto to attend school, Lina Li returns to the comfort of home in Thornhill and her mother's cooking. In this candid short, filmmaker Lina Li and her mother engage in an intimate conversation about immigration to Canada, misunderstandings, barriers to communicating, love and the taste of home.
This film begins, so to speak, where ‘Vol spécial’ left off. The reality of migration bears its teeth: Following a scuffle, 20-year-old Koumba from France is sent back to the place where she was raised – Senegal. She returns to the lost village of her ancestors hysterical, argumentative and unproductively rebellious. Now the mother of a toddler, she continues to come to terms with the two cultures; the outcome is unforeseeable, as is the outcome of this cinematic long-term observation. The risk of its failure due to its protagonist is palpable. But Koumba’s fascinating metamorphosis is also obvious, her body and character have taken on a more harmonious nature. All hope is not lost.
After 18 years living in Italy, the Cuban Barbara Ramos returns to live in her homeland. In the town of Santa Clara, she discovers through the projects of family and friends what has changed in Cuba but also what has not and will likely never change. Shot over a period of three years - the time it took Barbara to build her dream house - RETURN TO CUBA chronicles her life in the wake of Raul Castro's liberal reforms and reconciliation with the United States of America. A light-hearted yet energetic movie positively demonstrating that finding happiness is possible in today's Cuba!
The Serengeti is a vast ecosystem, home to a dazzling variety of life, and the site of the largest migration on the planet. Woodland, riverbank forests and swamps provide cover for dozens of mammal species and more than 350 varieties of bird. The fate of these animals is intimately bound with the ever changing landscape. The passage from the rainy season to the dry season means there is no rest and no stability. Those who dwell here must remain in constant motion to survive. For months they live in hope of the returning rains that will put an end to their struggle and reward their efforts.
Following the dealings of Mauritanian fixers ferrying migrants by sea, this film shows the human cost of irregular migration in West Africa. Interrogating the role of fixers as facilitators of the voyage across the sea as well as the casualties that occur, this asks if they are very different from 16th century slave catchers.
Europe. Freedom, Peace and solidarity. For many years we have been spreading freedom, peace and wealth on the African continent. It is about time we explain this to the Africans with a nice image film.
A refugee's dinner routine is transformed when she begins to hear the voices of those she has lost. Based on a short story by Syrian writer Jehan Sayed Issa.
ASMA which means "listening" in Arabic, traces the exile of seven young refugees from Sudan to Châtellerault, France. The women directors wanted to amke the voices of those men who fled the hell of war and who are now seeking asylum be heard. Always with modesty, sometimes poetically, Adam and his friends allow us to see their sufferings but also their joy punctuated with hopes and disillusions. Through these images with contrasting emotions, ASMA questions and reveals the dignity and humanity of those we call "migrants". Driven by their dreams, they wanted to testify to exist. May we listen to them.
Five Afghan men try to reach Europe. The filmmakers followed them for over six months, filming their clandestine journey and chronicling a migration combining fantasy and stark reality, setbacks and achievements, in the midst of the dangers of such trips.
In an early work, video artist Dara Birnbaum records a cross section of fellow passengers aboard the Staten Island Ferry while en route to the Statue of Liberty. Asking subjects to use her video camera to capture their own views of the iconic monument, Birnbaum creates an homage to the immigrant experience.
Partitions draws on photographs, state documents, audio recordings and footage of domestic spaces and routines, to tell a story of Sindhi migration following the Partition of India in 1947. Inspired by the life of a woman who was born in Hyderabad, Sindh, grew up in Madras (Chennai) and lived the rest of her life as a Singaporean, the film juxtaposes fragmented recollections of the past with enduring practices of the present.
The vegetables come from the garden behind the house, the fish comes out of a can, and money for bread is earned at the factory. It’s because of this money that they came here. Women from Turkey stand side-by-side with women form Mecklenburg at the conveyor belt of a fish-processing factory in Lübeck. Their hands are stained brown, the pungent smell of fish clings to them, and their arms and backs ache. If these jobs were done by men, machines would have been invented long ago to replace them. But female labour is cheap and the women do not complain. They have learned to work – and therein lies the source of their pride. (Source: https://www.artechock.de/film/text/filminfo/g/ge/gefubr.htm)