Today's announcement from the International Film Festival Rotterdam lays out the full lineup for the Bright Future program. With descriptions from the festival:
World premieres
- A la cantábrica (To La Cantábrica), Ezequiel Erriquez, Argentina. A "coming of age film set in the outskirts of Buenos Aires during the economic crisis of the late 1990s." Blog.
- Corta, Felipe Guerrero, Colombia, Argentina, France. Guerrero "associates the work of sugar cane harvesters with the process of 16mm filmmaking. This film is a beautiful, cinematic meditation reminiscent of the work of Sharon Lockhart or Ben Russell."
- The Ultimate Pranx Case, Influenz Films, Canada. "In 2010, three boys had a prank with a girl at school and streamed it live on Internet. What started as an innocent joke soon got completely out of hand."
- Par exemple, Electre (Electra, for Instance), Jeanne Balibar and Pierre Léon, France. "In this eclectic homage to the Greek tragedy, Balibar and Léon are free of any convention."
- Carnival, Madhuja Mukherjee, India. "Exciting film shot in overcrowded Kolkata during a Hindu festival merges documentary and fiction, evoking notions of joy and sadness."
- Parts of the Heart, Paul Agusta, Indonesia. "Eight contemplative short films show stages in the love life of Peter, a gay in Jakarta."
- Room 514, Sharon Bar-Ziv, Israel. "In this realistic and disturbing debut, a young female soldier fights against the abuse of power in the army."
- Wavumba, Jeroen van Velzen, Netherlands. "A debut that follows an old fisherman in Kenya who immerses himself in a world of stories."
- Ensayo final para utopia (Dress Rehearsal for Utopia), Andrés Duque, Spain. "Autobiographical drama is mixed with general, politico-cultural concepts. It all starts with a trip to Mozambique to seek film material shot there."
- He Was a Giant with Brown Eyes, Eileen Hofer, Switzerland, Azerbaijan. "Having grown up in Switzerland all her life, Sabina is now ready to return home to her father in Azerbaijan. Adolescence, separation and self-discovery."
- Gaamer (Gamer), Oleg Sentsov, Ukraine. "The protagonist is a young Gamer who is great at shooting enemies in Quake but not so successful in real life."
- Now, Forager: A Film about Love & Fungi, Jason Cortlund and Julia Halperin, USA. "A couple is picking wild mushrooms to sell to chic restaurants. One of them offers her a job. While her culinary star is rising, their relationship goes downhill."
- The Great Northwest, Matt McCormick, USA. "Fifty years after four women embarked on a journey through the Northwest of America, director McCormick finds their scrapbook in a thrift shop and decides to repeat their journey."
International premieres
- Black & White & Sex, John Winter, Australia.
- Rânia, Roberta Marques, Brazil. About "a young, ambitious dancer from a poor neighbourhood in Fortaleze." Site.
- As hiper mulheres (The Hyperwomen), Fausto Carlos, Leonardo Sette and Takuma Kuikuro, Brazil. A documentary "about the rituals of an Indian tribe."
- The Patron Saints, Melanie Shatzky and Brian M Cassidy, Canada. Documentary debut.
- Sentimental Animal, Wu Quan, China.
- La jubilada (The Retired), Jairo Boisier Olave, Chile.
- L' anabase (The Anabasis of May and Fusako Shigenobu, Masao Adachi and the 27 Years Without Images), Eric Baudelaire, France.
- Die Räuberin (Rough), Markus Busch, Germany.
- Amma Lo-fi (Grandma Lo-fi: The Basement Tapes of Sigrídur Níelsd), Orri Jónsson, Kristín Björk Kristjánsdóttir and Ingibjörg Birgisdóttir, Iceland, Denmark.
- Valley of Saints, Musa Syeed, USA/India. Site.
- Hikari no oto (The Sound of Light), Yamasaki Juichiro, Japan. Site.
- Malaventura, Michel Lipkes, Mexico. Feature debut.
- Ex Press, Jet Leyco, Philippines. "Part documentary, part dream."
- Chapiteau-show, Sergey Loban, Russia. From Film New Europe: "Pretty, but lonesome girl meets a nihistic guy nicknamed Cyber Ranger on the Internet. First she drags him out of the virtual space on a real date, and then – to Cremea, where she continues to draggle him around with her – to the beach, dinner or discotheque – with fatal consequences for not so experienced in love affairs blogger."
- Akataka (That Small Piece), JOSEph S KEN, Uganda.
- An Oversimplification of Her Beauty, Terence Nance, USA.
- The Whirlpool, Alvin Case, USA.
European premieres
- Un nuage dans un verre d'eau (A Cloud in a Glass of Water), Srinath C Samarasinghe, France, Canada. From the Dubai International Film Festival: "Anna and Mr Noun share the same sense of fantasy and interest for short news. She is Romanian, he is Egyptian and they both live in an old building in Paris. Khalil, a young filmmaker and Mr Noun's grandson is keen on filming them, but they are both reticent in front of the camea. As the camera rolls, day after day, old secrets are slowly revealed…"
- Momoiro sora wo (About the Pink Sky), Kobayashi Keiichi, Japan. Trailer.
- Padang besar (I Carried You Home), Tongpong Chantarangkul, Thailand. From the Marrakech International Film Festival: " A mother comes to Bangkok to visit her teenage daughter, Pann, who lies to her to avoid spending time with her. Soon after Pann returns to her friends, she receives a phone call from her aunt in tears that her Mum has been in a terrible accident and is in a coma. Pann hurries to contact her elder sister, Pinn, who had run away from her marriage to Singapore to start a new life away from family constraints. Both of them will be forced to spend time together and to slowly begin to open up to each other again."
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