HIGHLIGHTS: September 2024 DIVERSITY Festival

Showcase of the best FILMS in the world today.

Audience Awards:

Short Film: THREE QUARTERS
Animation Film: GILGAMESH
Art Film: LA ULTIMA MOLA (Mor nabbi duggugi yolesad)
Coming of Age Film: in your head.
Direction: SUMMER RUN
Docu-Fiction Film: BRINGING DOWN A MOUNTAIN
Documentary Film: TWISTED GAZE
Experimental Film: THE PREDESTINED OAF
Family Film: CLOUD LINE
Fantasy Film: BEHIND CLOSED DOORS
Inspirational Film: A DREAM IN THEIR SONGS
Kids Film: HOW TO CATCH AN ANGEL
Life Film: SOMETHING
Micro-Short: POSI-TRACTION
Music Video: TRICKYYY
People Film: LULLABY OF UKRAINE
Performances: “SEX” OF DEATH
Poetry Film: L’amour est temps de reflets
Relationship Film: REMEMBRANCE
Sci-Fi Film: BY TWO
Society Film: AMAR
Sound & Music: IT’S NOT DARK YET
Spoken Word Film: HOW TO CATCH AN ANGEL
Story: DIANA
Student Film: A PRAYER FOR THE CHILDLESS
Thriller Film: BLOWBACK
Twist Film: SLAVE TRADE

FULL LIST OF FILMS:

SLAVE TRADE, 10min. USA
Directed by Andrea Andresakis
An abusive businessman gets his comeuppance from his streaming device.

THE PREDESTINED OAF, 1min., USA
Directed by Jimmy Francis
A woman struggles while making her breakfast

https://twitter.com/hyperpiperjlf
https://instagram.com/hyperpiperjlf

LA ULTIMA MOLA (Mor nabbi duggugi yolesad), Panana, 5min., Panana
Directed by Ornel Alvarado, Roberto Villafane
BURSOB is the last indigenous woman of her ethnic group. After almost all of humanity became extinct due to a strange disease, she made a trip to her region that had also disappeared. Upon arrival she decides to dress in the last garment of her indigenous culture. A mole from her grandmother.

http://vimeo.com/robertovillafanehttps://instagram.com/villafane007

BRINGING DOWN A MOUNTAIN, 14min,. India
Directed by Subhashish Panigrahi
A rural village never wanted to be a city’s landfill or a distant blur in Reels but instead home to new imaginations.

HOW TO CATCH AN ANGEL, 5min., USA
Directed by Stephen Olson
A spoken word work in three parts about addiction and recovery.

HOW TO CATCH AN ANGEL, 4min., South Africa
Directed by Grayson Bellingham
Jackie is startled to find a boy in her mirror instead of her reflection. She finds him intriguing and is amused by his antics, but desperately tries to suppress him whenever she fears that her mom will see him. This reaches its climax when Jackie is caught wearing a shirt and tie after being encouraged by Jack. Jackie and her mother share a tense moment at dinner, but when her mother tries to reach out, Jackie flees. She tries on the dress to appease her mother despite her own discomfort, but her mother rectifies this by showing her the shirt and tie that Jackie would be more comfortable wearing. With this reached understanding, the mom reaches out and offers her support. Together they cut Jack’s hair in the bathroom, and the mom kisses the top of her son’s head.

BY TWO, 4min., South Africa
Directed by Wiam Botma
A stubborn old man goes about his daily routine, struggling with every task due to his age. He hears a ring from the doorbell and finds a robot has been sent to aid him in his old age. As he goes about his daily routine the robot continually tries to aid him, much to his annoyance. A mishap in the bathroom is the final straw for the man, unaided he tumbles down the stairs and gets stuck in a pot, and the robot comes to his aid. The man now visibly relaxed enjoys the help of the robot in his life.

CLOUD LINE, 4min., South Africa
Directed by Minnette Faure
After the loss of their mother, Akhona and their father attempt to find a middle ground between their different means of grieving. Lihle copes with his grief by forging his way through life as usual whilst his child Akhona takes time to live in the memory of their mother through escapism by means of an imaginary cloud-like realm where they can still be with her. As Akhona leans further into their imagination they drift further away from their father. After seeing their father express his pain when thinking Akhona is not present, Akhona comes to the realization that they shouldn’t let the past cloud their present and opens up to their father allowing them to grieve together.

A DREAM IN THEIR SONGS, 30min., India
Directed by Deba Ranjan
The dream of these singers has always been the strength of people’s struggle of saving their own lives and resources. They themselves compose the songs, sing the same and encourage people to dream. For the last few years, they have been in front of all resistance struggles in the eastern part of India. We can found the same singers-cum-activist in anti-mining struggle areas, in farmers’ struggle around the reservoir and in save forest movement etc, This film is based on life and dream of few composers-cum-singers of Odisha/India.

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS, 4min., South Africa
Directed by Lenore Banton
Amelia learns that her sister, Cassandra, is being abused by her husband. In that moment, Amelia recollects from her memories where things started to go wrong and how she failed to notice the signs. Amelia returns to the present and rushes to her sister’s aid. Amelia and Cassandra flee the cabin but the situation goes into disarray, leading up to Cassandra killing Brutus.

AMAR, 10min,. France
Directed by Justine Méry
Self-employed to be in charge of her hours, her services and her prices, Amar has been an Escort (sex worker) since she was 18. She always felt a strong will for freedom and independence, but recent laws have been preventing her from doing her job in good conditions …

http://www.different-productions.com/
https://www.facebook.com/DifferentProductionsUSA/
https://instagram.com/different_films

L’amour est temps de reflets, 5min., France
Directed by Yann Richebourg
Suggesting an impossible relationship between a young girl and a young man, this short film exploits the reflexive capacity of the mirror to translate specularly, explicitly as well as implicitly, what is repeated in a love doomed to an impasse. A poem-movie film, “peau-aime-ou-vit » (in French).

https://yannrichebourg.com/photo-graphi-lmer/
https://www.facebook.com/yannrichebourgphotographies/
https://twitter.com/yannrichebourg?t=cjYOl-cW-JVMrdUbP5NN3Q&s=09
https://www.instagram.com/p/CstcjVQNRPz/

SUB BROTHERS, 22min., USA
Directed by Sandeep Ravindranath
Two brothers from Pakistan run a sandwich shop in Chicago. Through the daily struggles of an immigrant life, they carry in their hearts a longing for the homeland that they might never return to.

A PRAYER FOR THE CHILDLESS, 9min., India
Directed by Sandeep Ravindranath
A Prayer for the Childless is the story of Bhoomi – a woman struggling against the crippling stigma of childlessness in a conservative Indian society where status of women is defined by the idea of motherhood. Juxtaposing her devoted adherence to traditional and modern rituals, the narrative depicts her entrapment in the dutiful bondage of an Indian arranged marriage. Her faith is her only pillar of strength in a solitary struggle to conform with the societal pressures imposed upon her. But even that, might not amount to much.

CRACK, 29min., India
Directed by Allabhya Ghosh
It is a political drama film that explores the so-called development of an elected government in a democratic system. A crack is not just on the bridge; it is all over the country. The crack is getting wider, so here it is being written; the manifesto of development.

https://www.wildsound.ca/videos/crack

TWISTED GAZE, 19min,. Mexico
Directed by David Sanchez V
Diego travels to Turkey, makes a layover in Dubai. There he suffers a series of abuses by authority, sexual and homophobic by the police and military. This leads to a ceaseless search of identity and an obscure social questioning — psychological about masculinity, diversity and the “Who am I”.

https://instagram.com/diegoavilamx

SUMMER RUN, 12min,. Italy
Directed by Cecilia Brianza
A man, who loves running, is fascinated by a desperate girl who lives in isolation in a house in the Umbrian countryside. The encounter will leave a mark on both their lives.

https://www.facebook.com/corsadestate

REMEMBRANCE, 6min., Austria
Directed by Andreas Reisenbauer
Two people who have more in common than one knows, meet on a park bench.

https://reisenbauer.com/

GILGAMESH, 10min., Iran
Directed by Hossein Moradizadeh
Gilgamesh is the oldest epic and literary work in the world. The oldest written part of it dates back to the second millennium BC, but its history dates back to three thousand years BC. Gilgamesh saga best describes human destiny in search of immortality.

http://www.moradizadeh.com/
https://www.facebook.com/hossein.moradizadeh.7/
https://www.instagram.com/mora.films/

THREE QUARTERS, 23min., USA
Directed by Dave Harlequin
A middle-aged disabled man struggles to come to terms with his new life as an amputee as he is stalked and tormented by a strange, supernatural entity.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11464562/
https://www.facebook.com/astrangerconcept
https://www.instagram.com/astrangerconcept

SOMETIMES, 3min,. Canada
Directed by Jeromy Desjarlais
Music video about addiction

TRICKYYY, 3min., Canada
Directed by Jeromy Desjarias
music video in Los Angeles California

BLOWBACK, 6min., Australia
Directed by Tim Brothers
When a refugee father (and former child soldier) meets his former WarLord boss in his Uber – he has to make the life-changing choice between revenge and redemption.

DIANA, 5min., India
Directed by Avirup Biswas
Diana is an animal lover. A boy kills several dogs in the neighborhood where she lives.

LULLABY OF UKRAINE, 3min., Ukraine
Director Alexander Sparinsky
Dedicated to the Children of Ukraine, victims of the brutal Russian invasion… Let everyone ask themselves and the leaders of their countries: what else has to happen, what arguments are needed that Ukraine is finally given the necessary military aid for Victory?

http://www.sparinsky.kiev.ua/https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100000572240927

“SEX” OF DEATH, 11min,. Iran
Directed by M. Hadi Jamali, Fakhredin Jamali
A man is trying to kill himself in a hotel room, suddenly someone knocks on the door and enters…

https://www.instagram.com/m.hadijamali

in your head., 11min., USA
Directed by Sokhna Samb
The morning after a breakup, Asa, a twenty-something year-old Black man, is confronted by his negative and intrusive thoughts personified in the form of his ex.

POSI-TRACTION, 5min,. USA
Directed by Caleb Johnson, Clint Calvert
An intense emotional conflict scene between a mysterious older man and a younger man in a scene floating between reality and imagination, fear and despair. A man searches for something to justify his wrongs, but what awaits him will be his lesson of a lifetime.

IT’S NOT DARK YET, 10min., Italy
Directed by Rossano B. Maniscalchi
IT’S NOT DARK YET is a film that deals with the theme of violence against women, presenting a story of female solidarity. The protagonists are women who, from generation to generation, speak to other women through example and storytelling.

https://www.facebook.com/rossano.maniscalchi
https://www.facebook.com/Itsnotdarkyet
https://www.instagram.com/rossanobmaniscalchi/