Black Birch

Waray Waray is a group of young men from the south of Manila. They come to the city in search of better life. Being daring and defiant, the Waray often rob to help the poor. They are the modern-day Robin Hood. One day, the kidnap of the daughter of a powerful politician with private army, has also brought with them one of the greatest challenge.

Faces of Terror Why are Europeans, children of immigrants like Coulibaly or the Kouachis brothers, attacking their countries of birth? What leads them to reject the values of the nation in which they grew up, to be reborn as extremists of Al Qaeda and the Islamic State. What role does religion play and which religion? What propaganda and mental mechanisms are being used to convince this generation of killers that they must turn vigilante on behalf of their victimised Muslim world? These are the questions that director, Stéphane Benture, attempts to answer. He explores the breaking points, the existential problems and the fractures of identity that marked out the lives of Amedy Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers. Their stories also help tell the journey of those involved in the Paris attacks. Benture meets the people closest to them: family, teachers and friends and goes through archive documents, tracing the paths of these renegades of French society.

Idea How the ideas are born and how bumpy road they have to go through before they light up? The ideas are all around us but will we see them? Although we are constantly searching, will the idea and the seeker ever meet? This short animated film takes a straight downward glance at this paradox. It is a collection of aerial views and simple physics simulation.

May Antares and May, a couple from different ethnic groups, are separated during the May 1998 riots in Jakarta. While Antares is busy as a filmmaker documenting the historic moment, May is kidnapped and raped. May is also separated from her mother, who takes refuge in a hotel. In despair, May’s mother exchanges her house deeds for an airplane ticket to Malaysia with a lowly laundryman, Gandang. Ten years after, Antares finds May in Malaysia. She now has a child from a foreign reporter who saved her on that unfortunate day. The reunion reveals the tragic past of May and her mother.

The Spate A short, hilarious story about flooding phobia and sudden first love.

Observe These Words Observe These Words focuses on endagered amphibians. The latin name for the amphibian, amphibia, refers to life on two elements (land and water). The two also draw on the structure of the film, as images depict the artificial, regulated habitat of small animals, whilst the voice-over emphasizes the call of freedom and future.

Ellipsis The narrator collides with animal-shaped shooting targets in the woods. She sets out to unravel a breathtaking and fascinating cultural-historical tangle of animal and human rights: the power of a gaze, the objects of exhibition, and the secondary power of being under scrutiny.

The Problem of the Hydra Essay film which leads us to the mysteries of a mysterious, immortal polyp. Hydra is preoccupied with its existence: how does it live, how come it does not die, how does it eat, how does it reproduce? In the footsteps of Jean Painlevé, a French experimental underwater documentary filmmaker, Tammi’s work combines the astonishments of the aquatic world with electronic music.

From a Distance From a Distance allows the forest animals to take the forefront, to be and observe. Humans do not report or explain, but are present only as sounds of passing cars or on a look-out in a bird tower – as if being part of a herd themselves.

Margarita