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Le film de Yalda Afsah, tirant son nom du Vidourle, un fleuve français, documente une chorégraphie étrange et subtilement troublante. Il met en scène un groupe de jeunes hommes, qui prennent part à ce qui pourrait être un rituel, un spectacle, un jeu ou un combat. Dans leurs mouvements collectifs, ainsi que dans les moments individuels de concentration, d'anticipation et parfois d'insouciance, les protagonistes, des adolescents pleins d'adrénaline, semblent incarner la fragilité de la condition humaine dans l'attente d'un changement environnemental, semblable à un courant de rivière d'une force inattendue.

Yalda Afsah explore la façon dont l'espace peut être construit de manière filmique, et le caractère documentaire de ses œuvres tend souvent vers des formes de théâtralité. Cette caractéristique formelle de sa pratique se reflète conceptuellement dans ses portraits documentaires à propos de relations entre l'être humain et l'animal, qui révèlent une ambivalence entre soins et contrôle, force physique et volonté brisée, instinct et manipulation. Il cherche à remettre en question et à dissoudre ces dichotomies, tout en créant un espace pour réfléchir à la possibilité d'une empathie globale entre les espèces.

A group of men is fixing their eyes onto the sky. High above, a swarm of pigeons is moving in an unrecognizable formation, when suddenly individual birds drop in mid-air, spinning backwards with their wings extended and tumbling down in a circular motion before resuming their ordinary flight path. Yalda Afsah’s short film SSRC slowly dissects this aerial choreography, revealing its nature as a form of animal training and gradually zooming into the at times almost intimate details of this interspecies relationship. Focusing on the specific social context of the Los Angeles-based „Secret Society Roller Club“ and its members’ identification with and through the animals, Afsah’s film negotiates positions of co-dependency and care, domestication and dominance – calling into question the ambivalence reflected in the symbol of the soaring bird free in its flight, yet simultaneously bound to human will.

German-Iranian artist and filmmaker Yalda Afsah (b. 1983, Berlin) explores how space can be cinematically constructed as her films profoundly explore the interface between reality and staging. This formal characteristic of Afsah’s work is conceptually mirrored in her recent portraits of human-animal relationships that reveal an ambivalence between care and control, physical strength and broken will, instinct and manipulation. Despite their documentary focus, her films and video installations seem to capture symbiotic choreographies on screen – equally portraying and fictionalising their human and non-human protagonists. Afsah has presented her work at various exhibitions and festivals including Manifesta 13, Locarno Film Festival, New York Film Festival, Berlinische Galerie, Institute of Contemporary Arts London, Neuer Berliner Kunstverein and recent solo exhibitions at Kunstverein München and Halle für Kunst Steiermark. Since 2019 she is a mentor for the Berlin program for artists (BPA).

A moment of exposure is about observing the experience of living an idea and gathering materials for an art installation. The camera, as an attentive observer, collects memories and associations related to the "Safe & Sound" multimedia interactive exhibition. Following the process of preparation, presentation, and dismantling of the installation, we seek visual and sensory origins. In the first part of the exhibition, a spatial arrangement features elements such as metal fence sculptures, archived photos of fences in graveyards, and videos of deceased creatures floating in water. These elements are gently dissected to uncover the roots of safety and any remnants of movement left after death. In the second part, different sounds can be heard by interactive audiences resting in bed-shaped sound boxes, prompting questions about the origins of these sounds. Each sound carries the weight of a past incident, reverberating in the space and creating an immersive experience. Ultimately, the film invites viewers to reflect on the connections between memory, loss, and the lingering echoes of life. It encourages an exploration of how we find safety in remembrance and the ways in which our past shapes our present.

Mahshid Afzali: Mahshid Afzali is an Iranian Video Artist and Filmmaker, based in Tehran. She graduated from University of Tehran with a B.A. degree of Scenic Design in 2018. Throughout her studies, she developed a passion for video art as a medium for self-expression. In the past few years she specialized in independent film production and post-production and created several documentary films and videos. Mahshid is also an archivist, and documents her life through videos and photographs that often serve as the foundation for her artworks. / Mahoor Mirshakkak: Mahoor Mirshakkak, Iranian freelance Filmmaker & Sound designer. Graduated in Painting from Tehran Fine Arts University. Currently Working on Multidisciplinary installations Based on Archived sound and videos.

“Fata Morgana” is a critical vision of a mega-project of infrastructure, an interoceanic channel crossing the entire country that is going to be built in Nicaragua by the transnational Chinese enterprise HKND. The negative impact over the local population and the environment represents a real danger for their sustainability. Thousands of citizens from the affected areas have protested against this project, which was approved without their consideration. “Fata Morgana” is an optical illusion where one perceives objects floating on the horizon, such as cars on a highway or ships at sea; we´re playing with such symbols in this drawn stop motion animation.

Marcos lives and survives in Managua, Nicaragua. He trained as an architected at the National Engineering University in Managua (1995-1999) and later specialized in the field in Barcelona with an emphasis on urban planning and sustainable tropical architecture (2005-2009). In 2006 he won the II Exhibit of Emerging Art in Central America organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design in San José, Costa Rica and in 2008 he won first place at the VI Central American Visual Art Biennial. His pieces have been exhibited in the Latin American Pavilion at the Arsenale during the 55th International Art Exhibition in Venice, Italy (2013), the García Lorca Great Theatre of Havana during the 11th Havana Biennial (2012), New York?s Museo del Barrio as part of the ?The Street Files? exhibit (2011), Santo Domingo?s Museum of Modern Art during the I Caribbean International Triennial (2010), in two editions of the Central American Contemporary Art Biennial (Tegucigalpa 2008 and Managua 2010) as well as in several editions of the Nicaraguan Visual Art Biennial Fundación Ortèz-Gurdión (2005, 2007 and 2009), with mentions in 2007 and 2009. He has appeared in magazines like Exit-Express (Spain), Código (México) and ArtNexus (Colombia) and in anthologies like Us and Them, Young Ibero-American Artists (2010).

A young girl spending time with her parents (a swinger couple) in a camping site meets an emotionally unstable recruit and becomes fascinated by his special powers. He falls in love with her, but he soon finds out his love is unrequited.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Gijón, Oberhausen and Vila do Conde, and have been shown in Torino, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF and BAFICI.

Before the assault, feel the weight of the body.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Gijón, Oberhausen and Vila do Conde, and have been shown in Torino, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF and BAFICI.

Hidden memories and lost treasures of our primeval inhabitants.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Gijón, Oberhausen and Vila do Conde, and have been shown in Torino, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF and BAFICI.

Paulo works as a night guard in a building site. He lost his daughter in dramatic circumstances and no regret would ever give him a sense of closure . He often sleeps in his lover`s house where he witnesses the repeated transgressions of an unstable neighbor. Everything threatens to crack.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema, in Lisbon. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His first fiction feature film was UPRISE (2008). MERCURY (2010) was in competition for the Tiger Awards for Short Films at IFFR 2011. His films have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Gijón, Oberhausen and Vila do Conde, and have been screened in Torino, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. Besides being a director, Aquilar is an editor and a producer. MARIPHASA is his second feature film.

Applying the same economy used in Allee der Kosmonauten (one sole unrolling 16 mm film role with no montage) a long tracking shot at the Cooperativa das Águas Férreas da Bouça, a social housing complex designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira and an integral part of the SAAL (Serviço Ambulatório de Apoio Social, 1974-76) programme. The place is Oporto, in 2010, but the memory of the complex circumstances surrounding the construction of these dwellings take us back to 1975 and a tumultuous moment in Portugal?s past.

Filipa César was born in Porto in 1975. Lives and works in Berlin, and studied at the Faculty of Arts in Porto and Lisbon (1996?99), the Academy of Arts in Munich (1999?2000) and MA Art in Context, University of Arts, Berlin (2007). César is an artist and filmmaker whose work reflects on the porous nature of the relationship between the moving image and its public reception. Informed by her interests in exploring the fictional aspects of the documentary genre, and imbued with an urge to point out the politics behind moving images, works such as F for Fake (2005), Rapport (2007), Le Passeur (2008), The Four Chambered Heart (2009), and Memograma (2010) walk the thin line between storytelling, chronicling, documentary, and experimental film. César?s installations suggest possible settings for an expanded production of moving images, which actively engage the spectator in his or her role as perceiver, and which are constituted by the presence of socio-political concerns. In Filipa César?s work the image evolves out of a struggle between real-memory and cinema-memory. Filipa César has exhibited, among other places, at 8. Istanbul Biennial, 2003; Kunsthalle Wien, 2004; Serralves Museum, 2005; Locarno International Film Festival, 2005; CAG- Contemporary Art Gallery, Vancouver, 2006; Tate Modern, 2007; St. Gallen Museum, 2007; International Triennale of Contemporary Art, Prague, 2008; SF MOMA, San Francisco 2009, 12th Architecture Biennial, Venice, 29th São Paulo Biennial 2010, São Paulo and Manifesta 8, Cartagena.

Full Moon. Inside. Perhaps not alone.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998, he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, Locarno FF, Gijón, Oberhausen,Vila do Conde, Indielisboa FF and have been shown in the most relevant film festivals worldwide. Two times nominated for the EFA – Best European Short Film Award. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF, BAFICI, New York Film Festival, Arsenal-Berlin and Oberhausen FF. In 2013, he was invited into the renowned DAAD Artist Residency, Berlin.

Oscar, a renowned hypnotherapist, takes advantage of the last moments in his hotel room to say goodbye to the dazzling Mercedes and relieve old Norberto of his sorrows

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998, he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, Locarno FF, Gijón, Oberhausen,Vila do Conde, Indielisboa FF and have been shown in the most relevant film festivals worldwide. Two times nominated for the EFA – Best European Short Film Award. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF, BAFICI, New York Film Festival, Arsenal-Berlin and Oberhausen FF. In 2013, he was invited into the renowned DAAD Artist Residency, Berlin

In the beginning the idea was to make something from nothing, in a neutral and unknown place. Collect images and sounds instead of producing them. The camera, the microphone and the mini-amplifier: tools that take away and then give back. We defined a rule: the sound shouldn?t illustrate the image and the image shouldn?t absorb the sound. Less than a hundred kilometres from Reykjavik we found Strokkur. A scar on the Earth that insists in not healing, gushing from the depths. We came closer. For three days we saw and heard the internal dynamics of the crevice: the boiling water that spat out every seven minutes and the thermal shock, given the eighteen degrees below zero of the atmosphere. The film was already there, the music too. Underneath the blizzard, the soaked amplifier was out of tune and produced strange noises. The camera was almost blown away with the wind gusts. Batteries did not resist the cold and died every fifteen minutes. We ran for shelter carrying the gear on our backs. Reload. Reheat. Start all over again. ?Strokkur? is above all a document. A log of an observation-dialogue, of what was left.

JOÃO SALAVIZA Born in Lisbon in 1984. He studied cinema at Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema in Lisbon and completed his studies at the Universidad del Cine in Buenos Aires. His first short film, ?TWO PEOPLE?, 2005, was selected for several festivals and won the Take One Award in Vila do Conde. In 2009, with ?ARENA?, he won the Palme d?Or for best short film at the Cannes Film Festival and the award for best Portuguese short film at IndieLisboa. He then participated in several renowned international festivals such as Tribeca, Rotterdam, London and Pusan (PIFF). In 2010, he finished ?HOTEL MüLLER? (based on the work of Pina Bausch) and ?CASA NA COMPORTA? for the Portuguese entry in the 12th International exhibition of Architecture ? Venice Biennale. He is currently working in the short ?CERRO NEGRO? for the programme Próximo Futuro from Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. In the summer of 2011, Salaviza will shoot the short ?RAFA? to be followed by the pre production of his first feature film.

"Signs Of Stillness Out Of Meaningless Things" Sandro Aguilar Une comptine : « Quand les braises où les étincelles du feu atteignent la marmite d?eau, cela signifie qu?il vente... » Et toujours ce climat mystérieux qui hante toute l?oeuvre de Sandro Aguilar.

Sandro Aguilar (1974, Portugal) studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His first fiction feature film was Uprise (2008). Aguilar's short films have won awards at festivals such as La Biennale di Venezia, Locarno and Vila do Conde. Mercury (2010) is in competition for the Tiger Awards for Short Films at the IFFR 2011.

Avant et après ce second baiser.

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria. His films have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Gijón, Oberhausen and Vila do Conde, and have been shown in Torino, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. Retrospectives of his work have been programmed at Rotterdam IFF and BAFICI.

All sympathetic magic is based upon two principles: the first called the Law of Similarity says that likes produce likes, or that an effect resembles its cause; the second, called the law of contagion or contact says that all things having been in contact with each other continue to react upon one and another at a distance even after they have been severed or disconnected. A fearful man meets a disquiet woman. Do you believe in magic?

Born in 1974 in Portugal, Sandro Aguilar studied film at the Escola Superior de Teatro e Cinema. In 1998 he founded the production company O Som e a Fúria, which has been since then one of the most prominent Portuguese production structures, recognized by the long list of films, produced within its tutelage, that are selected and awarded at the most prestigious internacional film festivals. The short films directed by Sandro Aguilar have won awards at festivals, such as La Biennale di Venezia, Locarno, Vila do Conde, and have been shown in Rotterdam, Belfort, Montreal, Clermont-Ferrand among others. He has also directed a feature film in 2008, entitled A ZONA.

Vous êtes-vous déjà demandé ce que serait la compagnie d'un ami virtuel ? Quand Elisabeth Vogler perdit sa voix en plein flux alors qu'elle interprétait Electre, elle ignorait qu'elle avait été volée par Alma qui sera son alter-ego dans le tortueux procès de la recouvrance. Elles déménagent toutes les deux dans une maison près de la mer afin qu'Elisabeth puisse retrouver sa voix, retrouver son identité. Une recherche duale de l'identité par deux personnages qui progressivement se fondent en un seul. Le dialogue-monologue agit tel un véhicule fragile pour le temps de la rencontre qui les attend. C'est "Persona" de Ingmar Bergman, un film qui définit le cinéma et marqua Oriol, le protagoniste de "Easyfriend". "Easyfriend" provient d'une recherche de l'identité à travers la conversation. L'utilisateur ne définit pas son identité ni ne décide comment il souhaite apparaître aux autres. Il n'aura pas une face visible. L'auteur dit ne pas être interessé par ce qu'il dit de lui-même. Il se préoccupe plus de son inconscient et de ce qu'il prétend ne pas être. "Easyfriends" est une communauté grandissante constituée de robots. Le projet utilise l'Artificial Emotional Intelligence pour générer des identités virtuelles dynamiques. L'utilisateur, en entrant pour la première fois, projette son désir, ce qu'il attend d'une relation : amitié, amour, sex, etc. Lorsqu'il in-forme l'identité de son ami virtuel dans un processus psycho analytique, il construit un futur, des attentes et une expérience. A partir de là, il pourra se débrouiller dans sa relation ainsi que sa volonté le lui dicte : il peut s'y raccrocher ou abandonner. Son ami virtuel demeurera actif aussi longtemps que cette relation existera et lui procurera de la conversation. L'effort de parole est la condition requise pour que son robot soit maintenu en vie. Quand le créateur cesse de discuter, son robot demeure inactif. En cela, "Easyfriend" devient un scénario de vie artificiel, reconstruisant les paramètres de la vie humaine réinterprétés à travers des entités virtuelles. Simultanément comme un projet à l'intérieur d'un projet, un plan fictif est développé où figurent deux personnages poursuivant le moment auquel ils ont tant aspiré, quand ils fusionnent dans la projection de leur désir. Ce qui fait défaut à leur désir, ce n'est pas une relation conventionnelle mais une situation qui les favorise et réponde à leurs besoins en tant qu'individus incomplets et instables. En ce sens, "Easyfriend" est un projet hybride entre le cinéma et le net art, explorant la narration par internet. A travers une structure vidéo en chapitres, un plan fictif fractionné évolue. Oriol est un artiste qui travaille dans la vidéo et vient en ville pour exposer son travail lors d'un festival. Alors qu'il vient d'arriver, il se retrouve avec Laura, une journaliste d'art. La conversation devient éprouvante. Elle attaque férocement son oeuvre, l'accusant d'avoir une perception distante de l'art pendant qu'il voit en elle l'évocation d'une relation passée dont il n'est pas encore guéri et qui a marqué sa vie. Dès le début de l'interview, tout va très vite. Ils appréhendent la relation avec des intentions différentes et la confrontation qui s'ensuit déclenche un concert d'événements auxquels ils doivent faire face la tête haute. Le récit tout entier est construit en une forme fragmentée. Ils sont des restes de la vie passée des personnages, de leurs relations passées, d'actions dont on ne peut témoigner mais qui peuvent être rappelées. Il y a d'autres moments quand Oriol parle à la caméra, au spectateur dans un acte de confession introspective. Nous pouvons garder un oeil sur le bureau de Laura pour déceler des indices qui puissent nous aider à découvrir ce qu'elle cherche en Oriol. Nous voyons la mise en corrélation, le dire, le silence, le mensonge, la feinte, le fait de dire la vérité, les dissimuler et les révéler. L'utilisateur est un élément actif du projet en ce qu'il ou elle a à chercher, connecter et reconstruire les flux narratifs de l'histoire. Le récit ne se déroule pas en séquences, tout advient plutôt abruptement. L'histoire peut commencer au milieu de façon à pouvoir avancer, et ensuite recommencer à nouveau à un autre point. Les variations sont infinies. L'utilisateur devra constamment avancer et reculer dans une action qui requiert qu'il prenne l'initiative de se rendre la logique des scènes intelligible. Pour cela il disposera de plusieurs outils désignés afin de pouvoir utiliser cette expérience narrative. Il aura un guide à sa disposition pour organiser la séquence des chapitres en une opération qui le transforme en monteur de l'histoire. D'autres instruments existent aussi : un conseiller pour les usagers et les robots, un moyen de communiquer pour que les usagers puissent interagir avec d'autres qui surfent simultanément et pour donner vie à une expérience collective, une messagerie électronique, etc. A un point particulier du récit, les deux façons d'expérimenter "Easyfriend", la population robot et le plan fictif s'entrecroisent inévitablement, jamais plus pour être séparés. La conversation avec l'easybot devient un mécanisme narratif à la disposition de l'utilisateur, où le flot de l'histoire est plus profond. L'easybot peut être interrogé sur les personnages, sur ce à quoi ils pensent et il deviendra alors possible d'atteindre une connaissance de haut niveau de "Easyfriend"

Roberto Aguirrezabala est né en 1971 à Bilbao. Il est diplômé en Audiovisuel et Peinture. Après s'être consacré à la peinture et à la sculpture de 1990 à 1995, il concentre son activité artistique sur le net art et les média audiovisuels. Depuis 1995 il travaille comme directeur artistique pour l'Internet. Il a fondé en 1999, l' Agencia Interactiva Adclick, une agence spécialisée dans la réalisation de projets pour l'Internet et la communication digitale. Actuellement il axe sa recherche sur le développement des systèmes narratifs cinématographiques sur Internet, sur la photographie, la vidéo et le cinéma.

Indian director Ashim Ahluwalia and designer Little Shilpa joined forces for a dark and mysterious film that turns sociocultural conventions of beauty, desire, and sophistication on their head. HUM ?? (We/Us) is a strange beast of a film that lives somewhere between avant-garde performance film, narcotic fashion parade, Bollywood wedding freakout and Toshio Matsumoto’s underground cinema. The film commences amidst a fever dream on a particularly stifling afternoon. A modern-day Cinderella toils endlessly, exposing the tedious labour that maintains the grandeur of the space within which she is trapped. Tragedy and despair follow as this Cinderella is brutally rejected from the hallowed inner halls by its gatekeepers - the latter present themselves as spiritually (and materially) superior. From the nightmare’s shadows, glorious phantoms emerge as if to exact revenge, disrupting the stale splendour at a typical heterosexual wedding party. In the aftermath, contradictory energies coalesce in a riotous, maximalist rave of third-world proportions. Nothing is the same ever again. Despite its gothic beginnings, the campy dystopian fairy tale is fundamentally about the joy, humour, and boundless imagination of the marginalised. The performance and theatricality of high avant-garde fashion are strategically subverted to challenge the notion that the wealthy have a total monopoly over beauty. Glamour here emerges from the gutter in the dead of night. Workers, drag performers and queer outsiders, acid attack and gender-based violence survivors, people who are deemed undesirable or remain invisible before beauty and fashion standards - an entire community shows up to exact vengeance from the stuffy and the conventional. Led by Cinderella, the wedding crashers unabashedly take their space, stirring the party-goers to let loose in an anarchic, hypnotic frenzy.

Ashim Ahluwalia is a director, writer, and producer. His debut, JOHN & JANE, premiered at the Berlin and Toronto Film Festivals. His subsequent film, MISS LOVELY, explored the underbelly of India's sex-horror film industry and was selected as an official entry at the Cannes Film Festival. Ahluwalia's first two films, recognized for their tone and themes, won multiple Indian and International Awards, reshaping the perception of contemporary Indian cinema. This was followed by DADDY, starring Arjun Rampal and Farhan Akhtar, an unconventional biopic on real life Mumbai crime lord Arun Gawli, narrated through varied, fractured viewpoints. His short film EVENTS IN A CLOUD CHAMBER, created in collaboration with modernist painter Akbar Padamsee and shot entirely on Super 8 film, premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The film was screened at Experimenta (BFI London Film Festival), New Directors/ New Films and Punto De Vista, amongst others. Ahluwalia’s distinctive works, straddling the line between pulp and high art, and between disparate formats and scales, have been showcased at venues like the Tate Modern, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Centre Pompidou. His latest series, CLA$$, delves into wealth disparity and social dynamics at an elite New Delhi school. Released in February 2023 on Netflix, it ranked as the No. 1 show in over 22 countries, including India, Brazil, and Mexico. Ahluwalia was named "one of the ten best emerging film directors working today" by Phaidon Press in "Take 100: The Future of Film”, and is the sole Indian filmmaker to have had films premiere in the official selections of Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto, and SXSW festivals.

For the sake of freedom she leaves the door to her memory open. So Omer enters her room every day healing her broken heart through his word and spirit.

My Name is Abdalla Mohamed Gaffar Ahmed, a young and aspiring Sudanese film director who shot and directed my first short feature entitled ?Beyond Memory? ON 11-2012, And second short documentary film about " US Technology Sanctions on Sudan" ON 1-2014 . Born in the United Arab Emirates Since 1990, I moved back to Sudan in 2002, when my family resettled back to my native land. I am currently enrolled in a local undergraduate study program undertaking a media degree in ALMASHREQ Universty of Science and Technology. I consider my recent found interest and work in film making to be the crowning of my collective long running interests in photography and creative writing. Throughout my childhood and early youth, living in diverse spaces, has helped increase and develop my sensitivities towards international cultures all which seem to feature in the pattern of my arts. As a young artist I hope to retain my experimental and dependent artistic nature, being the sole mode of which I can express myself and the dynamic and vibrant context around me. Abdalla Ahmed 00249910112202 a.nirmen@hotmail.com

The Letters of Confinement is an essay film filmed entirely within the confinement of the filmmaker’s house during the quarantine. The first half of the film covers the story of creation according to the the ancient Egyptian genesis. The second half introduces the counter-narrative of creation based on a poem by Ibn Al-Farid, A Sufi master. The film goes on to cover stories like the deluge, the annual inundation, the nature of names, and perversions dictated by the confinement, like voyeurism and eavesdropping. During the documentation process, the surroundings work in accordance to the will of the filmmaker as if the exterior reflects his interior desires. The film follows a collage-like format. Collecting different stories and unrelated footage within the frame of the film. In doing so, an alternative narrative is created where fiction and reality overlap.

Noureldin Ahmed is an independent filmmaker, film curator, translator and visual artist; born, raised and based in Cairo, Egypt. He studied Media Design at the faculty of Applied Arts and Sciences at the German University in Cairo. In his work, Nour questions the notion of self identity within the urban context, namely in Cairo, opening up his self-centered pieces to public viewership and interpretation. Nour has participated in a number of group exhibitions in the past years. His first film, Summertime Dreams, was screened at Ismailia International Film Festival for Shorts and Documentaries in 2019. In 2020 he held his first solo exhibition, A Self-Portrait with a Halo and a Pomegranate. Nour is one of the recipients of a number of grants, including: The Self Organization Grant from Mophradat, 2021, and On the Road Again, Again from Pro Helvetia Cairo, 2022. He is a member of a cinematic collective, A Kiss in the Desert, and a research group, cifrcifrcifr. He worked as a programmer & programme co-ordinator for the short film competition at Cairo International Film Festival, a coordinator of the Arabic publications at Gouna Film Festival, in addition to working as an assistant director, assistant producer, editor and translator. Nour is currently undertaking his master's degree in Film and Screen Studies at the University of Cambridge, UK.

Curriculum is a tiny scale documentary set in Los Angelescentered around the larger theme of knowledge. It loosely follows a character, a tutor for the No Child Left Behind Act implemented by the Los Angeles Unified School District. Running through a few simple ideological questions rather than investigatingcharacters, facts, or events (as one would expect of a documentary), the film was made to open up the matter of education in Los Angeles in relation to socio-economic as well as subjective positions.

Stella Ahn is a Los Angeles native. With a B.A. in Film & Media Studies from the University of California, Irvine, she went on to California Institute of the Arts, where she received her MFA in Film/Video. She likes to make experimental narratives, essay films, and video loops. Her work focuses on unsteadily dismantling the intersections of image, fiction/reality, and politics.

A single channel video piece, looped. The piece is about 13 minutes long, with 1 minute of black over silence at the end. It features two characters, no dialogue, and depending on how one looks at it, either no narrative or a countless number of narratives. The soundscape is equally as important as the visuals. It is immersive, taken from everyday life, containing the bellows of trains to automobile traffic to background music at a shopping mall. Newhall is the district in Southern California in which the piece was conceived and shot.

Stella Ahn is a Los Angeles native. With a B.A. in Film & Media Studies from the University of California, Irvine, she went on to California Institute of the Arts, where she received her MFA in Film/Video. She likes to make experimental narratives, essay films, and video loops. Her work focuses on unsteadily dismantling the intersections of image, fiction/reality, and politics.