Programme Paris
Mardi 25 novembre 2025

In the summer of 2023, the government of Jiujiang launched the Gan Tang Lake Cleansing Project. Within weeks, this ancient lake with over two millennia of history was drained. Nearby in Gan Tang Park, a boy wakes up in the rain. There, the destiny of Gan Tang awaits.

Tianming Zhou (Alaric) works with lens-based media, sound, and installation. He explores the in-between of physical and conceptual landscapes. His works have been showcased at Antimatter, Mimesis, Interfilm, Experiments in Cinema, Non-Syntax, Leiden Shorts, RPM Festival, etc.

In the marshlands of southern Iraq, Ibrahim and his family live isolated from the rest of the world, deeply intertwined with the river, the reeds and the animals they tend. The quiet and withdrawn Ibrahim finds solace only in his buffalo, his one true companion. As Ibrahim’s world collapses, he must confront forces beyond his control that threaten not only his way of life but also the one living creature he truly understands.

Ali Yahya is an Iraqi filmmaker, born in 1994 in Baghdad, where he has lived and worked his entire life. His journey began after studying Psychology at the bachelor’s level. He later moved into visual arts, first as a graphic designer and then as a Creative Director at Becorp, one of Iraq’s leading creative agencies, where he continues to lead visual storytelling and cultural-visual projects. He is currently pursuing a master’s degree in Film. He uses film to explore the human experience, capturing the beauty and complexities of everyday life. Through his work, he brings the stories of his homeland to the world. His debut short film Beneath Which Rivers Flow (2025), shot in the marshlands of southern Iraq, blends poetic observation with lived reality, exploring the fragile relationship between a community and its disappearing landscape. The film premiered at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, where it received a Special Mention from the jury.

Nommé d’après une oasys mythique perdue, Zerzura interroge : Comment perçoit-on la « nature » ? Est-ce une « chose » à laquelle nous, humains, sommes extérieurs ? Ou faisons-nous tous partie d’un maillage où il n’y a ni centre ni périphérie? Est-ce qu’un assemblage de sons et d’images peut nous inviter à voir « la nature » comme du vivant, pourvu de sensibilité et d’agentivité ? Après Résistance (2017) et Osmose (2022), Zerzura clos la trilogie Corpus Animale.

Laurence Favre est artiste, cinéaste et chercheuse. Sa pratique s’articule autour de l’image argentique, du son et de l’écriture. Elle réalise des films expérimentaux, des installations et des performances filmiques, explorant les moyens de provoquer des changements épistémiques à travers la perception sensorielle. Ses films sont présentés à l’internationale dans des festivals de cinéma (Locarno Film Festival, Visions du Réel, Rotterdam IFFR, Ann Arbor Film Festival, entre autres), dans des espaces d’art ainsi que dans des contextes informels et lors de symposiums. Elle est lauréate de nombreuses bourses, prix et résidences d’artiste. Laurence est membre active du laboratoire cinématographique autogéré LaborBerlin, et cofondatrice de SPECTRAL, une plateforme dédiée à la création et à la diffusion des arts cinématographiques élargis.

Kung ang Makagiginhawa ay Matingnan ng Ating mga Mata (Should the Source of Fulfillment Be Seen with Our Eyes) 2024 Exploring the ethno-ecologies of Mt. Banahaw—how the surrounding more-than-human world shapes and are shaped by cultural imaginations. It weaves together Salvatus’s ongoing research on the vernacular histories of Mt. Banahaw and Lucban, convened from family archives, popular history, and mythical motifs. It looks at several trajectories of millenarian renewal that converge in Mt. Banahaw as mystical and ethno-ecological topos: from a revolution that aimed to encourage the native folk to find their own idiom of religious discernment, a history of marching bands and musicians and their place in a postcolonial regional modernity, to Salvatus’s very own practice of assembly and salvaging that situates us in this shared mystical world, animates in us a planetary political spirit.

Mark Salvatus, a Filipino artist hailing from Lucban and residing in Manila, defines his extensive artistic approach as ‘Salvage Projects.’ This concept, echoing his surname, serves as a framework for his diverse investigations into the remnants of urban politics, the layered narratives of national history, and the ceaseless motion of contemporary life. Working across various disciplines—from objects and photography to video, installations, and participatory art—Salvatus crafts direct and indirect engagements that illuminate the multifaceted outcomes of energies, meanings, and experiences.

Prem, the charismatic host of a popular radio show offering advice on matters of the heart, is himself plagued by heartache. He seeks solace in the rugged mountains. As he goes through his own emotional upheaval, desperate calls from listeners asking him for advice echo through the wilderness. Both Prem and his audience try to navigate their way through the treacherous terrain of love. A gripping tale of emotional turmoil and self-discovery.

Saurav Ghimire is a Nepali audiovisual artist whose work explores boundaries in storytelling between fiction and documentary. His projects are edited using a mix of archival and live action footage, personal interviews, and collection of songs & poetry. Ghimire has been awarded the Visiting Artist Fellowship from the Laxmi Mittal South Asia Institute at Harvard University His short film, Songs of Love and Hate (17 mins, 2024), had its world premiere at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival where it was awarded Special Jury Mention. Similarly, his first short film, Barking Dogs (14 mins, 2021), was awarded Best Experimental Film at Tasveer South Asian Film Festival (USA) and Best Student Film at Pame Film Festival (Nepal). In addition to this, he has attended training programmes including the Locarno Basecamp Academy (Switzerland), the Odense Talent Camp (Denmark) and the Fantastic Film School BIFAN (South Korea).

For Filipino migrant workers employed in factories on the outskirts of Seoul, home is both a place they have left behind and a paradoxical space of longing and fear—one that has been swept away by floods yet still haunts their memory. They are constantly being displaced, resettled, and set in motion, their sense of home inseparable from the movement of their own bodies.The sounds of factory machines, fragments of horror films, and mobile phone images intertwine into a narrative that unfolds within the migrant worker’s body itself. I began to imagine a home for those who are always drifting.

Woong Yong Kim studied film directing and contemporary art at the Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD – Genève), Switzerland, and works across video installation and film. He has participated in several artist-in-residence programs, including the Digital Arts Studios in Belfast, CEEAC in Strasbourg, MMCA Goyang Residency, SeMA Nanji Studio, ACC, and as a visiting artist at the Rijksakademie. He completed the doctoral coursework in Film and Media Theory at Chung-Ang University’s Graduate School of Advanced Imaging Science. He also translated and published in Korean, Exhibiting the Moving Image (JRP|Ringier)

Dans la pénombre, la main surgit comme un fragment de présence, suspendue entre apparition et effacement. Elle devient un territoire sensible, effleuré par une intimité silencieuse, et se déploie comme un paysage ouvert, un espace d’accueil pour ce qui passe sans jamais vraiment se laisser saisir. La vidéo devient alors un lieu de ralentissement, où le regard croise une présence partielle mais habitée, traversée par un monde en mouvement.

Yosr Ben Messaoud est une artiste visuelle qui travaille entre la France et la Tunisie. Elle poursuit actuellement ses études à l’École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, après avoir obtenu un diplôme en art contemporain et sciences humaines à l’Université de Vincennes. Son travail se compose de vidéos, de photographies, de dessins et d’installations ou encore d’hybridation entre ces différentes formes d’expression. La variété de formes opératoires transmet une esthétique d’ouverture et de flottaison, où l’on est appelé à être un pont, à accueillir l’altérité pour l’émergence d’une nouvelle forme de communion. Dans son travail, elle interroge les enjeux liés au déplacement des récits et à leurs survivances en partant de l’intime, par la mise en place de dispositifs conçus à la fois comme des systèmes d’accueil, des contenus d’expériences et des circuits de narration, qui se peuplent de ce qui les entourent. Les axes se déplacent incessamment, entre le vécu et les faits d’affects, les images récoltées et celles qui survivent, l’intime et la parole collective, pour réfléchir autour de la condition de l'humain, non pas en tant qu’humanité au centre du monde mais comme faisant partie de son ordre sensible, matériel et social

Watch with the Weary Ones is a short documentary that looks at the American urban landscape while the filmmaker quietly drifts back to memories of Iran. It places the surfaces of U.S. cities next to the feelings of someone living far from home, caught between two places. The film reflects on the sorrow carried by those who left Iran searching for another life, and those who stayed and continue to fight for theirs. It’s about holding two worlds at once, the one in front of you and the one that never leaves you, and trying to make sense of that weight

Sina Khani (aka Sina Ahmadkhani) is a Tehran-born, Los Angeles–based filmmaker, writer, and editor. His feature debut won Best International Experimental Feature at the Portoviejo Film Festival and earned awards, nominations, and selections at Regina IFF, Toronto International Nollywood FF, New York City Indie FF, and many other international festivals. He recently completed his MFA at Virginia Commonwealth University and continues to create bold, character-driven stories.

Opus III explores the landscape of the Atlas Mountains as both a physical territory and a symbolic topos. Filmed between Tunisia and Morocco, the work expands the research initiated in Opus I and II by confronting the visible landscape with its mythological echoes. The piece considers the Atlas not only as a geographical massif but as an archetypal figure shaped by recurring narratives, beliefs and collective memories. Through a slow and contemplative visual language, Opus III becomes a passage between the material presence of the mountains and the intangible layers of meaning that inhabit them. The work invites the viewer to shift perspective and enter a space where landscape, myth and perception intertwine.

Haythem Zakaria is a transdisciplinary artist and sound performer born in 1983 in Tunisia and based in France. Working across video, installation, photography, drawing and sound, he explores how landscapes, myths and forms of memory shape perception, and how the visible can open onto more elusive dimensions of experience. His practice is grounded in field research, slow temporalities and a refined attention to the resonance of places. Since 2010, his work has been presented internationally in major exhibitions, biennials and independent art spaces across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, Asia and North America, including documenta 15, the Venice Biennale, the Japan Media Arts Festival, Cairotronica, Dream City, Kunstraum Kreuzberg/Bethanien, Casa Árabe and numerous institutions in Paris, London, Berlin, Beijing, Rabat, Tokyo and San Francisco. Recipient of the Grand Prize at the Japan Media Arts Festival for Interstices, Zakaria continues to develop research-based projects where image, sound and matter intersect, forming a space of inquiry into archetypes, memory and the thresholds between the visible and the unseen.

THERE'S A HOLE IN THE WORLD WHERE YOU USED TO BE is a short film about memory and mourning. It departs from the premise that both grief and black holes are so dense and intense that they bend space and time around their specific gravity - each absence both a wound in the heart and a hole in the world.

Mariam Ghani is an artist and filmmaker. Her films, public projects, and installations have been presented worldwide, notably in Times Square and LaGuardia Airport; the Tate Modern, Guggenheim, MoMA, Smithsonian, Secession, CCCB, and Metropolitan Museums; Documenta 13 and the Liverpool, Lahore, Yinchuan, and Sharjah Biennials; the Berlinale, Rotterdam, CPH:DOX, SFFILM, DOC NYC, Jih.lava, BlackStar, and Ann Arbor film festivals; theatrically and streaming on Ovid, Criterion and Docuseek.

The melancholy of this useless afternoon. The Melancholy of this Useless Afternoon, chapter 2 (2023, 11:25) explores the shared gestures between the fugitive and the smuggler, and their relationship to being seen. The melancholy of this useless afternoon researches the links between the fugitive and the smuggler, their shared gestures and relationships to being seen. By escape and flight, risking capture or death, the fugitive works to keep themself hidden. The smuggler, however, moves with stealth, using gestures to hide things, often close to their body.

Dina Mimi is a Palestinian visual artist and filmmaker who is based between Palestine and the Netherlands. Mimi works with experimental filmmaking and lecture performances that research the question of how and when bodies become sites of resistance. This question finds its material interest in moving images, especially found footage, that is discarded and therefore deemed invaluable. Understanding editing as a playground, Mimi plays with opacity in moving images by seeking to brush up against footage which desires to be ungraspable or is in the act of vanishing. This is a continuous attempt at non-linear narration as a way of disfiguring one’s

Wanderers is a film centered in the way that matter (and our bodies as a result) are driven by magnetism, pulse or rhythm carried by the earths inertia. A primal movement of mineral origin, pre-life and pre-human. To do so, the film casts a universal perspective on the dynamics of birds, migration of bodies, and humans fascination with flying as a challenge for those laws. The film covers this abstract notion with two different contemporary phenomena, modern falconry flown on commercial airplanes and the passion of RC Replica airliner pilots, depicting the dichotomy between natural evolution, our physical materiality and the detachment from mundane reality and general force and gravity, those.

Carlos Irijalba Pamplona (SP) 1979 Resident at the Rijksacademie Van Beeldende Kunsten (Amsterdam) in 2013/2014, and Graduated at the UDK University with Professor Lothat Baumgarten, Irijalba has been awarded multiple art prizes like in 2023 the NYC Culture Pair Program with the Department of Design and Construction DDC, the Mondriaan Fonds 2022 in Amsterdam, the Sifting Foundation Art Grant 2015 in San Freancisco y Marcelino Botin 2007/08 among others. He exhibited internationally in the Shanghai Biennale 2021, CAB Art Center Brussels, Guangzhou Triennale 2017 or MUMA Melbourne in Australia. To the question “Does the world need this new object?”, most of the times the answer would be “no”. Therefor the work of Irijalba moves by the principle of pertinence, trying to remain context responsive. In projects like Skins (2013), Hiatus (2022) and Pannotia (2016-ongoing) he works with geology and industrial time sensitive materials that give us perspective on the dominant narratives in Western history. His work is present in public collections as Museo Nacional Reina Sofia, The Netherlands National Collection, Sammlung Wemhoener Foundation in Germany, the Taviloglu Art Collection in Istambul and Acciona Foundation in Spain. His presence on private collections internationally is extensive in both North and South America, Europe and Asia like collection Pilar Citoler, Kells Collection, David Breskin Collection among many others.

Lion’s Court is a cinematic short opera in which the Binnenhof—the seat of Dutch Parliament in The Hague—is reimagined as a virtual stage where history dissolves into myth. Inspired by the discovery of 14th-century lion bones at the site and by stranded whales as omens, Lukács & Broersen collaborated with composer and political scientist Bram Kortekaas to reinterpret Goethe’s Faust’s vision of redemption. At its center stands the lion Faust, sung by baritone Michael Wilmering—a despot in pursuit of a freedom that consumes itself, a mirror of imperial ambition on the verge of collapse. The artists also drew on the 1650 writings of Johan de Witt, the republican Grand Pensionary, whose words are voiced by the whale (alto-mezzo Carina Vinke), rising from beneath the flooded foundations of the Binnenhof. De Witt believed that a true republic is not ruled by the whims of a single individual, but rooted in the principles of freedom and equality—the very foundations of democracy. In Lion’s Court, a digital hortus conclusus unfolds: a fluid, enclosed world where power, morality, and prophecy converge, and where the myths of the past reverberate through the politics of the present.

Margit Lukács and Persijn Broersen are an Amsterdam-based artist duo exploring the entanglements between nature, culture, and technology. Their work includes films, digital animations, and spatial installations that investigate how media shapes our perception of the natural world. Graduates of Graphic Design at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, they completed their MFA at the Sandberg Institute and were artists-in-residence at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Broersen & Lukács’ practice is rooted in media theory, art history, and mythology. Drawing from cinematic, scientific, and historical sources, they reimagine landscapes and natural phenomena through digitally layered environments. Their work often reflects on the politics of representation and the appropriation of nature, reconfiguring dominant narratives through fragmented, multi-perspective storytelling. Their installations and films have been widely shown internationally, including at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (NL), Centre Pompidou (FR), FOAM (NL), MUHKA (BE), Centraal Museum (NL), MacKenzie Art Gallery (CA), WRO Biennale (PL), Biennale of Sydney (AU), Rencontres Internationales (HKW Berlin, Louvre/Grand Palais/CWBP, Paris), and Wuzhen Biennale (CN). In 2024, they represented the Netherlands at the Gwangju Biennale. Their film I Wan’na Be Like You was nominated for the Tiger Award/IFFR 2024.

In the houses, after parting, Mothers were made up of tears. Sons were transformed into empty glass cups. And the lullabies became a curse. The film examines the suffering and resilience of the Burmese people by using the distinct political elements that have floated for several years on the ocean of political opera under repetitive military dictatorships in Myanmar. The visual composition draws on the colors of Myanmar’s national flag, adopted in 2010 during the country’s so-called transition period. This flag, rooted in the 2008 Constitution forced upon the country by a former military dictator, contrasts sharply with the earlier 1974 State Flag Law, as it includes a formal definition of the flag. The film deconstructs and questions the existing definition of the flag by playing with the colors, objects, and sequences, by using a form of Government Propaganda Television Footage showing different generations under repetitive military dictatorships, by mixing the chilling voice of the current dictator, Min Aung Hlaing, narrating haunting lullabies through AI technology. The film also revisits the song which was sung from the last footage of actual footage of a birthday party celebration for Myanmar’s former dictator, General Ne Win, held at Sedona Hotel in Yangon on March 21, 2001, one year before his death.

Lin Htet Aung (b. 1998) is a filmmaker from Myanmar. He began with avant-garde poetry before transitioning to filmmaking in 2017. His short films have been selected at several international film festivals, including New York Film Festival, Vancouver, Tirana, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, International Film Festival Rotterdam and won several awards, including the TIGER SHORT AWARD at International Film Festival Rotterdam IFFR. An alumnus of TIFF Directors’ Lab, Berlinale Talents, Locarno Filmmakers Academy, Asian Film Academy, and a Prince Claus Seed Awardee 2023, he is now developing his debut feature, Making A Sea, which received the Asian Cinema Fund and Red Sea Award at Asian Project Market (APM). After the coup in 2021, he joined the CDM (Civil Disobedience Movement) for his Engineering study in Myanmar, and currently studying at Städelschule art School, Germany.