Corresponding Cinemas | IDFA Festival

Institute Festival Professionals

Corresponding Cinemas

Corresponding Cinemas

Corresponding Cinemas is a unique program that examines connections and creative influences among the work of various exceptional filmmakers. The day begins with visual artist Sky Hopinka, and then explores the work and relationships between Basma Alsharif, Jumana Manna, Ibrahim Shaddad, and Abderrahmane Sissako. The series, featuring introductions and discussions, includes nine titles from these filmmakers and takes place on Saturday, November 11, at the Vondelpark Pavilion.

Corresponding Cinemas is made possible in part by a grant from the U.S. Embassy the Hague.

B

Bamako

Bamako

Abderrahmane Sissako

A dusty courtyard in Bamako, Mali, is the scene of a court case against the World Bank and the IMF. The witnesses, spectators and passersby are ordinary Africans who experience the consequences of globalization on a daily basis.

Blessed Blessed Oblivion

Blessed Blessed Oblivion

An experimental, kaleidoscopic short portrait of East Jerusalem hypermasculinity. Fragmentary, often nearly abstract shots, follow the protagonist, Ahmad, into places where men socialize: car repair shops, barbers and gyms.

C

A Camel

A Camel

Ibrahim Shaddad

Life is no cakewalk for this Arabian camel. The working animal walks around in circles for hours at a time in a stifling sesame mill. During his rest break he looks up at the birds flying free in the sky, and realizes that life could be different.

Capital

Capital

Basma al-Sharif

Poverty in Egypt continues to rise, but property magnates keep developing luxury residential complexes for the ultra-rich elite. This is just one of multiple themes explored in this satirical experimental short film by Palestinian artist Basma al-Sharif.

D

Deep Sleep

Deep Sleep

Basma al-Sharif

A hypnotic trip in Super 8, taking in the ruins of Athens, Malta and Gaza—where modern civilization also lies in rubble. Filmmaker Basma al-Sharif was not allowed to visit Palestine in person, so she transcends all geographical boundaries in a trance.

F

Farther Than the Eye Can See

Farther Than the Eye Can See

Basma al-Sharif

Flickering images and atonal music contrast with a calmly told story of displacement. A woman’s recollections of the Palestinian exodus from Jerusalem are told in reverse order, scattered through time and space.

H

Hunting Party

Hunting Party

Ibrahim Shaddad

A treatise on racism filmed in a German forest in the style of an American Western. This graduate project by one of the filmmakers from the later Sudanese Film Group follows a white mob hunting for a Black farmworker.

M

małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

małni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

In this ethereal experimental film, two young Chinook people contemplate birth, life, death and rebirth—of the individual and of the culture of the original inhabitants of the American Northwest. A blend of melancholy and resolve.

S

The Story of Milk and Honey

The Story of Milk and Honey

Basma al-Sharif

A failed attempt to write a love story leads to a meandering journey through families without faces, love songs and people on Beirut’s seaside promenade. How do we attribute meaning to facts, history, and images?