ETHNOCINECA: «Hauntings» curator Jacqueline Nsiah speaks candidly about cinema’s power to hold contradiction, the emotional labour of curating haunted narratives, and the radical act of asking unanswerable questions.
BIFED: Ahead of its 11th edition, Modern Times Review spoke with Festival Coordinator Ethem Özgüven and Festival Director Petra Holzer on the festival’s origins, mission, and the challenges and opportunities ecological documentary filmmakers face today.
INTERVIEW: Director Johan Grimonprez has for more than 25 years worked with documentaries that addresses power, media and manipulations trough his more essayistic style. His latest film, Soundtrack to a Coup d’État, was screened at Thessaloniki Documentary Film Festival – where he garnered the audience award for best documentary
PREJUDICE: In one Sicilian town, anti-migrant sentiment juxtaposes with its centuries-long worshipping of a statue depicting a black Jesus.
INTERNET: A frightening look into the world of conspiracy theories and the relativity of knowledge on the computer screen
ENVIRONMENT: A masterful confrontation with the deceptions and self-deceptions of central climate deniers – and the sinister consequences of their successful campaigns.
INEQUALITY: An anthology that addresses important topics such as freedom of expression, globalisation, extremism, minorities, and inequality in the world, but many of the authors try to tackle too much.
AFRICA: Sakawa uses beautiful portraiture to tell a story of Ghana’s enterprising young adults who hope to make a living by learning how to scam on the Internet.
IFFR:This year‘s film festival in Rotterdam unveiled several documentaries and shorts, amongst them Above Us Only Sky – a calming exercise in intellectual and sensual stimulation – and Pelourinho: They Don’t Really Care About Us, which proved to be a rough, angry gem of a picture.
The shocking reality of Ghana’s electronic waste dump Sodom reveals the truth about our unending need for the newer and better in Western consumerism.