Fri, september 5
20:00 – 21:25
Het Documentaire Paviljoen: De Spiegel
Pavilion Shorts: September
Description
Pavilion Shorts brings curious, thought-provoking and beautiful international short documentaries to the big screen. New and old films explore timeless stories, address topical issues or introduce worlds you had no idea existed. The selection examines different ways we document the world around us through moving, striking or funny films.
Composition
Please Step Aside!
Filmmaker Raha Faridi reflects on her forced migration to Berlin. In an experimental stream of consciousness, social media images of the ‘Woman Life Freedom’ movement in Iran are superimposed on phone videos of her life in Berlin.
Man Number 4
Truly observant people ask questions about what they see. Filmmaker Miranda Pennell did just that when a photograph of a scene in Gaza was posted on social media in late 2023. Answering those questions makes neutrality impossible.
Hotel Astoria
Memories of the renowned Hotel Astoria in Leipzig in the days of the GDR are brought to life in a mix of archive footage and animation. Although the Stasi were always watching, former staff and guests also remember this place with nostalgia.
Letter from Eusapia
The son sends robotic cameras into the sewers of Brussels; the father performs keyhole surgery in Ecuador. Both are investigating disease and decline, which affects them personally when the Covid-19 pandemic makes their separation palpable.
Unwritten Letter
A letter, a poem and a farewell become intertwined in a journey full of memories. A collection of poems by the Peruvian poet Blanca Varela is the starting point for a beautiful cinematic letter about the traces of absence and the restrained emotions in what seems to be an unfinished love story.
The letter was never sent and has now been transformed into images of the sea, withered flowers, the shadow of a hand, the cat, the streets of Lima, a car ride, poems in public spaces. What is transient and what remains?
Precise and effective both stylistically and narratively, Unwritten Letter gives no answer, just like the person to whom the letter is written—the poetry is enough.