New Voices of World Cinema

Feb 26, 2016

Curated by Julio Ramírez

With the goal of introducing Seattle audiences to the work of more emerging filmmakers from Europe and other parts of the world, Northwest Film Forum presents a program of award-winning narrative short films, curated by local filmmaker Julio Ramírez. Hailing from Colombia, Ramírez works full time in advertising and the film industry. His first award winning feature film Nothing Against Life will be released later this year after a successful screening journey around the world. The curation of this program was inspired by Ramírez's attendance and participation during the last five years to diverse film forums and festivals in Europe. 

 
FRAGMENTS
(Aga Woszczyńska, Poland, 25 min, 2014)
How often do we hang onto a life that we don't like much? Anna and her partner live a comfortable, monotonous-bourgeois life: they have well-paid jobs, intense sex, and exercise consistently. Through a visually stunning tapestry of loosely connected images, the viewer observes the unexpected ways in which the seemingly perfect world of this married couple begins to collapse. 
 
Fragments premiered at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight (Quinzaine des Realisateurs) section in 2014, and went on to win numerous awards in film festivals around the world. 
 
Writer/Director: Aga Woszczyńska  
Director of Photography: Bartosz Świniarski 
Production: PWSFTviT (Państwowa Wyższa Szkoła Filmowa, Telewizyjna i Teatralna)
Cast: Agnieszka Żulewska, Dobromir Dymecki, Sławomir Orzechowski, Sebastian Stankiewicz 
 
About Aga Woszczyńska 
Aga is a graduate of the Contemporary Anthropology department from the School of Applied Social Science, and from the Film Directing faculty at the Polish National Film, Television and Theatre School in Łódź. She has directed several award winning short films including Luiza Hert and Wake up, which were successfully screened at numerous film festivals around the world, including Cannes. Aga is a Ministry of Culture scholar, and received the 2014 Discovering Eye Award for the most interesting emerging artist in Poland. She's currently in development for her first feature film Fortnight, selected for the European Audiovisual Entrepreneurs 2016 program.
 
 
ALL THE PAIN IN THE WORLD 
(Tommaso Pitta, United Kingdom / Italy, 13 min, 2014)
London. Christmas time. An older man stops in a pet store to let the owners know that one of their fishes is stuck between the glass and a plant. The ill-fated fish is choking and is clearly about to die. But does anybody care? As the man insists on saving the fish, the situation slowly spirals out of control…  
 
Based on the short story 'Tutto il dolore del mondo' by Michele Mari, All The Pain In The World premiered in competition at the Los Angeles Short Film Festival 2014, and has screened in more than fifty film festivals around the world, receiving 15 awards and nominations.
 
Writer/Director/Producer: Tommaso Pitta
Original Story: Michele Mari
Cinematography: Tristan Chenais
Cast: Cornelius Clarke, Peter Faulkner, Peter Faulkner, Matt Mason. 
 
About Tommaso Pitta
After graduating at the Paolo Grassi School of Dramatic Arts in Milan, Tommaso began working as a theatre director in Italy, writing and directing award winning plays in some of the country’s most prestigious venues. Among them, Domenico Scandella, The Inquisition Trials, Interviews With Hideous Men, and De Falco's Wedding. Tommaso is also a graduate of the National Film and Television School in the UK, and an Alumni of the Berlinale Talents Campus 2015. He has directed several short films, including the award winning short film How I Didn't Become A Piano Player. 
 
LEIDI 
(Simón Mesa Soto, United Kingdom / Colombia, 16 min, 2014)
 
Leidi lives with her mom and her baby in the high neighborhoods of Medellin, Colombia, where the Andes Mountains begin. Her boyfriend, Alexis, hasn’t shown up in days. That sunny morning, after bathing her baby, Leidi is sent to buy plantains. Outside, a guy tells her he has seen Alexis with another girl. Leidi won’t return home until she finds the father of her child. Leidi is a Latin-American tale: a portrait of the many mothers with no plans in life but having children, looking out their windows and balconies waiting for the man to come back home. 
 
Leidi premiered in competition at the 67th Cannes Film Festival in 2014, winning the Palme d'Or for Best Short Film. Since its debut in Cannes, Leidi has attended more than 40 film festivals, and continues to screen in several forums around the world, winning a remarkable number of new awards. 
 
Writer/Director: Simón Mesa Soto
Producer: Diana Patiño Martínez
Director of Photography: Juan Sarmiento G.
Cast: Alejandra Montoya Villa, Héctor Alfredo Orrego. Josselin Torres, Karoleth Torres, Valentina Florez, Dulce Acevedo, Gladys Arroyave, Camilo Vidal García, Alejandro Araque. 
 
Simón Mesa Soto
Simón is a screenwriter and film director from Medellin, Colombia. He studied Audiovisual Communication at Universidad de Antioquia, where he also worked as lecturer in film editing before moving to the UK. In 2014 he graduated with a degree in Filmmaking from The London Film School. Leidi was his second short film.
 
 
AQUEL NO ERA YO / 'That Wasn't Me' 
(Esteban Crespo, Spain, 25 min, 2013)
 
What happens after a child soldier has to come to terms with the horrendous crimes he/she was forced to commit out of fear? In this Oscar nominated short film, Spanish director Esteban Crespo retraces the events that marked the life of one of many African children coerced to become killers by militant groups. Nothing short of an expensive Hollywood production, the film aims to shine light not only on those kids still being used as soldiers in war-torn regions, but on the aftermath and how their lives are perpetually scarred. 
 
Aquel No Era Yo won the award for Best Live Action short Film at the Goya Awards 2013, and was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Live Action Short Film category in 2014. It received a UNICEF Award from the Spanish Committee Moviliza, and won 94 additional awards in different film festivals around the world. 
 
Writer/Director: Esteban Crespo
Cinematography:  Ángel Amorós
Producer: Primavera Ruiz
Executive Producer:José Luis Matas-Negret
Cast: Alejandra Lorente, Gustavo Salmerón, Babou Cham, Mariano Nguema, Alito Rodgers Jr., Jose María Chumo,  Alex Ferando, Khalil Diop. 
 
About Esteban Crespo
Esteban is a Spanish screenwriter and film director, member of the Platform for new directors, and co-director of the magazine all-historias.com. He began his career as a filmmaker in the documentary world, producing several works for television, and eventually becoming a consultant and analyst for children’s television content on TVE in Spain. Some of his award winning short films include I Always Wanted to Work In A Factory, To Love, The End, No One’s Fault, and Lala, with the latter being nominated for Best Live Action Short Film at the Goya Awards 2010. Esteban is currently in pre-production for his first feature film Amar, with production scheduled to begin the first week of March 2016.  
 
 
DISCIPLINE 
(Christophe Saber, Switzerland / Egypt, 12 min, 2014)
 
It’s 9:30pm in a grocery store in Lausanne, Switzerland. The place is run by Egyptians. In a moment of anger, a father loses patience and disciplines his disobedient child. A shocked customer immediately intervenes to express her concern. Other customers join the conversation, they each put in their two cents and the staff is swamped. This discussion turns into a debate, which into quarrel that gradually gets out of hand, exposing prejudice, hatred, and modern Europe’s cultural misunderstandings between ethnic groups. Discipline is a genuine and funny portrait of how parental education can lead into an unexpectedly outbursting conflict in a public place.
 
After premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2014, Discipline has been invited to screen in more than 130 film festivals around the world. The film has won a remarkable 70 awards throughout the screening journey, and still counting. 
 
Writer/Director: Christophe M. Saber 
Cinematography: Denis Jutzeler 
Producer: Elena Tatti 
Co-producers: Thierry Spicher, Elodie Brunner 
Cast: Adel Ahdy, Nour Gayed, Garance Rohr, Lola, Frank Semelet, Leo Marroni, Florence Quartenoud, Yves Raeber,­ Swiss­German, Mehdi Djaadi, Algerian Nastassja Tanner, ­Gianfranco Poddighe,­ Camille Figuereo. 
 
About Christophe Saber
Egyptian/Swiss filmmaker Christophe Saber graduated from Cairo American College in 2009. He then completed a short school program of digital filmmaking in the U.S before being admitted in the cinema department of the University of Arts and Design of Lausanne - Switzerland in 2010, where he graduated with honors in 2014. He has written and directed several fiction, documentary, and experimental films. Christophe is currently in development for his first feature film. 

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