After Work
Synopsis
In his wry and insightful new film, Festival alum Erik Gandini (Videocracy, The Swedish Theory of Love) chronicles the past, present, and future of labor. We meet today’s workaholics — a hilarious American motivational speaker; a tragic South Korean office worker — as well as those on the opposite end of the spectrum. These include grossly underemployed young Italians and ordinary Kuwaiti citizens who receive hefty paychecks for sitting in offices doing nothing.
After Work asks big questions: When A.I. and robots take over the global workforce, what is the fate of human industry? Is the promise of universal basic income a blessing or a curse? The film offers few answers, instead using touches of humor, memorable characters, and evocative cinematic images to create an intoxicating and provocative exploration of humanity’s relationship with work, how our jobs define us, and what happens when they’re gone.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Jesper Kurlandsky
- Johan Söderberg
- Fredrik Wenzel
- Johan Söderberg
- Fasad Production AB
Sponsors
Documentary Program Sponsors
Cynthia Stone Raskin
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Alien Island Isla Alien
Synopsis
Chile, 1984. As a wave of UFO sightings — and a military dictatorship — sweep the country, a group of short-wave radio operators receive mysterious communications from a nearby island. Through the crackling voices, they learn that a highly developed extraterrestrial race has taken residence on Friendship Island and is offering the listeners the promise of a better world.
Mixing shimmering, Twilight Zone-esque black-and-white sci-fi reenactments with lucid archival footage, this stranger-than-fiction story of supernatural intrigue follows both the citizens swept up in the mystery and Ernesto de La Fuente, the enigmatic man at its center. Uniquely stylized, utterly fascinating, and sharply witty, Alien Island goes beyond a tale of close encounters to reveal a far more insidious story of lies, accountability, and political oppression.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Diego Breit Lira
- Cristóbal Valenzuela, Juan Eduardo Murillo
- Juan Eduardo Murillo
- Matías Illane
- Ernesto de la Fuente
- Jorge Cabargas
- Diego Breit Lira
- Glaciar Films, Tico Film Company
- https://www.islaalien.com
Sponsors
Documentary Program Sponsors
Cynthia Stone Raskin
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All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Synopsis
A lyrical, decades-spanning exploration across a woman’s life in Mississippi, the feature debut from award-winning poet, photographer, and filmmaker Raven Jackson and producer Barry Jenkins (Moonlight) is a haunting and richly layered portrait, and a beautiful ode to the generations of people and places that shape us.
Sumptuously shot on 35mm film with evocative sound design and elliptical editing, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt unfolds like a dream, skipping around in time and seizing on key moments in its protagonist’s existence from infancy to adulthood. With a sensitive touch, each frame captures the fragile beauty of every passing second. What emerges is a stunningly tactile vision of family, womanhood, and the sights and sounds of the American South.
Screenings & Events
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Film Credits
- Maria Altamirano, Adele Romanski, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak
- Raven Jackson
- Lee Chatametikool
- Jomo Fray
- Charleen McClure, Reginald Helms, Jr., Moses Ingram, Zainab Jah, Sheila Atim, Chris Chalk
- Sasha Gordon, Victor Magro
- Pastel Productions, A24
Sponsors
International Competition Program Sponsor
John and Jacolyn Bucksbaum Family Foundation
Black Perspectives Program Sponsors
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All Happy Families
Synopsis
Chicago native Haroula Rose (Once Upon a River) directs this delightful dysfunctional family comedy about Graham Landry (Josh Radnor), an eternally aspiring actor in Chicago who’s stuck in a funk and living in his family’s crumbling two-flat. When an old college crush (Chandra Russel) comes looking to rent the first floor apartment at the same time as his TV star brother Will’s (Rob Huebel) return home, Graham must finally grow up — if he can get out of his own way.
With a stellar cast of comic talents led by the lovable Radnor (How I Met Your Mother) and the love-to-hate Huebel (Childrens Hospital) and David Pasquesi playing a sleazy family friend, All Happy Families wrings humor and pathos from its flawed, yet sympathetic cast of characters as they try to overcome bad choices, entrenched sexism, and their own human foibles.
Director Spotlight
Director SpotlightWe chatted with director Haroula Rose about her very Chicago film All Happy Families,, how music fits into her filmmaking, and of course, her favorite Chicago movies.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Liz Cardenas, Ian Keiser, Coburn Goss, Mary Munez
- Coburn Goss, Haroula Rose
- Caralyn Moore, Alex Marquez
- Johanna Coelho
- Josh Radnor, Becky Ann Baker, Rob Huebel, Chandra Russell, John Ashton, Colleen Camp, David Pasquesi
- Zac Rae, Oliver Hill
- Ted Reilly, Kelly Waller, Mark Glassgow, Rhianon Jones, Tristan Scott-Behrends, Marshall Cordell, Susan Berghoef, Milan Chakraborty, Jack Williams, Michael Shannon
- Ten to the Six, Chicago Media Angels, Glass Bead Films, Neon Heart, Fair Enough
Sponsors
Comedy Program Sponsor
Accessibility Partner
Live Captioning
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All of Us Strangers
Synopsis
One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with a mysterious neighbor Harry (Paul Mescal), which punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As a relationship develops between them, Adam is preoccupied with memories of the past and finds himself drawn back to the suburban town where he grew up, and the childhood home where his parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), appear to be living — just as they were on the day they died, 30 years before.
Screenings & Events
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Media
Film Credits
- Graham Broadbent, Peter Czernin, Sarah Harvey
- Andrew Haigh
- Jonathan Alberts, ACE
- Jamie D. Ramsay, SASC
- Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Jamie Bell, Claire Foy
- Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
- Diarmuid Mckeown, Ben Knight, Ollie Madden, Daniel Battsek, Farhana Bhula
- Andrew Haigh
Sponsors
Film Supporters
Bill Melamed and Jamey Lundblad
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Housekeeping for Beginners
Goran StolevskiNorth Macedonia, Poland, Croatia, Serbia, Kosovo
Learn more...
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Phone: 312.683.0121 | Fax: 312.683.0122
info@chicagofilmfestival.com
