
The Spiral [short film]
Synopsis
A chronicle of one woman’s downward spiral as an anxiety attack discloses a complex labyrinth of emotions and fears.
This film screens as part of Shorts 8: Whirlwinds (Experimental)
Radical tools are at play in this daring collection of shorts that take viewers on an experience like no other. Featuring works by Crystal Z Campbell, Jeppe Lange, María Silvia Esteve, Maryam Tafakory, and Maxime Jean-Baptiste.
An archive of pareidolia, a condition in which someone sees a pattern or image of something that does not exist, is narrated by a descendent of exodusters in Revolver (US). Abyss (Denmark) is a chain of 10,000 images found through Google’s reverse image search. A primal chaos takes place as artificial consciousness is formed. The Spiral (Argentina) chronicles a woman’s downward spiral as an anxiety attack discloses a complex labyrinth of emotions and fears. Since 1979, Iranian filmmakers have been prohibited from depicting men and women touching on screen. Since then, directors have relied on cinematic tricks to represent intimate moments and powerful emotions. Nazarbazi (Iran) collages these moments into a powerful poem about love and desire. Moune Ô (Belgium) repurposes footage from a film premiere’s party to reveal the survival of colonial inheritance within the western collective unconscious.
Note: The film Nazarbazi is not available as part of the streaming program.
Available to stream Oct 13 @ 12:00pm CT through Oct 23 @ 11:59pm CT for a 48-hour watch window. Available to stream anywhere in the United States.
In this tense and timely drama, idealistic literature professor Lucio (Juan Minujíin) leaves behind university life to accept a position teaching high school in the working-class community where he grew up. Returning to the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Lucio is intent on making a difference in the lives of his students, but just as he begins to connect with his class, a drug smuggling operation is uncovered inside the school. Learning that the local drug cartel threatens one of Lucio’s promising young pupils, the educator must decide how far he’ll go to protect the boy’s life. Celebrated for the nuance and humanism with which he imbues his work, award-winning Argentine filmmaker Diego Lerman (A Sort of Family, Refugiado) returns to the Festival with this powerful piece of social realism.
Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation
Months after daughter Ger goes missing, Julia remains both devastated and frustrated by a lack of action and answers from apathetic authorities. Taking matters into her own hands, she sets out on a search, receiving help from journalists, lawyers, and activists, the vast underground network of people—mostly women—who risk their lives daily looking for lost loved ones. Based on true events and skillfully making use of documentary footage, this sensitively drawn, harrowing road movie is a journey into the darkness of femicide and forced disappearance. Through the tale of one woman’s despair, grief, and ultimate empowerment, Noise uplifts the many who work through unimaginable pain to stand against an overwhelming threat.
Jacolyn and John Bucksbaum Family Foundation
In this tense, artful drama set during the early years of the Pinochet dictatorship, affluent matriarch Carmen heads to her family’s beach house to oversee its renovation. When she arrives, she’s asked by her priest to care for an injured young man he has taken in; she agrees, only to discover that her new charge is fleeing the military police and her act of charity has unwittingly placed her in perilous circumstances. Taut and restrained like its lead character, this quiet thriller is structured around an impossible, urgent conflict: Will Carmen protect herself and her family or stand up to a brutal regime with a simple and potentially fatal act of resistance?