Ghazi Alqudcy's debut feature 'Temporary Visa' in Borneo and Barcelona - winning best film in the Discovery section →

TEMPORARY VISA, the debut feature film of Ghazi Alqudcy screened recently in the Asian Film Festival Barcelona (Casa Asia), where it won the Best Film in the Discovery Section of the festival.

Here is what the judges had to say about the film:

“Best film for Discovery section awarded to Temporary Visa (Singapore) by Ghazi Alqudcy for approaching us in a very alive, uninhibited and truthful way - with a camera language in hand, direct and innovative - to a tough latent reality among all those young people who survive to find their site in a system that does not count or is designed for them, and we find it very suitable to reward the film in a section that tries to discover new directors and the employment of risky cinematic languages.” – Asian Film Festival Barcelona (Casa Asia)”

The film will also soon screen in SARAWAK - Rumah Filem and Borneo Art Collective (Ghazi will be attending the Q&A on 14th Nov 2019 - 8pm, doors open at 7.30pm)

Kaori Oda's feature doc CENOTE to screen at International Film Festival Rotterdam 2020 →

Kaori’s Oda’s intriguing documentary set in Mexico has been selected to screen in the Bright Future Main Programme.

Synopsis:

In Northern Yucatan, Mexico, natural sinkholes called 'cenotes' constituted the sole water source for Mayans not living near a river or lake. Some cenotes were used for ritual sacrifices, and the Mayans believed that these holy springs connected this world to the afterlife.

The past and present of those living around the cenotes coalesce in this mysterious place. Long-lost memories echo in hallucinatory turquoise underwater footage, an entrancing game of light and dark. Swimming in these sinkholes, director Oda Kaori encounters intriguing shapes and beams of light, the water heaves, drops fall like razor blades.

Oda, who studied under Béla Tarr in Sarajevo, previously made Aragane, which was shot in a Bosnian coal mine. For Cenote, she used Super-8 film and a bubbling water soundscape. A captivating form for her impressions of a place where, as a ghostly voiceover explains, nothing is forgotten.

Link to Film Listing in Rotterdam: https://iffr.com/en/2020/films/cenote

Pilar Palomero's debut feature, 'Las Niñas' begins shooting in Spain →

The filming of 'Las niñas', Pilar Palomero's debut feature film, has begun shooting in Spain. 'Las niñas' takes place in 1992, the year of the Expo in Seville and the Olympics in Barcelona. For this, the selected locations in Zaragoza, such as the Miguel Servet Institute, the Jose Antonio Labordeta Park, the Paseo de Ruiseñores, among others, will have to travel back in time and return to what they were in the year 92. Celia, a girl of 11 years, studies in a nuns school in Zaragoza and lives with her mother. Brisa, a new companion recently arrived from Barcelona, ​​pushes her towards a new stage in her life: adolescence. On this trip, in the Spain of the Expo and the Olympics of the year 92, Celia discovers that life is made of many truths and some lies. With a budget of 1.2 million, the film is being produced by Valérie Delpierre of Inicia Films and and Alex Lafuente de Bteam Productions, and has the support of Radio Televisión Española, Televisión de Catalunya, Televisión de Aragón, Movistar Plus, the ICAA and ICEC and the participation of the EU MEDIA Program