2021 ‘Free for All’ Shorts

These short films will screen here from Sept. 27 through Oct. 3. Bookmark this page and come back then to view the films.

Am I Also a Dream?

Director: Keerthigan Sivakumar

I arrived in Switzerland in 2009, as an asylum seeker from Sri Lanka. I was 19 years old. Three years later, on an uneventful afternoon, I suddenly started to feel dizzy and faint. From then on, it never stopped. In order to find out what had caused this violent sensation, I started to look back at the years I had spent in exile and in my home country through my personal visual archive. – Keerthigan

An Aquatic Community 

Director: Rebecca Thomson

A short documentary about the strength of friendship that has formed between a group of Hobart seniors who have all been attending the same water aerobics class for over three decades.

Beyond Borders

Director: Environmental Justice Foundation

Across the planet, lives are changing as climate collapse alters the world around us. “Beyond Borders” profiles the people behind the statistics by providing the space for the stories of global heating witnesses from the Arctic to Bangladesh.

For Western Port 

Director: Terry Melvin

‘For Western Port’ was made in support of the ultimately successful community campaign to prevent the construction of a gas conversion plant by AGL in Western Port Bay. The proposed plant when operational would have released 450 million litres of chlorinated water into the bay each day for 20 years. Western Port is an internationally recognised Ramsar site and this operation would have had devastating consequences for marine and bird life.

International Health Service 

Director: Ursula Macfarlane

International Health Service is a short film that celebrates the migrant workers in the the UK’s National Health Service after this particularly difficult year.

Jet Line: Voicemails from the Flight Path 

Directors: Duane Peterson III and Patrick McCormack

This short film employs an anonymous hotline to elevate the voices beneath Vermont’s F-35 flight path, the first urban residents to live with one of the military’s most controversial weapons systems overhead.

Lemons

Director: Siena Kuan

“Lemons” is a minute and half long short film which explores the idea of perfection, and the pursuit of perfection. Of course perfection is hard to achieve and even if we cross our t’s and dot

Living Forest

Director: Tatiana Lopez

To know how to dream is to understand a language of symbols where representations are based on the interpretative process of self, body, and spirit through corporeal and oneiric experiences. For Sapara people from the Ecuadorian Amazon, their relationship with the other than human beings is associated with the wellbeing of the land by their daily engagement with the spirits of the forest through dreams. Naku Ikinyu is an experimental and participatory ethnographic film essay that engages with Indigenous Sapara women’s local pursuits of ecological wellbeing and their spiritual foundation that concedes human and non-human beings are animated. By combining voiceover, sensory and participatory methods, the researcher attempts to introduce collective and personal sensorial experiences through a collaborative approach that reflects on trans-corporeality and intersectionality while simultaneously presenting her collaborators’ embodied practices.

Lotus

Directors: Angelika Fürstler, Austin Ahlborg

A breathtaking journey about transformation. An invitation to dive deep within. The Lotus flower is regarded in many cultures as a symbol of rebirth, growth and transformation. This film is an expression of that process. Inspired by Angelika´s near death experience we immersed underwater in the sacred Mayan Cenotes to tell her story of growth from pain, anxiety, fear to surrender, coherence, harmony & flow. Just like the lotus seed grows from dark waters to become the most beautiful flower, we too have the ability to grow to our full potential. LOTUS invites the viewer to dive deep within, reconnect with the soul and experience the profound power of life.

Messages from the Animals – Otter Love

Director: Elle Duerr

Interspecies communicator Elke Duerr takes us on a journey to explore the world of sweet water otters. Extraordinary footage and messages from the otters.

Mexed

Director: Lissi Simpson

“If ‘frizzy’ is just a word, why do I hate it so much?” The mixed race ethnic group is the fastest growing, yet least represented. Mėxed tells a collective story of biracial (Black & White) women, using spoken word, natural allegory and dance to comment on micro-aggressions placed upon afro-hair terminologies.

Mni Wiconi: Water is Life

Directors: Miguel A Genz y Jeremias Galante

A short film on the environment and how the fossil fuel industry is affecting climate change. It’s a black and white hand drawn film dedicated to Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Dakota Territory. The main theme is about the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). The intention of the film is to create social awareness regarding contamination of natural resources.

Muted

Directors: Maisha Rahman, Patrick Commins, Alexcia S. Jellum

Sex trafficking in a small town in Wisconsin

Remember Me

Director: Toluwalola Kasali

This documentary tells the story of people who have been forced to flee their homes due to the Boko Haram conflict in North-East Nigeria and highlights some of their experiences living in camps and host communities.

Seals and Sea Lions: Scoundrels or Scapegoats?

Director: Mike Sullivan

Fishermen are blaming seals and sea lions for problems with fisheries and calling for culls or increased harvests. Are they correct? Is this the solution?

The Signal

Director: Recep Köse

In 2010, a humanitarian aid fleet carrying aid to Palestine/Gaza was raided by the Israeli navy. The Signal movie tells the struggle of the reporters who are trying to announce this bloody raid to the world with live broadcast.

The System

Director: Ramazan Demir

The system works non-stop, and when one day it destroys all natural resources, it’s time to turn.

Walking Alone

Director: Nathan Lawrence

Bullying and its effect on the LGBT youth.