ARTS x SDGS Online Festival

ARTS X SDGS FESTIVAL PROGRAM

We are excited to share our April 2021 festival program with you!

** Please note, these videos are not made pubic and are only accessible through the link you have used In order that we respect the intellectual property rights of the artists in the festival, we ask you not to share the link with others but rather encourage them to register for a pass at artsxsdgsfestival.com.

Thanks for your understanding.

SPOKEN WORD POETRY

TODAY I'M HAPPY

Nomad Zee / USA (TRT: 2:11)

This short narrative looks at the mindset of the happy poet as she maneuver to find her own peace in a world of trauma filled literature and performance.

BEARING WITNESS TRIPTYCH

Jack Cochran, Pamela Falkenberg / USA (TRT: 3:58)

Our short film is based on a found poem by Jack Cochran, extracted from Trump’s remarks about the COVID pandemic, recorded by Bob Woodward and shared with interviewers during pre-release publicity for his book, “Fear: Trump in the White House.” The poem repeats three times, first spoken by Trump, then shown as text, and finally spoken by the poet, who bears witness to the consequences of Trump’s decision to play down the danger, even though he knew very early just how dangerous the virus would be.

DANCE

MEET MANDIRA

Hakim Zziwa / USA (TRT: 4:07)

Mandira Paul is a dance Enthusiast based in Sweden and has travelled around the world dancing.

She continues to dance as a hobby as she takes part in empowering women around the world as a career.

MEN IN CHARGE

Melanie Kloetzel, Linnea Swan / Canada (TRT: 3:58)

Tracking the antics of the performance group kloetzel&co., ‘MEN in charge’ documents the development of the satirical dance theatre work 'It began with watching'. Through a physical and artistic representation of a sector enthralled by alternative facts, ‘MEN in charge’ provokes audiences to reconsider the cunning, and sometimes comical, intersection of art and politics.

MUSIC VIDEOS

LETTER TO A NATION

Taylor Kampia / USA (TRT: 5:38)

Letter to a Nation is a song about coping with grief, acknowledging anger, and refusing to stay silent in the face of tragedy and injustice. Want to add your voice to the fight for justice? Share your own "letter" on social media using the hashtag #LetterToANation, or consider a donation to Music to Life, a non profit on the front lines empowering social justice music makers everywhere. https://www.musictolife.org/

MAPPE OF: THE ISLE OF AILYNN

Edward Platero / Canada (TRT: 44:10)

A full-length Long Play music video to accompany Mappe Of's 2019 opus, "The Isle of Ailynn". Video was created entirely inside of Virtual Reality.

MINI FILMS

IMMOLATION

David Elkins / USA (TRT: 7:35)

IMMOLATION

\ ˌi-mə-ˈlā-shən\ n

1: an offer in sacrifice : killed as a sacrificial victim

2: killed or destroyed especially by fire

Wildfire is the end and beginning of a process that has been happening for millennia. This cinematic journey through time bears witness to this cycle as the land is scorched by flame, then begins the long period of regrowth and recovery.

Filmed over the course of four years throughout numerous fire zones in California, Immolation utilizes several special camera techniques including slow-motion, standard timelapse and long-term timelapse that tells the story of this distinct process of destruction and rebirth.

I Will Be Fine - مؤسسة انتصار - سأكون بخير

Zein El Cheikh / Lebanon (TRT: 13:06)

In search of safety and stability, women affected by war have fled unbearable battles and violence for a promising future. Thousands of refugee women endure the uncertainty of their future and face various psychological and physiological problems due to stress in their life. Intisar Foundation is the first and only foundation in the Middle East standing by women affected by war with providing a psychosocial approach through drama therapy. The real soldiers of peace, women, are disproportionality disadvantaged by their vulnerability due to their tired minds and wounded souls. Today in the Arab World, more women than at any time in history, have experienced traumatic incidents and unimaginable struggles in their daily lives. Our 1 Million Arab Women initiative was set in motion to help strengthen women with power and resilience and gain a new perspective for their fresh journeys.

This documentary is tailored to empower our 1 Million Arab Women and broaden their potential through the use of drama therapy. This fourteen minutes film documents the story of 18 women’s experiencing drama therapy at Shatila Refugee Camp in Beirut, Lebanon.

HAITI IS A NATION OF ARTISTS

Jacquil Constant / USA (TRT: 6:07)

The documentary film showcases Haitian artists creating transformational art after the devastating earthquake of 2010. The film aims to introduce positive images of Haiti and its people.

EXTRACTED: SHIMULALA

Jessie Chisi / Canada (TRT: 44:10)

Konkola Copper Mines – a subsidiary of the UK-based mining giant Vedanta – has been polluting the main water source of surrounding villages in Chingola, Zambia for nearly two decades.

The community of Shimulala is one of the worst affected. Villagers have reported illnesses within the adult population after consuming the toxic water, but for young children it is proving deathly.

THEY TAUGHT YOU WRONG: METANOIA - A TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE

Violeta De Leon Davila / Mexico (TRT: 3:14)

Metanoia calls attention to the alarming rate of femicide in México and uses emotive movement to summon our collective courage to speak out against domestic violence wherever it occurs.

LIBERTY

bobby Morris, Ariadna Franco Martínez / Mexico (TRT: 10:00)

Liberty looks within the safety and space of relationship at how culture can be held creatively or destructively within the body. It allows nature and movement and poetry to draw forth this culture from the body into visible form.

THE RIVER OF THE KUKUMAS

Nika Belianina / Peru (TRT: 7:15)

Being born from the spirit of the River, Kukama people have a special connection to the water. The river shrinks and grows throughout the year, affecting the lives of its citizens. Filmed at its widest state at the end of the rain season, we learn of the challenges Kukama people face today.

UNTAPPED STORYTELLERS

Michael Cutrone / USA (TRT: 2:20)

This is a trailer/short version of documentary series we are creating. To show the life of artists and human resilience. The aim is to change the way art consumers view artists, and the idea that art is luxury, idea of struggling artists. By showing the human story of artists, we intend to educate and collaborate with organizations with company culture development, community engagement etc, to create new ways to collaborate with artists and creative industry workers.

CREATIVE DELIVERY

Odette Laramee / Canada (TRT: 7:58)

The United Nations has designated 2021 - Year of Creative Economy for Sustainable Development. This film focuses the lens on Artists, Cultural Leaders, Creative Leads and Activists.

Creative Delivery was filmed during the Women Deliver 2019 conference. Today the work offers insights for 2021. Presenters cover topics related to gender, health, the environment, and working in collaboration/partnership within creative and cultural contexts. Each brings personal, and collective, experience which has the potential to transform how we approach the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGS).

MOTHER'S CRY

Lisa Russell / USA (TRT: 2:20)

Mother’s Cry is a short, award-winning film by Emmy-winning filmmaker, Lisa Russell, featuring renowned youth poet, Savon Bartley. It is part of Create2030’s efforts to engage artists, storytellers and members of the growing creative economy in meeting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs.) For more information, visit create2030.org.

THE NEW WORLD: VARIATIONS ON STAY-HOME ACTIVITIES

Hong Ning, Zhao Xiaofeng / China (TRT: 1:45)

In 2020, most residents on the planet were forced to live indoors for days and months due to the epidemic, which has influenced our usual work and life to some extent. In this isolation, people tend to create ways of self-entertainment and take limited exercise at home. As a result, a large amount of ordinary people emerged on the Internet and started to show the interesting bits of living indoors in their own way. They straddled the differences in time and space, and built vast webs of data in live form, in which they connected and influenced each other.

COVID-19 ZEITGEIST 20 ovid-19

Eddie Silva / Brazil (TRT: 4:10)

Short film inspired by a Tolstoy short story, made during the pandemic quarantine. From words to GIFs, different eras with something in common. How much time does a man need?

SHORT FILMS

UNTIL WE FIND THEM

Hunter N Johnson / USA (TRT: 29:56)

Mexico has over 80,000 disappeared people. Darwin and Dalia are married independent journalists dedicated to searching for them. Their investigative work helps lift up the voices of thousands of families who will stop at nothing to find their loved ones, and details how the government has repeatedly failed to help them in their search. Through their reporting, the line between journalist and activist is blurred, and deep friendships are formed as Darwin and Daila join these families in the streets of Guadalajara to demand justice.

But as reporters with visible profiles, they aren’t naive to the massive risk they take on to tell these stories; Mexico is in fact one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist. This fear is reflected in the personal decisions they make as life partners.

Yet despite the horrific stories they investigate everyday, Darwin and Dalia ultimately see journalism as an instrument of peace; a way of communicating hope and preserving memory. And while their work may win them distinguished journalism awards, they use it not for personal recognition, but as a potent tool to fight injustice.

MIRROR

Pierre Reynard / France (TRT: 25:0)

"At the end of every street, there’s a mountain" the Stendhal’s phrase is well known and every resident of the large region of Grenoble experiences it on a daily basis... City, mountain - this relationship shapes the region far beyond its landscape. Through scientific observation, tourism and sporting activities, through the very living conditions of these spaces, we go beyond the limits that a first interpretation could give us, meaning partitioned, independent or even opposing spaces.

In addition, the issues raised by the dialogues of these two distinct geographical entities lead us to question the place of the human being in his environment and, therefore, question the primordial role of a social imaginary, witness of our relationship to the world. The observation of this territory not only then takes on a universal dimension but it also allows each person to look into a Mirror, revealing the reflection of our society.

FROM THE GROUND UP

Trent Zulkiewicz, Will Brenninkmeyer / USA (TRT: 14:29)

In the semi-arid village of Malolo in Singida, Tanzania, Adija and her surrounding community rely on one water source, a single hole in the ground no larger than the size of an average puddle. From the Ground Up takes a look into Adija’s daily routine and provides a powerful understanding of the localized impact of the increasingly dire global water crisis.

THE MIND INSIDE

Sally Nellson Barrett, Andy Marinkovich / USA (TRT: 49:53)

A once thriving railroad town, North Platte, has become a microcosm of America’s poverty crisis, with more than half of its families at or below the federal poverty level.

Now a generation of children reels from the effects of inherited trauma, drug addiction, and neglect. However, within this distressed landscape, two school heroes provide refuge for families, intervening to protect the welfare of students and navigating through systems of support to offer hope for the future.

As America’s health and human services crisis worsens from the fallout of COVID-19, the Just Jump Films' original feature documentary “The Mind Inside: No In-Between” examines the in-between: the gap between public schools and the child welfare system.

JUST LIKE WATER

Manos Triantafillakis / Greece (TRT: 12:54)

The movie is about the father of the director, Spyros, his life and experiences. He is the protagonist and narrator. The "Just Like Water" speaks about time and the circle of life.

The questions asked are, what is time and how do we perceive it? Do we really live the moments in our daily lives and do we give them their due value?

So, we follow a magical journey through time, embedded with vivid images of Spyros, grandfather, man, child ... A girl and a woman always there. A patchwork of images, accompanied by original musical composition, sketched in detail: it weaves the puzzle of a whole life nestled in the Island of Crete (Greece).

THE NEED FOR COMMON SENSE THINKING

Alan Chriest / USA (TRT: 23:00)

FEATURE FILMS

THE SKIN YOU'RE IN

Thomas LaVeist / USA (TRT: 01:03:22) )

THE SKIN YOU’RE IN is a multipart series exposing America’s racial health disparities epidemic. In this pilot episode (SOMETHING ABOUT BROWNSVILLE), Tulane University research scientist Dr. Thomas LaVeist returns to his roots in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY to investigate why Brownsville has the lowest life expectancy of any community in New York.

TALES FROM THE LONG MEMORY

Charles Hall / USA (TRT: 54:00)

In the autumn, when the leaves are down, it’s the time that folk singing rabble rouser U. Utah Phillips thinks about hitting the rails. As a young man he crisscrossed the country on freight trains in search of teachers that would help to understand himself and where he came from. During this time he experienced the ultimate freedom of having no home ahead and none behind but he also experienced the works of mercy as he faced the difficulties of his journey. He discovered the dynamic struggle of people to organize themselves and demand a quality of life for themselves and those around them that provides bread yes, but roses too.

Tales From the Long Memory follows the people who look to Utah as their teacher now while they continue the work that inspired him throughout his life. In Detroit the Wobbly Kitchen shows how the simple act of feeding someone can spark a community of solidarity in a city struggling to rebuild its glory. In Madison the sweet sounds of labor songs echo through the capital building every day at noon. In Portland the Sisters of the Road Café serve up dignity and nourishment at a price you can afford. And in a quaint northern California gold rush town, a dedicated group of community members grow an idea into a house of hospitality called Utah’s Place.

VIRTUAL REALITY/IMMERSIVE

SAGA

Jannik Tesch, Max Stührk / Germany (TRT: 6:42)

Official music video for "Saga" from Hamburg based artist Valiete.

FROZEN TEARS

Jannik Tesch / Germany (TRT: 01:16:49)

Frozen Tears is a fiction-documentray-hybrid VR-film that portrays a group therapy session with 6 actors and a real psychotherapist. Except for the character's biographies, everything is improvised.

The film was produced at the request of the psychotherapist, Jörg Albers, who uses his own unique method of exposure therapy.

PHOTOGRAPHY & VISUAL ART

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