IDFA 2016 - BEAUTIFUL STORIES IN FILM: PART 5

Here is another batch of our favorite films featured at the IDFA 2016. These stories focus on the beauty of place and time.

1. THE ISLAND OF THE COLORBLIND

Color looks different to everyone… and to every animal. It’s something that we take for granted and assume as a fact. Red is red. Green is green. Unless you are one of the small group of people who are color blind.

Pingelap, a tiny atoll in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, was the center of a “perfect storm” that produced an entire population of color blind people.

There were few survivors when a catastrophic typhoon killed almost everyone who lived on Pingelap. One man who lived carried a rare gene that causes color blindness and extreme light sensitivity, a condition called achromatopsia. Because this was a geographically isolated small population, many generations of inbreeding spread the color blindness throughout.

“The Island of the Colorblind,” a film by Sanne De Wilde, immerses into the color-shifted reality of Pingelap natives, with surreal imagery -- with pink trees, gray rainbows, and black & white fire.

2. AMAZONA

A mother is torn between her need to be with her kids and her need to escape them in “Amazona,” a fascinating autobiographical film by Clare Weiskopf.

While it is not a choice most mothers would make, after the tragic death of her eldest daughter, Val, Weiskopf’s mother, elected to run away, disappearing into the Colombian jungle to search for her identity. Weiskopf was 11 years old at the time.

Thirty years later, when Weiskopf becomes pregnant, she sets off to find her mother so she can attempt to make sense of her life and attempt to understand what her own maternal experience might be going forward.

Weiskopf finds Val weaving bracelets in her timber hut in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. As emotional mysteries unfurl, more questions arise.

3. CHAMELEON

“Chameleon,” a multi-media installation by Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel, & Ersin Han Ersin, presents a multi-layered, multi-sensory portrait of Mexico City, as conceived by 12 contemporary artists.

A mixed reality experience, created by this talented group of photographers, programmers, architects, visual artists, sound designers, and fashion designers – in collaboration with the British artist collective Marshmallow Laser Feast offers a diverse range of perspectives and interpretations.

4. THE GIRL DOWN LOCH ÄNZI

A lonely 12-year old girl, surrounded only by farm animals and nature in a remote Swiss landscape, finds adventure and new realities when a boy from the city comes to live and work there. Legend, fantasy, fact, past, present, and future all blur as their story unfolds in Alice Schmid’s film, “The Girl down Loch Änzi.”

5. HOMO SAPIENS

Humans are the main protagonists in Nikolaus Geyrhalter’s new film, “Homo Sapiens,” however we never see or hear them. Their strong presence is only evident in the impacts they’ve delivered, captured in a series of static shots, filmed in Asia, Europe, the US, and South America.

Abandoned human constructs, like train tracks, buildings, shopping centers, swimming pools, and boats, are in various stages of redemption -- with nature reclaiming them all. Grasses sprout through pavements, rust and rot sets in, insects and microbes endlessly ravage. There is an eerie beauty in each frame.

There is no music or commentary -- only ambient sounds of water dripping, rustlings, and buzzing insects. This is what the world will sound like when we are gone. Post-homo-sapien beauty.

6. PLANETA PETRILA

When a mine shuts down, the mining community that depended upon it always suffers. But the Romanian town of Petrila had something to celebrate even as they mourned their recent coalmine closure in “Planeta Petrila,” a film by Andrei Dascalescu.

Ex-miner and artist Ion Barbu turned the mine into a beautiful environmental art installation & protest, referencing the miners’ cultural heritage.

While closed mines are typically demolished, Barbu painted giant murals on every mine building and organized theatrical and musical performances at Petrila mine. He also organized street protests and an underground theater festival. And he brought the people together at a time when they most needed mutual support.

7. SHEPHERDS’ JOURNEY INTO THE THIRD MILLENNIUM

Experience the beautiful life of shepherds in “Shepherds' Journey into the Third Millennium,” a film by Erich Langjahr.

Sheepherding is one of our oldest professions, practiced for thousands of years but there are few left in the world today. Langjahr shares the stories of a few of the last remaining shepherds in Switzerland.

Their lives are glorious, constantly surrounded by the beauty of the Alps. The shepherds lives are challenging yet hugely satisfying, as they with their sheep, dogs, and mules, following the food and weather cycles to the most remote locales.

8. TREMBLING MOUNTAIN

The human spirit quakes then triumphs in “Trembling Mountain,” a new film by Nepalese director Kesang Tseten, shot days after the devastating earthquake that hit Nepal in April 2015.

The film documents how people from the now destroyed village of Langtang immediately begin to rebuild their lives, how they have continued this Herculean effort for the past year, and how much more they will need to do to restore their world.

9. THE EAGLE HUNTRESS

We are thrilled to learn that girl power lives in western Mongolia! The Eagle Huntress, a new film by director, Otto Bell, tells the story of Aisholpan, 13-year-old eagle huntress, who is carrying out the Kazakh tribe’s 2,000 year old tradition of hunting with golden eagles.

Read more about The Eagle Huntress here.

10. PASSAGE - A BOATMOVIE

Travel, by cargo boat, from Amsterdam to the south of France in “Passage - A Boatmovie,” a new film by Jascha de Wilde & Ben Hendriks.

The journey begins on a péniche barge and moves through the locks, along a variety of Dutch ships, passing through gorgeous natural landscapes, industrial cityscapes, and docking at a parade of colorful ports along the way.

The film is presented through an interplay among 3 screens. Time and space on the screens remain constant, as the perspective continuously changes.

Read more about IDFA 2016 film favorites in  IDFA 2016 - Beautiful Stories in Film: Part 1, Beautiful Stories of the Great Animal Orchestra, IDFA 2016 - Beautiful Stories in Film: Part 3 and IDFA 2016 - Beautiful Stories in Film: Part 4.

And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.

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IMAGE CREDITS:

1. Image: Courtesy of Sanne De Wilde. “The Island of the Colorblind.” Film by Sanne De Wilde.
2. Image: Courtesy of Sanne De Wilde. “The Island of the Colorblind.” Film by Sanne De Wilde.
3. Image: Courtesy of Casatarantula. “Amazona.” Film by Clare Weiskopf.
4. Image: Courtesy of Marshmallow Laser Feast. “Chameleon.” Film by Robin McNicholas, Barney Steel, & Ersin Han Ersin.
5. Image: Courtesy of Ciné A.S. GmbH. “The Girl down Loch Änzi.” Film by Alice Schmid.
6. Image: Courtesy of Nikolaus Geyrhalter Filmproduktion GmbH. “Homo Sapiens.” Film by Nikolaus Geyrhalter.
7. Image: Courtesy of Filmlab & HBO Europe. “Planeta Petrila.” Film by Andrei Dascalescu.
8. Image: Courtesy of  Langjahr Film GmbH. “Shepherds' Journey into the Third Millennium.” Film by Erich Langjahr.
9. Image: Courtesy of Shunyata Film. “Trembling Mountain.” Film by Kesang Tseten.
10. Image: by Asher Svidensky. The Eagle Huntress. Film by Otto Bell.
11. Image: Courtesy of Molenwiek Film & Second Skin Film. “Passage - A Boatmovie.” Film by Jascha de Wilde, & Ben Hendriks.
12. Image: Courtesy of Molenwiek Film & Second Skin Film. “Passage - A Boatmovie.” Film by Jascha de Wilde, & Ben Hendriks.
13. Image: Courtesy of  Langjahr Film GmbH. “Shepherds' Journey into the Third Millennium.” Film by Erich Langjahr.
14. Image: by BN App - Download now!
15. Image: Courtesy of Sanne De Wilde. “The Island of the Colorblind.” Film by Sanne De Wilde.