2019 LINEUP ANNOUNCED | 2019 年线上宣布

Titles for the 2019 Water Towns Lineup

“Saving the Porpoise (Vaquita)” (2018)

Director: Andrew Wegst

Country: Mexico/China

Run time: 50 minutes

Languages: Mandarin, Spanish (English, Mandarin subtitles)

Join acclaimed Chinese pianist Lang Lang in his quest to uncover the tragic yet hopeful story of the vaquita porpoise. This small marine and fluvial mammal threatened with extinction is the concern of marine conservationists across the world. As part of WildAid’s Celebrity Explores Series, “Saving the Porpoise” shows Lang’s commitment to conservation efforts by uncovering, communicating and acting on behalf of endangered species worldwide. Lang’s journey from Mexico to China shares the economic forces, the cultural ideas surrounding the porpoise, and the conservation efforts to protect and save the few that remain free in the water.

 

“The Glories of the Minya Konga” (2018)

Director: Dong Lei

Country: China

Run time: 22 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Located at the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau, between the Dadu River and Yalong River, in the midsection of the Hengduan Mountains, Mount Gongga – or Minya Konka – is the highest peak in Sichuan province, rising to 7,556 meters above sea level. It is one of the 34 biodiversity spots in the world. This astonishing film takes us into a year cycle of the wonders of nature, from snow peaks, melting glaciers and deciduous forest to the legendary snow leopard and the small creatures that live alongside humans. This film is a harmonious blend of nature storytelling and science-based research.

 

“Ganges: A Journey Through the Senses of Water” (2018)

Director: Robert Restrepo

Country: India/Colombia

Run time: 75 minutes

Language: English (English captions)

There is no better example of the convergent identity of water and civilization than the banks of the Ganges, and the effects of environmental degradation are highly evident in its waters and the surrounding ecology. The film sheds light on this paradox, from Gaumuk to the Bay of Bengal, presenting traditional values and practices and their unequal struggle to meet the growing effects of climate change and ecological degradation. In less than a century, the Ganges may disappear due to the increase in global temperature, and with it one of the oldest civilizations on Earth.

 

“Queen Without Land” (2018)

Director: Asgeir Helgestad

Country: Norway

Run time: 52 minutes

Languages: Norwegian, English (captions)

An epic journey that reveals the struggle of a female polar bear and her cubs as the ice melts under their paws. This is an unpretentious and sensitive film on the encounters between Frost, the polar bear, and a Norwegian wildlife filmmaker in Svalbard. Rising temperatures are responsible for dramatic changes in Frost’s ecosystem as the ice melt. Helgestad captures the dazzling beauty of the Arctic as well as its vast landscapes, unforgettable light and various lifeforms all struggling for survival, from microscopic algae to huge walruses. While avoiding didactic and normative interpretations, the film is an insightful reflection on man’s place on Earth and an homage to life.

 

“A Plastic Ocean”(2017)

Director: Craig Leeson

Country: The Netherlands

Run time: 92 minutes

Languages: English, Dutch (English captions)

An international team of researchers and ocean ambassadors go on a global mission to uncover the shocking truth about what is lurking beneath the surface our seemingly pristine oceans. The results are astounding, as our adventurers capture never-before-seen images of marine life, plastic pollution and its effects on human health.

 

“Born in China” (2017)

Director: Lu Chuan

Country: China

Run time: 79 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Venturing into the wilds of China, the movie captures intimate moments with a giant panda and her cub, a young golden monkey who feels displaced by his baby sister and a snow leopard struggling to raise her two cubs.

 

“Behemoth – A Mediation Between China’s Coal and Iron Industry” (2015)

Director: Zhao Liang

Country: China

Run time: 88 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Starting with a mine explosion in Mongolia and ending in a ghost city west of Beijing, political documentarian Zhao Liang’s extraordinary, visionary film details, in one breathtaking sequence after another, the social and environmental devastation behind an economic miracle that may yet prove illusory. Zhao combines muck-racking journalistic techniques with stunning visuals to capture an unfolding nightmare. Winner of the Green Drop Award; nominated for the Golden Lion, Venice Film Festival; nominated for the Golden Frog in the Feature Documentary Films Competition, Camerimage.

 

“Albatross” (2017)

Director: Chris Jordan

Country: United States

Run time: 97 minutes

Language: English (English captions)

“Albatross” is a powerful visual journey into the heart of a gut-wrenching environmental tragedy. On one of the remotest islands on Earth, tens of thousands of albatross chicks lie dead, their bodies filled with plastic. Returning to the island over several years, Jordan and his crew witnessed the life cycles of these magnificent creatures as a multilayered metaphor for our times. Stepping outside the stylistic templates of traditional environmental or documentary films, “Albatross” takes viewers on a lyrical guided tour into the depths of their spirits, delivering a profound message of reverence and renewal that is already reaching an audience of millions of people around the world.

 

“Koka, the Butcher” (2018)

Director: Bence Mate

Country: Egypt

Run time: 37 minutes

Language: Arabic (English subtitles)

Koka lives in Garbage City in Cairo, where his family has been processing garbage for centuries. Koka is one of the most respected figures in Cairo’s pigeon racing world. Known as “The Butcher” (all breeders adopt a colorful nom de guerre), he spends most of his time caring for and training hundreds of pigeons in his self-built wooden tower – one of hundreds that dot the skyline his neighborhood, which is home to the Coptic Christian community. Cairo’s legendary pigeon races are captured on film for the first time in this award-winning documentary, introducing viewers to a wondrous world where pigeons are trained to compete against rival neighborhoods in “sky battles” for prizes, cash and bragging rights. Winner of best short documentary, Big Sky Documentary Film Festival; winner of best documentary, Boston Short Film Festival; official selection, AFI Docs.

 

“Wasteland” (2010)

Directors: Lucy Walker, Joao Jardim

Country: Brazil

Run time: 138 minutes

Languages: Portuguese, English (English subtitles)

Filmed over nearly three years, the film follows renowned artist Vik Muniz as he journeys from Brooklyn to his native Brazil and the world’s largest garbage dump, Jardim Gramacho outside Rio de Janeiro, to collaborate with a lively group of catadores of recyclable materials, leading them to the most prestigious auction house in London via the transformation of refuse into contemporary art. The film, a classic in environmental and poetic filmmaking, premiered at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival and went on to be nominated for the Academy Award for best documentary. It has won over 50 other film awards. 

 

“Beijing Besieged By Waste” (2010)

Director: Wang Jiuliang

Country: China

Run time: 72 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

While China’s rise and the challenges it faces command global attention, less light has been shed on the colossal problem of waste generated by a growing population, expanding industry and rapacious urban growth. Photographer Wang Jiuliang turns his lens on the grim spectacle of the garbage, excrement, refuse and wreckage heaped on the landscapes around China’s capital, Beijing. Eking out a hazardous living within are the scavengers, mostly rural migrants, who struggle to maintain familial and cultural structures amid the bleakest of occupations. Wang shows the desecration of once-vital farmlands and rivers in the shadow of China’s gleaming cities, the unholy cycle of consumption and waste, and poignant images of the daily lives of scavengers who toil at their own peril.

 

“Plastic China” (2016)

Director: Wang Jiuliang

Country:  China

Run time:  82 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

At a recycling center in a small, southern Chinese city, two families survive between seas of plastic bottles and wrappers shipped from the U.S. and other countries. Processing this waste has become their burden, yet their children dream of a better life. Eleven-year-old Yijie’s parents work long hours sorting through the remnants, leaving her to watch her younger siblings. When the owner of the center, Kun, decides it’s time for his son to go to school, he encourages Yijie’s parents to follow suit. Tensions rise, with the families at odds about how to balance their work lives and care for their children. Director Wang Jiuliang portrays the conflict through close and careful camerawork, saying much without words. “Plastic China” documents with sensitivity the stark realities of both this astounding setting and those charged with managing the fallout of modern excess.

 

“Bag It: Is Your Life Too Plastic” (2010)

Director: Suzan Beraza

Country: United States

Run time: 79 minutes

Language: English (English captions)

Try going a day without plastic. Plastic is everywhere and infiltrates our lives in unimaginable and frightening ways. In this touching and often funny film, we follow “everyman” Jeb Berrier, who is admittedly not a tree hugger, as he embarks on a global tour to unravel the complexities of our plastic world. The film presents a factual, provocative and emotional story about the negative effects of plastic, in hopes that viewers recognize their consumption habits and are compelled to make changes in their own lives. When Berrier finds out his partner, Anne, is expecting a child, his plastic odyssey becomes a truly personal one. How can they protect their baby from plastic’s pervasive health effects? “Bag It” makes it clear that it is time for a paradigm shift. At the film’s conclusion, the couple welcome their baby into the world, one they hope we can leave with a little less plastic for the next generation.

 

“Oceans: The Mystery of the Missing Plastic” (2016)

Director: Vincent Perazio

Country: France

Run time: 54 minutes

Languages: French, English (English subtitles)

Ninety-nine percent of the plastic that should be floating in the oceans is missing. Even accounting for the plastic that washes up on beaches or is trapped in arctic ice, millions of tons has simply disappeared. As most plastic never deteriorates, it simply breaks down into smaller and smaller particles that are invisible to the human eye. In this investigation, scientists search for micro-plastics. Small, mostly invisible and toxic, they are home to a new ecosystem: the plastisphere. But where are they? Ingested by organisms? Buried under the ocean floor? Degraded by bacteria? And what is the impact of them entering the food chain?

  

“Grazing the Amazon” (2018)

Director: Marco Isensee e Sa

Country: Brazil

Run time: 50 minutes

Languages: Portuguese, English (English subtitles)

There are 85 million cows in the Brazilian Amazon, which means three cows for each human dweller grazing today in an area that was once forest. In the 1970s, the rainforest was intact. Since then, a portion the size of France has disappeared, with 66 percent transformed into pastures. Much of this change is a consequence of government incentives that attracted thousands of farmers from southern lands. Cattle ranching became an economic and cultural banner of the Amazon, forging powerful politicians to defend it. In 2009, there was a game-changer: The Public Prosecutor’s Office sued large slaughterhouses, forcing them to supervise cattle farms.

 

The Story of China Plastic Recycling Production” (2019) – WITHDRAW

Director: Wang Wei

Country: China

Run time: 50 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

This documentary shows the development in China’s waste plastics recycling industry and the effect of state guidance of national policies. It features entrepreneurs involved in plastics recycling, experts and policymakers, looking at the vision of technology innovation, and the transition of Chinese plastics into integrated and scaled businesses.

 

 

“Anote’s Ark” (2018)

Director: Matthieu Rytz

Country: Canada

Run time: 77 minutes

Language: English (English captions)

What if your country was swallowed by the sea? The Pacific Island nation of Kiribati (population 100,000) is one of the most remote places on Earth, seemingly far-removed from the pressures of modern life. Yet it is one of the first countries that must confront the main existential dilemma of our time: Imminent annihilation from rising sea levels. While Kiribati’s president, Anote Tong, races to find a way to protect his nation’s people and maintain their dignity, many in Kiribati are already seeking safe harbor overseas. Set against the backdrop of international climate and human rights negotiations, Tong’s struggle to save his nation is intertwined with the extraordinary fate of Tiemeri, a young mother of six, who fights to migrate her family to New Zealand. At stake is the survival of her family, the Kiribati people and a 4,000-year-old culture.

 

 

“Manufactured Landscapes” (2007)

Director: Jennifer Baichwal

Country: China/Canada

Run time: 90 minutes

Language: English, Mandarin (English captions)

A powerful documentary that follows renowned artist Edward Burtynsky as he travels through China photographing the effects of its massive industrial revolution. Internationally acclaimed for his large-scale photographs of “manufactured landscapes” – quarries, recycling yards, factories, mines and dams – Burtynsky creates stunningly beautiful art from civilization’s materials and debris. With breathtaking sequences, the filmmakers also extend the narratives of Burtynsky’s photographs, allowing us to meditate on our impact on the planet and witness both the epicenters of industrial endeavor and the dumping grounds of its waste.

 

“Forest Law” (2014-18)

Director: Ursula Biemann

Country: Switzerland/Ecuador

Run time: 32 minutes

Languages: Spanish, Quichua (English subtitles)

The project draws from research carried out by the pair in the oil-and-mining frontier in the Ecuadorian Amazon— one of the most biodiverse and mineral-rich regions on Earth, currently under pressure from the dramatic expansion of large-scale extraction activities. At the heart of “Forest Law” is a series of landmark legal cases that bring the forest to court and plead for the rights of nature. One particularly paradigmatic trial was won by the indigenous people of Sarayuku based on their cosmology of the living forest.

 

                                                                                                                                                            

“Warriors of Qiugang” (2011)

Director: Ruby Yang

Country: China

Run time: 39 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Like many villages in China’s industrial heartland, Qiugang — a hamlet of nearly 1,900 people in Anhui province — has long suffered from runaway pollution from nearby factories. In Qiugang’s case, three major enterprises with little or no pollution controls churned out chemicals, pesticides and dyes, turning the river black, killing fish and wildlife, and filling the air with foul fumes that burned residents’ eyes and throats and sickened children. The pollution became so egregious that in 2007, residents — working with a fledgling environmental group, Green Anhui — began to do something about it. Their efforts attracted the attention of Chinese-American filmmaker Ruby Yang, who with cinematographer Guan Xin and longtime collaborator Thomas Lennon, spent three years chronicling the struggle of Qiugang’s increasingly emboldened population to curb the pollution that was poisoning them in their homes, schools and fields. Nominated for best documentary (short subject), 2011 Academy Award.

 

“Self Portrait: Sphinx in 47 KM” (2017)  <special presentation Memory project>

Director: Zhang Mengqi

Country: China

Run time: 93 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

This is the seventh film in my “47 KM” film series. In the opening shot, we see a wall on which is written a political slogan. Because of rain and a courtyard door, this slogan has become a fill-in-the-blank question: “Only ____ism Can Save China.” The resident of the house fills in the blank while she tells us the story of her deceased son. Meanwhile, in the same village, the 14-year-old girl Fang Hong paints her dreams on the wall of her house. The slogan wall and the dream wall become the landscape of this village. Are they posing a question? Or are they offering an answer? It is like the great riddle of the Sphinx.

“Dumb Men” (2018)  <special presentation Memory project>

Director: Hu Tao

Country: China

Run time: 86 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

People in my hometown call those who are shy and untalkative “touxiuzi”. Within my family, the touxiuzi gene is embodied in the members of there generations.as a touxiuzi in our family,I try to uncover an open up the real heart beating under our our touxiuzi exterior, yet in the end I only open up myself. The touxiuzi in the family continue to circle in the air above the village and grow in the village’s soil.

“Investigating My Father” (2016) )  <special presentation Memory project>

Director: Wu Wenguang

Run time: 80 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Filmmaker’s words: This film made by a son to investing his father’s history that how to changed from a man of the “old society” to a man of the “new society” after 1949. This “son” is myself. So the film is about a story between me and my father as well.

 

Short Films

“Pangolin” (2017)

Directors: Katy Shuler, Nick Rogacki

Country: United States

Run time: 15 minutes

Language: Mandarin and English versions

“Pangolin” offers an intimate glimpse into the journey of a single pangolin, from the moment it is taken from the wild to its final destination in China. Filmed on location across three countries with the help of reformed poachers and wildlife enforcement officers, the film represents the estimated 100,000 pangolins that are poached and smuggled annually throughout Southeast Asia and Africa. “Pangolin” seeks to inform a broad audience about pangolins and the illegal trade they are central to, to address the real danger that pangolins might go extinct before much of the world ever knew it existed. Filmed with minimal commentary to be as immersive as possible, the film offers audiences the opportunity to experience the life, death and afterlife of the most illegally trafficked mammal on the planet.

“The Long Goodbye” (2018)

Director: Zheng Xingyao

Country: China

Run time: 10 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

Shangqiu, an ancient town in China’s Central Plains, was built over 500 years ago but has undergone a radical reconstruction since 2014 as the local government have attempted to rebuild it as a tourist attraction. As a result, a strange landscape has emerged, with new buildings constructed in ancient styles nearby old ones stood in ruins. Filmmaker Zheng Xingyao began visiting Shangqiu early in the project to search for living traces in the relics, trying to reveal the vicissitude of people’s life in this perpetually transitional phase.

 

“Isle of Flowers” (Ilha Das Flores) (1989)

Director: Jorge Furtado

Country: Brazil

Run time: 13 minutes

Language: Portuguese (English subtitles)

The film follows the life of a tomato, starting from its cultivation and growth. Viewers follow the tomato to the supermarket, to the kitchen of a middle-class family, to the garbage, to a pig farm, and eventually to a dump on Brazil’s so-called Isle of Flowers. The island is inhabited by impoverished families who have nothing to eat but garbage. The film offers profound social commentary on food, capitalism and social inequality.

“A Message to the Sea” (2012)

Director: Basir Mahmood

Country: Pakistan

Run time: 6 minutes

Language: N/A

After spending time in a fishing settlement and realizing how dependent residents were on the sea, filmmaker Basir Mahmood decided he wanted to send a message to those treasured depths. Using visual metaphor, the silent film poses questions about belonging and explores the connection between Man and his surroundings, between life and that which sustains it.

“Deep Weather” (2013)

Director: Ursula Biemann

Country: Switzerland

Run time: 9 minutes

Language: Multiple (English subtitles)

Oil and water are the undercurrents of all narrations as they activate profound change in the planetary ecology. This film, part of the “Carbon Geologies” series, draws a connection between the relentless reach for fossil resources that will continue its toxic impact on the climate, and the consequences this has for broad indigenous populations in remote parts of the world. Melting Himalayan ice fields, rising sea levels and extreme weather events increasingly define the amphibian lifestyle imposed on the Bangladeshi population. “Deep Weather” documents the gigantic effort to build protective mud embankments. These are the measures taken by populations who progressively have to live on water when large parts of Bangla will be submerged and water is declared the territory of citizenship.

  

“Decommissioned” (2018)

Directors: Huijing Huang, Kameron Eric Shroeder, Xiaoling Xie

Country: China

Run time: 11 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

China is decommissioning many coal-fired electric power plants to meet sustainable targets and become a global leader on environmental issues. In Kunshan and nearby Suzhou are two recently decommissioned plants. This allegoric and visual portrait is built on the back story of transition to cleaner electricity sources and what could happen in these post-industrial spaces.

“Yangtze Drift” (2015)

Director: John Rash

Country: China

Run time: 27 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

This graceful, looping path along the Yangtze River, Asia’s longest river, allows reality to give way to kinetic abstractions. In black and white, this quiet and meditative river tour often confounds preconceptions while at the same time disputes the authenticity of the journey on which we have embarked. We experience life by the river through dancing, washing and reflections, allowing us to consider the important role of water and the human condition.

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“Green Models: Building DKU Environmentally” (2018)

Director: Cui (Janet) Liu, Julie Mao, Kelley Reardon

Country: China

Run time: 10 minutes

Language: English, Mandarin (English captions)

This film explains the significant commitments Duke Kunshan University has made to green design and construction, including a commitment that all current and new construction will achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification standards. It has also started to think about integration into local ecosystems. The campus is located in suburban Kunshan, where rapidly expanded urbanization can be both an opportunity and a threat to conservation. The campus supports a relatively high biodiversity, and the upcoming campus expansion project and the future Duke Garden provides Duke Kunshan with a unique opportunity to further advance its leadership in biodiversity conservation.

“Tadpole Tale: A Fantasy” (2017)

Director: Laurids Andersen Sonne

Country: United States

Run time: 14 minutes

Language: English

“Tadpole Tale: A Fantasy” is an exploration into the tonality of nature and the different modes of recording and representing this nature, specifically southern chorus frogs. The film questions perceptions of construction of authenticity and reality through an appropriation of nature, and a re-representation of this nature though visual and sonic feedback loops. The work of Danish interdisciplinary artist Laurids Andersen Sonne spans film, video, installation, sculpture, performance and social engagement.

“Urban Waste Dealing” (2019)

Production: Beijing Five-Star Legend Cultural Media

Country: China

Run time: 16 minutes

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

This independent documentary film with a unique perspective on the treatment of municipal solid waste. It reflects on the relationship between rapid urban development and environmental protection, and discusses the future garbage ecology and treatment models.


Nominees for the Jinxi Ancient Water Town Prize

Best student short film

 

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 10:00 AM (AUDITORIUM) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Bird Window Collisions at Duke Kunshan University” (2018)

Director: Julie Mao

Run time: 4 minutes 44

Language: English

The DKU Campus is located in a wetland ecosystem; it has integrated many environmental initiatives. However, many birds are colliding with the architectural features of campus. How to help migrant birds to avoid collisions with DKU windows?

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 5:00 pM (BALLROOM A) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Human Wildlife Conflict: India and China” (2018)

Director: Kelley Reardon

Run time: 5 minutes 23

Language: English

Two nations, two species; Tigers and Pandas. By establishing conservation programs on these two species an umbrella effect happens. Other species and whole ecosystems can be recovered. By working with communities in India and China this initiative can have important effects on conservation programs.

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 10:00 AM (AUDITORIUM) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Water” (2018)

Director: Xiaolin Xie

Run time: 4 minutes 31

Language: English

Jiujiang, the filmmaker’s hometown in Guangdong, has a main river. It contributes to the life and culture there. However, water pollution is also the most severe problem there. The river became dark and smelly, forcing people to move away from it. Fortunately, the government is taking actions on controlling water pollution. The filmmaker believes that the main river would turn back to clean and odorless in the near future.

FRIDAY. APRIL 12. 12:00 AM (AUDITORIUM) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Sharks: Feared and Food” (2018)

Director: Kameron Schroeder

Run time: 4 minutes 50

Language: English

This film follows my personal passion for sharks and the issues that are endangering their populations today. The film explores the surprising reasons for the recent decline in shark populations. Additionally, signs of hope due to recent changes in legislation and activism from people are discussed.

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 10:00 AM (BALLROOM A) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Light” (2018)

Director: Hanwei Xu

Run time: 1 minutes 46

Language: English

Light is a short clip trying to reveal the solid waste disposal problem of the modern entertainment industry. The fans like to use one-time glow sticks to show their love, but it can be a wasteful behavior.

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 3:00 AM (AUDITORIUM) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Balloon Man Carbon Footprint” (2018)

Directors: Catherine Brenner, Uros Osmokrovic, Xuchen Gong, Xinyue Lu, Weili Wu

Run time: 7 minutes 47

Language: English

Balloon man is a shot film that explores how daily human activity impacts the global carbon cycle. The balloons provide a visual way to quantify an otherwise invisible consequence of human dependence on fossil fuels. The film hopes to bring awareness to the human-caused imbalances in the carbon cycle and motivate action toward a sustainable future.

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 5:00 pM (AUDITORIUM) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Confession of Anthropocene-aholic” (2018)

Director: Du Yinan

Country:

Run time: 4 minutes

Language: N/A

Stop motion animation on my reflections about what is human, nature, and the ethics of the environment.

ThursDAY. APRIL 11. 5:00 pM (AUDITORIUM) & saturday. April 13. 1:00 pm (Ballroom B) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Bery’s One Week” (2018)

Director: Beryl Wang

Run time: 3 minutes 58

Language: English

We can’t avoid using plastic products, but at least we can use less. I collected all the plastic products I consumed in one week. I was shocked by the large amount so I made some short interviews to see other’s opinion. The answers are almost same. Plastics consumption is the thing we have to reflect on.

 

Best Independent Short Film

 

ThursDAY. APRIL 11. 5:00 pM (AUDITORIUM) – saturday. April 13. 1:00 pm (Ballroom B)& sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Junk” (2015)

Director: Walter Tournier

Country: Uruguay

Run time: 5 minutes

Language: N/A

A short animated film made with scrap metal, that traces memories of life in a world in transformation. (Out of competition)

friDAY. APRIL 12. 7:00 pM (water pond) – saturday. April 13. 12:00 pm (auditorium) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Monsoon (III)” (2016)

Director: Mike Olbinski

Country: United States

Run time: 7 minutes 40

Language: N/A

74 days on the road close to 200,000 frames on the making of this environmental film. But to a storm chaser, none of this really means anything. Sure there were days when nothing was remotely possible to chase, but most of the time the monsoon can be found in the far corners of Arizona. Strong downbursts of rain, building clouds, lightning…and yes, dust storms. Haboobs. Dust storms. Rolling walls of dirt and sand engulfing the deserts and even cities. Coming off the heels of filming Vortices in the spring, with monster super-cells and tornadoes, the monsoon is a totally different beast and you’d think it would be less exciting. I don’t know…

saturday. April 13. 12:00 pm (Ballroom B) – saturday. April 13. 5:00 pm (Ballroom A)& sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Konagxeka: The story of the Maxakali’s Flood” (2016)

Director: Isael Maxakali e Charles Bicalho

Country: Brazil

Run time: 12 minutes 50

Language: Maxakali (English subtitles)

Konãgxeka in the maxakali indigenous language means “big water”. It’s the maxakali version of the great flood. As a punishment because of selfishness and greed of men, the yãmîy spirits send the “big water”. It is an indigenous film. One of the directors is representative of the Maxakali indigenous people in the state of Minas Gerais, southeast Brazil. The movie is in Maxakali language, with subtitles. The illustrations for the film were made by indigenous Maxakali during workshops held at Aldeia Verde (Maxakali Green Village).

Saturday. April 13. 1:00 pm (ballroom a) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Kuwoi Wujan” (2018)

Director: Jose Luis Cote

Country: Colombia

Run time: 4 minutes 55

Language: Jiw (English subtitles)

This film portrays the myth of creation of the Jiw people. The Jiw is a nomadic Amazonian community of Southern Colombia. The story tells the close relationship the Jiw have with nature, the forces of good and bad are in constant struggle. It is located also in context with Western presence in their territories.

friday. April 12. 10:00 am (ballroom b) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Nukak: Still Waiting” (2018)

Director: Jose Luis Cote

Country: Colombia

Run time: 8 minutes 15

Language: Nukak Maku (English subtitles)

The Nukak Maku are one of the last peoples contacted in the Amazon, it was in 1988 that first contact happened. During the last three decades much of their knowledge has been lost. This film is the result of collective memory exercises that intend to reconnect the Nukak with their ancestral knowledge. The message is for the new generations that are missing the value of being one with the land. All was produced in the jungle, all material and cultural production developed of their relationship with the land.

saturday. April 13. 7:00 pm (auditorium) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“A Dream of Myanmar” (2018)

Director: Marta Trela

Country: Germany

Run time: 3 minutes 57

Language: N/A

A country that has been sleeping for a long time wakes up. With cameras in hand we try to capture the stunning nature and unique culture of this beautiful country before it changes irreversibly. On one hand exploring Myanmar feels like stumbling into a living edition of the National Geographic: elephants leading processions of novice monks through dusty towns, a fruit seller carrying a basket of mangoes on her head: a fulfilment of the oriental fantasies of the West. On the other- a country embracing its newly won identity rushing headlong into the future to catch up with the rest of the world

saturday. April 13. 12:00 pm (ballroom a), 5:00pm (ballroom a) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Primitives” (Nativos) (2017)

Director: Mauricio Andrada-Bilche with Edwin Manuel Noh Cen

Country: Mexico

Run time: 7 minutes 43

Language: Maya (English subtitles)

This short film shares, with a peculiar creative lens, the perspective of a young Maya man about the Western society that surround his people. He critiques the situation with an alternate narrative – as if the Maya people were the dominant culture, and Westerners the oppressed minority.

friday. April 12. 3:00 am (auditorium) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“The Millers” (2018)

Director: Erin Espelie

Country: United States

Run time: 15 minutes 30

Language: N/A

The future of the Earth may depend upon these creatures, Tenebrio molitor, the only species known to digest polystyrene.

thursday. April 11. 5:00 pm (ballroom b) – saturday. April 13. 1:00 pm (ballroom b) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Homeland: Stories from Sanjiangyuan” (2018)

Director: Liu Zhuang

Country: China

Run time: 7 minutes 07

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

On April 10, 2018, the Nyanpo Yuzee National Park was permanently closed due to environmental degradation. In the face of climate change and environmental degradation, the herdsmen of the four groups of Longge Village began to protect their land, spontaneously. See it through their own eyes and photo lenses.

FRIDAY. April 12. 5:00 pm (AUDITORIUM) – saturday. April 13. 3:00 pm (ballroom A) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Wandering Plastic Bottles” / “Let Plastic Bottles No Longer Wander” (2018)

Director: Haiyan Su

Country: China

Run time: 5 minutes / 6 minutes 27

Language: Mandarin (English subtitles)

This is a short video series (upper & lower) about where to go around the plastic bottles. Through tracking 12 bottles and doing experiments, such as street voting and expert interpretation interviews, the film illuminates the ways everyone’s classification of waste, plastic recycling and recycling economy can improve.

FRIDAY. April 12. 7:00 pm (WATER POND)- SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 5:0O PM (BALLROOM A) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Water Lily: Birth of the Lotus” (2015)

Director: Justine Cunha, Alexandra Batina, Clementine Delcourt, Margaux Lahuppe, Pascal Miller

Country: France

Run time: 8 minutes 29

Language: N/A

(Out of competition) 

A botanist looses his way in the forest. He collects samples and illustrates his findings, until he sees a delightful Water Lily. This short animation film tells an invented Japanese tale about the birth of the lotus flower.

 

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 12:00 PM (AUDITORIUM), 5:0O PM (BALLROOM A) & sunday. April 14. 4:00pm. Points art Center. Jinxi Ancient Water Town.

“Round in Circles” (2015)

Director: Cuhna Justine

Country: France

Run time: 1 minute 04

Language: N/A

Experimental film on the sun, water, and color. Stop motion animation.

 

 


DKU STUDENT SHORT FILMS ON THE ENVIRONMENT (not in competition)

SATURDAY. APRIL 13. 5:0O PM (BALLROOM B) ALL

“Water Pollution” (2018)

Directors: Kanfu Chen, Melissa Schirmer, Yuting Sun, Ruiwen Wu.

Run time: 5 minutes 48

Language: English

“Campus Recycling Policies” (2018)

Directors: Vanessa Hu, Cecilia Yao, Aaron Tang, Bevan Penn.

Run time: 6 minutes 54

Language: English

“An Un-Helpful Guide to Living a Green Life at DKU” (2018)

Directors: Shelley Jiang, Yetta He, Victor Lee, Ryan He.

Run time: 8 minutes 07

Language: English

“A Reflection on City Zoo” (2018)

Director: Wen Zhang

Run time: 7 minutes 03

Language: English

“A Brief Research on Water Pollution” (2018)

Directors: Haitong Lin, Wenjie Zhou, Yuqing Liu, Yutong Lu, Ziting Huang

Run time: 7.40

Language: English

“In Seach for Water” (2018)

Director: Tianqui Wu

Run time: 7 minutes 50

Language: English

“A Christmas Gift” (2018)

Director: 汤澜

Run time: 2 minutes 47

Language: English