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SCREENINGS IN THIS PROGRAM:

The Sounds of Street Vendors: Havana, Cuba (8 min, 2015)
Directed by Michael Brims
Country of production: United States, Cuba

On the streets of Havana, enterprising vendors offer peanuts, ice cream and flowers for sale to passers-by. With booming calls, tinny electronic jingles, and impressive songs, they advertise their wares, and shape the sensory landscape of the city. This simple but effective film captures the vendors’ artistry, and the way their distinctive rhythms and melodies echo through the streets, crafting an evocative sonic portrait of Cuban urban life. 

Fire Mouth (9 min, 2017)
Directed by Luciano Pérez Fernández
Country of production: Brazil
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE & MARSH SHORT FILM PRIZE, 2019 Commendation

A film about a football match in Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil, in which we see none of the action, or even a single player. We only catch glimpses of the fans as they bake, rather sluggishly, under the punishing sun, rendered in distinctly un-Brazilian black and white. We do, however, get plenty of color from the vigorous radio commentary, which describes every twist of the on-pitch drama with a combination of passion and mischief. We only fully grasp just how remarkable this commentary is in the final seconds of what is an inventive and highly enjoyable film.

Welcome Valentine 2017 (16 min, 2017)
Directed by Dhruv Satija
Country of production: India

In a temple dedicated to Hanuman in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, a priest flouts convention by marrying couples who are shunned elsewhere: mostly those who have eloped from families who disapprove of their union, but also, even more controversially, same-sex couples. A portrait of a staggeringly progressive and liberal institution, that counters the conservatism and orthodoxy found elsewhere in India’s religious communities.

Bonfires (6 min, 2017)
Directed by Martin Bureau
Country of production: Canada

Huge bonfires are lit by Protestants in Northern Ireland on July 12 each year, as part of the celebrations of the 1690 Battle of the Boyne. They are made from wooden pallets, tires, and garbage. To the Protestants, they are symbols of identity affirmation; to the Catholics, they signal arrogance and humiliation. This striking short documents the terrifying scale of these monumental statements, with the somewhat eerie melodies of marching bands lingering beneath the sounds of the infernos.

Father’s Prescription (11 min, 2017)
Directed by Enke Huang
Country of production: United Kingdom, China
ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE & MARSH SHORT FILM PRIZE, 2019 Commendation

A personal exploration of traditional Chinese medicine that considers the importance of its sensory qualities. Huang vividly recalls the extreme bitter taste and smell of the teas consumed by her family in her youth in China. These teas took expertise, care and patience to prepare; can the modern and convenient powdered remedies available to her in London today be as authentic? What is this tea without its smell? With an impressionistic approach to film form, Father’s Prescription is an evocative meditation on memory, embodied experience, family and tradition.

What Your Eyes Can’t See/Lo que sus ojos no ven (8 min, 2018)
Directed by Julieta Pestarino
Country of production: Argentina

An essay-documentary that explores the processes of archival research, and the limits of the kind of knowledge it can provide. Pestarino pursues photographer and traveller André Roosevelt into the archives, attempting to discover the nature of his time in Ecuador (filmmaker? entrepreneur? colonialist?). Curiosity, frustration and resignation.

Host: Jennifer Cool
Discussant: Yumeng (Shirley) He

About RAI@USC 2020 | View Festival Program

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