國際競賽影帶

2000 Heart Lotus Ward

This film is the result of a promise made between the filmmakers and a patient dying of cancer on the day of their departure from the Heart Lotus Ward. The Heart Lotus Ward is the headquarter of the palliative care center of the Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital in Hualien. Aided by professionals and volunteers, the patients spend the final phase of their lives here. At the final stop in life, heart is the only thing to be seen.

Diamonds and Rust

Diamonds and Rust is a documentary about a diamond mining trawler, owned by De Beers, operating off the coast of southern Africa. The crew on board the rusting vessel is a mix of Namibians, Cubans and white South Africans. They are overseen by an Israeli martinet whom everyone dislikes. Racial and political tensions abound, as the generally dissatisfied crew wait for long delayed relief… The search for diamonds is a sordid enterprise, devouring the human spirit.

Paper Airplane

The film focuses on the lives of a group of young people who, lured by western ideals, have moved to the city. They lead a hedonistic drug-filled existence, playing loud music and pursuing love. They are confused by the society in which they lived and have lost sight of what they are fighting for. Life has become a daily struggle.

Disneyland: Mon Vieux Pays Natal

Guided by flute players, we arrive at the most famous wonderland in the world. But we soon realize that our journey is one of confusion. There is no laughter and fireworks. The director has let the image and sound slide out of sync, altering the Disney world we previously knew. In this unbelievably amazing land, we feel troubled and disturbed. If is a world more imaginative than Disneyland. There are distorted relations, death and sacrifices, Disneyland becomes a mirror image of our society. It reflects our dreams and the disillusionment of these dreams.

Closely Observed Station

From Bernolakova station, trains depart in just two directions. The station marks the beginning and the end of the world. Marek, the stationmaster, and Lubos, the switch controller, would never leave this place and yet they dream of doing just that. Their reason of staying lies in all the tiny details they tender to. They offer a picture of Slovakia, a secret paradise. A silent comedy about a way of life.

War and Peace

Filmed over three tumultuous years in India, Pakistan, Japan and the USA, War and Peace is an epic documentary rendering of peace activism in the face of global militarism and war. Triggered by macabre scenes of jubilation that greeted nuclear testing in the Indian sub-continent, War and Peace is dramatically framed by the murder of Mahatma Gandhi. Fifty years after his death memories of Gandhi seem like a mirage, created by out thirst for peace and our very distance from it.

Variant Phases

As the “phases” of this film proceed, we are offered feel-good tales, dazzling images and musical inserts. But beware - if you indulge too much, you will be jolted awake by the bitter realization that “this is not real”. But there IS a way out of the video forest of relativity. Just look up at the sky, hear the wind, listen to the quivering murmur of the human voice…

Tom

Black and white archive footage, contemporary images shot on video and super 8, photographs and excerpts from Hollywood films overlap as Tom CHOMONT tells his story. A master of avant-grade cinema for more than thirty years, he has directed experimental films;often homoerotic and autobiographical works. Suffering from AIDS and Parkinson’s he appears before Mike HOOLBOOM’s camera, flamboyant at times and fragile at others.

The Silence of Green

“Mass murder! It’s a mass murder!”, one of the farmers questioned by Andreas HORVATH cries out in desperation. At the beginning of 2001, foot-and-mouth disease was headline news on television and in the press. Images of burning pyres piled high with carcasses of dead animals provoked shock waves around the world. A mass hysteria emerged and Britain’s farming industry reeled from the shock-never to fully recover.

Same Grave, Same Coffin

An exploration of a young girl's inner life. Sent to an institution for abused children, she is persistently speaking but to whom? To her parents, to other adults, or to her spirits? She is searching for love everywhere, but will she find it? Or is solitude a fundamental fact of life? Same grave, Same Coffin is a stylized from of realism, shot on different formats from mini dv to 16mm.