BEING JOHN SMITH

by John Smith

United Kingdom, 2024, documentary, 26’45’’

After enduring many decades of embarrassment and discomfort, the filmmaker finally admits that possessing the most common name in the English-speaking world has had a profound impact on his psyche. Peppered with disparate fragments of autobiography, Being John Smith takes us on a confessional journey that reveals just how important a name can be.

CITY OF POETS

by Sara Rajaei

Netherlands, 2024, documentary, 21’27’’

Through a collage of personal archive footage and photographs, the history emerges of a small, metaphorical city where all the streets are named after poets. The town’s psychogeography defines the mental and emotional state of its inhabitants, who live in a utopian illusion founded on poetry. When the system changes, and war begins, new neighbourhoods emerge to accommodate the refugees, and the existing street names are replaced by new ones. Abrupt and sweeping upheavals lead to confusion among the city’s residents, who soon find themselves lost amid the memories of the forgotten poets.

L’AVANCE

by Djiby Kebe

France, 2024, ficition, 18’20’’

Aliou, a rising student at the Beaux-Arts in Paris, sells a painting of his deceased mother for 3,000 euros to a renowned collector. The delivery of the painting then becomes a long journey during which he will realise the weight of the money he earned.

MAN NUMBER 4

by Miranda Pennell

United Kingdom, 2024, documentary/expertimental, 9’50’’

Gaza, December 2023. A confrontation with a disturbing photograph on social media triggers questions about what it means to be an onlooker.

THE FLOWERS STAND SILENTLY, WITNESSING

by Theo Panagopoulos

United Kingdom, 2024, documentary, 17’01’’

When a Palestinian filmmaker based in Scotland unearths a rarely seen Scottish film archive of Palestinian wildflowers, he decides to reclaim the footage. This tender essay film questions the role of image-making as a tool of both testimony and violence when connected to entanglements between people and land.