Category: ARFF Barcelona – Best Documentary

Original Film Title: The Reencounter. 500 years Moctezuma and Cortés

Director’s Name: Miguel Gleason

Writer’s Name: Miguel Gleason

Producer’s Name: Miguel Gleason, Muesart, Erwing Munguía, Alfonso Carrasco

Country of Origin: Mexico

Country of Filming: Mexico

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 2 hours 13 minutes 7 seconds

Film Description:

Mexico is the fusion of 2 cultures represented by the Aztec emperor Moctezuma and the Spanish conqueror Hernán Cortés. The descendants met each other 500 years later, on exactly the same date and in the same place as their ancestors to give each other a reconciliatory hug.
Why is there still, among certain Mexicans, a kind of resentment against the Spanish? And why is there still a kind of disdain for native peoples?

Original Film Title: 从站前路出发

Director’s Name: Mincher Lee

Writer’s Name:

Producer’s Name: Fujing Cui, Dong Wang, Hailong Cui

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 1 hour 57 minutes 6 seconds

Film Description:

“The Show Must Go On” is a low-cost independent documentary film, which was shot after the epidemic. This film follows the lives of seven main characters (these seven people come from all walks of life, but all live in Jiaozuo City) and presents these fragments of life in paragraphs through cross cutting. The film starts with the performance of the street artist Kang Yongli in front of the station, with the characters divided into chapters, some of which happen to be recorded with irony. Starting from Chapter 8, when “Zheng Qingzhen” rides through a tunnel, the film changes from 4:3 to 16:9, and the editing also changes. All the character lines begin to converge here…

Original Film Title: Granița Morții

Director’s Name: Cătălin Apostol

Writer’s Name: Cătălin Apostol

Producer’s Name: Marius Th. Barna, Avram Iclozan

Country of Origin: Romania

Country of Filming: Romania

Language: Romanian

Runtime: 1 hour 43 minutes 32 seconds

Film Description:

A shocking testimony of the times when Romania was a great prison, fenced with barbed wire and guarded by indoctrinated border guards to be ready at any time to machine-gun the dream of freedom of any reckless who would dare to escape the absurdity of communist dictatorship.

This is the true story of some people humiliated, beaten, tortured, in an era marked by extreme fear, lies and alienation.

Original Film Title: Expedition: Thailand Part Three “The Chai Lai Orchid”

Director’s Name: Daniel Mason

Producer’s Name: Daniel Mason, Jenny Balee

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Thailand

Language: English

Runtime: 43 minutes 44 seconds

Film Description:

This Eco-tourism centered Docu-Series explores the dangerous side effects of Mass Tourism while highlighting Sustainable Tourism options in some of the worlds most popular and vulnerable destinations. Filmed entirely on location in Thailand, the first season follows the crew as they find and explore different sustainable tourism options in some of the countries most popular destinations.

Part Three centers around the Eco-Resort “The Chai Lai Orchid” and their non-profit foundation “Daughters Rising”. This episode transports you to a magical escape tucked away deep in the northern Thai Jungle, and dives deep into complicated and eye-opening topics from protecting indigenous peoples and lands, to the welfare and living conditions of captive elephants.

Original Film Title: Dunk or Die

Director’s Name: Nicolas de Virieu

Producer’s Name: Benjamin Altur-Ortiz

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: China, France, Italy, Philippines, Russian Federation, Taiwan, United States

Language: French

Runtime: 1 hour 20 minutes 2 seconds

Film Description:

Dunk or Die looks back at the career of dunk prodigy Kadour Ziani, from his childhood on the playgrounds of Saint-Dizier, France, to the greatest of NBA stadiums.

This documentary brings together family photos, interviews, archives, and spectacular images of Slam Nation’s international tours to tell his inspirational and extraordinary story.

Original Film Title: 2020: A Comedy Special

Director’s Name: Joe Kaiser

Producer’s Name: Erica Hilbert, Joe Kaiser,

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 58 minutes 17 seconds

Film Description:

The COVID-19 pandemic cut the world off from experiencing live comedy, but laughter prevailed. We followed comedians and comedy club owners across the country and saw how the pandemic didn’t stop comedy, it reinvented it.

The world shut itself down in 2020. As cities, states and entire countries reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants, bars and other small businesses were forced to shutter their doors. Among the industries cut off from the world was live entertainment – and for comedians, comedy producers and comedy venues specifically, that posed a challenge.

Adapt or die. With old models destroyed by the virus and government regulations, the entire way to deliver content to comedy fans had to be rethought. And for those owning or managing clubs, the way to make that a business had to be rethought too.

The entire comedy world scrambled to find a way to survive. And in the process may have stumbled on new creative ground that will change the game forever.