Category: Best Short Documentary ARFF Berlin 2022

Original Film Title: Caution! Land Crabs Crossing

Director’s Name: Huang Pei Ju

Country of Origin: Taiwan

Country of Filming: Taiwan

Language: English

Runtime: Mandarin Chinese

Film Description:

Kenting National Park has the highest ecological abundance of land crab in the world.

But thousands of crabs die tragically on the highway every year before they lay their eggs.

Not only the city government has set up “crabs crossing” signs on roads to protect the land crabs but also the local residents has helped them cross the road for decades.

Original Film Title: Musical Nourishment of the Yam & Banana

Director’s Name: Borja Cantera

Producer: P1 Entertainment, Yam & Banana Productions

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: United Kingdom

Language: English

Runtime: 19 minutes 38 seconds

Film Description:

During 2021, Bristol-based producer Oriol Freixa Rafols – aka Uri Green – started on a new project: a reggae album featuring some of the best reggae artists and musicians in the city.

With over nine years of experience producing reggae and related genres from his St Paul’s studio and releasing works on his record label Yam & Banana, Green is no stranger to the scene with a list of collaborations with artists such as Anthony B, Lutan Fyah, Daddy Freddy, Da Fuchaman and many more.

Original Film Title: Escape Artist

Director’s Name: Pankaja Brooke

Writer’s Name: Pankaja Brooke

Producer: Pankaja Brooke

Country of Origin: United Kingdom

Country of Filming: United Kingdom

Language: English

Runtime: 27 minutes

Film Description:

A young man who loves adventure joins the British Army, and then for more adventure the French Foreign Legion. Being a strong, intelligent and extremely effective soldier his career carries on through Northern Ireland, and Afghanistan, and then into security work in other wild and dangerous places…until the death of his wife makes him begin to question the meaning of his own life.

Original Film Title: Ampe: Leap into the Sky, Black Girl

Director’s Name: Claudia Owusu, Ife Oluwamuyide

Writer’s Name: Claudia Owusu, Ife Oluwamuyide

Producer: Christine Boateng, Khalid Iddisah, Juli Sasaki, Claudia Owusu

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: Ghana, United States

Language: English

Runtime: 17 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

Set in the sister cities of Accra, Ghana and Columbus, Ohio, “Ampe: Leap into the Sky, Black Girl” is a rhythmic love letter to Black girlhood across the African diaspora. Through the lens of the Ghanaian traditional jumping and clapping game, Ampe, the film takes us on a journey of sisterhood, loyalty, and nostalgia in a space created for us, by us.

Original Film Title: ÁTIMO

Director’s Name: Beto Sporkens

Writer’s Name: Beto Sporkens

Producer: Beto Sporkens

Country of Origin: Brazil

Country of Filming: Brazil

Language: Portuguese

Runtime: 24 minutes 57 seconds

Film Description:

“SPARK” (Átimo) addresses our relationship with Time, Aging and the paradoxes of Knowledge, through the clash between views of Philosophy, Physics and personal experience around one of the most important theories in the history of science: the Theory of Relativity.
Created by Albert Einstein, the Theory of Relativity was proven more than 100 years ago to the world through an experiment carried out IN BRAZIL. And later, it ended up changing the course of history with one of humanity’s most infamous and dangerous inventions: the atomic bomb.
With the participation of the philosopher Mario Sergio Cortella, the poet Rubem Alves (in memorian) and one of the last survivors of the atomic attack on Hiroshima, Takashi Morita, Átimo talks about this small cosmic spark that makes up our lifetime.

Original Film Title: Finding Beauty In The Chao

Director’s Name: Íris Reynisdóttir

Writer’s Name: Íris Reynisdóttir

Producer: Sophie Anegaard

Country of Origin: Denmark

Country of Filming: Denmark

Language: English, Icelandic

Runtime: 9 minutes 40 seconds

Film Description:

Íris was diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 23. She is one of many women that are diagnosed later in life. Women are underrepresented when it comes to diagnosing and talking about ADHD/ADD and there are many misconceptions about it. This documentary tries to unfold those misconceptions. Rubina, Safien and Isabella talk about their own experiences of having ADHD/ADD. The women’s narrative is brought to life by different visuals that show how it feels like to be inside the mind of a person with ADHD/ADD.

Original Film Title: Sprechen ist Leben – vom Stottern befreit

Director’s Name: Sonja Schütz, Sabine Schütz

Producer: Sonja Schütz, Sabine Schütz

Country of Origin: Germany

Country of Filming: Germany

Language: English, German

Runtime: 56 minutes 36 seconds

Film Description:

In the documentary, 11 formerly stuttering people aged 9 – 30 years tell of their daily, painful experiences around stuttering with its limitations. Stuttering affects 1% of the world’s population.
They all felt powerless at the mercy of stuttering and were looking for a way out. The therapy odyssey of the affected people, which sometimes lasted for years, left its traces, destroyed hope and made a vision of the future according to one’s own ideas impossible.
In the worldwide unique therapy concept against stuttering “D.E.L.P.H.I.N.”, they found the solution for their goal to overcome stuttering.

Original Film Title: Art Connects

Film Director: Fay Nass

Program Director: Diana Garcia Hernandez

Director of Photography: Aurore DuPont Sagarin

Sound Designer: Taymaz Saba

Artists: Claire Love Wilson, Hari Alluri, Sara Vickruck, Shadi Jianfar

Producer: Aphotic Theatre Production

Country of Origin: Canada

Country of Filming: Canada

Language: English

Runtime: 14 minutes 45 seconds

Film Description:

In Vancouver and in the entire world, many of the long-term homes have been greatly impacted by the pandemic. Many of the seniors have not been able to step outside their rooms or receive visitors. Loneliness, isolation and sorrow has dominated these homes. We also have witnessed the effect of the pandemic on the economical, mental and emotional well-being of artists who have lost gigs and exhibitions. There has been grief and loss of outlets and expression. Art Connects aims to bring these two demographics together by providing a chance for new connection, healing, exchange and creation of new work. We strive to make the invisible visible by expanding awareness to places previously unexplored and unexamined. We believe Art Connects has the potential to heal and inspire. We believe in autonomy and collaboration. We give opportunity to the artists to create art without dictating them about form and content.

Original Film Title: In The Shade Of Rhinos

Director’s Name: Antoine Janssens

Writer’s Name: Antoine Janssens

Producer: Antoine Janssens

Country of Origin: Switzerland

Country of Filming: South Africa

Language: English

Runtime: 14 minutes

Film Description:

Rhinos have been poached for years because of the high price of their horns on the black market. These endangered species are on the verge of extinction if things don’t change.

This documentary is based on people who have made the choice to dedicate their lives, sometimes even putting them in danger, to preserve these animals. In this film you will follow these former military men and women, these veterans, in their daily lives in South Africa. They will tell you why they made this choice of life, what are the stakes of the problem, what is their job in the field and what are the links woven with the local population.

Original Film Title: Sticks and Stones

Director’s Name: Cynthia N White, Alexander S White

Writer’s Name: Tara Caimi, William Doan

Producer: Cynthia N White

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 3 minutes 55 seconds

Film Description:

A man sorts through the debris of his childhood, seeking help to untangle the differences between his own anxiety and depression, and the impact of toxic masculinity.