Category: ARRF Paris 2023

Original Film Title: Pistachio Ice Cream

Director’s Name: Amira Kopeyeva

Producer: Andrea Dichi

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 6 minutes 3 seconds

Film Description:

Study, study, study. Olivia was an obedient daughter, A++ student, cut off her friends because of daddy’s will. Until one psychology class changed her perspective on the pressuring system she was trapped in. Olivia decides to disobey for the first time in her lifetime.

Original Film Title: L’impasse

Director’s Name: Djoumad Boualem

Writer’s Name: Olivier Thibeaud

Producer: Maze A LA MAZE ON PRODUCTIONS

Country of Origin: France

Country of Filming: France

Runtime: 30 minutes

Film Description:

Bo still has to serve a 4-year prison sentence. He is offered a deal that will free him the next day: he must infiltrate the network of his ex-convict Rhomi.
When he leaves, his childhood friends remind him of the debt they have with the African. But Bo has only one priority: to find his son.
But the deal he made is catching up with him. He must help thwart an attack, while his friends, to reimburse the African, plan to rob an Albanian mafia…

Original Film Title: Like a PowerPoint

Director’s Name: Pat Bradley, Melanie Gretchen

Writer’s Name: Melanie Gretchen

Producer: Melanie Gretchen

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: English

Runtime: 7 minutes 20 seconds

Film Description:

A man and woman negotiate the expectations of their romance.

Original Film Title: OPAQUE

Director’s Name: Aniket Chandrakant Dhavale

Writer’s Name: Prarthana J Acharya

Producer: Aniket Chandrakant Dhavale

Country of Origin: India

Country of Filming: India

Language: English, Hindi

Runtime: 17 minutes 54 seconds

Film Description:

Goutam and Saanvi are falling in love with each other. The next step is marriage, but Goutam has a
secret he is not yet ready to share. He is an artist who paints nude models.
After struggling with his fear of losing her, of how his unconventional job might destroy their relationship, he takes the high road of being honest. Saanvi, shocked after hearing what he had to say, tells Goutam that she will discuss this with him later and leaves.
Goutam is dejected thinking Saanvi might reject him. He spends most of next days lost. Few weeks later, once she has composed herself, Saanvi meets Goutam. Goutam is shocked to hear her response. That she too is a nude model.
Although this seems to be a perfect match of interests, but is it?
Are men and women equal in our society for what they do?
Does morality judge them the same?
The true meaning of these questions and answers culminate when Saanvi and Goutam are faced with each other’s secrets, but remain questions for the audience who are required to find an answer for themselves.

Original Film Title: freaks.com

Director’s Name: Diego Pérez Iglesias

Writer’s Name: Diego Pérez Iglesias

Producer: Diego Pérez Iglesias

Country of Origin: Spain

Country of Filming: Spain

Language: Spanish

Runtime: freaks.com – dir. Diego Pérez Iglesias

Film Description:

Two guys meet for the first time, after contacting through an app called ‘freaks.com’. One’s a genuine freak and the other pretends to be one. This film’s a reflection on Social Media.

Original Film Title: Masks of the Gods

Director’s Name: Qihang Wang

Writer’s Name: Qihang Wan

Producer: Zhongye Li

Country of Origin: China

Country of Filming: China

Language: Chinese

Runtime: 21 minutes 50 seconds

Film Description:

Grandson Liu Tuole is a student of Anshun’s local opera troupe. Wang Rongsheng, the leader of the troupe, trained his grandson strictly from childhood to lead the troupe when he grew up. Once, the teacher assigned a homework assignment about superheroes to be completed with parents, which made Tuole, who stayed at home with his grandfather, face a difficult situation. The traditional staid grandfather tried to help Tole, and made many jokes and misunderstandings in the search for a superhero. Under the ridicule of the students, and under the oppression of the lack of parental care and strict discipline, Tole slammed the mask of the symbol of divinity to the ground, and the dispute with Grandpa mixed with gratitude and resentment gradually escalated, and more conflict was inevitable. How to choose between traditional order and tamped kinship? A bold and creative inspiration is emerging quietly…

Original Film Title: Mariposas

Director’s Name: Adrian Carey

Writer’s Name: Samanta Schweblin

Producer: David Eli Munz Maire

Country of Origin: United States

Country of Filming: United States

Language: Spanish

Runtime: 3 minutes

Film Description:

Set in a universe of magical realism, a boastful father prattles on superficially about his daughter to another parent in the school pick up line, but is unable to perceive her when it matters most.

Original Film Title: Le retour des femmes colibris

Director of Photography: Patricia Kaersenhout, Ravi Breukers

Director’s Name: Patricia Kaersenhout

Writer’s Name: Patricia Kaersenhout

Producer: Patricia Kaersenhout

Country of Origin: Netherlands

Country of Filming: France

Language: French

Runtime: 18 minutes 23 seconds

Film Description:

The film takes as a starting point the famous Artist and writers conference from 1956 which took place in the Sorbonne in Paris. This conference was organized entirely by Black women, but no women got the podium
As an honorary member, Josephine Baker was mostly formally involved with the Congress, which certainly had political significance. Christiane Yandé Diop, wife of Alioune Diop (founder of the famous bookstore Présence Africaine) was one of the organizers. She is 97 years old and her voice is present in the film.

Black women were at the forefront of an international network of solidarity between Africans and people of the African diaspora. The sisters Jeanne and Paulette Nardal played an important role in the creation of Négritude, a French literary and ideological movement from the 1930s. Members of the movement felt united by their common origins and aversion to the racism in the French colonial empire . Paulette Nardal who mastered English well, became an important cultural intermediary between the Anglophone Harlem Renaissance writers and the Francophone students from Africa and the Caribbean. Three of them would later become the founders of the Négritude movement: Aimé Césaire from Martinique, Léopold Sédar Senghor from Senegal, and Léon -Gontran Damas from French Guiana (les Trois Pères ) . Paul Hazoumé , also known as the father of African literature, is less well known, but also involved in founding of the movement.