Programme 2009

Juan Pablo Zaramella (fundacion huesped & jpztudio)
Argentina, 2007, Beta SP, 5'16''

Three teenage girls and three stories that will mark their lives. We should talk with the young about entering adolescence: What are all the things that change? How do we perceive the world, our parents, our friends? How do we feel when we first experience intimacy? Exchange our stories, and talk about the possible endings for the stories of the three girls.

BANQUISE
Cédric Louis, Claude Barras (Helium Films)
Switzerland, 2005, 35mm, 6'50''

A shocking story of a girl who is ashamed of her own body, and dreams of penguins in cold, far-off places, while she is wrapped in winter clothes in the middle of a scorching summer. We can talk about our bodies: What are they like, what are the differences between them in appearance? Who sets the criteria which determine whether a body is beautiful or not?

Paul O'Flanagan (Boulder Media)
Ireland, 2007, Beta SP, 5'

An amusing film that presents the unreasonable phenomenon of the modern “instant beauty”, which is (co-)created by artificial changing of the body. Think about the concept of beauty: Which criteria are used to determine it, and who specifies them? Who do we call a beautiful person, and what are their characteristics? Has Betty, who did not want to be average, really become extraordinary after the operation?

Mischa Kamp (Submarine)
The Netherlands, 2006, digiBeta, 6'

In the second story, we see a boy who has a problem with excessive perspiration. Does that happen to us too? What do we notice on ourselves, and what on others? Is this a typical male problem, or do girls face the same one? What are the solutions, and which one of them did the hero of the film choose?

Mischa Kamp (Submarine)
The Netherlands, 2006, digiBeta, 6'

The girl has suddenly changed from a child into an adolescent girl, which brought along a series of questions and a need for new knowledge: How to pick a fitting bra, how to react to comments and looks? At the end of all three films, we can finish the talk with a question: Is it right for young people to talk about their problems? Who should be the one to listen most carefully, and why?

Mischa Kamp (Submarine)
The Netherlands, 2006, digiBeta, 6'

The first from the series of personal and touching stories of young people, who are confronted with physical and psychological changes when entering the adolescence. The first story talks about fatness. What is the end of the story like, and what is the moral that it brings? We should renew our attitude towards people who visually deviate from the “ideal measures” that are set by the society.

SNILL
Astrid Aakra (Microfilm AS)
Norway, 2006, 35mm, 4'15'

A poetic story of a girl who is the embodiment of her parents' expectations: pleasant, clean, pretty and quiet. So quiet that her peers fail to notice her. Talk about our parents' expectations. What do they want from us? Do we understand their wishes? Do they understand ours? What were we like as children and what are we like now, when we are entering the time of adolescence?

PILA
Milena Klebanov (Bezalel Academy of Art and Design)
Israel, 2006, Beta SP, 6'4''

Will the elephant really find friends only when she is just like them and when her appearance will not be spoiled by her flapping ears and her trunk? Will she find her true love then? The film offers its own answers, but what would we say about it? How important is the appearance for the happiness of a person? Each individual is special, brilliant and unique - is this only an empty phrase?