Mel Massadian

Merowe Dam in North Sudan. Maher works in a traditional brickyard fed by the waters of the Nile. Every evening, he secretly wanders off into the desert to erect a mysterious construction made of mud. Despite a disturbing wound in his lower back that seems to be eating away at his skin, he continues his labor day after day. While the Sudanese people rise to claim their freedom, his mud creation starts slowly to take a life of its own.

A young woman struggles to overcome lost love, unplanned motherhood and ghostly apparitions.

Stephen Dwoskin’s final film is a meditation on the subjective experience and cultural concepts of ageing. The film is an ode to the texture, the beauty, the singularity of aging faces and silhouettes, a hypnotic poem in the Dwoskin meaning of the term which is long observations of very tiny details. A gesture, a pause, a look, a moment. Throughout his films intimacy has always played a leading role and this is also true for Age is..., all the faces being close friends, or close friends relatives and sometimes even Stephen himself.

The rules were: one day, one wheel, one shot (no editing). Valérie Massadian’s hypnotic short was made for Seattle’s Northwest Film Forum.

Filmmakers and artists from around the world have formed Some Strings, a collection of original filmic gestures that originated in Palestine, where poet and professor Refaat Alareer was targeted by Israeli strikes. In his latest poem, “If I Must Die,” he asks those who must live to create a kite, an object of resistance. A selection of short films from this project will introduce the screenings throughout the festival.