RPFF shorts - Playing with form

How to tell stories playfully? How far can we bend the rules of documentary-making? What is a documentary? All these short films invite us to ask ourselves these and more questions by creating their own sets of rules, by surprising the audience with how they tell the stories, and by engaging with media such as Artificial Intelligence, collage, animation, and other resources to explore diverse themes that range from garbage to plants and everything in between, to convey deeper meanings about the human experience.

PROGRAMME:

EXPLOSIONS NEAR THE MUSEUM
Roman Khimei, Yarema Malashchuk, 2023 UA, 14'

This Museum of regional history housed one of Southern Ukraine’s largest and oldest collections of antiquities, with over 173.000 objects spanning seven thousand years, from Scythian gold to World War II weaponry. But between 24 and 26 October 2022, two weeks before Kherson was liberated by the Ukrainians, the museum was looted by Russian occupational forces, in a strategic theft of centuries of Ukrainian history.

WILDFLOWER
Carina Pierro Corso, 2024, PT, 5'

With my hands submersed on dirt, removing the weeds from the soil for new planting, a memory emerged: the first garden I had. I realized that I still feel the same conflict as I did approximately five years ago: I don't know how to pull out the weeds without feeling some discomfort for having to decide which plants thrive and which don't.

WHITE CLOUD
Emmanuel Van der Auwera, 2024, BE, 19'

The Bayan Obo mining district in Inner Mongolia, China, is the world’s largest rare earth mine, crucial for the manufacture of digital technologies. A miner working at the site shares his thoughts on his life and working conditions. While the film explores questions of geopolitics, ecology, capitalism, conspiracy, and potential future scenarios, its essence lies in the testimony of a lone miner in search of a better future.

ANOMALY
Artūrs Vobļikovs, 2024, LV, 5'

A news crew investigates a mysterious anomaly reported by residents of a small Latvian village, but the more questions are asked, the less clear it all gets.

ARSENIC
Iban del Campo, 2013, ES, 10'

A real casting for an imaginary film, in which the director plays with the limits of representation while investigating impertinence.

THE OTHER ONE
Adèle Pion, 2023, BE, 5'

A man has built his nest in the wasteland opposite my house. He was dirty, barefoot, he spoke to himself and he picked up garbage to build a bed. I see him regularly, I watch him, does he see me too? I question my relationship with him, my shame, my powerlessness. I couldn't bring myself to approach him because his difference scared me. Is a meeting possible?

BETWEEN CHAOS & PEACE
Pouya D. Kharazi, 2023, LU, 6'

The film tells the story of a young Iranian man moving to Luxembourg and making connections through play. Through this mixed digital media production, participants of the film articulated deeply held experiences of migration, exclusion and resilience, taking control of their own narrative.