Ener­getic Ivanna lives with five chil­dren in a tiny sled car. She belongs to the nomadic Nenets, who breed rein­deer in the Arctic tundra. It is a rough but also free life. How­ev­er, she no longer has her own ani­mals and will soon move to the city to work. The father of her chil­dren already lives in the city, drinks too much, she can’t count on him. The city holds many dan­gers and it is uncer­tain whether modern life will be better. But Ivanna is strong - she also seems to have cap­ti­vat­ed the camera.  

On May 13, this film will be screened simul­ta­ne­ous­ly at NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF DESIGN as part of our #Junction_Ahmedabad, fol­lowed by a shared discussion.

Renato Bor­rayo Ser­ra­no born in Guatemala, lives and works in Russia since 2012. In 2017 he grad­u­at­ed as a film direc­tor spe­cial­ized on doc­u­men­tary film, from the All-Russ­ian State Uni­ver­si­ty of Cin­e­matog­ra­phy in Moscow. Since 2014 his works have par­tic­i­pat­ed in many inter­na­tion­al film fes­ti­vals, in Russia and abroad. His FILM FOR CARLOS (Freiburg­er Film­fo­rum 2017) received inter­na­tion­al awards.  

Direc­tor: Renato Bor­rayo Serrano
Cin­e­matog­ra­phy: Renato Bor­rayo Ser­ra­no, Daria Sidorova
Music: Timo Steiner
Dis­tri­b­u­tion: CAT&Docs

A por­trait of one of the rich­est Cameroon­ian indus­tri­al­ists Al Hajji Mohamadou Ous­man­ou Abbo. Filmed over a period of more than ten years. The red thread of the story is the con­struc­tion of Al Hajji’s spec­tac­u­lar palace on the out­skirts of his native town, Ngaoundéré in North­ern Cameroon. The camera fol­lows Al Hajji on var­i­ous arenas in France, Italy and Cameroon. We learn about his rela­tion­ships and nego­ti­a­tions with the local pop­u­la­tion and Euro­pean arti­sans, who work on the con­struc­tion site, his busi­ness part­ners in the coun­try and abroad as well as local, region­al and nation­al author­i­ties and politi­cians. Through a por­trait of this man, Al Hajji Abbo, as well as through his “love-hate” rela­tion­ship with his Euro­pean part­ners, the film tries to grasp the equal­ly ambiva­lent and com­pli­cat­ed rela­tion­ship between the rich and the poor and between the Global North and the Global South. Pro­gres­sive­ly, the spec­ta­tor dis­cov­ers that the rich man from the poor coun­try can offer new insights about you and me, about poor and rich coun­tries alike.

Alha­jji Ibrahim Gonji is an Islam­ic schol­ar. For 46 years, he has served as judge at the Sul­tanate of Ngaoundéré in North­ern Cameroon. The film fol­lows Alha­jji during the last years of his life, focussing on the rela­tion­ships in a polyg­a­mous family, seen from the per­spec­tive of the wives and their hus­band. The film (shot in years 1997-2001 and edited only now) presents a way of life that is typ­i­cal of the soci­eties and cul­tures of Borno and Adamaoua provinces (Nige­ria and Cameroon) where people living far away from the cap­i­tal cen­ters, strug­gle to adapt to modern edu­ca­tion, strong mar­gin­al­iza­tion and increas­ing pover­ty. In recent years, the region has been under con­stant threat of the Boko Haram insurgency.

Although much has been writ­ten and shown about Pales­tini­ans and Israelis, one aspect has gen­er­al­ly been left out: the Pales­tin­ian minor­i­ty in Israel. More than 900 000 Pales­tin­ian-Arab cit­i­zens live in Israel. This film explores their sit­u­a­tion. The story is told through Samiyeh, a 20 year-old Pales­tin­ian women and her cousin Nidal. Like all young people in the Arab world, who have been con­front­ed by West­ern ideals and values, Samiyeh and Nidal have their own hopes and frus­tra­tions, dreams and night­mares. How­ev­er, the Israeli gov­ern­ment intrudes into the most minute details of their Pales­tin­ian-Arab lives.

The Pales­tini­ans in Israel are pros­per­ing along with the rest of the Israeli soci­ety. But, »money is not every­thing« as Samiyeh’s father, a con­struc­tion worker puts it; »money comes and goes. But al karamah (human dig­ni­ty) – if al karamah goes, it can never come back«.

This LITTLE SHORT FILM is an exper­i­men­tal auto-ethno­graph­i­cal ani­ma­tion based on a con­ver­sa­tion between the direc­tor and her mother. The short film impli­cates Euro­pean his­to­ry, war and regret. LITTLE SHORT FILM was screened as part of the Chan­tal Aker­man ret­ro­spec­tive in London Octo­ber 2014. (JW3)