In the Whiteness
DIRECTOR: Niya Abdullahi • Ontario • 4 minutes
In the Whiteness is a poetic exploration of language, land, and identity through the eyes of a Harari-Ethiopian woman displaced by war. Now living in Canada, she uses poetry and movement as a meditative method to reconnect with her roots and establish magical bonds with her ancestors.
Witch Woman
DIRECTOR: Pixie Cram • Canada • 5 minutes
A visually dazzling stop-motion animation film. Using contemporary, experimental style, Witch Woman depicts one of the world’s most ancient stories: the fear of women’s power and knowledge over birth and motherhood.
Puffling
DIRECTOR: Jessica Bishopp • Iceland • 20 minutes
Each summer, on a remote island off the coast of Iceland, teenagers Birta, 18, and Selma, 16 rescue at-risk pufflings (adolescent puffins) during the night. As the young birds embark on their first journey out to sea, they’re often drawn inland by the town’s lights and trapped. Puffling follows Birta and Selma over the course of a night as they save the birds from imminent danger, while grappling with their own futures in a time of ecological uncertainty.
Three Promises
DIRECTOR: Yousef Srouji • Palestine • 60 minutes
Set against the backdrop of the second intifada in the West Bank, Three Promises tells the story of a Palestinian mother and her camera, of a son, and the suppressing of personal and collective memories. Blending the voice of the present with an impressive archive of his mother’s footage, the film reveals a heartrending portrait of a family’s everyday life during war, and the staggering force of a mother’s love between the lines. In completing the story begun by his mother, Suha, Yousef Srouji averts the act of forgetting with Three Promises.
