Por Primera Vez
For the First Time
Octavio Cortázar, Cuba 1967, 10 min.

Kino Otok
Islands of Forgotten Cinemas
Ivan Ramljak, Croatia 2016, 35 min.
Following the screening an online discussion with Ivan Ramljak and Branka Pavlović

Шильде
July
Darezhan Omirbayev, USSR 1988, 25 min.

Love in Cinema
Swan Yaung Ni, Myanmar 2016, 18 min.
Following the screening an online discussion with Thaiddhi and Sarnt Utamachote

The short film programme spans an arc from today to the 1960s and shows the global and historical diversity of cinema culture. Por Primera Vez shows a mobile cinema in Cuba bringing Charlie Chaplin's Modern Times (1936) to rural areas. The locals, many of whom have never seen a film before, talk about their expectations: “I imagine it to be like a party. A dance or something like that. I've never seen one, I can't tell you what it is.” Шильде (July) also takes us to a remote cinema in the countryside: in quiet shots which explore the vastness of the Kazakh steppe, two boys try to raise money for a cinema visit. Love in Cinema follows an old man to the cinema where his late wife worked. As the film progresses, the memories of his wife and the cinema become entangled with the history of Myanmar. Kino Otok tells the story of a loss, too. Poetic images show the architectural structures of former island cinemas in Croatia, which are now used as a shooting range or for yoga courses. On the soundtrack you can hear how the residents of the islands remember their film experiences.

Thaiddhi is a freelance filmmaker, producer and cinematographer. His first short film Awake (2009) won Best Short Film at FAMU Fest 2009. His first feature film as a cinematographer is Night (2017), directed by Htoo Paing Zaw Oo. He also served as Jury in 2018 and a selection committee member in 2019 for SeaShorts Film Festival, Malaysia.

SHORT FILM PROGRAMME