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The 15th International Festival
Signes de Nuit
Lisbonne

23 November - 3 December, 2017

Universidad De Lisboa
Ruadasgaivotas6
kino-doc


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AWARD CELEBRATION

The Awards of the Section Documentary Film

Sunday, December 3, 2017 / 7 pm
Ruadas Gaivotas 6
Lisbon / Portugal

 

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Main Award :

Inkotanyi
Christophe Cotteret

  
Inkotanyi

Inkotanyi
Christophe Cotteret

France, Belgium
2017 | 2:05:00

Rwanda, July 1994. The best trained and most disciplined rebellion of the African continent puts an end to the last genocide of the 20th century, that of the Rwandan Tutsi. Led by the current president of Rwanda, Paul Kagame, they are called the Inkotanyi. Formed in the Ugandan Yoweri Museveni rebellion in the early 1980s, the Inkotanyi have shaken up the Great Lakes region for the last 30 years.
 
   

Jury Statement :
Inkotanyi is awarded for its use of a 'traditional' documentary format to create a solid and as complete as possible investigation of the Rwandan civil war, genocide and Kagame presidency, never having the pretention to hold all the answers, and avoiding the traps of creating a 'good guys vs bad guys' narrative.

Director Statement :
It is such a good news for the movie, for me and for the all team! I would like to thank you once again, you and the festival Signos de la Noite, to invite the movie in Lisboa for these Portuguese premiere. I think it is the first time that one of my movie is shown in the country, it is a double great pleasure then! Let me thanks the jury of the international documentary competition as well : the international competition presented so many passionating films, and about so important topics, I am sure it is not so easy to give a main price. And for the movie Inkotanyi that means the Rwandan contemporary history, so violent and so dense, can still learn us so many things about politics today. Thank you for giving an opportunity to focus on that.

 

 
Special Mentions :

Find Fix Finish
Mila Zhluktenko, Sylvain Cruiziat

Boy
Ginan Seidl, Yalda Afsah
  
Find Fix Finish

Find Fix Finish
Mila Zhluktenko, Sylvain Cruiziat

Germany
2017 | 0:19:00

"In Afghanistan, I saw a couple making love on a roof”: we know very little of the day-to-day work of the pilots carrying out “targeted assassinations” with military drones. Three Americans talk about their experience, which is paradoxically one of intimacy and cruelty, over aerial images.

 

 

PORTUGAL PREMIERE

 

Jury Statement :
For finding a precise visual form to reflect on the daily routine of military drone pilots and for making us conscious of the disappearance of the borderline between war and everyday life.




Boy

Boy
Ginan Seidl, Yalda Afsah

Germany
2015 | 0:20:00

"Boy" narrates through pictures of urban environments and close observations the lives of a girl which is raised as a boy in Afghanistan and a young afghan singer, who now lives in London but wore boys clothes to be more free in afghan society.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
   

Jury Statement :
For giving us a non-intrusive and free of cliché glance into the life of a girl and a young woman that share the experience of using men´s clothes to alter their place in the Afghan society.


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Signs Award :

The War Show
Obaidah Zytoon, Andreas Dalsgaard


The Signs Award for Documentary honors films, which express in a surprising way sensitive and perturbing aspects of reality.



The war show

The War Show
Obaidah Zytoon, Andreas Dalsgaard

Danemark
2016 | 1:34:00

In March 2011, radio host Obaidah Zytoon and her circle of friends join the street protests against President Bashar al-Assad, as the Arab Spring reaches Syria. Knowing their country would be changed forever, this group of artists and activists begin filming their lives and the events around them. But as the regime’s violent response spirals the country into a bloody civil war, their hopes for a better future will be tested by violence, imprisonment and death. Obaidah leaves Damascus and journeys around the country, from her hometown of Zabadani, to the centre of the rebellion in Homs, and to northern Syria where she witnesses the rise of extremism. A deeply personal road movie, the film captures the fate of Syria through the intimate lens of a small circle of friends.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
   

Jury Statement :
For an accurate tone for a witness account of the Syrian civil war throughout the years, for putting a personal voice into a general context, for giving an important reflection on the role of the camera in the modern-day war and for being strong enough to still bear a bit of hope.

Director Statemen
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Special Mention
for the Signs Award :

Nowhere to Hide
Zaradasht Ahmed
  
Nowhere to Hide

Nowhere to Hide
Zaradasht Ahmed

Norway
2016 | 1:26:00

We follow medic Nori Sharif through five years of dramatic change in central Iraq, one of the world’s most dangerous areas. He starts filming survivors and hopes for a better future after the US withdrawal in 2011, but when he and his family are caught between IS and various militia groups they are forced to flee their homes. Then Nori turns the camera on himself. 

 

LISBONNE PREMIERE

 

Jury Statement :
The chosen film prompts attention to sensitive and disturbing aspects of reality. The narrative transition, as well as the transformation of its main character - himself as a reflection of the changes of the world around him - imply in a personal and powerful context through the intimacy of those who face the chaotic drama of warlike conflicts.

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Night Award :

Muhi - Generally Temporary
Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander, Tamir Elterman

The Night Award for Documentary honors films, which represent reality in an ambivalent and enigmatic way, avoiding stereotypes of representation and simple conclusions.


Muhi

Muhi - Generally Temporary
Rina Castelnuovo-Hollander, Tamir Elterman

Israel, Germany
2017 | 1:26:00

For the past seven years Muhi, a brave and spirited boy from Gaza has been living in an Israeli hospital, the only home he has ever known. Caught between two homes and two peoples, Muhi is unable to return to Gaza. He is raised in paradoxical circumstances that transcend identity, religion and the conflict that divides his world. His time at the hospital is running out and Muhi now faces the most critical choices of his life.

 

 

PORTUGAL PREMIERE

 

Jury Statement :
vThe film explores an ambivalent and strong representation about a complex reality, stimulating reflection on the relationships of affection that survive and resist amid conflicts of wide and devastating consequences in the Palestinian-Israeli clash.

Director Statement :
We are so grateful for this honor! what a wonderful reward to all of us, Muhi and his film team.
Thank you for giving Muhi Generally Temporary THE NIGHT AWARD. We are grateful and delighted for this honor! This award belongs to Muhi (Muhammad) the brave boy from Gaza who personifies the human cost of a conflict and even in the darkest of the nights forces all of us to remain human, and this is our hope, that Muhi's story will continue to show the spirit of humanity that can result from adversity.
Thank You! Rina, Tamir , Hilla, and Jurgen

 

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Special Mentions
for the Night Award :

E.B.C. 5300 m
Léonard Kohli

My Daughter Nora
Ma fille Nora
Jasna Krajinoviv
  
EBC

E.B.C. 5300 m
Léonard Kohli

Switzerland
2016 | 0:15:00

"EBC 5300m " is a film about the Everest Base Camp. The camp, set on a glacier, is assembled and dismantled every year for a period of 2 months. Between guides, cooks, government officials and guests, it houses a little bit less than 1,000 people. The film, throughs ambiences, shows the life and organization in the camp, and exposes the contrast between this ephemeral micro-city and the wild and mystical environment in which it is located. It purpose a reflection on the overcrowding of the most prestigious and most widely summits and the emergence of extreme forms of tourisms.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
   

Jury Statement :
EBC 3500m, relying solely on visual story-telling, through the use of apparently simple but striking shots, it shows the everyday life at an Everest base camp, contrasting the existence of the tourists to that of the Sherpas - leaving the spectator to draw their own conclusions from what is presented.

 



My daughter Nora

My Daughter Nora
Ma fille Nora
Jasna Krajinoviv

Belgium, France
2016 | 0:15:00

Nora, Samira’s daughter, left for Syria in May 2013. Since then, her mother leaves no stone unturned in her attempt to bring her home. ‘My daughter Nora’ is a letter that Samira wrote to Nora. It follows Samira in her fight to prevent other youths from leaving, her trip to the Syrian border and her painful, everyday life, torn between hope and the fear of losing her daughter in the war in Syria.
 
   

Jury Statement :
At once simple and powerful, the film's plot justifies its choice as an example of a paradoxical look at reality. Expectation and hope focus on the point of view and the search of that mother-protagonist who guides the viewer through her intimate and collective battle.

Director Statement :
I feel honoured and encouraged by this Special mention; it's a fragment of a hidden, intimate reality of mother's love, lingering between despair, guilt and hope that I wanted to capture in my film. Comparing to the news about Syria and jihadism, it's almost insignificant, ... I'm happy you've appreciated it. Al Raqqa is completely destroyed, but for the moment, Nora is still alive.

 

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Edward Snowden Award

Cause of Death : Unknown
Anniken Hoel
  
The Edward Snowden Award honors films, which offer sensible (mostly) unknown informations, facts and phenomenons of eminent importance, for which the festival wishes a wide proliferation in the future.



Cause of Death

Cause of Death : Unknown
Anniken Hoel
Norway
2017 | 1:27:00

After her sister died suddenly and unexpectedly while being treated with prescription antipsychotics, director Anniken Hoel begins a global investigation into the crimes of the pharmaceutical industry, the unheralded growth of psychiatric diagnoses and medication, and the corruption of the government regulatory agencies that have failed, repeatedly, to protect us. Made over a ten-year period, the film is simultaneously personal and investigative as it follows Anniken as she seeks answers regarding not only the death of her sister, but of the tens of thousands worldwide who have also met a similar fate. Deaths and damages that until now have been all but ignored. Beginning in a small town in Norway, and journeying through Scandinavia, the EU and the US, the chilling documentary-thriller CAUSE OF DEATH: UNKNOWN exposes the inner workings and motivations of a powerful industry that continually puts profits before people, and has been far too influential in defining who is normal and who is "ill".
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
Trailer :
http://www.cause-of-death-unknown.com/
 
Jury Statement :
Cause of Death: Unknown is chosen because of its combination of a very personal and sensitive approach with a convincing and clear way of presenting the results of an assertive investigation into the shocking practice of how pharmaceutics’ companies rule our psychiatric medical care.


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Special Mention
for the Edward Snowden Award :

Silent War
Syrie: La guerre silencieuse
Manon Loizeau
  
Silent war

Silent War
Syrie: La guerre silencieuse
Manon Loizeau

France, Switzerland
2017 | 1:12

Hidden human suffering, a deafening silent scream from the torture cells of Syrian prisons. The scream of thousands of women raped by the Syrian regime since the beginning of the war. A crime against humanity, a war crime ignored, an organized crime aimed at destroying the Syrian society. From the start, rape was used as a tool by the regime to destroy the spirit of resistance. Rape is such a taboo in Syria that the victims can only stay silent, or they are rejected by their families, sometimes they are even killed. The women who have survived carry the infinite physical and psychological wounds inflicted by the aggressors, and for the rest of their lives, they live in shame. Thousands have been jailed, NGOs talk about more than 50.000 women raped. The ‘condemned to silence’ have never spoken up. The women who speak in this film have decided to break the silence. Their testimonies are rare, exceptional, and heartbreaking. They are the voices of the untold crimes of Bashar al Assad’s regime.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
   
Jury Statement :
Silent War using only personal testimonies of Syrian women confronts us with an aspect of war that is seldom mentioned, the use of rape as warfare, and how war rape victims are doubly victimised, by shifting the guilt onto them and ostracising them.

 
 
Special Mention
"Request for Further Discussions" :

The Magnitsky Act-Behind the Scenes
Andrey Nekrasov
  
The magnitsky Act

The Magnitsky Act - Behind the Scenes
Andrey Nekrasov

Finland, Denmark, Norway
2016 | 2:05:00

What started as a drama about a Russian police plot to steal a billion dollars from a US financier and to murder his faithful tax lawyer Sergei Magnitsky, has become a real life investigation of contradicting versions of the crime. The Magnitsky Case is central for the policy of blacklisting bad guys from Putin’s Russia (“Magnitsky List”), which was then adopted by the West in retaliation for Russia’s actions in Ukraine. Shockingly for the film’s director, dissident and Putin basher Andrei Nekrasov, the official Western story turns out to have serious flaws. Consequently Nekrasov turns around the direction of his film. He got awared of large hidden money transfers. Finally the film was not screend by Arte (the coproducer) and also not as previewed in Brussel European Comity. Festivals wanted to screen it got under hugh pressure. The film turns out as one of the most attacked in western societies. Certain "people" simply try everything to avoid the screening of "Magnitsky Act" anywhere.
PORTUGAL PREMIERE
   
Jury Statement :
The Magnitsky Act — behind the scenes is a wake-up call for those who too easily believe a presented truth without doing any effort in fact-finding. Aren't we all like that? The film is a disturbing presentation of facts, connections and interpretations of a singular court case that became a cornerstone of international policies, without thorough attempts of fact-finding, according to the director. As an audience, we feel impotent to judge and lost in a post-modern jungle of possible narratives. We believe that both ignorance and indifference should not be the result. The complex transactions in the financial world and their political implications are phenomena striking all of us. The political implications of a population that is ignorant and powerless could be even more serious. Therefore, we consider it important that this film is screened and presented in a context in which the spectator gets the opportunity to relate to the facts and narratives presented.

 

 


 

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