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The 15th International Festival
Signes de Nuit
Paris

5 - 15 October, 2017

cite universitaire
Maison du Portugal
Maison de l'Argentine
Maison du Mexique
Maison du Japon
Maison des étudiants canadiens

Maison Danoise


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AWARD CELEBRATION

Student Jury

The 15th International Festival Signes de Nuit
5 - 15 october 2017, Paris

Sunday, October 8, 2017 / 10 pm
Maison du Portugal André de Gouveia
Cité internationale universitaire de Paris

 

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Documentary Film Competition

Main Award


The Magnitsky Act – Behind the scenes
Andrey Nekrasov 



the magnitsky

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.

 

 

 

 
Student Jury Statement :
For the Main Award, the student jury choose to reward "The Magnitsky Act – Behind the scenes" from Andrei Nekrasov. This film is not only a documentary but also an incredible narrative piece. It takes the viewer into the Magnitsky’s case and its political aspects but this discovery ends brutally in order to let in the true subject of the film: the hidden side of the case. The film takes all his meaning when it doesn’t deal with not only political materials but also human nature and condition and how our ideologies impact our ability to perceive and to believe in anything.

Director Statement :
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Documentary Film Competition

Signs Award


Dusk Chorus – Based on Fragments of Extinction
Alessandro D’Emilia and Nika Saravanja
The Signs Award honors films, which treat an important subject o in an original, convincing and surprising way.



Dusk Chorus

Dusk Chorus - Based on Fragments of Extinction
Nika Saravanja, Alessandro d' Emilia

Italy
2017 / 00:62:00

Follow eco-acoustic composer David Monacchi in his quest to record pure 24-hour continuous 3D soundscapes in primary forests with the highest biodiversity on the planet; the forests of the Amazon in Ecuador. The film offers a unique listening experience of the vanishing sonic heritage of millions of years of evolution.

 

 
Trailer :
https://vimeo.com/209585874
 

Student Jury Statement :
For the Signs Award, the student jury choose to reward "Dusk Chorus – Based on Fragments of Extinction by David Monacchi" from Alessandro D’Emilia and Nika Saravanja. In addition to a highly revelant and remarkable sound treatment, the film provides a poignant portrait of the effects of deforestation in the Amazon Forest and impacts on the ecosystem. In an era of increasing global warming, it is important to be aware of the facts and Dusk Chorus – Fragments of Extinction offers a totally original and powerful way to educate the world – while showing the incredible work of a sound artist who does everything in his power to preserve this sonic heritage.


Director Statement :

 

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Documentary Film Competition

Signs Award Special Mention


Find Fix Finish
Sylvain Cruiziat and Mila Zhluktenko



Find Fix Finish

Find Fix Finish
Sylvain Cruiziat, Mila Zhluktenko

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.


 

 

 

 

Student Jury Statement :
For the Signs Award, the student jury choose to give a special mention to Find Fix Finish, from Sylvain Cruiziat and Mila Zhluktenko. Surveillance using drones is a phenomenon completely unknown to most people, but has a major impact on privacy. Find Fix Finish makes us realize that all human beings can become a potential target at any time. In addition to having several magnificient and destabilizing plans, the testimonials are revelant and make us reflect on our own private life, whether it is truly private.



Director Statement :

 

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Documentary Film Competition

Night Award

Boli Bana
Simon Coulibaly Gillard
 The Night Award honors films, which are able to balance ambiguity and complexity characterized by enigmatic mysteriousness and subtleness, which keeps mind and consideration moving. 



BoliBana

 


Boli Bana
Simon Coulibaly Gillard

Belgium
2017 / 01:00:00

Au plus profond de la brousse, serpente une longue caravane de zébus. Lancés dans une transhumance de plusieurs mois, quatre jeunes garçons: Ama, Ousséni, Hassan et Lela ont quitté leur famille, décidés à offrir de meilleures pâtures à leur troupeau . Guidés par ces enfants, nous vivons un voyage diurne dans les paysages du Burkina Faso, puis, lorsque tombe la nuit, nous partageons les peurs et les désirs de ces enfants Peulhs. Le film nous propose alors un second voyage, plus sédentaire, celui des jeunes filles restées au village. Sans pudeur, nous vivons les rites qui jalonnent leur jeunesse jusqu’à leur maturité. Auprès de cette famille Peulh, nous découvrons leurs gestes quotidiens, leurs caractères et leurs croyances, nous explorons au plus proche ce mode de vie unique, pastoral et nomade.

 



Student Jury Statement :
For the Night Award, the student jury choose to reward Boli Bana by Simon Coulibaly Gillard. Thanks to its beautiful photography and a captivating atmosphere, this film plunges us into Peulhs children's everyday life as they are becoming teens. The precision of the editing consolidated the strength of the photography. The anthropological point of view perfectly fit with the subject and offer a description without any judgement.

Director Statement :
I want to say my pleasure and the honor I feel for the words the student jury wrote about "Boli Bana" . It was such a great personal experience making this film, and I very proud that some intentions I put in it has travelled to their eyes and gave them the sensations they decribe. I also want to tell all my consideration to the international jury that is giving me a great support by according to "Boli bana" such a nice mention. It's pretty important to feel that inducement to continue dreaming (and sometimes making) new films. I will finish by telling to you Dieter, for the work you are making in diffusion of our work: THANK YOU. 

 

 
Documentary Film Competition

Special Mention for the Night Award


Sand Men
Tal Amiran 



Sand men

 


Sand Men
Tal Amiran
United Kingdom
2016 | 00:13:56


Neculai, Aurel and Raj all left their homes in Romania for the same reason - to seek a better life for their family. Now, in Britain, with their loved ones depending on them, they survive by creating sand sculptures on London’s streets. They try to find hope in the hardships they endure, while thoughts of their children's futures keep them going.



Student Jury Statement :
For the Night Award, the student jury choose to give a special mention to Sand Men by Tal Amiran. This film is an effective and earnest testimony of a man who survive thanks to his talent to sculpt. The movie has a humanist point of view because it shows the portrait of a man before a homeless person and it avoid stereotypes.


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Documentary Film Competition

Edward Snowden Award


Boy
Ginan Seidle, Yalda Afsah
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.



Boy

Boy
Ginan Seidle, 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.



 

 

 

 

Student Jury Statement :
For the award Edward Snowden, the student jury choose to reward the documentary Boy realized by Ginan Seidle. Indeed, the movie raises a sensitive subject that is the question of the feminine or male gender in the countries where the question does not seem to settle. To raise this difficult subject is involved in controversy in a country where it can be even more dangerous, but under a friendly angle, and by following this child seemed to us particularly relevant and touching.

Director Statement :


 

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Documentary Film Competition

Edward Snowden Award Special Mention


Meryem
Reber Dosky



Meryem

Meryem
Reber Dosky

Netherlands
2017 / 0:16:00

Portrait of Meryem, a leeding figure in the fight of kurdish women for the freedom and recognition.

 

 

FRENCH PREMIERE

 

Student Jury Statement :
For the Edward Snowden Award, the student jury choose to give a special mention to the documentary Meryem realized by Robert Dosky for this point of view innovating on the war Khurdes against ISIS and on the crucial role of the women in this war which we see nevertheless as male. To enter the everyday life of this commander, allowed us to live in the present the courage of these women.

Director Statement :


 

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Documentary Film Competition

Special Prize from the student jury
Macro Prize


L'Exilé du temps
Isabelle Putod

  
Particularly singular and personal view.


 
L'Exilé du temps

L'Exilé du temps
Isabelle Putod

France
2016 / 0:27:00

En 1962, le spéléologue Michel Siffre décide de passer deux mois près d'un glacier souterrain, sans repère de temps. Dans ce lieu, sa raison vacille, ses perceptions se modifient et il part pour un voyage intérieur où se mêlent souvenirs et hallucinations.


 

 

 

 

Student Jury Statement :
The Award have been given to L’exilé du temps by Isabelle Putod for her singular project, using composite documents, allowing the birth of an eclectic piece between documentary, experimental and archive movies.

 

 
Documentary Film Competition

Special Prize from the student jury
Macro Prize
Special Mention

A Very Hot Summer
Areej Abu Eid

  



A Very Hot Summer

A Very Hot Summer
Areej Abu Eid

Palestine
2016 / 0:17:00

Based on the personal experience of the filmmaker during the Gaza war of 2014. “It's Ramadan…a very hot summer…with no electricity and no fan…We thought it would be like the 1st and 2nd wars, but this one is different! It’s madness all day and all night long... We sleep a little here and there when the shelling stops.. It is unbearably hot, as if hell opened its doors. Heat, fires and death... The sky is crimson red all night long as if with fireworks, like a horror movie and we are in it…”

 

 

PARIS PREMIERE

 

Student Jury Statement :
The jury had seen many films in the selection who were particularly singular and personal, sometimes in a very literal way as in A very hot summer by Areej Abu Eid, therefore, they decided to create a « Macro Price » in order to reward such movie.



Directors Statement:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

Festival international SIGNES DE NUIT - 18, rue Budé 75004 Paris - France - Tel : +33 (0) 1 40 46 92 25 - +33 (0) 6 84 40 84 38 - cood.int@signesdenuit.com