Michael MacGarry
South Africa
2015 | 0:12:00

The form of the film is one of a fable, that grafts Thomas Mann’s 1925 novella, Death in Venice, to the contemporary issue of African refugees and immigrants in Italy. The film takes Mann’s book as a nexus point and expands upon a number of themes inherent in it. In Sea of Ash, Mann’s character Tadzio is an immigrant to Italy from West Africa (Senegal) who has survived the treacherous and often fatal journey by sea. While the lead character of the original – von Aschenbach – is embodied in the unseen filmmaker himself. The narrative of the film follows Tadzio on a short journey from the remarkable Brion Cemetery at San Vito in the mountains of Northern Italy to the coastal area of the Venetian lagoon. On Lido Island he visits the famous Hotel dés Bains as featured in Luchino Visconti’s 1971 film version of Death in Venice. The film concludes on the dés Baines beach, with Tadzio embarking on a doomed attempt to return home.

Brian Deutzman
USA
2016 | 0:12:15

A young Israeli woman becomes lost in a prophetic nightmare while visiting her deceased grandfather’s seedy beachfront hotel.

Pablo Baur
Argentina
2016 | 1:03:00

Is it possible to represent a concentration camp? Is it possible to construct a film on the remains of the horror? A conceptual and emotional test that breaks with the hegemonic speech. A new look on the already seen.