Opening Night: Acclaimed Documentries of Recent Years

Running time: 108 mins

A selection of award-winning documentary shorts from recent years, bringing together distinctive approaches to real lives and contemporary experience. The programme ranges from personal testimony and creative reconstruction and includes two early films by acclaimed Irish filmmaker Ken Wardrop, whose distinctive portraits of rural life find humour and humanity in the everyday. Neighbour Adi Douwe Dijkstra / Netherlands / 2022 / 29 mins Somali-born Abdi reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. Through playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, they embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout. All Inclusive Corina Schwingruber Ilić / Switzerland / 2019 / 10 mins Under the spell of mass entertainment on the high seas. Powerful study of modern society?s insatiable consumerism, both as a humorous take on human nature and a bitter picture of our care-free, liberal capitalist thinking. Swatted Isma�l Joffroy Chandoutis / France / 2018 / 21 mins Online players describe their struggles with "swatting", a life-threatening cyber-harassment phenomenon that looms over them whenever they play. The events take shape through youtube videos and wireframe images from a video game. The Herd Ken Wardrop / Ireland / 2008 / 5 mins A farmer and his mother discuss the arrival of a strange animal amongst their herd of Limousin cattle. Useless Dog Ken Wardrop / Ireland / 2004 / 5 mins A farmer is worried about his work dog's lack of motivation. All Cats Are Grey in the Dark Lasse Linder / Switzerland / 2019 / 18 mins He calls himself ?Catman?. Christian lives with his two cats Marmelade and Katjuscha. They are inseparable. As he is yearning to become a father, he decides to fertilize his beloved cat Marmelade by an exquisite tomcat from abroad. ?All Cats Are Grey In The Dark? is a melodrama that portrays an unconventional relationship between animal and human.