Film Focus #04

@FUSIONFILMFESTS EAST EUROPE EDITION WARSAW 2019 ISSUE: 04

AN OPEN DOOR TO SUCCESS Historian and Director Discuss Award Winning Documentary

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EDITOR

So this is Christmas...well almost!

But first we plan on finishing our inaugural festival year in style.

Our year one compass is set to be completed and what a wonderful time of year and location we have!

Dear Filmmakers & Creatives, It is our absolute pleasure to welcome you to Warsaw for our East Europe International Film Festival!

This wonderful city is set to be the base for our East Europe Festival for many years to come- we are delighted that you were able to join us for our inaugural East Europe Film Festival here!

Our North, South & West Europe International Film Festivals held in London, Valencia & Brussels respectively have been such a huge success! We are so grateful for the continued support we receive from everyone that attends and those that follow us from around the World.

With new ways to tell stories and the industry contstantly shifting the quality of films and scripts on the festival circuit are reaching new grounds. That is no different here. We have received an incredible

FILM FOCUS IS PUBLISHED BY FUSION FILM & MEDIA EUROPE LIMITED Steve Grossmith Editor & Co-Director steve@fusionfilmfestivals.com Dan Hickford Festival Coordinator & Co-Director dan@fusionfilmfestivals.com Stephen Mina Graphic Designer/Illustrator & Head of Technical mina@fusionfilmfestivals.com

number of submissions with projects of the highest quality, so a huge congratulations for your official selection. We know how much hard work and dedication goes into each aspect of making a film, this is why we recognise such a wide range of categories with our film festival nominations and awards.

We love independent cinema and the stories that are told- we feel so fortunate to meet and connect with so many of you! The diversity of the projects you have created are wonderful and inspiring! In a world full of recent tragedies and devastation you are all heroes. Offering education, humour, analysis and narratives that really capture the viewer.

Navigating the world of independent film festivals can often be a challenge in itself. The aim of Fusion International Film Festivals is to continue to support the industry offering a platform for like minded creatives to meet and collaborate. We will always be on hand to offer industry advice should you need it.

All rights reserved, no part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any other means including (but not limited to), electronic ,mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the express prior permission of the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this publication is accurate and up-todate, the publisher takes no responsibility for errors or omissions. All supplied articles – including adverts – that are published in this magazine whether printed or in digital form are not necessarily the views or opinions of

the publisher and it is the sole responsibility of the supplier of this said material to ensure that they have the right to use all text and images that we use. By publishing in this magazine you agree to indemnify and hold harmless Fusion International Film Festivals and Fusion Film & Media Europe Limited and their agents, from and against any and all claims, liabilities, losses, damages, and expenses (including but not limited to all legal fees, and any and all court costs) which may be incurred by reason of any claim involving copyright, trademark, credits, publicity, screening, defamation, slander & disputed data.

PHOTOGRAPHY: STUART WATSON

We have been fortunate enough to connect with a number of industry professionals ranging from UK and international distributors, marketing consultants, production houses and colour grading specialists who are keen to support our network of film makers at festivals and from afar.

Thank you to our Festival Jury for supporting us and our wonderful filmmakers & script writers. Your feedback and insight allows us to recognise our winners in an honest and transparent way.

Our Fusion Team is small but our hearts and passion for what we do is unmeasurable- thanks goes to the other members of the team; Stephen Mina for all his hardwork and for continually making our concepts a reality as we grow from festival to festival. Stephen really is a wonderful asset to us, his technical expertise matched with his skills as a graphic designer are priceless and really allow us to build without limitation. The wonderful Molly and Anashe who we have been so fortunate to have join us at each of our festivals to date. Their hardwork and enthusiasm is infectious. We know they have bright futures ahead as they both seek careers as actresses.

Our Festival Awards Night truly ends the week in style and we thank our wonderful hosts Bob Dobson & Melissa Clements for their energetic professionalism, we love having you with us every time.

Stuart Watson our Official Festival Photographer- you do a wonderful job on capturing all the happenings and we are forever grateful for your ability to tell our festival awards night story through your camera lens.

Finally, Fusion International Film Festivals would be just a dream without the support of Colin and Laura Graham our festival abassadors- we thank you eternally for sharing our passion and believing in us from day one.

We truly hope that you enjoy your time with us and that we may see you in 2020 at other points on the compass.

Keep on creating!

Dan & Steve

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FILMMAKER NOEL IZON AND HOLOCAUST HISTORIAN DR. BONNIE HARRIS SAVOR A MOMENT TOGETHER AFTER WINNING AN AWARD IN BERLIN.

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AN OPEN DOOR: Holocaust Haven In The Philippines A dramatic story of rescue and friendship and how the Philippines was able to provide sanctuary to more than 1300 Jews fleeing Nazi Europe prior to 1941.

Film Focus was delighted to be given the opportunity to have an in-depth interview with the Holocaust historian Bonnie M. Harris & the Philippine filmmaker, Noel “Sonny” Izon, who were both directly responsible for bringing this incredible true story to life in the form of this remarkable documentary.

Synopsis In the1930’s, when nations of the world were closing their doors to refugee Jews fleeing the growing horror of Hitler’s Germany, one small island nation in the Pacific chose to do what others would not – save those lives. On July 6, 1938, 80 delegates from 32 countries around the world met at a French resort in Evian-lesBains at US President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s request to address the growing Jewish refugee crisis in Hitler’s Greater German Reich. Over 200 international journalists and representatives from Jewish relief organizations recorded 10 days of deliberation by the delegates that ultimately failed to perform the task for which they were assembled – to save Germany’s persecuted Jews through orchestrated resettlement. It can be characterized as one of the greatest diplomatic and humanitarian failures of 20th century Western civilization. Not one of the attending delegations voiced a commitment to either lift or suspend their nation’s quota restrictions within their immigration laws or vowed to increase the numbers of Jewish refugees entering their country by offering them political asylum. But while these relatively low-level diplomats, mostly from the Western nations in Europe and the Americas, lamented the plight of the refugees without offering any solutions, the small Asian nation of the Philippines had already set a rescue plan into operation.

Holocaust historian, Bonnie M. Harris, award-winning Philippine filmmaker, Noel “Sonny” Izon and Filipino-American historian, Sharon Delmendo, have collaborated in creating a timely documentary, “An Open Door: Holocaust Haven in the Philippines,” in which this previously unknown episode in history has been beautifully captured.

And while this rescue, orchestrated and empowered through President Quezon, ultimately saved these refugees from the uncertainty of Europe’s future, it also gave them a new welcoming homeland as the Filipino people opened their hearts and accepted them within the fabric of Philippine society.

This event in history, the rescuing of over 1,300 refugee Jews by the small Asian Commonwealth nation of the Philippines, saved these persecuted Jews of Europe from the fate of the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, and whilst over 1,300 Jewish lives, when compared to six million Jewish victims of Nazi atrocities, are not so many, to those hundreds who found a haven in Manila, each Jewish life that was rescued was a blessing for the more than 8,000 members of their current posterity.

The greatest legacy of the Holocaust Haven created in the Philippines and retold in Izon’s film will always be this – they healed wounds inflicted by the worst of times as only the Filipinos can.

EMPLOYEES OF ESTRELLA DEL NORTE, THE OLDEST JEWISH OWNED ESTABLISHMENT IN THE PHILIPPINES FOUNDED IN 1860.

Interview FF: Bonnie & Sonny, thanks so much for both participating in this interview and if I could start by asking Sonny about your remarkable family connection to this story.

SI: When I was growing up I kept hearing about this European man Dr. Otto Zelezny, who was close friends with my dad and that he had actually been instrumental in saving my dad’s life just before I was born.

And it really wasn’t until much much later when I was involved in the research with Bonnie that I came across him, his brother Fritz and his mother who had arrived from Austria on one of the State department lists that was granting Visa’s and all of whom managed to make it to the Philippines. That’s when it dawned on me that oh my God, not only am I making this film but I’m actually part of this story! As a filmmaker you’re always searching for a story that has meaning but to have it so personal it meant that I was able to identify with those that were rescued because in a very real way I could feel their opportunity and fortune and in letting in over 1300 Jewish people, that included of course Otto Zelezny, who not only saved my dad’s life but also ensured that both myself and sixteen others were born safely. It was almost like this story had been waiting all my life and I just had to walk out and find it and in fact one of the impetuses behind this story is that I actually had dinner

one day with the grandson of President Quezon and we had sort of an informal handshake to agree that we had to do something about this. Actually, President Quezon’s first response was “well what do we need, a million Visa’s to sort this out!?” It never happened on this scale of course and one of the issues that was discovered was that because the Philippines was still part of the Commonwealth they still had to follow the US’s immigration laws one of which was any immigrant or refugee coming in could not be a burden to the state or a public charge and it should also be mentioned that there were anti-Semitic elements in the state department that stalled things so, by the time WW2 broke in the Philippines we would have been able to bring more in had those two things not been operative.

FF: Bonnie, how did your journey begin with this story?

BH: When I was listening to Sonny saying how a filmmaker is always looking for a story well you know, historians are looking for this piece of history to focus on and make it a life project.

As Sonny had been part of this story but not known about it I came to this project in a different way. The year was 2003 and I had just been accepted into a PHD program at UC Santa Barbara and because I had already been working as an archivist for the

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COUSINS LOTTE AND MARGOT CASSELL AT A SCHOOL HANUKAH PLAY IN MANILA CIRCA 1939.

THE HISTORIC LIBERATION CONCERT, MAY 9TH, 1945 UNDER THE BATON OF AUSTRIAN REFUGEE DR. HERBERT ZIPPER WHO ESCAPED VIENNA TO BECOME THE CONDUCTOR OF THE MANILA SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA.

So when I started to process his papers for the archives, that’s when I discovered that Cantor Cysner had been deported by the Nazis in October 1938 and held in an internment camp in Poland. And then all of a sudden, his papers were coming out of Manila. So immediately, I asked myself, “how did this happen?” Then of course my research started and when I told my faculty advisors at UCSB that I wanted this story to be the focus of my dissertation, they agreed, and I knew I had found the story of a lifetime. So for the next six years, I followed Cantor Cysner’s story and literally went all over the world, to the Philippines, to Poland, to Germany, Israel, and so on.

Following the paper trail, completing my research, and finishing and filing my dissertation in 2009 on how rescue came about in the Philippines through the efforts of President Manuel Quezon and US High Commissioner Paul McNutt, had all transpired before Sonny had come to the story. When Sonny started to explore this story with another producer, Sharon Delmendo in 2010, that’s when they found me and my six years of research, writing, and publishing on the story.

CANTOR JOSEPH CYSNER, ONE OF OVER 1,300 JEWS SAVED IN THE PHILIPPINES, IS PICTURED HERE INSIDE THE JEWISH SYNAGOGUE IN MANILA IN 1940.

Jewish Historical Society of San Diego, whose archives were housed at San Diego State University I had been accepted into a program for a Ph.D. in Public History. So I had made it my ambition that I would do my dissertation in writing a history of the Jewish people of San Diego because it hadn’t been written before and I had this wonderful archive. So I was all set with all of this amazing material in hand but then in the summer of 2003 we had a collection of papers arrive from a Cantor who had died suddenly in 1961 and his widow had left his office undisturbed for 40-years. And because Sylvia, the widow in question, needed to relocate to Los Angeles to be closer to her children she was closing up their house and dismantling his office and the archives manager and the director of the Jewish Historical Society of San Diego went by the house and saved all of these papers and records.

THE FILMMAKER IN 1946 THE YEAR OF PHILIPPINE INDEPENDENCE.

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FF: Would it be fair to say that if it hadn’t been for President Quezon this rescue in the Philippines would not have happened?

SI: I think it’s more a case of the right men at the right time, Quezon & McNutt were like the perfect dance partners.

They respected each other but each of them did his part in terms of influence and power and McNutt reported directly to President Roosevelt so you can imagine, he could do a lot of footwork skirting the State Department and so would do things before they were happening and before it was too late! And President Quezon for his part and according to the new constitution he was allowed to decide who could disembark in the Philippines so there was this melding in their spheres of influence.

HELEN BECK FOUND SAFE HAVEN IN THE PHILIPPINES AND GOT MARRIED DURING THE JAPANESE OCCUPATION OF MANILA IN 1943.

BH: And, if either of them had not been in favor of this the other could not have done it on their own, the timing was just so perfect and that was demonstrated with the High Commissioner (Francis Sayer) who replaced McNutt and didn’t get involved with the Jewish rescue at all FF: So how did you two actually connect?

TEMPLE EMIL BUILT IN 1924 BY THE JEWISH COMMUNITY OF MANILA WAS THE ONLY JEWISH SYNAGOGUE DESTROYED ON AMERICAN SOIL DURING WWII.

BH: So that’s quite an interesting story, when I was doing my research for my dissertation and interviewing Jewish survivors in the Philippines I had actually had a grad student friend of my daughters who was a filmmaker who had recorded some of these interviews and we had talked about putting a documentary of this story together and this was back in 2005. But I didn’t know anything about making a documentary and needed to finish my dissertation so that was kind of left on the back burner. Then I got a phone call from Sharon Delmendo in 2010 who was working with Sonny at the time as a researcher and told me about this project and wanted to know if they could both come out and interview me. At the time I didn’t even know that Sonny was the filmmaker and when they came out they actually interviewed me in the archive and from that moment on Sonny actually became my champion for getting my book done which I had just started to work on.

And on that note, I am so pleased that my book, Philippine Sanctuary: A Holocaust Odyssey, is now completed and will be released by my publisher, University of Wisconsin Press, in January 2020.

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PRESIDENT MANUEL QUEZON AND US HIGH COMMISSIONER PAUL MCNUTT IN AN ANIMATED DISCUSSION CIRCA 1938.

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So after that, everything kind of mushroomed from there. Would you believe, I had a 3-foot stack of documents that I shared with them for their research? And Sonny started to put together his early versions of the documentary. I remember representing the film team at a screening in 2015 at the Asian Jewish Art Museum in San Francisco.

Then in the summer of 2016, Sonny called me and told me we had screenings lined up in Poland, the Philippines, and Berlin and it was really exciting. I remember asking him if he would like me to attend these and he said “I would like nothing better than having you standing next to me.

SI: The very first time we had a fundraiser with a short trailer was in 2012 and it was in a synagogue and there we connected with some survivors and children of survivors that we didn’t even know were in the area so that was our first presentation together.

FF: Would I be right that with all of the material that you had you could have made a film that was 10 or 12-hours long, how do you hone that down?

SI: That’s correct but for me it starts off as though you’re doing a 10,000 piece puzzle then you sit down and after a while you begin to discern which parts connect, sometimes it comes straight away. So you might be interviewing someone and you know what the choice bits are but I remember when I

first put together the opening montage I was really pleased with myself, I thought this is great and I had spent weeks and weeks on this putting it together until I returned to Israel in 2016 and saw the Open Door monument and then all of a sudden a voice in my head said “Sonny, your story does not start in the past, it starts right here with the combination of friendship and love between Filipinos and Jews that this monument symbolized”. I fought it tooth and nail though because I didn’t want to change or remove this artistic opening that I had but in the end the monument (and voice) was correct, so I had to junk all of that and start from scratch and so I suppose it’s a process of living with the material so I guess now we’re in the fine tuning process. In the end you know it’s all interesting but you have to decide, which part is the most interesting.

BH: I think that there was another important moment for Sonny in the making of this film and that is the first time that we were in Poland. I know that he had an artistic, historical and personal appreciation for the story but there was a part of the story that he had not yet connected with and that was the gravity of the Holocaust itself. And so I had kind of pushed him and his wife Katherine into accompanying me to the Krakow ghetto and I knew that he needed to make a very personal connection to the story of real rescue of endangered lives. So when we were at the ghetto there was a cattle car that

had been used to transport Jewish victims to Auschwitz and there was an emotional connection that Sonny was able to make as to why we had to make this story.

SI: I broke down, just the enormity of this story just dawned on me, not intellectually but emotionally and I started to cry and Bonnie told me that I kept saying “never again” or words to that effect and she reminded me precisely why we had to make this film, why we had to tell this story.

My “Brother From Another Mother” – A personal story from Sonny Izon “Once in a blue moon one meets a stranger, and at the instance of that meeting is rewarded with the glimpse of a kindred soul. Such was my meeting with Jack Simke when he and I were brought together by a mutual friend. What was to be a perfunctory telephone introduction turned into an hour-long, far ranging discussion about the history of and friendship between Jews and Filipinos. At the end of that first meeting, I was convinced that Jack, even though he was in fact Jewish, was one of the most Filipino persons I had ever met. For him, the Philippines was his home, and Filipinos, his brothers. His love for the country that saved his parents from the Holocaust was undeniable (and he carries a Philippine passport to this day).

US ARMY NURSES FREED FROM THE CIVILIAN INTERNMENT CAMP SANTO TOMAS IN FEBRUARY 1945.

Philippine Sanctuary: A Holocaust Odyssey, is the culmination of 16 years of research by Holocaust Historian Bonnie M. Harris that documents Cantor Joseph Cysner’s harrowing expulsion from Nazi Germany and his timely rescue by the Philippines in 1939.

A PASSOVER MEAL HOSTED BY THE JEWISH WELFARE BOARD IN MANILA, APRIL 8, 1925.

I am honored to walk this journey with Jack, my “brother from another mother” as I’ve come to call him. It has made my road less daunting and the many tasks ahead less onerous. Recently, he paid me the highest of compliments, saying “Sonny, you have never suffered anti-Semitism.

You haven’t lost any people in the Holocaust… and yet you get us at such a deep level. You have the heart of a Jew.” Thank you for this honor, my brother. I hope I can live up to it. I can promise you that I will treat this story with love and care, and that it will be a film which I hope will continue to inspire and inform long after you and I are gone. An Open Door is my small way of paying tribute to Tikkun Olam, of thanking the rescued Jewish doctor who saved my father’s life in Manila - making mine possible – and of honoring the love and friendship between our two peoples. Mabuhay and L’Chaim!”

MARGOT CASSELL TAKEN JUST BEFORE SHE LEFT MANILA CIRCA 1946.

When Jack found out that a documentary about the rescue of Holocaust Jews in the Philippines was being done by a Filipino, he felt compelled to seek me out. An earlier documentary already had been produced but Jack was disappointed in the film, citing its Eurocentric point of view and a certain “orientalist” exoticism in its depiction of the Philippines. Once we spoke however, he was convinced that he wanted to be part of this effort. So it was then that we joined forces to give birth to this documentary called “An Open Door: Holocaust Haven in the Philippines.” Jack helped me to find survivors in Northern California to be interviewed. Jack was there when the one hour version of the film received a Best Documentary Award at the Bakersfield Film Festival. And with God’s help, Jack will be there when we cross the finish line with our broadcast version in 2020.

FEATURE DOCUMENTARY

RUN TIME 78 MINUTES

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DIRECTOR’S BIO

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Judith Escalona is an award-winning filmmaker, writer, and gallerist. Her latest film BX3M garnered awards in domestic and international film festivals. She recently screened BX3M at the Smithsonian Museum, Washington, D.C. as part of their first Latino Film Festival.

Previously, Escalona wrote and directed The Krutch, a surrealfilm about a Puerto Rican psychoanalyst with an identity problem, starring Jaime Sánchez (Pawnbroker, The Wild Bunch). The Krutch and BX3M are featured in a scholarly work titled Revolving Door Life Writing: Literature and Cinema of Puerto Rican Women by Christin Freyer.

BX3M WRITTEN AND DIRECTED

BY JUDITH ESCALONA

A timeless story of love and revenge, drugs and violence. Breaking free of the past to love and be loved. BX3M: Sometimes love is the endgame.

For Maria and Mona, graduation means fulfilling a dream. For Michael, it means dashing all hope for a better future. You either make the grade or you don’t -- in academics or love -- and that makes all the difference.

Things are heating up as Maria, Mona and Michael get ready for their senior year at James Monroe High School. Graduation is a no-brainer for Maria, a natural-born nerd. Mona, her best friend, wants to go to Cooper Union and that spells trouble for the aspiring photographer. Michael is flunking out. No matter, he’s on a mission yet unknown to him –– call it destiny or revenge.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I direct in an organic and intuitive manner that synthesizes form and content. In BX3M I explore and explode U.S. stereotypes of the Latino community through stories with broad appeal and universal themes.

Judith Escalona

A segment producer for CUNY-TV, Escalona is also the founder of PRdream.com, the 20-yearold, award-winning website on the history, culture and politics of Puerto Rico and the Puerto Rican diaspora. She founded and was chief curator of MediaNoche, a technologybased art gallery (medianoche.us). Escalona is currently working on a new screenplay for her next film.

“It’s an epic on a city block,” says Judith Escalona, the director and writer of BX3M. She grew up in the Bronx and knows these characters intimately.

Genuine experiences inform the lives of Maria, Mona, and Michael, the fictional characters Escalona has created.

Portraying the lives of inner city girls sets this urban drama apart from most films of the genre. These portraits of Latina adolescents are memorably different, yet their struggle is universal. Michael’s story, too, draws on the conventions used to represent ghetto life but with unique and unpredictable moments.

TADEUSZ CIESIELSKI, CINEMATOGRAPHER.

FEATURE FILM

RUN TIME 104 MINUTES

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/BX3MTHEMOVIE

WWW.BX3MGROWINGUPFAST.COM

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JOHN Y

ASIA’S RISING FILM TALENT...

Once again, this gifted filmmaker has three outstanding films in competition for our Festival in Warsaw, “MILLION LOVES IN ME (American edited version)”, “The Unknown Mother” and “My dear banquet”. Here John Y explains the reason behind the release of an all new version of “MILLION LOVES IN ME”. Also, we were lucky enough to have a fascinating interview with the lead actress Susan Shaw, from “The Unknown Mother”. Susan is one of the most respected and recognizable Asian actresses in the world with over 135 listed film appearances on IMDB alone and was actually discovered by Bruce Lee.

“MILLION LOVES IN ME” is a multi award winner and official selection in international film festivals across Asia, Europe, North America and Australia. Winnings include World Newcomer Filmmaker of the Year (for Producers Kenny Chan and John Y), Best Picture, Best Actress (Lo Koon Lan), World Actor of the Year and Best Actor (John Y), Supporting Actress (Ruby Yap), Supporting Actor (Wilson Lee), Ensemble of Cast, Music, and Sound.

FF: What made you decide to create a different version of “Million Loves In Me” (American Edited Version)?

JY: The distributor and the Hollywood producers in the United States, having reviewed the original version, feel that the original version is more suitable for the Asian market. They prefer to have an American edited version to appeal to the North American audience. They also wanted to change most of the score to suit the North American audience.

FF: It’s around 22-minutes shorter so how did you decide which scenes to edit down or enhance?

JY: My co-producer, Kenny and I worked with the US editor and producers. We tried to make the scenes tighter and one of the scenes which contains quite sensitive material needs to be edited out . We tried to ensure that nothing is lost in the trim.

FF: It must be such a time consuming process, is it literally going through the film time and again, deciding the new

edit as you revisit the original cut or did you have a pretty good idea in mind of what you wanted to change with this new version?

JY: First of all, we considered the comments from the editor and the US producers . We then went through this time consuming process of going back to the original cut again and decide if we should take the comments from the editor and the US producers by taking out some parts of the scenes away.

We also considered the new score selected by the editor and US producers. Kenny and I also have our input relating to the score by introducing some original music score created by our friend, Ms Diana Ringo into the American edited version.

FF: I always think that editing a film must be such a tough process, the editor is I would imagine trying to envisage the filmmakers dream - I’m guessing in this process there will always be disagreement, is it a case of totally trusting the editors decision or in other words is it possible to give us an idea of how long and difficult this process can be?

JY: Yes there was disagreement with one of the scenes between us and the US producers. They would like to edit more off but Kenny and I would like to edit less of that particular scene to keep the original flavour. The process is much longer than the making of the film and the original cut. The entire process took us three months to do it but it is worth getting the US distribution.

FF: When you decided that you wanted a different version of the film, the American Edited Version, was it hard to explain to the editing team how and why you wanted this to be different, did they kind of “get it” straight away!?

JY: The editing team did “get it“ straight away. The editor is great and he has valuable input by changing the sequence of some of the scenes in which Katy and Anthony are mainly in. His view is this will give a different flavour to the audience. I have to ask the audience who watched both versions and tell me if they agree with our editor.

FF: Who would be in the editing suite when this (or the original version) was being put together?

JY: The editor was the main person in the editing suite but he collated the comments from us (having considered the lengthy but valuable comments from the US producers) plus his own suggestions to make the entire thing work .

FF: I know that you spend a lot of time in Canada so would have a really good understanding of how a film in North America would be looked at in regards to Hong Kong, audiences are often different in their reactions / expectations regionally of course!

Was this something that you were mindful of when “Million Loves In Me” was being shot, or did it come after and whenever you did realise that you wanted a different cut, were you confident you would be able to achieve what you wanted with the American Edited Version of “Million Loves In Me”?

JY: It is great that I lived in Hong Kong previously and live in Canada right now.

I have the privilege of understanding the Eastern and Western culture and the tastes of different audiences. Originally, we have created three versions of Million Loves in Me, the first one is the original version which we submitted to most of the international film festivals for consideration. The second one is a Hong Kong edited version, which we obtained comments from a Hong Kong distributor.

It suits the tastes of the Hong Kong audience. .

The third version is the Malaysia and China theatrical version in which we took into account the censorship in these countries.

The American edited version came into the scene when we realized the US distributor wanted a different cut. We are confident that we have achieved what they like.

FF: Which version do you prefer!?

JY: I like all versions and all versions have a uniqueness of their own. We hope the audience who likes the film will be able to experience all versions.

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About the film “MILLION LOVES IN ME” follows the story of a wealthy mother and daughter who suffer from the psychological issues of obsessivecompulsive disorders and their controversial private lives are exposed to the public through a charge of their animal hoarding behavior by the police. The topic of animal hoarding, to our knowledge, has never been shown a movie in cinematic history.

The film examines the common mental disorders that affect people from all ages across the world, whilst sometimes the sufferers may not even notice their illnesses.

In this story, both Katy and her mother are victims of these obsessive-compulsive disorders.

“MILLION LOVES IN ME” is produced by Kenny CHAN and John Y, a first time producer of a feature film. Two Hollywood producers, Frank Mayor and Monique R White are added as executive producers when the film secured worldwide distribution by a Hollywood distributor.

MILLION LOVES IN ME is directed by Sampson YUEN, whose previous works include a famous TV drama in Hong Kong in which the international renowned Tony Leung and Maggie Cheung’s acting debut and the topgrossing films “Bullets Over Petaling Street” and “Petaling Street Warriors”. The film stars LO Koon-Lan, the well-respected awardwinning actress from Hong Kong and John Y, who is also the scriptwriter and co-producer of the film. John is formerly a practicing lawyer in Hong Kong and makes his acting debut in this debatable drama about animal hoarding, mental disorder and confinement of life.

FEATURE FILM DRAMA

RUN TIME 82 MINUTES

WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/MILLIONLOVESINME

“The Unknown Mother ” is also a multi award winner and official selection in international film festivals around the world including the Glendale International Film Festival where Susan Shaw won for Best Actress in A Short Film and John Y for Best Actor in A Short Film as well Best International Short Film!

An interview with Susan Shaw FF: We really liked the dynamic between you and John’s character, were you given a brief before filming started as to how to play his mother?

Susan: I was provided with the script for review before accepting the role. Although there are only a few characters in the short film, I feel that the emotional aspect in the film is very rich. John, The lead actor and I have the same vision, so that during the shooting, we have the same rapport and chemistry.

FF: Were always really interested in films where there are essentially 2 main characters as it means the dynamic has to look genuine, is this something that can be “taught”?

Susan: I feel that if the writer only concentrates on two main characters, the screenplay writer and director must choose the most appropriate persons to act as they can provide the appropriate emotion during the shooting process and can produce the best chemistry .

FF: For this film, did you make any suggestions about the original script or suggest any changes – for instance the ending was powerful and very moving with the reveal about you having passed away and not being John’s biological mother?

Susan: My character is that from youth until now, I am very concerned about the information provided in the script. I was moved by the script to take up the role. I did not make any suggestions for changes in the script. The script gave me a philosophical insight and a view of life.

I do not act because of my acting career.

My mission as an actress is to show my emotions and the messages contained in the films through the screen.

FF: How did John Y (co-director and main actor) and Wai Ying Wong (director) persuade you to be in this film?

Susan: I am very pleased that the director and John found that I am the most appropriate person for the role , so I feel so fortunate and joy to be chosen to act in such a touching film .

The director and John therefore did not have to persuade me to act.

FF: I read that before you became an actress that you were a singer who caught Bruce Lee’s attention and that lead to an audition, can you tell us a little more about that?

Susan: It was so difficult to get into the Hong Kong entertainment industry many years ago. I worked as a nurse in a ship owned by the shipping magnate, Tung Chao Yung, father of Tung Chee-hwa, the first Chief Executive of the Hong Kong SAR. When they were waiting for the schedule of the ship named “Universal “, I met the father of my ex-classmates who was a Japanese translator (at that time there were not many people who are fluent Japanese speakers in the industry). I went to the site of shooting of a scene in Golden Harvest where Bruce Lee was shooting a scene. Bruce Lee noticed me and found that I was very suitable to be his actress, so he suggested the company to do an audition for me. I was selected and provided a role. It was under these circumstances, I first touched upon the entertainment industry.

About the film In their daily lives, John (John Y) and his mother (Susan Shaw) always engage in fights and arguments -- she never likes the smell of cheese that John loves, and he never likes the way she throws things randomly at home, and always messes up his date of birth. One day, John and his mother visit their favourite restaurant together. During their meal, they quarrel over tiny little matters as usual. The fight between John and his mother is nothing new to the restaurant manager. However, John’s behavior is somewhat absurd to the manager this time...

SHORT DRAMA

RUN TIME 9 MINUTES

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THAT’S OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING WRITTEN & DIRECTED

BY CHARLES PELLETIER Featuring A Knockout Performance

By C. Stephen Foster

Comedy based on a true story wins 23 film festival awards!

Two wanna-be thugs attempt to rob an apartment; everything goes awry when the owners show up early for a little late-night sex. A game of cat and mouse ensues.

Rob and Merrit are two desperate men who are struggling to find work and resorting to robbing an apartment. The reluctant criminals use keys from a purse they snatched earlier. They begin to grab the loot, unfortunately for them the girl returns to her apartment with her roommate looking for her missing purse. This is only the start of the problems for the pair of robbers as Tim, the roommate, has plans of his own with Chelsea, the purse owner, and they don’t look to be leaving the apartment anytime soon.

Writer/Director Charles Pelletier got the idea for the script “That’s Opportunity Knocking” by an anecdote told by one of the actors, Thomas Anawalt, at a bar after a play in which they were both involved at the Hollywood Fringe Festival. Thomas had been living in New York, and one night got home with his roommate, and went to bed, only to find the next morning that he had been robbed, and the burglars had been in the apartment the whole time they had been home. Hiding. Somewhere.

The true story became a comedic “tall tale” in which two wanna-be thugs attempt to rob an apartment; everything goes awry when the owners show up early for a little late-night sex.

Toss in the third wheel roommate, fresh out of the mental hospital and comedy was created.

when she agreed to be the DP, it was a perfect scenario for me, as a first-time film director.

Since she owned her own studio, we were able to have many rehearsals over a period of weeks, on the set, and find the characters, in the way you would direct a play.

“Brilliant writing that is perfectly performed by an extremely strong cast.”

Movie-Blogger.com

My philosophy is to cast the right people, and stay out of their way. The state an actor is in, when he or she is acting well, is vulnerable. I believe great actors will eventually find their way, if given a safe space and a morsel of guidance, but that journey is largely an internal one.

DIRECTOR CHARLES PELLETIER’S NOTES I was anxious to write a project for some of the very gifted actors I had worked with at the Hollywood Fringe Festival (C. Stephen Foster, Charlotte Gulezian, Moronai Kanekoa, Satchel Andre and Thomas Anawalt), mostly recent graduates of the USC MFA Acting program.

Cynthia Webster read the script and was immediately excited about producing it. As a cinematographer, she had won two Emmy’s, so

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY - CHARLES PELLETIER Charles Pelletier has directed many works for the stage, and makes his film directing debut with “That’s Opportunity Knocking”. As a writer, he has inked several films and stage works, including the Off-Broadway musical The Green Room, which premiered at the

Hermosa Beach Playhouse and received glowing reviews in the LA Times (“A bright beaming cherub of a fledging new musical.”)

The musical has been produced all over the world to standing ovations everywhere. His children’s musical, The Boy Who Stood Still, was a finalist in the Zornio Playwriting Contest and was produced at the University of New Hampshire. He has several film scripts in preproduction, and has garnered such awards as finalist in the Hollywood Gateway Screenplay Contest, runner-up in the Find the Funny Screenplay Contest, and semi-finalist in the PAGE International Screenwriting Contest.

His song It’s All About Me, was chosen as the Songwriter’s Guild of America Musical Song of the Year. Charles studied music and English at the University of Illinois and Princeton, and has done graduate work in English Literature at Oxford University in England. He is currently Vocal Music Director of all Princess Cruises mainstage productions.

SHORT COMEDY

RUN TIME 22 MINUTES

THATSOPPORTUNITYKNOCKINGTHEMOVIE.COM

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OTTO NEURURER HOPE THROUGH DARKNESS SYNOPSIS In May 1940, Catholic priest Otto Neururer suffered an agonising death which lasted 36 hours in Buchenwald concentration camp.

Decades later Heinz Fitz, an ageing actor, goes in search of the traces left behind by the blessed priest, together with juvenile delinquent Sofia and Fr. Anton, who is suffering from Parkinson’s disease. Heinz wants to heal the shame of his father’s guilt and find peace. His father was a Nazi and did terrible things. Otto Neururer was beatified by Pope Johannes Paul II in 1996.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT Violence, lack of respect and intolerance seem to be gaining renewed ground in a more and more complex and ephemeral world. The Catholic priest Otto Neururer was brutally murdered by the Nazis for his nonviolent resistance in a concentration camp. The profoundly humane way in which he opposed the totalitarian regime is in many respects exemplar, even in our times.

Thus, it was particularly important to our film crew to tell this story, which is touching and at the same time tragic, in a way that would be contemporary, instructive and amusing for the audience. Thanks to the tireless contribution of the entire crew “Otto Neururer” has become a remarkable and unique movie, sending a strong message!

PRODUCED BY OTTFRIED FISCHER AND HERMANN WEISKOPF WRITTEN BY DR. PETER MAIR & KIRSTEN OSSOINIG ACTORS: OTTFRIED FISCHER, LUCAS ZOLGAR, JASMIN MAIRHOFER, HEINZ FITZ, KARL MERKATZ, ANTONIO WANNEK, JULIA GSCHNITZER DIRECTORS OF PHOTOGRAPHY: GINO SGREVA, JESSE KENT SCORE: BERNHARD FALKNER, MARLON PRANTL COSTUME: GWEN MC GUIRK SET DESIGN: HANNES LEITGEB MAKE UP: ALINE KRABACHER SOUND DESIGN: TOMAS BASTIAN EXECUTIVE PRODUCER GERMANY: ROBERT MÜLLER DIRECTED BY HERMANN WEISKOPF

AN AUSTRIAN – GERMAN CO-PRODUCTION COPYRIGHT 2019 HERMANN WEISKOPF AVG FILMPRODUKTION E.U. GRAUER-STEIN-WEG 9 6020 INNSBRUCK AUSTRIA TEL. 0043-660-6516432

DRAMA

RUN TIME 89 MINUTES

INFO@AVGPRODUKTION.COM

WWW.AVGPRODUKTION.COM

IN KOPRODUKTION MIT

Ottfried Fischer TRAILER

WWW.OTTONEURURER.COM

WWW.AVGPRODUKTION.COM

HOMEPAGE UND SPONSOR

HOMEPAGE UND SPONSOR

Sein Glaube war stärker als die Nazis His Faith was Stronger than the Nazis / La sua fede era più forte dei Nazisti

Otto Neururer Hoffnungsvolle Finsternis

Otto Neururer – Hope through Darkness / Otto Neururer – Una luce nelle tenebre Ottfried Fischer Karl Merkatz Lucas Zolgar Heinz Fitz Jasmin Mairhofer Antonio Wannek Hans-Jürgen Silbermann Julia Gschnitzer Sophie Resch Peter Miklusz Mathias Renneisen Enzo Weiskopf Hermann Weiskopf Madeleine Weiler Michaela Posch • Produktion: Hermann Weiskopf, Dr. Peter Mair, Robert Müller, Kirsten Ossoinig, Verena Lanzinger, Giovanni Balestriere, Elsa Bral • Make uP & Hair: Aline Krabacher, Barbara Hainz, Claudia Hörtnagl • kostüMe: Gwen Mc Guirk, Eileen Hill • ausstattung: Hannes Leitgeb Vera Larch • song „Bist du Bei Mir“: Marlon Prantl • ton: Massimilano Baccella • tonMiscHung: Tomas Bastian • kaMera-assistenz: Lorenzo Balestriere • kaMera: Jesse Kent • cHefkaMeraMann: Gino Sgreva • scHnitt: Jesse Kent • filMMusik: Bernhard Falkner • dreHBucH: Dr. Peter Mair • regie: Hermann Weiskopf Plakatdesign: wedot.net - Roberta Gobbo, Elsa Bral

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GRACE FURY

BY LAURA CARRUTHERS A WOMAN. A STORY. A DREAM. A FIGHT… A VOICE WITH LEGS. Professionally executed by an eclectic cast of performers, who have graced stages across the globe with major ballet companies, Broadway shows and more, Grace Fury is a 60-minute tour de force that crosses realm and genre, experimentally fusing musical dance, diary, and documentary to ride the elements of artistic struggle and success. Both dynamic and delicate, Grace Fury reveals an inner self and story - the curious journey of an artist-entrepreneur – a woman “pioneering” from a world-ranked Scottish dance and professional Ballet background to build independent projects for stage and film. The fighting, free spirit of her dance and message is bound to satisfy any audience moved by exuberant and thoughtfully crafted performing arts films – of, by, and for the people.LauraCarruthers.com

“...an autobiographical journey through dance, imagery, spoken word and the power of presence that redefines everything you’ve ever expected dance to be in a documentary...Thought provoking and freeing, immensely entertaining and trailblazing, Grace Fury is an absolute must see...” ---- The Independent Critic “Ancient symbol, visual metaphors, and fictional action from my earliest short films are incorporated to give Grace Fury depth, mystery, and character…to authenticate my artistic ‘evolution’ through her voice - her thoughts, feelings, and realizations from remote, rugged foundation to destination. The brainchild of my own ‘fire & grace’ over the years, she speaks to the little guy or gal of modest, middle class means, with a well-rooted dream and the resolve to ‘make it’ – true. I hope others will join me in her message of grace, hope, and faith.GraceFury. com ----Laura Carruthers Grace Fury has already moved hearts and minds, among film experts and enthusiasts. She premiered and won Best Experimental Feature at the Manhattan Film Festival and later received Best Dance Film at the Golden State Festival in Los Angeles, a *Platinum* Remi Awardfor Documentary from WorldFest-Houston, Best Woman Filmmaker from the World Music & Independent Film Festival, and Best Director & Choreography at the San Francisco International New Concepts Film Festival.

MUSICAL FEATURE

RUN TIME 60 MINUTES

Many sincere thanks to Fusion International Film Festivals for screening Grace Fury in Europe this year!

LAURACARRUTHERS.COM

First Edition Design publishing immediately wanted to publish and claimed that they could scan the typewritten work to Word.

We published in 2014, 36 years after being written.

Amazon has 12 million books. It is impossible to get noticed. I decided to turn the work into a screenplay. Through the Internet I found a screenwriter anxious to transform my book into the desired format. As well as being nominated at the Fusion South International Film Festival Valencia edtion, the script has been nominated and won at several other film festivals including at the Fusion North International Film Festival London edition and Nice International Film Festival.

A featured review by Ken C.

POWER PLAY INTRODUCING THE SCREENPLAY POWER PLAY & BASED ON THE NOVEL

BY F. ETHAN REPP

A cancerous political suspense cocktail, based upon deceit, revenge and envy. Our young, handsome mayoral aspirant, Collier Winthrop, is recruited by a crusty old political boss, Al Caso, to upset the status-quo. He soon is faced with opposition from within and without.

1970’s. Before, House of Cards, there was Power Play.

SCREENPLAY WRITTEN BY COLIN STEWART, “I wrote the book Power Play in 1978, following a failed run for the US Congress at the age of 33. Full of remaining adrenalin and loss of all consuming activity, I spent the next 4 months writing. Once finished I really didn’t know what to do with it. The popular Mayor of NYC, John Lindsay, a good friend, passed it around to a few publishers, who were complimentary but passed.

The work needed editing. I put the typed book away forever.

Two years ago, I told my grandson about the book. He wanted to read it. (Pause) The manuscript was buried somewhere in the garage and I didn’t really know what shape it was in anyway. I rescued the work and began to read. I had forgotten the story but realized, hey this is good stuff. It is real.

Young handsome, charming Collier Winthrop, heir to Winthrop Manufacturing is enticed by a crusty old political boss, Al Caso to run for Mayor of the City. The scheme is to utilize the reputation of a prominent family to split the opposition party vote majority. But there is a threat of losing some of his own party base through the disappointment of not being anointed themselves. Caso is running a risk and it could be his head if he is not successful.

In this story, they talk, up front and personal”.

- F. Ethan Repp.

Power Play is an intriguing political novel that covers the rise of a young man who takes on an incumbent mayor and wins. Then he learns that the campaign has only just begun.

That campaign is the one to govern, and the obstacles he faces would wither just about anyone. Author F. Ethan Repp knows his stuff.

He takes us through a zinger of an attempt by the deposed mayor to destroy the man who beat him, and dirty politics is almost a euphemism for what he undertakes. There’s quite a bit of detail here, which almost makes the novel a textbook of politics and government.

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CROWNSVILLE HOSPITAL FROM LUNACY TO LEGACY A UNIQUELY MADE AND THOUGHT PROVOKING DOCUMENTARY

BY R. TODD STEVENS

Crownsville Hospital: From Lunacy to Legacy is a feature-length documentary film highlighting the history of the Crownsville State Mental Hospital located in Crownsville, MD USA. Drawing on many documentary works such as “The Thin Blue Line” and “Night and Fog” for inspiration, the film utilizes archival footage, animation and original music to unfold the story and evoke a mood. Both exterior and interior present-day footage and photos have been combined with exterior/interior archival footage and photos to capture the changes to the hospital through its 96-year lifespan. In addition, interviews with historians and former hospital workers as well as patients help to round out the experience.

Constructed in 1910, Crownsville State Hospital, formerly known as the Hospital for the Negro Insane of Maryland, was the third

asylum in the U.S. designed to house only African-Americans. In 1962, Crownsville began to accept all mental patients regardless of their race. Crownsville Hospital Center closed its doors on June 30, 2004 and has since sat vacant.

MORE INFORMATION ON THE HOSPITAL’S HISTORY CAN BE FOUND AT THE ADDRESS BELOW: EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG/WIKI/CROWNSVILLE_HOSPITAL_ CENTER

R. Todd Stevens, wearing the hats of Producer, Director, Cinematographer and Editor had this to say, “I am very excited about the completion of this project and would not trade its 5-year production schedule for anything. I consider it my greatest life lesson and achievement and I am so pleased to now be sharing it with the rest of the World. I used to live within two miles of the hospital and would drive past its dilapidated buildings often. Every time I did, it cried out for its story to be told. It was a film waiting to happen and I am grateful for the opportunity to be its vessel.”

Most of the talent and crew involved with this project donated their time and their efforts.

This film would not have been possible without their creativity, experience, and positive attitudes. What the audience is left with is a historical snap shot that captures the ambiance of a state mental facility, its surrounding 500acre campus, and the lives it touched.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

RUN TIME 108 MINUTES

CROWNSVILLEHOSPITALFROMLUNACYTOLEGACY.COM

THE DEAD, THE DAY AFTER Shot somewhere at the beginning of this century, this outdated and reincarnated low definition DV documented scenes in a slaughterhouse.

Under the market system operated for hundreds of years, pork, human flesh, and different kinds, are connected and interrelated, which becomes the politicaleconomic theme of this issue that gets weak and obscure.

Inspired by “Panopticon,” suggested by Jeremy Bentham, an English philosopher, to discuss the principle of utilitarianism, this film further extends the idea into a metaphor -“circular pigpen,” shown in the beginning of this work. By highlighting the imagery of water referring to the circulation of life, death and the hereafter, the presented human and animal bodies in the film therefore illustrate the scenery of “human-animal (reincarnating) community.”

Director Biography - Asio LIU Chihsiung Asio LIU Chihsiung was born beside Tamsui River in Taiwan and now works as a director/DP/screenwriter. He majored in philosophy in NCCU (National Cheng Chi University) and was a copywriter at the

Ogilvy & Mather advertising company. He is best known for directing a biographical documentary on HUANG HAI-DAI, the legendary godfather of Taiwanese Puppetry born in 1901, for the Discovery Networks Asia’s PORTRAITS TAIWAN (2007) series.

His directorial debut experimental film AND SHE WASN’T (2001, co-dir w/ Awei LIU) was shown at the 2001 Sundance Film Fest, and documentary work EXOTIC EXOTICISM (2007) officially screened at the 2009 Documentary Fortnight at MoMA (Museum of Modern Art, New York, US). His DP work QUIET SUMMER (Shuhei FUJITA 2005) was selected at the Philadelphia Int’l Film Fest, and his latest work JOURNEY TO THE PROMISED ISLAND (2015) was included in an archive of the exhibition histories of nine Asian countries in ACC’s Library Park Program (Asia Culture Center, Korea, 2017).

He won the Grand Award in Excellence Screenplay Awards held by TFI (Taiwan Film Institute) in 2016 and is now working on “PLACE OF EXCEPTION: Unknown Penghu Vietnamese Refugee Camps in the Taiwan Strait”, which is one of the documentary trilogy (“Place of Exception”, “Chin-LiuTao”, “Refugee Boats to Penghu”) initiated by an unknown Cambodian girl in his dreams.

Director Statement “Being a spectator of other’s calamities is a quintessential modern experience.”

-derived and adapted from Susan Sontag (2003) DOCUMENTARY FILM

RUN TIME 51 MINUTES

WWW.MIMEOFILMS.COM

Association of Film Commissioners International We are delighted to announce a festival industry partnership with the Association of Film Commissioners International AFCI. Like AFCI we also share the same vision and passion for supporting economic growth and helping independent filmmakers take the next step.

We encourage all interested parties to look at the benefits AFCI can offer and consider reaching out to them for assistance with future productions.

Why Work With A Commission?

AFCI Member Film Commissions can offer production companies a complete range of pre-production services through a central contact point. Our members provide accurate and timely information regarding local crew depth, stage facilities and other infrastructure, location suggestions (assisting with site location photography, regional scouting services, bespoke location presentations), film procedures, permits, and guidelines. They can also serve as a liaison between governmental departments and agencies, facilitating connections with local communities and arrangements for filming on public property.

The Association of Film Commissioners International (AFCI) is the official professional organisation for film commissioners who assist film, television and video production throughout the world. AFCI Members are comprised of more than 300 film commissions in 45 countries on six continents; it is the leading resource on the planet for location shooting.

AFCI Members are devoted to providing infrastructure and incentive support resources to the film and television industry, supporting thousands of jobs across the globe, and thousands of film and television productions annually.

Can’t Stop the Sun from Shining by Dr Teresa Mular MD

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BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT A STUNNING DOCUMENTARY FILM

BY HERBERT GOLDER

A fresh and candid glimpse of one of the great masters of cinema at work, by his longtime friend (of more than 25 years) and collaborator (on 10 films) Herbert Golder, BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT chronicles Werner Herzog’s making of the feature film, MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE (co-written by Golder), which was nominated for a GOLDEN LION at the Venice Film Festival, and which stars Michael Shannon, Willem Dafoe, and Chloe Sevigny.

MY SON, MY SON, WHAT HAVE YE DONE was inspired by the true story of an actor who acted out in reality the crime he was supposed to enact on stage in a production of an ancient Greek play: he murdered his mother. BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT explores the process through which this true story, itself inspired by a fiction, is transformed back into a fiction—that is, a narrative feature film—once again.

Unlike other documentaries which have been made about Herzog, in which he stares almost defiantly into the camera and, in his inimitable way and in his famous voice, articulates his views on life, this film shows a side of him known only to his friends and close collaborators. Although refreshingly candid and surprisingly revealing, this portrait in no way diminishes Herzog’s mystique—quite the contrary— but it does deepen our appreciation of his humanity, and offers, through Golder’s running commentary—as much part of an ongoing conversation with Herzog as a conversation with the viewer—an insider’s insight into his craft.

Even as we come closer to knowing Herzog more intimately in this film, we also become increasingly aware of his privacy and the deep solitude that in some essential way defines him. Herzog’s idea that film should be, not analysis, but an “agitation of the mind” informs the telling of the story that unfolds here. Not without its moments of humor and warmth, BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT nonetheless manages to explore, through what we see taking shape on screen and through Golder’s voiceover narration, some of the most abiding and deepest themes of Herzog’s films.

DOCUMENTARY FILM

RUN TIME 63 MINUTES

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THE MOON SMELLS LIKE GUNPOWDER A SHORT-LENGTH MYSTERY

BY MARK SOLTER

SYNOPSIS Henry is a man for hire, living his life in the margins while quietly changing the course of other people’s lives. His sought-after skills in surveillance and intelligence gathering have taken him all around the world. On this, his final assignment traveling from Australasia to the American southwest, Henry’s handler, Blaire, receives intel that assets have gone missing and that Henry is on the run. Refusing any offer to come in and explain, Henry’s personal and professional worlds are now on an unstoppable collision course leaving Blaire no other option than to send another agent to remedy the situation. But as the two men converge on a safe house south of the border, it is not quite clear if Henry has been the only one with a different fate in mind.

DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT I believe that at some point you have to trust your instincts. That, the intent to act and the subsequent act itself become the same.

Though this is inevitably limited to our specific

perceptual frame, I wanted to avoid the usual tropes and expectations surrounding the structure of a filmed mystery; consequently, it was important to experiment with a layering of time frames, shuffled timelines, shifting continuity, and metaphor play to get at the heart of Henry’s moral and existential odyssey.

A slower, hidden kind of cinema. A puzzle that, in as much I hope it will be enjoyed, will leave the viewer wondering.

SHORT MYSTERY DRAMA

RUN TIME 28 MINUTES

WWW.MARKSOLTER.COM

THE RADICALIZATION OF JEFF BOYD WRITTEN AND DIRECTED

BY UWE SCHWARZWALDER

This drama is about a businessman, Jeff Boyd, who dreams of living in Australia. When he signs an investment contract, he’s full of hope to be able to go with a pocket full of cash. He soon realizes that it’s not that easy. And after a heavy argument with his boss, Jeff’s world collapses. That’s when he meets a young woman, Wendy, also in a delicate state. Their common worries about what the world turns into comes more and more into light, and they decide that they want to change that - with a dangerous plan!

The cast includes Uwe Schwarzwalder, Yessica Sanchez, Zarina Tadjibaeva, Jörg Reichlin, Julian Booth, Brian Pinkus, Freigeist van Tazzy, Leonard Kocan, Patricia Sluka and many more.

Uwe Schwarzwalder wrote the story only in a few weeks. When searching for the actors, he tried to connect on a personal level instead of the usual audition process. The core scenes were shot within a month while adding additional shots afterwards during a whole year. Post production was eventually a very

long process, in co-operation with 4 musicians, Michael Klubertanz, Paco Periago and Brendan Gillespie who also wrote and performed “Fall” and Amanda Ply with “Waiting”, who all underlined the film with an unusual score.

This is his first film as a director. He tried to bring out the essence of each character and to stay truthful to the moment. (So truthful, that one time a real police SWAT team showed up as they suspected a hold up). Also important to him was the logical aspect of the story being told. All had to make sense and be believable as it would be

in real life. And it becomes the real life - with weaknesses, vulnerabilities and motives, even though they might be a little bit crazy, like life itself!

THRILLER

RUN TIME 117 MINUTES

WWW.THERADICALIZATION.COM

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TERESA MULAR MD Teresa Mular consistently produces some incredible films and is screening five of these at our East Europe International Film Festival in warsaw, four of which are in competition.

This includes her triliogy “Flying On The Wings Of Time”, a comedy sequel – Now Boarding 2 and her all new stand-alone documentary film “Can’t stop the sun from shining”.

“Can’t Stop the Sun from Shining“

This film shows extraordinary elderly women, engaged in their activities - past, present and future, and to honor all these individuals whose sense of purpose, unrelenting creativity and life-challenged in myriad of ways - have not precluded them to move on with zest and optimism.

Their unending curiosity and exciting lives will hopefully inspire younger generations and incite them to delete from their lives the words “dread, denial, discomfort and fear” as they also may approach the very old biological age.

Through interviews, clips and archival footage, this film explores the lives of four strikingly strong, focused and determined centenarian women (94 to 105 years old) revealing to us how in spite of all their struggles and adversities they have arrived to the winter of their lives with dignity and grace.

RUN TIME 48 MINUTES

DIRECTOR BIOGRAPHY - TERESA MULAR Dr. Teresa Mular was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. She was raised and educated there, completing her University studies and graduating as a Medical Doctor at age 23. Parallel to that she studied piano and voice at the National Conservatory of Music in Buenos Aires. As a young person she developed a lifelong passion for classical music and the arts. She moved to New York, to further her training at Downstate Medical Center, State University of New York-Kings County Hospital, in Brooklyn. She became an Associate Professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology years later at the same institution and had a long career as a physician and teacher.

She is fluent in Italian (which she studied in Florence starting in 2006) and it is in Italy, where she found the germinating seed for making her first documentary about the land that witnessed her birth. She recently completed this four-part documentary that pays homage to the various artistic complexities and cultural life of Buenos Aires, under the title “Flying on the Wings of Time Volando en las Alas del Tiempo”.

THMULAR@OPTONLINE.NET

Indie Film Rights & Fusion International Film Festivals From day one our ambitions have always been to support the independent film industry and all the filmmakers and creatives that connect with us, either at our festivals or from afar.

We are again delighted to announce a new industry partnership with a very dynamic distributor that is set to have a very high profile 2020 and many years to follow!

As part of our collaboration we are able to offer our winning – feature and foreign language films fast track review and consideration with global distributor Indie Rights. Whilst we cannot promise distribution we are in the position to facilitate more influential introductions and add projects to a priority listing thanks to our partnership that will ensure all projects are reviewed and highly considered.

Indie Rights, a subsidiary of Nelson Madison Films, is a full service, global distributor with direct relationships to major distribution outlets. Based on the experience of its founders, Linda Nelson and Michael Madison, the need for a new type of distribution for truly independent films is evident. Thousands of great independent films are made each year and never find an audience. They play at film festivals all over the world and are never discovered by the sales agents and distributors that frequent only the top tier festivals such as Sundance, Toronto and Cannes.

SHIFTED, their first digital feature, was the first movie on Amazon’s UnBox (the predecessor of Amazon Video) and was used by Amazon to promote their platform for over five years.

DELIVERED was the first independent feature to edit and master a 4K movie using Adobe CS5. Partnerships were forged early on with the leading digital platforms including Amazon, Google, AppleTV, TubiTV, and others. These partnerships insure that Indie Rights can offer the very best audience opportunities for their own films, as well as the more than 800 other filmmakers they work with. Indie Rights exhibits every year at AFM and the Cannes Film Market.

Here at Fusion International Film Festivals we have seen the quality of films on the circuit and want to bridge the gap and help find these wonderful films an audience long after the festival circuit.

Please note: the films that will be considered MUST be packaged and ready to be delivered if they are selected for distribution. We can provide you with a list of the required deliverables.

All men dream, but not equally . . .

Ballad of a Righteous Merchant Filming Herzog ďŹ lming . . .

A film by Herbert Golder

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JESUS RIDES A HARLEY A SHORT FILM

BY MICHAEL BOSTON

Jesus Rides A Harley is a most peculiar short film from filmmaker Michael Boston, who also plays one of the leads... he is Jesus (or is he) in this romantic comedy that obviously takes chances and doesn’t compromise on its way to a warm thoughtful message and quite a few laughs along the way, Jesus, is, as the Bible depicts, quite human and in this little story he can be vulnerable to loneliness, can be attracted to a Los Angeles working girl, can perform magic tricks even if some only work just some of the time, and rather than long journeys by foot, this Jesus gets around the sprawling LA metroplex on what else but a Harley Davidson. A lot going on here, so much so that it has room to be a feature film but Boston has brilliantly compressed it into a 29-minute version.

This is Boston’s latest short after debuting with the powerful and quite disturbing short Dress Rehearsal about a struggling LA actor, and following up a year later with the socially-conscious The Guitar, an honest look at drug addiction, former rockstars and homelessness in the same city. This new one won’t make one squeamish but it may cause you some laughing spells.

J.C., as this Jesus is referred to, appears at the front door of Zalina, played by Kay Wilson, who just happens to be searching for romance via online dating, and after a few alcoholic beverages. He’s here to answer an ad for a motorcycle part but what she sees in her mind, is Jesus, albeit one that could also be a biker, and immediately wonders if God has sent him to cure her loneliness and perhaps break out some real Friday night romance for her. He’s oblivious to this but he’s nonetheless smitten and intimacy is found between the two before a hilarious interruption and a parting of the ways.

What ensues is neighborhood speculation about this stranger and Zalina doubting her choices but something now sparks J.C‘s magic and he starts to look at LA as a much friendlier place. Maybe he sticks around and proves himself worthy to her. And just maybe he’ll give his doubters a nice dose of faith along the way.

This is a well-structured story and what Boston does with his clever writing is not attack the Catholic church but rather takes tiny pokes and jabs, in a friendly way, and uses what is in front of him. And a couple of celebrity references pop up to add to the fun.

CAST: Michael Boston, Kay Wilson, Shannan Leigh Yancsurak, Alex Borbon, Julia Pels, Piankhi Iknaton, Calvin Benuto, Malachi Ryan, Micah Mobley, Kofi Baffour, Jasmine Reid, Timo Gates, Samuel Whitehill, Keith Mills, Julian R. Booth, Ronald Allen and Maria Quezada.

FILMMAKERS: Michael Boston (Writer/ Director/Producer), Joanna Easton (Producer/Makeup), Roger Williamson (Producer), Diane Eaton (Producer), Felipe Borges (Cinematographer), Pedro Gonzales Kuhn (Editor/Colorist), Sequoia Thompson (First Assistant Director), Denise Ambroggio (First Assistant Director), Jocelyn Chang (Production Assistant), Kevin Santiago (Sound), Ralph Laurence Mariano (Gaffer), Neil Basconcillo (Artist) and Sage Wells (Studio Teacher).

SHORT COMEDY

RUN TIME 30 MINUTES

A FILM BY MICHAEL BOSTON A MYSTERIOUS KINDA SORTA ROMANTIC COMEDY WITH A TOUCH OF MAGIC

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THE GRAY WOMAN WRITER, DIRECTOR & ACTRESS HANNI BERGESCH

NEVER GIVE UP...

2017. An idea, a goal. 2018, a movie. And the decision to present a unique story to the world. This is how the walk of The Gray Woman began. A short, silent film that has so much to say that it won 4 international awards in 2019. Hanni Bergesch shows, as lead actress, a sensational performance that captivates audiences from start to finish. Suspense crumbles in the last image.

The writer and director already has plans to record again in 2020, this time a feature film. And it’s the story of a woman again. “Circles of life” should bring something new to the market.

We cheer for the success of another Hanni Bergesch project.

SHORT DRAMA

RUN TIME 15 MINUTES

FACEBOOK.COM/DIEGRAUEFRAU

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THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE IBEX A BEAUTIFULLY MADE SHORT FILM

BY MARKUS OTZ

“A dreamlike white ibex and a bizarre character call Lukas to repeat the deeds of a brave warrior.” “The Legend of the White Ibex” is a poetic-philosophical tale with an existential stamp, with a simple structure but rich in references presented lightly and powerful in meaning. Made by raising over 15,000 swiss francs through a crowdfunding project to create a short film, the production was then extended to a 41min featurette. The repeated nightmare, every time ending with a white ibex saving him from the overhang, thoroughly dominates Luka’s nights and life. Also this morning are two pan-fried eggs almost perfect but ruined as a throw-away omelette, and are the symbol of a denied resurrection.

A pussycat, an homage to Blake Snyder’s screenplay lesson “Save the Cat” and icon of freedom and sense of the wild, turns out to be fragile and sick once the daily meal is consumed. Even the rooster-sculpture gazing towards the sky in the pompous morning rebirth does not awaken emotions.

The bells that ring are pure for him as he loses the fast destination omnibus forcing him into the exhausting long run of the next race. And, as a premonition of mocking tolls it also loses work without the possibility of redemption, between an invitation to go into therapy and the evidence of wage dumping settled in the living rooms of the economy. When then a strange figure appears and vanishes into thin air after having disfigured a coincident story of an ibex before which a brave warrior had to go, the only reality left in Lukas is an abandoned pendant, guardian of those forces of nature of which he is totally unaware and still must try to discover…

“Film shooting is a deep descent into the nature of things and a constant surprise over the unexpected / Markus Otz”.

Direction and Screenplay: Markus Otz Starring: Marco Capodieci, Roberto Regazzoni, Amanda Rougier

SHORT FILM

RUN TIME 41 MINUTES

WWW.EVOC.CH

LIGHTS AND SHADOWS A MESMERISING MOVIE TELLING FOUR BEAUTIFUL STORIES

BY FILMMAKER OLIVIER NOLIN

In its dreamlike approach to everyday life, this is an extraordinary film with surprising images. He tells us about shipwrecked love.

With its echoes, its correspondences and its symmetries multiplied with pleasure like a partition of chamber music where dominates an atmosphere of voluptuous torpor, it evokes four passionate love story where the shade underlines the lights of the souls.

“Some there be that shadows kiss, such have but a shadow’s bliss.”

Shakespeare – The Merchant of Venice

JUDITH A young baker who’s infatuated with a prostitute, sells his bakery to marry her and takes her to live with him.

MAYAH & TOVAH A young sculptress, Tovah, lives with her muse a passionate love story until Maya, the model, finds out that Tovah occasionally prostitutes herself...

MYRIAM & AZAZEL The devil invites himself into Myriam’s life who occasionally prostitutes herself.

AVIVA While looking for a forgotten memory, Daniel will discover love.

Four stories weaved together to tell about the romantic encounters of our very young heroes and heroines who are seeking for an almost impossible happiness, because they imagine that it is easier to get it from others. Intimate, paroxystic and tempestuous relationships, in which good and evil, death and love are side by side, and merge occasionally, in unexpected ways. Moments and places, where the search for THE absolute, or reckless rage and love leads to the darkness of the soul.

DRAMA

RUN TIME 81 MINUTES

OMBRESETLUMIERES.ONLINE

Hewes Pictures We are delighted to announce that we are now collaborating with EMMY award winning sales agency Hewes Pictures as we continue to support the independent film industry and our wonderful filmmakers.

It is really important for us to increase our connections in the world of independent film distribution and offer you the filmmakers as much support as possible as you continue your journey beyond our festivals.

Hewes Pictures is an EMMY award winning international feature film sales agency that also distributes high quality short films to TV, theaters and streaming platforms. With rights to over 6,000 hours of premium content, the company is entering its 4th year of operations and continues to grow with a consistent presence at the largest, global film markets including Cannes, EFM, and AFM. Whilst we cannot promise distribution we are in the position to facilitate introductions to the relevant team who are open to look at trailers and discuss your projects route to market with you.

When we aren’t at a festival we are always looking at how we can continue offering more and make the Fusion Festival brand something different from the vast number of film festivals out there.

In the coming weeks we will have more exciting announcements to bring your way.

INGO FILMS = R. TODD STEVENS Œ

From Lunacy to Legacy _ ADRIAN BOND e R. TODD STEVENS @ R. TODD STEVENS < BRYAN MCCOLLOM p R. TODD STEVENS Ž MICHAEL ALLEN, VAL FULTON, YVONNE CHAN { SHILKE a PATRICK O’CONNELL k R. TODD STEVENS crownsvillehospitalfromlunacytolegacy.com

THE REVIEWS ARE IN “AN EXCELLENT AND EXHAUSTIVE LOOK “THE ONGOING DYNAMIC NATURE OF “A COMPREHENSIVE DOCUMENTARYTHE PROPERTY IS COMPELLING.” TRIBUTE-EXPOSE OF CROWNSVILLE.” AT CROWNSVILLE HOSPITAL.” - MICHAEL N. ALLEN - DOUG STRUCK - STEVEN SUNDAY

“THE WRITING AND DIRECTING OF THIS IS HIGH CALIBER FOR SURE.” - WINDFIELD FILM FESTIVAL

THE FILM SERVES A HIGHER GOOD, ON MANY LEVELS.” - BECKY ESTEP

DIRECTOR RICHARD TODD STEVENS REPRODUCES THE MOODY ATMOSPHERE.” - FILM VOICE

”YOU’VE HELPED TO PAINT A RICH PICTURE OF CROWNSVILLE.” - TODD R. SMITH

I WATCHED EVERY SECOND OF IT AND TRULY ENJOYED IT.” - VELMA TUCKER

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ASSEM A stunning documentary film by Nisreen Al sbeihi – on a mission to tell the harsh truths and with a powerful vision to improve the lives of the people of Yemen.

“My name is Nisreen Al sbeihi, I am a Jordanian director who is concerned with the people of Yemen, especially women and children. I always try to express my convictions with absolute impartiality. I am a human being in the first place. Anything that harms or hurts a person provokes me. I believe that humanity is an attribute and an affiliation that transcends all other affiliations.

I have already directed a film about the children of Yemen, “Dawn hasn’t come” it tells the tragedy of the children of Yemen and the consequences of war on them. The film has won three international awards. I do not know where to begin, to talk about the situation of this devastated country which once was called “happy Yemen”.

What I have seen with my own eyes is beyond any description. Yemen is no longer happy. Hundreds and thousands of miles away from happiness, there is nothing in Yemen other than poverty, misery, famine and fear. In fact, living conditions in Yemen are very bad. Most Yemenis are engaged in a bitter struggle to get a living that unfortunately is no longer in the hands of many. In a small town named Aslam, located north-west of the capital Sanaa, its inhabitants are forced to eat foliage, so as to survive. I saw with my own eyes many children die of starvation.

ASSEM One September night, whilst browsing the newspapers, I was shocked by an article about a famine in Aslam, a village of Yemen, which drove people to eat tree leaves.

The pictures were horrible, so I decided to go there and see things as they were. I crossed over 40 security checkpoints, some for legitimate forces, others for Ansar AllahAlhouthi, who controlled Sadaa, the capital, by force and resourcefulness.

Arriving at Saada, I started the procedures to extract a permit from the Houthi minister of information. I obtained the permit along with a representative from the ministry to accompany us and monitor us at the same time. I went through more than 10 security checkpoints for the Houthi forces. It wasn’t easy to cross all of these check point, in spite of the fact that I had the permit and the representative. The camera crew and I were stopped many times. Once, at one checkpoint we were detained for more than an hour, they only allowed us to pass after many calls which were made with operation rooms at Sadaa and Hajjah.

Reaching Aslam, at the last security checkpoint, the members prevented us from entering he village, despite the representative’s relentless & strenuous efforts. We were only allowed to enter Aslam, after the interference of members of Ansar Allah, from Hajjah, who introduced themselves as military media journalists, working at Al-Masirah channel affiliated with Ansar Allah. They accompanied us to Aslam. The people of the village welcomed us but very sadly, the effects of famine were clear on their faces.

I wondered in the village searching for a corner to install my camera. I found out that each corner needs to be shot and each person needs a camera to tell the world the amount of pain, misery, hunger, poverty and helplessness they suffer. At first glance, you realize that famine here has many sources, the most severe of which is the harsh nature and ignorance of its nearly 60,000 inhabitants. Women are the first victim of ignorance, which is reflected on children and people of the village.

People of this place are very simple and primitive. They are ignorant of their most basic human rights, they have an instinctive readiness to be led, to be humble, to be humiliated and to be indoctrinated. When I first heard it I didn’t believe slavery was still in force, and yet there are more than 3000 slaves in Aslam. Coming here, seeing people in misery, helplessness, agony and suffering made it impossible for me to ignore that fact. Everyone is waiting for someone or something to finish their agony, give a helping hand to rid them of the situation they are in, which includes slavery. Who will end the death, misery and starvation in Yemen? This is the major question.”

SHORT DOCUMENTARY

RUN TIME 21 MINUTES

NISREENALSBEIHI@GMAIL.COM

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NO NEWS/ AN ENCOUNTER/ FORGET-ME-NOTS These three brilliantly made films by the award winning director Miguel Berzal de Miguel are all rightly in competition at our Warsaw Film Festival for 2019. A gifted auteur whose talents stretch across many artistic forms, here we profile Miguel and breakdown each of these stunning movies.

Director. Writer & Opera Singer (Tenor), Miguel Berzal de Miguel was born in Madrid, Spain. After taking his degree in Audiovisual Communication, he then divided his time between a Master’s degree in Film Directing and another in Theatre Directing. In 2012, his first book, titled “The Refuge” a collection of psychological shorts stories, was published. Between 2014 and 2016, Miguel wrote and directed three shorts films: “Taking care of Ruth”, “An Encounter” and “Forget-me-nots”. He has received a huge amount of nominations and awards at different national and international Film Festivals. His novel “Between Relatives” (2016) was one of the twenty works selected at the “Gregorio Samsa Award for Brief Novel 2016”. “The dead hours” has also been an outstanding work at the “Tenth Edition of Ediciones Oblicuas Literary Awards” (2016). In 2015 and 2016 he worked as “Assistant Director” on the TV Series “Amar es para siempre” and in 2017, he wrote, directed and produced the feature film “No News”.

No News “Sin novedad” (“No News”) is a 2017 Spanish psychological and social drama film. It’s the debut feature of Spanish writer, director and opera singer Miguel Berzal de Miguel.

The film, starring Silvia Espigado, was premiered at the Alicante International Film Festival 2018.

Lola (Silvia Espigado) lives alone with her son, Jorge (Ignacio Jiménez), near to an industrial estate in Madrid. She works many hours for a stingy and strict boss (Gonzalo de Castro) in a storage company. One night, Jorge confesses to her mother that he has begun to keep in touch with his father, Marcos (Fernando Guillén Cuervo), who abandoned them a long time ago...

Since January of 2019, “Sin novedad” has been awared with 48 awards at international Film Festivals in Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Belgium, United Kingdom and the USA. “No News” received 19 candidatures for the 2019 Premios Goya and 7 selections (including “Best Film”) at the prestigious Forqué Films Awards 2019. It has received great critical reviews of national and international Film Festivals and Film Critics in Spain, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Denmark, United Kingdom, Austria, Malta, Netherlands, Sweden, Chile, USA and Mexico: “Powerful and Visceral. Wears its heart on its sleeve. An emotional rollercoaster. Visually Beautiful. An emotional journey into the mind” (Gold Movie Awards, London); “Captured our attention from beginning to end, such a thrilling ride and powerful performances!” (Oklahoma); “Excellent acting

and art direction” (Germany); “Fresh and innovative with a gripping storyline” (USA); “Deep and thought provoking film” (France), “A gripping story about the hardships of family” (Austria) or “Pain, bitterness and despair, interpreted and visualized in an exquisitely aesthetic way. Real Cinema” (Author’s International Film Festival, Mexico).

For example, AISGE, a very important cultural Spanish media said about “No News”: “The independent cinema of 2018 in Spain can boast of new jewel.

Personal and shocking drama.

Spectacular Silvia Espigado”.

The Original Music was composed

by Javier Berzal de Miguel (1995), the younger brother of the director. Javier has been candidate for “Best Original Music” at Goya Awards and he has won “Best Original Score” at the London Independent Film Awards 2019, at the Oklahoma Cine Latino Film Festival 2019 and at The European Independent Film Award 2019, USA. Critique Melómano Digital (a very important cultural Spanish media) said: “An Original Music as interesting as honest”.

Part of the cast, Silvia Espigado, Fernando Guillén Cuervo, Ignacio Jiménez and Silvia Marsó have also been awarded at International Film Festivals. And, all the cast were candidates for “Best Performances” at Premios Goya 2019 and their performances have been praised by critics.

THRILLER

RUN TIME 70 MINUTES

WEBSITE: HTTP://MJBM.ES

CONTINUED

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AN ENCOUNTER “Un encuentro” (“An Encounter”) is a 2015 Spanish psychological, suspense and social drama film. It’s the second short film of the Spanish writer, director and opera singer Miguel Berzal de Miguel (1991).

Susana (Alejandra Lorente) has moved from León to Madrid and she now works at a consultancy. During her journeys to work by Metro, she gets to know a stranger (Fernando Guillén Cuervo)…

Since its premiere in 2015, the short film has received many national and international awards (15 awards and 20 nominations). It was the winner of the “Film Slam Audience Choice Short Award” at the Cleveland International Film Festival 2016, USA and it was selected for “Best Short Film” at the prestigious Forqué Films Awards 2017, Spain.

The short film will be screened on the NYC TV again very soon on channels that people can view across America as well as some Europeans countries.

It’s the first time that “Un encuentro” (“An Encounter”) will be screened in Poland.

SHORT FILM

RUN TIME 24 MINUTES

WEBSITE: HTTP://MJBM.ES

CONTINUED

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FORGET-ME-NOTS “Nomeolvides” (“Forget-me-nots”) is a 2016 Spanish psychological and social drama film. It’s the third short film of Spanish writer, director and opera singer Miguel Berzal de Miguel (1991).

A week after the death of her husband, Silvia (Silvia Espigado) moved with her daughter, María (Elena Caricol), to Madrid to be closer to the set where María works as an actress.

A few months later, her parents (Lola Casamayor and Antonio Canal) send a “forget-me-nots” to remind her that she has abandoned them.

It was the debut of the actress Elena Caricol who has been nominated and awarded for her performance at international Film Festivals. The rest of the cast include: María Esteve, Miguel Herrán, Mayte Atarés, Nerea Pérez, Chema Moro, Juan Carlos Gandía and David Llorente.

Since its premiere in 2016, this short film has received many national and international awards (28 awards and 23 nominations). It was the absolute winner at the Latino Awards 2017, with its total haul of 4 awards making it the most successful film at the Festival: “Best Direction”, “Best Script”; “Best Original Music” (composed by Javier

Berzal de Miguel) and “Best Female Performance: Silvia Espigado”.

Indie Shorts Magazine said about the film: “The Painstaking Task Of Cutting Off Ties That Are Cutting Into You”.

“Nomeolvides” (“Forget-me-nots”) has been part of many prestigious international Film Festivals including the Wales International Film Festival 2019; HollyShorts Film Festival 2017, USA; the HarrisburgHershey Film Festival 2017, USA; the ShortFest Film Market, Palm Springs International Film Festival 2018, USA; Ringerike International Youth Film Festival 2017, Norway; Tlanchana Fest, Festival de Cine y Arte Digital 2016, Mexico; the Falcon International Film Festival 2017, London; the Festival Internacional del Cortometraje FIC 2017, Argentina and the Festival de Cine y Derechos Humanos Barcelona/ París/Nueva York 2017.

It’s the first time that “Nomeolvides” (“Forget-me-nots”) will be screened in Poland.

SHORT FILM

RUN TIME 18 MINUTES

WEBSITE: HTTP://MJBM.ES

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Too Many Steps to Selling Your Screenplay?

We Can Help.

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NO-ONE WRITTEN AND DIRECTED

BY VLADIMIR PRUDKIN AND LEV PRUDKIN

Last year NO-ONE, the film created by Vladimir and Lev Prudkin with a fabulous Russian cast,was selected and awarded at several acknowledged film festivals, including the Best Feature Film and the Best Cinematography Awards at the Vienna Independent Film Festival, the Best Feature Film Award at the Winchester International Film Festival, the Best Director of a Foreign Language Film Award at the Fusion West Europe International Film Festival in Brussels and also received nominations and positive reviews after the respective screenings at the 40th Moscow International Film Festival, the 48th International Film Festival in Kyiv and 33rd Haifa International Film Festival amongst others.

From first glance, it may seem that this Israeli-Ukrainian co-production “NO-ONE” deals with the events of August 1991 in Moscow, Russia, when an attempted coup d’etat put a spectacular end to the presidency of Mikhail Gorbachev and the “mighty” USSR. However a closer look shows that the film has no ambition to give an analysis of a bygone era. The script touches upon political events only in passing references and conversations about the collapse of this giant empire.

Another speculation is the love drama at the centre of the story, with the participation of a General of the Soviet Secret Service, he almighty Russian KGB, his wife – a famous actress, the General’s nephew and his girlfriend, students of a prestigious Soviet college, and even a Crimean beach guard.

The story unfolds in the Crimea, annexed today by Russia from Ukraine, where the actress arrives for a holiday.

As you may have already guessed, a love story also turns out to be not what it seems. The authors offer us mystification both when it comes to political drama and when it comes to melodrama. There is no place for love in the relations between the characters, neither are they interested in politics as well.

Just as the Soviet Empire was balancing in August 1991 on the verge of the return of the hermetic totalitarian power of the party elite and the war of all against all, the film balances between genres of drama, phantasmagoria, mystery play and high tragedy. Big characters, recognizable types, precise household sketches and

the overall atmosphere of that time – all that meticulously constructed reality is deliberately and gradually eroded and destroyed at the behest of the authors, as if sea waves were washing away a sand castle.

The characters talk a lot. Sometimes pompously, sometimes even evasively, but always in high literary language, with a large number of quotations and postmodern references. At first, this theatricality of their dialogs surprises, later it draws you into the mysterious atmosphere of the circumstances, and then – opens up certain black holes in the ordinary fabric of life, through which enters the blowing wind of predestination. In the CONTINUED

opening sequence of the film, we can already see and hear it coming. And this whistling and blowing is a reminder of the gloomy myths of the country counting its bloody history since ancient times.

But the most curious thing is how this drama is finally solved. The task is difficult – it requires investigation of the characters and their psychology. Natalia Vdovina faces the hardest task as her role is the General’s wife who carries the main emotional load of the film.

She performs her task in a minimalistic fashion.

And during the final scenes Slava Jolobov, who is playing the General, rises to the height of Shakespearean passions; we see the powerful tragic temperament of the actor at work.

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One of the main assets of “NO-ONE” is the cinematography - perfectly symmetrical shots, correct composition, and experimenting with lighting. The camera moves as if in an air-free space, intertwining light and shadow into the overwhelming atmosphere of satiate ancient Roman eroticism.

In the end, in front of the viewer, the evocative picture turns into a thriller, a phantasmagoria, an absurdist play. For almost two hours of warm colors, the “atmosphere of time” dries up, disappears.

And, in its place grows a terrible story about the world which is dying and which is dead.

One cannot fail to mention stunning soundtrack by Evsey Evseev that can safely compete with the Twin Peaks themes of Angelo Badalamenti.

Much has been said about the genre of this neither cheap nor big budget film – something very personal, close to theatre and literature, and really intellectual. These seemingly unrelated to cinematography definitions, when put together, create a new paradigm where everything is possible and it resembles magical realism, there is no other way to describe it. To speculate about the genre of this motion picture, we need to consider several layers put one onto another.

The first layer is the plot line of the last days of the Soviet Union. The second layer is the genre of melodrama suddenly jumping into a criminal drama towards the end of the film. The third layer is the depiction of the epoch, very precise not only in details such as costumes, cars, and decorations, but also in the sense of the ephemerality of time and the invisibility of the future. Finally, the fourth layer is the actual text the characters speak, which is a challenging version of

literature language with philosophical content. For the predictions made by the main characters, almost thirty years ago, are nothing but the analysis of the past for the people of the future. This future became a reality in the beginning of this century, when Vladimir Putin became the host of the Russia. And, he flashes on the screen in the last scenes of the film.

NO-ONE by Vladimir and Lev Prudkin is a strange and enigmatic film; it requires some serious mental work from the viewer. For those who are ready for such work, it brings highly valued fruit.

FEATURE FILM, DRAMA

RUN TIME 118 MINUTES

N

NE Slava Jolobov Natalya Vdovina Liza Boyarskaya George Marchenko Alexey Agranovich Dima Sova Alexander Feklistov Sofia Kashtanova

Lev Prudkin and Vladimir Prudkin Film Music by Yevsey Yevseyev

© MIRAGE ADVENTURES –ISRAEL, UKRAINE

Best Feature Film

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ALEXX FINDING HOME Ched Lohr is a director and writer who connects with individuals across the globe and within his hometown to learn about cultural trends andpromote understanding.

With his nominated film “Alexx Finding Home” we were lucky enough to feature a short interview with him to give us some fascinating background as to why he ecided to make this moving documentary.

Twenty-seven year old Alexx Collins fears delivering her first child on the street.

Homeless since 14, the responsibilities and challenges to get home seem insurmountable for a woman without a job, bank account or identification. Alexx Finding Home captures the unsheltered circumstance, the primal instinct to protect family, and the determination to achieve one’s goal, at any cost. With an extraordinary capacity to love and a community uniting to help, Alexx’s journey home shares the power of determined individuals once connected.

How did you learn about Alexx Collins?

Alexx’s story made the front page of a local newspaper in my hometown of Chico, CA. I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It was a calling.

What was it about her story that compelled you to make a documentary?

What was Alexx’s initial response to being the subject of a documentary?

Alexx’s story is primal, pregnancy inspired her to find a home after being homeless since 14. Alexx encountered seemingly insurmountable challenges but through determination and the support of a community, she accomplished her goal.

Alexx’s story also offers insight into the homeless culture and I believe this is valuable.

She didn’t understand the power and uniqueness of her story.

Was it difficult to connect with her?

Yes. After initially reading the article, I wrote to the newspaper writer but did not get a response. After 6 months, I reached out to a social worker from the article. We met and I was relieved to learn Alexx was well and still in Chico. The three of us met for dinner and I finally got to share my idea for producing a documentary about her journey home.

What message would you like viewers to take from your documentary?

Best summed up by Alexx’s comment during our first encounter: We’re all just a couple of bad weeks, shorted paychecks, and a few emotional breakdowns from being the same.

DOCUMENTARY

RUN TIME 56 MINUTES

WWW.ALEXXFINDINGHOME.COM

THE FATE FROM TEA A FILM BY PENG JINGQUAN

In order to strengthen the management of ethnic areas, stabilize the borders, and develop the economy, a series of positive measures were taken by the Qing government. One of the most important ones was to send “flow officials” to participate in governance. The Xiangxi Yongzheng Hall and Xiuyan Youying Capital City Officials took Zhao Zhilong to work for three years, loyal to his duties, diligent and dedicated, and quite popular. Day after day, following his duty including the forest protection work, Zhao Zhilong and the tea-picking girl Camellia from the Qilai Miao Village end up having a heart-to-heart relationship, resulting in a pure love. However, Zhao Zhilong’s love was fiercely opposed because of Zhao’s dignitaries and Miao’s instructions. In order to win this beautiful love, Zhao Zhilong and Camellia both face the ancestor of Long Zufeng, who insists on fighting for life or death. Their stories of love and struggle not only touched the Miao and Han people, but also touched the Daotai adults who are the

highest local governors. Daotai adults have been observing Xiangxi for many years. They have a full understanding of the national policies, ethnic customs and the personalities of the Miao and Han nationalities. He has judged the situation and firmly supported the marriage appeal of Zhao Zhilong and Camellia. Daotai adults listened to Zhao Zhilong’s suggestion of “tea as the reason” and personally led his officials to visit the Miaolai Miao Village to propose marriage to Zhao Zhilong. His sincerity deeply touched the old Zhai Lao and Camellia’s father, and agreed to the marriage of Zhao Zhilong and

Camellia on the spot. Thousands of miles of “tea edge” became a wonderful story, not only for the love and marriage between the young people of Miao and Han, but also the good wishes of the people of all ethnic groups in the Wuling mountain area of Xiangxi to unite and build their homes!

FEATURE FILM

RUN TIME 123 MINUTES

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Magus Marketing can make your film look like a Hollywood blockbuster or a prestige international drama, without you requiring big-buck budgets.

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MOTHER’S DAY THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF DEATH ROW

A POWERFUL SHORT DOCUMENTARY

BY LINDA BROOCKS

As controversy rages about the efficacy of the ultimate punishment, as the Supreme Court of the United States is called upon to issue eleventh hour stays of death sentences, public awareness of the issues surrounding the death penalty has never been greater and public debate never more heated.

The filmmaker’s approach was to include mothers whose children reflect the general demographics of death row in the United States: four men, and one woman-two African American, two white, and one Hispanic. She also interviewed a leading social scientist, Elizabeth Beck, the author of “In the Shadow of Death: Restorative Justice and Death Row Families,” who explains the social and psychological phenomena that result from society’s treatment of these mothers.

Linda Broocks made documentaries about social issues in college, but then pursued a career in civil trial law while maintaining her interest in criminal justice issues and the power of film in promoting social change. In doing pro bono work involving the death penalty, Linda found her heart being saddened by the stories of the family members of death row inmates, particularly the mothers, whom society was often quick to blame for the troubles of their children. While continuing to practice law full time, Linda researched and recruited five mothers whose stories she wanted to feature, interviewed them, and created a compelling presentation of the problems and sorrows facing them as a result of their children’s incarceration and death sentences.

This timely film addresses an important but missing component in the public discourse on a major moral issue of our time.

SHORT DOCUMENTARY

RUN TIME 27 MINUTES

LJBFILMS@YAHOO.COM

Mother’s Day The forgotten victims of Death Row Directed By Linda Broocks

ALEXANDER CHERNEGA

P l u z a l o u e s t

P r o d u c t i o n s présente

THE UNDERWATER STORY

P r é j u g é s

C o u p a b l e s un film de

Jean-Philippe Tranvouez Anto i ne M o u r nè s

avec

S é ba s t i e n B é l i e r

Al e x and r e Tr i aca

«Guilty préjudices, a film about prejudices around homosexuality and ordinary homophobia.»

Est Républicain.

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DADA ON VACATION WRITTEN, DIRECTED, PRODUCED & EDITED

BY ERRKAA

This 28-minute art film was conceived on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Dada art movement.

Its focus is the North German performer and poet Emmy Hennings and the author, poet and artist Hugo Ball, who would later become her husband. The film is a fictional portrayal of the early stages of their relationship. They go on vacation together for the first time, travelling to a deserted village – absurdly – on Segways. All of the houses are empty.

Only large-format paper works of art hang on the facades of the buildings. This Dadaesque vacation film is shown at a party in Hugo’s flat. The two meet there once again, while all around them the party continues. The story is partly told using Dadaist stylistic devices such as absurdity (for example, the film within the film, whereby Emmy’s arrival in film time links seamlessly with the vacation film), masquerade, stylisation, slowmotion sequences, and special colouration.

One part of the film is set in modern-day Hamburg, whereas the deserted village is situated in the open-cast coal mining area of Garzweiler.

While the Dadaists (the real ones as well as those enacted in the film) playfully give themselves roles – for example that of the lift operator or of the servant and champagne waiter – in their distant stylisation, Hugo Ball and Emmy Hennings remain true to themselves, right up to the balcony scene with fireworks at the end. The closing credits, which last for more than five minutes, are a mélange of film fiction, credits and making-of. Only now, almost at the very end of the film, does the viewer realise that

the strangely deserted village is a place that has been depopulated for big money, a place that was destroyed by the huge bucket excavators of the Garzweiler II open-cast mining complex just a few days after the completion of filming. Here, if you will, we see the political, socially critical side of Dada.

Although more than 80% of the film is under-laid with music, it’s also a silent film, with just the same two words being repeated manifold on two occasions: Hugo and Emmy.

DIRECTORS STATEMENT - ERRKAA “The film is a fictional portrayal of the early stages of DADA`s founder members Emmy Hennings and Hugo Ball`s relationship set in the present time. Dadaist stylistic devices are used throughout the film.”

WHO IS ERRKAA? Born in Hamburg, Errkaa studied at the University of Hamburg and Art College HfBK under Prof. Gustav Kluge. He has now overseen several exhibitions and is a member of the Professional Association of Fine Artists and since November 2016 has been a curator at the artists` co-operative gallery at BUNKERHILL Galerie.

ART

RUN TIME 28 MINUTES

WWW.ERRKAA.DE

WWW.BUNKERHILLGALERIE.DE

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Photo by Emily Teague

FUSION FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SELECTION

COPYRIGHT ©2019 LIMBIC MOJO PRODUCTIONS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

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Screening

Tuesday 16:20 November 26 Screening Room 3

SUNDAY | 24TH NOVEMBER

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

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ROOM 2

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11:00 ITALY & (THIS IS) WATER 6 MINUTES

11:00 ZWEITE ZUKUNFT - SECOND FUTURE 86 MINUTES

11:00 THE GOOD QUEUE 5 MINUTES

11:35 UND JETZT - AND NOW 30 MINUTES

12:30 A STEP WITHOUT FEET 45 MINUTES

11:05 LOBSTERS 4 MINUTES

12:05 STELL DIR VOR ICH REDE MIT DIR DOCH DU VERMAGST MICH NICHT ZU HÖREN 12 MINUTES

13:15 BLAUE FLECKEN - BRUISES 17 MINUTES

11:10 MAUERRUFE - WALL CALLS 9 MINUTES

13:35 THE BEACON 111 MINUTES

11:20 LEAVING SYRIA: LONG LIVE THE YOUTH 30 MINUTES

15:30 RUN THROUGH RAINBOW BRIDGES 55 MINUTES

11:50 THE LOVE RIVER 107 MINUTES

12:20 PUPPETEER 10 MINUTES 12:30 LAGE DER NATION - STATE OF THE UNION 22 MINUTES 12:55 JEMAND UND NIEMAND - SOMEBODY AND NOBODY 28 MINUTES 13:25 MIRACLE OF CHRISTMAS 115 MINUTES 15:20 ICH ARMER MENSCH - I, WRETCHED MAN 17 MINUTES 15:40 HANDY HOCH! - SMARTAGERS 15 MINUTES 15:55 GREENKEEPER 3 MINUTES 16:00 LEBENDIG - ALIVE 94 MINUTES 18:50 A TALE OF GYANTSE 94 MINUTES

16:25 I WILL NEVER GIVE UP 5 MINUTES 16:30 ETERNITY 24 MINUTES 16:55 DREAM BIG 9 MINUTES 17:05 DIE UHR SCHLÄGT EINS - THE CLOCK STRIKES ONE 14 MINUTES 17:20 BETWEEN WALLS 11 MINUTES 17:35 BEN AND MIMI – MIMI AND BEN 15 MINUTES 17:50 OLOWE UND ICH - OLOWE AND I 15 MINUTES 18:05 PEOPLE ON THE JOURNEY 117 MINUTES 20:05 VON OBEN 30 MINUTES

MONDAY | 25TH NOVEMBER

ROOM 2

ROOM 3

10:30 THE BEACH BOY 8 MINUTES

10:30 ACTUALLY SHE IS MY LITTLE BROTHER 40 MINUTES

10:30 TRANSLATION OF EBB 14 MINUTES

10:40 LANDSTRICH - STRETCH OF LAND 29 MINUTES

11:10 SYNCHRONICITY 4 MINUTES

10:45 REFUGE 22 MINUTES

11:10 DIE RÜCKKEHR DES DAUMENS RETURN OF THE THUMB 111 MINUTES

11:15 SOPHIE 5 MINUTES

11:10 PLAY 30 MINUTES

11:20 CADAVRE EXQUIS - FLY IN FLY OUT 75 MINUTES

11:40 ONE DAY AT THE SEA - UNE JOURNÉE À LA MER 18 MINUTES

12:35 ASTRONAUTS 20 MINUTES

12:00 NO ONE’S HOME - NIČIJI DOM 28 MINUTES

15:50 PIECES OF NEW YORK 82 MINUTES

12:55 EXCUSE ME, I’M LOOKING FOR THE PING-PONG ROOM AND MY GIRLFRIEND 23 MINUTES

12:30 MENUETT 11 MINUTES

17:15 MARIA 10 MINUTES

13:30 DAY OF JUDGEMENT 131 MINUTES

17:25 I, MONSTER 15 MINUTES

15:45 DANYANG 42 MINUTES

17:40 THE EPIDEMIC 10 MINUTES

16:30 NEVER FORGET YOU 12 MINUTES

17:50 MONSTERS WALKING 1 MINUTES

16:45 THE SMELL OF MEMORY 20 MINUTES

17:55 A DAY IN THE PARK 3 MINUTES

17:05 FAR-AWAY BAREFOOT DOCTOR 100 MINUTES

18:00 OUR FORTY YEARS 94 MINUTES

18:45 WE MEET ON THE ROOF 19 MINUTES

19:35 THE ALARM 23 MINUTES

19:05 KILL A SCOUNDREL 25 MINUTES

13:05 DANTE VS. MOHAMMED ALI 28 MINUTES 13:35 LOVING THE GREAT WALL 134 MINUTES

19:30 ZHAO GUANGCAI 16 MINUTES 19:45 GHOSTS IN THE INK 14 MINUTES

20:00 | Networking Event

12:45 LA MALA FE - BAD FAITH 20 MINUTES 13:05 JESSICA 7 MINUTES 13:15 FINAL ACT - ULTIMO ACTO 18 MINUTES 13:35 A GROUP OF PEOPLE’S PILGRIMAGE 130 MINUTES 15:45 BLIND HORIZON 23 MINUTES 16:10 UNDERDOG 19 MINUTES 16:30 THE FATE FROM TEA 122 MINUTES 18:35 BIRD AND BIRDCAGE 30 MINUTES 19:05 KIM 13 MINUTES 19:20 YANG WANSHENGS CHOICE 39 MINUTES

A formal networking opportunity for attendees to meet and chat.

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

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TUESDAY | 26TH NOVEMBER

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

ROOM 1

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ROOM 3

10:30 SNAILS 52 MINUTES

10:30 ROCKUMENTARY: EVOLUTION OF INDIAN ROCK 90 MINUTES

10:30 THE DEAD, THE DAY AFTER 50 MINUTES

11:25 WAY OUT D-FIGHT 60 MINUTES

12:05 MISSION LIFELINE - DIE MISSION DER LIFELINE 67 MINUTES

11:20 LIKE THE SHADOW IN THE DARK 26 MINUTES

12:25 BAYIN RIVER 6 MINUTES

13:15 THE HEALING OF HARMAN 20 MINUTES

11:50 ARTES LIBERALES 49 MINUTES

12:35 F DREAM (A KEYBOARD STORY) 5 MINUTES

13:35 AWAY FROM THE SHORE 134 MINUTES

12:35 MY HOME INDIA 45 MINUTES

12:40 AS THE EARTH TURNS 45 MINUTES

15:50 GUILTY PREJUDICES 84 MINUTES

13:35 THE FOREST 138 MINUTES

13:25 WONDERWALL 7 MINUTES

17:30 THE WRECK 80 MINUTES

15:55 THIS IS NOT THE TIME (BE A HUMAN) 2019 5 MINUTES

13:35 RATSASAN (THE DEMON) 152 MINUTES

18:50 BLUE SCALLYWAGS 94 MINUTES

16:00 FORGET-ME-NOTS 18 MINUTES

16:10 THE ONE WHO HOLDS SOVEREIGNTY OVER EVERYTHING 86 MINUTES

20:25 I GUESS IT’S YOUR BIRTHDAY 10 MINUTES

16:20 GALA’S STORY 32 MINUTES

17:40 PLUM IN THE THROAT 75 MINUTES 18:55 WHISPERS 25 MINUTES 19:25 WHY WE LOVE WAR 58 MINUTES

16:55 THINGS FALLING APART 26 MINUTES 18:55 JESUS RIDES A HARLEY 30 MINUTES 19:25 AN ENCOUNTER 24 MINUTES 19:50 SUMMERTIME 42 MINUTES

WEDNESDAY | 27TH NOVEMBER

ROOM 2

ROOM 3

10:00 THE FADING VILLAGE 173 MINUTES

10:00 EIVISSA 90 MINUTES

10:00 FADE AWAY PASTORAL 94 MINUTES

12:55 CITY HUNTER (ONE) 91 MINUTES

11:30 PORTUGAL IS NOT FOR SALE 100 MINUTES

11:35 REDEMPTION 97 MINUTES

14:30 BOZKIR LOOK AT THE BIRDS 111 MINUTES

13:10 VORTEX 83 MINUTES

13:15 A MOTHER’S LOVE 101 MINUTES

s n o i t a n i m o N t p i r Sc POWER PLAY F. Ethan Repp

TO HELL AND BACK Agnese Pagliarani Y THE UNDERWATER STOR inia Ludwig The King Of Dam Alexander Chernega THE KERNEL Alexander Chernega VE ME HONEY, DID YOU EVER LO Louyi Tang L SEARCHING FOR MICHAE David Earle LAJJAWATI pardo Sumathy Ram & Charles Leo

18:30 | Film Commission Poland - Panel

CIRCLE OF LIFE Hanni Bergesch RED SHIRT Mary C. Ferrara LUANA Danielle Erlich FISH FOOD Brian McWha THE 89TH TEMPLE Charlie Canning MY SISTER’S WEDDING Ian Burns SILVESTER Leonard Garner

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

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THURSDAY | 28TH NOVEMBER

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

ROOM 1

ROOM 2

ROOM 3

11:05 SCENT OF MY DAUGHTER 95 MINUTES

10:30 NO MAXIMAL DOSE 108 minutes

10:30 MILLION LOVES IN ME (AMERICAN EDITED VERSION) 82 minutes

12:40 ALEXX FINDING HOME 56 MINUTES

12:20 DEATH WILL GREET ME 4 minutes

11:55 LIGHTS AND SHADOWS 81 minutes

13:40 FREE SLAVE 110 MINUTES

12:25 DIANA CROSS-UNANONYMOUS 5 minutes

13:20 GPS 13 minutes

15:30 ASPHALT, MUSCLE & BONE 90 MINUTES

12:30 NO ONE ESCAPES 30 minutes

15:25 THE RIBBON 5 minutes

17:00 BIG LIES 39 MINUTES

13:00 BRUNCH BEFORE BAPTISM 19 minutes

15:30 THE BENCH - YOUR EVERY THOUGHT IS MINE 88 minutes

17:45 MY DEAR BANQUET 13 MINUTES

13:20 THE GRAY WOMAN 15 minutes

17:00 THIS HAPPEND TO YOU / ESTO LE PASO A USTED 15 minutes

18:00 THE UNKNOWN MOTHER 9 MINUTES

13:35 HINTER DIE SPIAGL - BEHIND THE MIRROR 73 minutes

17:15 TOKYO TALES 12 minutes

18:10 MY GOOD CHINESE COUNTRYMEN 80 MINUTES

15:30 7TH GENERATION 45 minutes

17:30 NEW BEGINNING 51 minutes

19:40 DADA ON VACATION 27 MINUTES

16:15 A SCRATCH FOR EVERY ITCH 14 Minutes

18:25 BEYOND TRANSPORT 23 minutes

16:30 BERLIN - LAYERS OF MOVEMENT 45 Minutes

18:50 NOW BOARDING 2 23 minutes

17:15 SUGIHARA SURVIVORS: JEWISH AND JAPANESE, PAST AND FUTURE 24 Minutes

19:15 SHORT: MOTHERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S DAY: THE FORGOTTEN VICTIMS OF DEATH ROW 27 minutes

17:40 THE RADICALIZATION OF JEFF BOYD 116 Minutes

19:45 FANTAISIE IMPROMPTU - A PROLOGUE 20 minutes

20:30 | Magus Marketing Panel

FRIDAY | 29TH NOVEMBER

10:30 STATIONARY BIKE 45 minutes 11:20 ROXANA 82 minutes 12:50 WALTER TREPPIEDI 15 minutes 13:05 THAT’S OPPORTUNITY KNOCKING 22 minutes 13:30 REALNESS 10 minutes 13:40 SOLO! 100 minutes 15:20 AN OPEN DOOR: HOLOCAUST HAVEN IN THE PHILIPPINES 78 minutes 16:40 CHOC’LATE SOLDIERS 61 minutes 18:10 CROWNSVILLE HOSPITAL: FROM LUNACY TO LEGACY 109 minutes

ROOM 2 10:30 FLYING ON THE WINGS OF TIME - CHAPTER ONE FLYING ON THE WINGS OF TIME 27 minutes 11:00 FLYING ON THE WINGS OF TIME - CHAPTER TWO NOSTALGIA 54 minutes 11:55 FLYING ON THE WINGS OF TIME - CHAPTER THREE BUENOS AIRES AND A MILLION MEMORIES 55 minutes 13:30 MMF 10 minutes 13:40 THE JAM 109 minutes 16:30 ASSEM 21 minutes 17:30 EIGHT 10 minutes 17:40 INTO INVISIBLE LIGHT 100 minutes 19:20 ONE NIGHT STAND 12 minutes

ROOM 3 10:30 THE LOTTERY 36 minutes 11:10 GRACE FURY 60 minutes 12:10 BLACKBETTY SEASON 1 90 minutes 13:40 BX3M 103 minutes 15:25 NO NEWS 70 minutes 16:35 OTTO NEURURER - HOPE THROUGH DARKNESS 90 minutes 18:10 NONSENSE MOUTH 30 minutes 18:40 THE MOON SMELLS LIKE GUNPOWDER 28 minutes 19:10 BALLAD OF A RIGHTEOUS MERCHANT 63 minutes

19:35 THE LEGEND OF THE WHITE IBEX 41 Minutes

17:00 - NO-ONE

Exclusive Closing Film Screening

Kinoteka-Palace of Culture and Science, Plac Defilad 1, 00-901 Warszawa, Poland

29.11.2019

20:30 | Final Networking and Festival Hosted Party

PLEASE NOTE THAT WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE SCREENING SCHEDULE OF ANY NOMINATED FILM WITHOUT ANY PRIOR NOTICE. FOR AN UP-TO-DATE LIST PLEASE CHECK AT THE FESTIVAL ON A DAILY BASIS OR ON OUR WEBSITE WWW.FUSIONFILMFESTIVALS.COM

ROOM 1