Kids & Docs
Migropolis Migrópolis Karolina Villarraga
Spain, 2011 video, color, 8 min
Karolina Villarraga: directing debut
Director: Karolina Villarraga Photography: Karolina Villarraga Screenplay: Carlos Azcuaga, Karolina Villarraga Editing: Karolina Villarraga Sound: Anna Rovira Production: Carlos Azcuaga Screening Copy: Carlos Azcuaga Website: www.proyectomigropolis.com
Mancel, Tatiana, Mohamed and Amin live in Barcelona, but they weren’t born in Spain. Nine-year-old Mancel is from Colombia. He still misses his country, and the cat he had to leave behind. It turns out to be pretty hard to make new friends in Spain, as sometimes the Spanish kids didn’t understand what he was saying. Also nine, Tatiana is from Ecuador, and she’s quite aware of the problem. She explains that some of the kids say that she talks funny. Mohamed was five when he moved from Iran to Barcelona. He didn’t understand the other children at all at first, which sometimes led to misunderstandings: “The other boys told me things and I mistook them for bad things. So I punched one of them.” His victim had only said “Hi,” he found out later. Talking candidly about their old and new lives, these little cosmopolites have a clear idea of what their ideal world would look like. For Mancel, “It would be an open place without borders, so everyone would know how other people think about things.” The four children present their highly imaginative life philosophies in a happy, animated world and in their own words. They are all shown as joyful animals in an explosion of colors.
Kids & Docs
My Granny Lien Oma Lien Annelies de Wit
The Netherlands, 2011 HD, color, 15 min
Annelies de Wit:
Director: Annelies de Wit Photography: Aage Hollander Screenplay: Annelies de Wit Editing: Theo Raben Sound: Marc Schmidt Production: Anja Cloosterman for Selfmade Films World Sales: Selfmade Films Screening Copy: Selfmade Films Involved TV Channel: NCRV
IDFAcademy Results
directing debut
Before 84-year-old Granny Lien appears on-screen, we hear her voice. She snarls a little, a sound that is coming from deep inside. As her teenage granddaughter Christel patiently explains to her who’s who in some photos, it becomes clear to us that Lien is getting senile. Once in a while, we get a glimpse of the woman she once was, like when Christel reads some verses aloud that she wrote for her years ago. Christel visits her twice a week. She has no idea if that’s something other kids do too, but she thinks it’s only natural; after all, her grandmother took care of her for years. When Christel tells of the path behind her house that led to her grandmother’s, we suddenly go back in time and see her as a toddler, waddling down that same path. The director includes various recordings from the past, and these highlight the very special relationship between Lien and Christel. The film shifts back and forth between loving meetings and interviews, in which this special teenager talks openheartedly about how she sees her grandmother’s life. She misses their close bond and wonders how it will be once Lien no longer knows her. Will she keep coming to visit so often?
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