One World in a Nutshell

The programme of the 2021 One World international documentary film festival presents a new non-competitive section of foreign short films, called One World in a Nutshell. For the first time, the organizers of the festival have decided to create an opportunity for documentary shorts to show audiences that even in a seemingly small space it is possible to depict important themes directly related to society in a creative way.

The unifying theme of One World in a Nutshell was developing countries. Although the issues of developing countries are directly or indirectly addressed in the annual sections of competitive and non-competitive long-form films, we also feel the necessity to highlight short films by directors who reflect the socio-political situation in these countries.

The production of films in developing countries is very limited due to social, economic and political complications. Their production is limited because directors often lack the financial resources to carry out film projects, and their distribution is also significantly curtailed. The absence of stable cinematographic funds, art schools or a decent standard of living sometimes drives filmmakers to emigrate to Western countries, but at the same time forces them to reflect innovatively and artistically on the difficult social circumstances in which they and the people of their countries find themselves.

The impetus for creating this section was also the fact that films from developing countries receive much less attention at world festivals than those from the West. However, we are now seeing efforts to change this.

We firmly believe that the newly created showcase of short documentary films will attract the attention of visitors to our festival, and that in time it will become an integral part of the One World festival, opening up new horizons for the audience, surpassing their expectations and introducing them to the works of filmmakers from developing countries in an engaging way.

LUPITA

Lupita. Que retiemble la tierra / Mónica Wise Robles / USA, Mexico / 2020 / 21 min. / Spanish

In a country where indigenous people are increasingly displaced, their land stolen, where students disappear without trace following police arrest, and journalists are murdered at an alarming rate, a courageous new voice emerges: Lupita, a Tsostil Maya massacre survivor, at the forefront of a new movement of indigenous women. If anyone can change the conscience of Mexico, it is Lupita, confronting corrupt militares, mobilizing her pueblo’s resistance, and cultivating a new generation of organized and vocal Maya activists. The film intimately follows Lupita taking on risks and responsibility to represent her people, weaving her personal narrative into the painful revolutionary history of Mexico. Part lyrical testimony, part vérité storytelling, part tribute to 500 years of indigenous resistance, this film mediates the point-of-view of a brave woman who must balance the demands of motherhood with her high stakes choices to reeducate and restore justice to the world.

DONʼT HESITATE TO COME FOR A VISIT, MOM

Priezjai k nam v gosti, mama / Anna Artemyeva / Belgium, Hungary, Portugal, Russia / 2020 / 13 min. / Russian

This is a story about the separation of mother and three years old daughter, who live far from each other, because of visas issues. Every day they communicate in video chat and dream of an imminent meeting.

I BLEED

Sangro / Bruno H. Castro, Tiago Minamisawa, Guto BR / Brazil / 2019 / 8 min. / Portugal

Inspired by a true story, I Bleed is the intimate confession of a person living with HIV. Film in stop motion, drawing on paper and 2D animation.

THIS DAY WONʼT LAST 

This Day Wonʼt Last / Mouaad el Salem / Belgium, Tunisia / 2020 / 25 min. / French, Arabic 

A day that could also be a life. A young man who could also be an older woman. A nightmare that could also be a dream. In Tunisia, while it could also be somewhere else: on the border between the necessity and the fear to make a film, the necessity and the fear for the revolution, This Day Won’t Last is a cooperation with a distance. That is how this self-portrait turns into a group portrait. Clandestine, but straight from the heart: an end that could also lead to a new beginning. This Day Won’t Last presents the visceral urgency of image-making within conditions of oppression. The stakes are high: Article 230 – a law created in Tunisia during the French colonial period – criminalises homosexuality in the country and is actively enforced to abuse, imprison and harshly discriminate against LGBTQ people living in the country.