YIDFF 2001
International Competition
15 films have been chosen out of 670 entries from around the world. These films will be screened three times during the festival, and are eligible for the Grand Prize (The Robert and Frances Flaherty Prize), The Mayor’s Prize, and other awards determined by the International Competition jury.
- Jurors:
- Hartmut BITOMSKY (GERMANY)
Bernard EISENSCHITZ (BELGIUM)
Ann HUI (HONG KONG)
KUROKI Kazuo (JAPAN)
Ivars SELECKIS (LATVIA)
- A
La Devinière (BELGIUM / 35mm / 90 min) -
Dir: Benoit Dervaux
Psychiatric institution La Devinière freed many children from bars, restraints and medicine. Here is a place where life can be enriched, where all is free.
- B
Paragraph 175 (USA / 35mm / 81 min) -
Dir: Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman
That the Nazi’s campaign of persecution touched not only the Jews, but also homosexuals is hardly known at all. This film has succeeded in uncovering their long-hidden place in history.
- C
In Vanda’s Room (PORTUGAL, GERMANY, SWITZERLAND / 35mm / 180 min) -
Dir: Pedro Costa
An immigrant district of Lisbon. The bleakness of Vanda’s apartment, furnished only with a bed, and the gradual destruction of the surrounding buildings, make for a dense and overwhelming 180 minutes.
- D
Crazy (THE NETHERLANDS / 35mm / 97 min) -
Dir: Heddy Honigmann
From the Korean peninsula to Lebanon, Cambodia, and the former Yugoslavia, the battlefield memories of Dutch UN soldiers are revisited through an intertwining of personal recollections and the music that brought them solace far from home.
- E
Grandma’s Hairpin (TAIWAN / 16mm / 90 min) -
Dir: Hsiao Chu-Chen
A father, who as a young man emigrated from China to Taiwan, remembers his homeland. The filmmaker (his daughter) uses an ornamental hairpin that belonged to her grandmother as a key to her father’s world, and sets about exploring his generation’s feelings toward China.
- F
Mysterious Object at Noon (THAILAND / 35mm / 83 min) -
Dir: Apichatpong Weerasethakul
The filmmaker journeys throughout Thailand pursuing a strange tale that results in this unique work. Neither documentary nor drama, this film marks the birth of a new-century sensibility.
- G
Southern Comfort (USA / 35mm / 90 min) -
Dir: Kate Davis
Set in the remote countryside of Georgia in the American south, this film silently examines the lives of those who have crossed the boundaries of gender, from female to male and male to female, and exposes the reality of the society that surrounds them.
- H
Private Chronicles. Monologue (RUSSIA / 35mm / 91 min) -
Dir: Vitalij Manskij
Spanning the years between 1961 and 1986, this is the chronicle of one Russian youth, and a chance for us to enter the everyday life of an extremely average middle-class family in the communist Soviet Union.
- I
Gaea Girls (UK / 35mm / 106 min) -
Dir: Kim Longinotto, Jano Williams
Reeling with anxiety and excitement, newcomer Takeuchi Saika battles desperately to progress from pro-test to professional debut for women’s professional wrestling organization GAEA JAPAN.
- J
Angelos’ Film (THE NETHERLANDS / Video / 60 min) -
Dir: Forgács Petér
The home movies of Angelos and his family, and the tragic events in Athens he recorded; this film depicts the dark shadow cast by the Nazi invasion on his idyllic family life with his wife and children.
- K
A2 (JAPAN / Video / 130 min) -
Dir: Mori Tatsuya
A look at the various human relationships connected to the religious group Aum. We become witness to yet another side of Japanese society, where television continues to ram home the equation: Aum = the enemy of the people.
- L
Buenaventura Durruti, anarchiste (SPAIN, FRANCE / Video / 107 min) -
Dir: Jean-Louis Comolli
The life of revolutionary Durruti, commander of an anarchist militia during the Spanish revolution who was killed in battle in 1936, is celebrated in this dual composition of theater and film.
- M
Days in Those Mountains (CHINA / Video / 162 min) -
Dir: Wang Haibing
A remote village deep in China’s Sichuan province. Through the eyes of one artist, this film gently depicts the daily life of the villagers, set against the backdrop of the transition of the four seasons.
- N
The Land of the Wandering Souls (FRANCE / Video / 98 min) -
Dir: Rithy Panh
A look at the laying of the first fibre optic cable in South-East Asia as it crosses Cambodia, and the poor families who shift from village to village, from month to month in the wake of the construction.
- O
6 Easy Pieces (USA, ITALY, PORTUGAL / Video / 69 min) -
Dir: Jon Jost
This work, comprised of six episodes, is made on digital video, medium of expression that differs greatly from film. This film has no story. However, within there is a space filled with the potential for the imagination to dart about infinitely.