September 26, 2023
MILISUTHANDO
DescriptionBiosDescription Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Milisuthando Bongela. A poetic interweaving of archival material and in-depth interviews, Milisuthando Bongela’s incisive personal essay examines identity construction through a historical lens, investigating the impact of racism and colonialism on herself and her loved ones. Born in South Africa’s Transkei region, an unrecognized state purportedly protected from its apartheid system,...
September 26, 2023
PICTURES OF GHOSTS (RETRATOS FANTASMAS)
DescriptionBiosDescription Brazil’s Oscar® submission for Best International Feature Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Kleber Mendonça Filho. Acclaimed Brazilian filmmaker Kleber Mendonça Filho (BACURAU, AFI FEST 2019) turns his camera inward, crafting an infectious personal essay exploring the spaces and cinemas that have long lingered in his memory. Now living in his...
September 26, 2023
THEY SHOT THE PIANO PLAYER
DescriptionBiosDescription Animator Javier Mariscal and director Fernando Trueba (BELLE EPOQUE) reunite after CHICO & RITA (AFI FEST 2010) for this animated, Bossa Nova-inflected documentary about virtuoso Brazilian pianist Francisco Tenório Júnior, who disappeared under mysterious circumstances during the military dictatorship of Argentina in 1976. Narrated by Jeff Goldblum, the film traces a New York music...
September 26, 2023
ORLANDO, MY POLITICAL BIOGRAPHY (ORLANDO, MA BIOGRAPHIE POLITIQUE)
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Philosophically probing and brimming with delight, writer/intellectual Paul Preciado’s directorial debut composes a letter to Virginia Woolf, concerning her nearly 100-year-old novel "Orlando: A Biography." In it, an aristocrat changes gender while sleeping and awakes as a woman who then traverses centuries. Preciado convenes 26 trans and non-binary people, between the ages of eight...
September 26, 2023
RYUICHI SAKAMOTO | OPUS
DescriptionBiosDescription In the years preceding his March 2023 passing, legendary composer Ryuichi Sakamoto had not been able to hold live performances. This filmed solo concert, Sakamoto’s final performance, directed by his son Neo Sora (THE CHICKEN, AFI FEST 2020) – an extraordinary artist in his own right – leaves behind an intimate, heartrending and personal...
September 26, 2023
THE ECHO (EL ECO)
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Mexican-Salvadoran filmmaker Tatiana Huezo (PRAYERS FOR THE STOLEN, AFI FEST 2021) makes a visually arresting return to nonfiction filmmaking with this immersive portrait of multi-generational family life in the remote Mexican highlands. Focusing on a tightknit trio of families, the film is named for the village where the families have farmed for generations, just...
September 26, 2023
FOUR DAUGHTERS (LES FILLES D’OLFA)
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Tunisia’s Oscar® submission for Best International Feature Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Kaouther Ben Hania. In this hybrid docu-fiction from Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania (THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN), Tunisian mother of four, Olfa, recounts and re-enacts scenes from her life with her two younger daughters. Olfa’s two...
September 26, 2023
ANSELM 3D
DescriptionBiosContactDescription Artist and iconoclast Anselm Kiefer probes the past, holding up a mirror to post-war Germany through his photography, sculpture and massive architectural installations. Working again in 3D after his acclaimed documentary PINA, director Wim Wenders brings depth to this stereoscopic portrait, creating a collage of the artist’s past and present to fashion an immersive...
September 26, 2023
TIGER STRIPES
DescriptionBiosContactTrailerDescription Malaysia’s Oscar® submission for Best International Feature Screening to be followed by a conversation with director Amanda Nell Eu. The first Malaysian film to win the Cannes Critics’ Week Grand Prize, Amanda Nell Eu’s debut feature reimagines a classic tale with an endearing DIY spirit and irreverent playfulness. Precocious and quick-witted 12-year-old Zaffan (vibrantly...
September 26, 2023
THE UNIVERSAL THEORY (DIE THEORIE VON ALLEM)
DescriptionBiosDescription In 1974, author Johannes Leinert (Jan Bülow) appears on a German talk show to promote his sci-fi novel “Die Theorie von Allem,” where shadowy Cold War intrigue melds with alternate realities of the multiverse. But instead, Leinert claims his book is fact, not fiction, based on his unpublished doctoral thesis and his own experiences....
