12/01/2024 - Besides a selection of 105 films, both feature-length and short, the main attraction at this year’s event is the presence of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-Liang

Celebrating a quarter century of existence, the Black Movie International Independent Film Festival (running 19 to 28 January) is set to take us on yet another journey across the world with a cutting-edge selection of the best of independent film productions. Divided into ten thematic sections, the selected movies lend a voice both to known directors and young and up-and-coming filmmakers, such as the Georgian talent who graduated from Geneva’s HEAD Elene Naveriani, who’ll be presenting Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Elene Naveriani
film profile], not to mention Greece’s Sofia Exarchou with Animal [+see also:
film review
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interview: Sofia Exarchou
film profile] and Martín Benchimol with The Castle [+see also:
film review
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interview: Martín Benchimol
film profile], which is set to close the festival.

Three major events are scheduled to unfold on the occasion of director and artist Tsai Ming-Liang’s attendance at the festival: Walker, which is a sizeable exhibition dedicated to the series of the same name, a masterclass, and a focus session revolving around a selection of the filmmaker’s movies, accompanied by an installation and a series of his drawings.

In the ten sections forming the basis of this tantalising 25th edition, we’ll find a handful of co-productions and several European gems. In the Cinema, Your Merciless World line-up, for example, the ruthless universe behind the scenes of the film industry is set to be revealed through six films, including Greek work The Summer With Carmen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Zacharias Mavroeidis
film profile] by Zacharias Mavroeidis, and three European co-productions: the documentary Celluloid Underground [+see also:
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film profile] by the Iranian director based in London Ehsan Khoshbakht, and two recently restored masterpieces highlighting the complexities involved in the profession of film archiving: Le Mandat by Ousmane Sembène (Senegal/France), dating back to 1968 and Hyènes by Djibril Diop Mambéty (Senegal/Switzerland), from 1992. In addition to the afore-mentioned Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry and the Locarno Film Festival’s champion Critical Zone [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Iranian director Ali Ahmadzadeh, the Resist! section, which lends a voice to rebellious people all over the world, also includes Man in Black [+see also:
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film profile] by Wang Bing, and Hungarian duo Tibor Bánóczki and Sarolta Szabó’s mixed animation movie White Plastic Sky [+see also:
film review
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interview: Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó
film profile].

The Taking Root section, for its part, which pays tribute to the various indigenous groups in the Americas, consists of three films which include the co-productions Eureka [+see also:
film review
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interview: Lisandro Alonso
film profile] - an organic fable by Lisandro Alonso - and The Buriti Flower [+see also:
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interview: João Salaviza and Renée Nad…
film profile], which is a reflection on the importance of safeguarding the shared fragile memories of João Salaviza and Renée Nader Messora. Family Jewel, meanwhile, explores the highs and most notably the lows of one-of-a-kind families, showcasing the Brazilian-Portuguese co-production Toll [+see also:
film review
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film profile], which is the second feature film directed by Brazil’s Carolina Markowicz. The Phantom Members line-up will then take us into the afterlife by way of four films, including Samsara [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lois Patiño
film profile], which is a mystical triptych by Spanish director Lois Patiño.

The Smell of Money section, paying tribute to workers, will feature five films, including the afore-mentioned Animal, alongside Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World [+see also:
film review
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interview: Radu Jude
film profile] by Radu Jude, and the co-production Youth (Spring) [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Wang Bing, revolving around the highly questionable Chinese textile industry. Last but not least, in Sweat and Tremor, a line-up dedicated to a series of elite sportspeople, we’ll find Tatami [+see also:
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trailer
film profile] by the filmmaking duo Guy Nattiv and Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who paint a portrait of an Iranian judoka.

(Translated from French)