French films at Worldfilm festival in Tartu

From 27 March to 2 April, Tartu will be home of the world’s best antropological documentaries. The Worldfilm Festival will bring you around 60 documentaries that will take you on a journey around the world to see people with their different cultures and societies.

This year’s festival also has a selection of documentaries in French, including “Change of Scenery” with the presence of the film director herself, Gaëlle Boucand. Here are the five films:

Elephant’s Dream

• Year of release: 2014
• Duration: 74 min
• Director: Kristof Bilsen
• Original Language: French, Lingala
• Country of production: United Kingdom, Belgium
• Shooting location: DR Congo
• Distributor: CAT&Docs

Kristof Bilsen (director/DOP/producer) completed a filmmaking BA in Brussels (2002). He also works as cinematographer, editor and director for the performing arts. His first film “Three Women” (about female detainees in a Belgian prison) was shortlisted for the Henri Storck Prize. He also made the short documentary “Fez-return-ticket”, about a mixed marriage in Morocco before beginning his Masters at the National Film and Television School. He enrolled for the Werner Herzog Film Course in Los Angeles and also attended the Berlinale Talent Campus at 2012. His work has been screened at more than 50 festivals worldwide (IDFA, DOK Leipzig, Hot Docs, Margaret Mead, Thessaloniki, a.o.).

Projected on the 29 March at 12.00 in the main program of the festival.

Stony Paths

• Year of release: 2015
• Duration: 60 min
• Director: Arnaud Khayadjanian
• Original Language: French, Turkish
• Country of production: France
• Shooting location: Turkey
• Distributor: Arnaud Khayadjanian

“Stony Paths”  is the story of a trip across Eastern Anatolia, a part of Turkey that Arnaud Khayadjanian has never been to, although his forefathers used to live there. He is not returning home, even though he is somehow returning into the past.

The trek starts in Turkey, on the land of Arnaud’s forefathers who survived the Armenian Genocide. He goes on  to explore the little known issue of the Righteous, all the anonymous people who saved lives in 1915.  Following his great-grandfather’s steps, Arnaud tries to detect the layers of time in the stony landscapes of Kemah Valley.

Director info

Arnaud Khayadjanian has graduated the Sorbonne University of Paris. He has directed “Lost Horizons” in 2012, a short film screened and awarded in twenty international film festivals. In 2014, he adapted a French play into a short film entitled “Bad Girl” which has been viewed more than one million times by streaming. “Bad Girl” has been selected in 11 international festivals and it won both Vimeo Prize and Jury Prize in Sundance Channel Contest. In 2015, Arnaud Khayadjanian released “Stony Paths”, a full-length documentary inspired by the story of his Armenian great-grandparents.

Projected on 30 March at 14.00 as part of the main program of the festival.

Change of Scenery

• Year of release: 2015
• Duration: 51 min
• Director: Gaëlle Boucand
• Original Language: French
• Country of production: France
• Shooting location: Switzerland
• Distributor: Olga Rozenblum

After graduating from Paris Beaux-Arts, Gaëlle Boucand moved to Berlin where she developed multimedia work and took part in different collaborations involved with city life. In 2007, she was resident of the Pavillon, research lab of the Palais de Tokyo. Since 2010, her production has focused on movies that lie in-between contemporary art and cinema. In 2014, she teached film and video in ISDAT, Toulouse Beaux-Arts. Her films have been shown and awarded in festivals like FID Marseille or Pantin as well as in art institutions such as Paris Museum of Modern Art or Centre Georges Pompidou.

Projected on 1 April at 15.30 as part of the main program of the festival.

NB! With the presence of the film director Gaëlle Boucand.

Where the hills are greener

• Year of release: 2015
• Duration: 78 min
• Director: Oliver Dickinson
• Original Language: French
• Country of production: France
• Shooting location: Aveyron, France
• Distributor: LVP
  

Born in London in 1980, Oliver Dickinson is an Anglo-French documentary maker. Director of films with a social and environmental message: “The Forgotten District”, “Caring for the Lagoon” and “Harvesters of the Bay”. Many international festival selections and awards already distinguish his young career. “Where the hills are greener” is his first feature documentary.

Projected on 2 April at 13.30 as part of the main program of the festival.

Family Goldmine

• Year of release: 2014
• Duration: 78 min
• Director: Robbie Fraser
• Original Language: English, French
• Country of production: United Kingdom
• Shooting location: Mali
• Distributor: Pure Magic Films

Robbie Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He studied at Columbia University Film School in New York, then earned his stripes as a director on many BBC productions in Scotland, including arts documentaries, drama and sketch comedy. Described by BBC’s Paul Arendt as ‘a man to watch’, Fraser’s work in both fiction and factual films is characterised by warmth and off-beat humour, and a humane, gentle approach to its subjects.

Projected on 2 April at 17.00 as part of the main program of the festival.

Find the whole program of the festival at worldfilm.ee