FEAR OF OTHERS

KAŅEPES CULTURE CENTRE 02.12 / 14.00

Usually when I program a group of shorts, there is an obvious theme. But when I was invited to curate this particular group of shorts, I asked myself, "What is the greatest statement I can make in the small amount of films I am going to present?" I believe in the development of globalization, there has been an underlying sense of guilt felt by first world countries toward lesser-developed countries. If you notice, there are no films here from Latin America, Africa, etc. I think being the white suburbanite who grew up in the 1980s, America, affected my choices. I felt like an outsider most of my life, partly from choice and partly from circumstance. I had everything a human could want: food, a stable upbringing, etc...so why did I feel the way I do? The saying goes for writers..."Write what you know." For my current PhD research I examine the effect of globalization on America and Europe. I believe my program here exemplifies many different facets of an underlying anxiety felt by the masses as we head through an undoubatably transitional stage in our cultures. The bottom line is fear. Fear that the other will fundamentally change who we are at our core, both individually and collectively… Fear of change in a techno-oriented digital present…. Fear that globalization is taking us all down a road we are not prepared for, at a speed we cannot yet comprehend. I welcome you to investigate these films for yourself and examine how the “other” may be the outsider….or perhaps the “status quo” person has now become the outsider. In a dizzying state of globalization, the outsider is not so clearly defined. 

MRS MCCUTCHEON, John Sheedy, fiction, Australia, 2017, 16'30"

Having always felt he was born in the wrong body and now at his third school, 10-year-old Tom is having trouble settling in and finding acceptance from his newfound peers.

FRENCH (Le bleu blanc rouge de mes cheveux), Josza Anjembe, France, 2016, 21"

At seventeen, Seyna, a teenager from Cameroon is passionate about France's history, the country where she was born and she is deeply in love.

AMERICAN PARADISE, Joe Talbot, USA, 2017, 18"

A desperate man in Trump's America; so he attempts to shift his fate with the perfect crime. Based on an unfortunately true story.

BEHIND THE WALLS, Hyun Lories, Belgium, 12"

Habi takes us on a tour around the 5 Towers and teaches that an empty square only exists in the head of the person, who looks at it that way. By taking a closer look, you might change your mind.

A NEW HOME, Ziga Virc, Slovenia, 2"

This home is so new that no one is even in the building when a young woman moves in early. Is she in danger, or is it her own paranoia that she should be afraid of?
 

IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOUNTAIN, Neith Sentis, UK, Spain, 15"

The sole inhabitants of an old village in the Catalonian Pyrenees will take any opportunity to keep their place alive, when a couple visits them looking for a house where they could start a family.

Films will be screened in the original language with Latvian subtitles.

Curator: Alexandra Nakelski