Full-length documentary
!AITSA
South Africa’s Karoo region is a key location connected to the roots of human civilisation. This unspoiled landscape is the future site of a telescope that will reveal the even older history of the universe.
Communities
Films in this category explore the diverse community experiences of contemporary society. It’s precisely communities – groups interlinked by various shared circumstances and bonds – that play a significant role in shaping society, perhaps even evolving into a new form of family — or perhaps acting as a “second family” has always been among the functions of any community?
Communities have been integral to human life since time immemorial, as powerfully illustrated in The Invention of the Other. Here, a humanitarian rescue group ventures out into the Amazon rainforest in search of the lost members of an indigenous tribe. The film poignantly captures the expedition's progress, as well as the intense moments of the tribe’s reunion with their lost kin.
The significance of indigenous knowledge is also underscored in the visually captivating film !AITSA, a poetic essay that links the construction of a telescope in South Africa with the spiritual wisdom of the local indigenous people. The cosmology of the Karoo region resonates with the modern interconnectedness of the world through invisible data networks. Knit's Island explores how characters in a virtual computer game form a unique gaming community, escaping the confines of reality through their avatars. And in the humorous Bull Run, the director also takes a jump into a virtual community, immersing herself in the allure of the cryptocurrency craze whilst taking time to reflect on its surprisingly addictive nature.
The political dimension of communities is further illuminated in such titles as Hong Kong Mixtape, Praying for Armageddon, and Ping Pong Family. In the latter, a group of immigrants in Oslo gather regularly in a square, striving to carve out lives for themselves in their chosen country. Their ping pong community, this "chosen family" of theirs, becomes characteristic of the present as it embodies the essence of belonging in an increasingly individualistic world.
