17th Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival 2021

9 – 12 September 2021

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BFMAF’s 2021 Call for Entries has now closed. Thanks to all who entered, we will let you know about the selection status of your film by the 9th of August.

Check 2020’s 16th BFMAF and all the accompanying recordings, essays, and podcasts below, still there for you to enjoy!

Propositions

The Propositions strand is a hybrid of discussion and online screenings that dive deep into new cinema and share discoveries encountered through artists’ and filmmakers’ research, experience and practice.→

still from: Kat Anderson: Restraint Restrained

still from: Renèe Helèna Browne

still from: Tiffany Sia: Never Rest/Unrest

still from: Zinzi Minott

Kat Anderson: Restraint Restrained

John, Roundtable Conversation

Renèe Helèna Browne

Tiffany Sia: Never Rest/Unrest

Crisis news is a genre film: On resistance, news cycles, and the banal time of protests in Tiffany Sia’s ‘Never Rest/Unrest’

Essay

Listening session and in conversation with Zinzi Minott and DJ Flight

10 October 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Propositions: Tiffany Sia in conversation

3 October 2020, 15:00

Live Event

Propositions: Renèe Helèna Browne in conversation

1 October 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Too Salty Too Wet 更咸更濕: The Leak as Discharge

Essay

Tiffany Sia: Embracing the Doomscroll

by Herb Shellenberger

Essay

Embodied Thoughts on Zinzi Minott’s Fi Dem III: Ancestral Interference

by Rabz Lansiquot

Essay

“Come the Light, Come the Hope”: Revisiting Kat Anderson’s John and Roundtable Conversation

by Rabz Lansiquot

Essay

Marla: Notes on Daddy’s Boy

by Esther Draycott

Essay

Filmmaker in Focus

Izza Génini

A pioneering woman in Moroccan cinema, Izza Génini’s practise sits solely within the realm of narrative documentary. As someone who was born in Morocco, grew up in France and returned there as an adult, her films grapple with themes such as diasporic identity and traditional Moroccan heritage, particularly focusing on the music of the country.

still from: Return to Oulad Moumen

still from: Vibrations in Upper Atlas

still from: Rhythms of Marrakech

still from: Aïta

Return to Oulad Moumen

Vibrations in Upper Atlas

Rhythms of Marrakech

Of mountains and melodies: On sound, tradition, and community in Izza Génini’s Rhythms of Marrakech

by Eilidh Campbell

Essay

Filmmakers in Focus: Izza Génini in conversation

6 October 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Génini’s Documentaries

by Stefanie Van de Peer

Essay

The Ebb and Flow of Music

by Yasmine Benabdallah

Essay

Essential Cinema

Our pluralist retrospective series that provides a revisionist view of what might be considered classic works of cinema.

still from: Badnam Basti

still from: Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!

still from: The Lighthouse

still from: Paris Calligrammes

Don’t Cry, Pretty Girls!

Márta Mészáros

Manuela Lazic, Alessandro Luchetti, Maria Saakyan

Paris Calligrammes

Ulrike Ottinger

Life’s tender resilience: On reunion and separation in Armenia, joy in the face of conflict, and a cinema of nostalgia in Maria Saakyan’s Mayak/The Lighthouse

by Ilinca Vanau

Essay

Essential Cinema: Márta Mészáros

11 October 2020, 15:00

Live Event

Essential Cinema: Badnam Basti

7 October 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Essential Cinema: The Lighthouse (Mayak)

24 September 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Festival Catalogue

View Festival
Catalogue →

Filmmaker in Focus

Angelo Madsen Minax

US-born filmmaker and artist Madsen Minax crafts his short films and videos in various breaths—ever so often personal, experimental and transgressive ones. Within these breaths, Minax approaches and investigates queerness, trans identity and sexuality, mysticism and death, family bonds and social justice, in a many-layered approach to image-making.→

still from: At the River

still from: The Eddies

still from: Because of Us

still from: The Source Is a Hole

still from: Forward into the Afternoon

still from: My Most Handsome Monster

still from: No Show Girls

The Source Is a Hole

Forward into the Afternoon

My Most Handsome Monster

Filmmakers in Focus: Angelo Madsen Minax in conversation

8 October 2020, 20:00

Live Event

All My Exorcisms Have Failed: Notes on a Few Angelo Madsen Minax Works

by Steve Reinke

Essay

New Cinema Competition

For the first time, Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival’s New Cinema Competition includes Short, Medium and Feature length films. The strand encompasses the Festival’s view of some of the most distinctive works of new cinema and artists’ moving image being made around the world today.→

still from: At Those Terrifying Frontiers Where the Existence and Disappearance of People Fade Into Each Other

still from: Don’t Rush

still from: Fuel

still from: LIQUID STRANGER

still from: Marriage Story

still from: Patrick

still from: The Cypress Dance

still from: The Name I Call Myself

still from: The Unseen River

still from: This day won’t last

still from: Up at Night

still from: Way My It Did I

At Those Terrifying Frontiers Where the Existence and Disappearance of People Fade Into Each Other

Basel Abbas, Ruanne Abou-Rahme

Elise Florenty, Marcel Türkowsky

LIQUID STRANGER

Stefan Ramírez Pérez

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli

The Cypress Dance

Mariana Caló, Francisco Queimadela

The Name I Call Myself

The Unseen River

Phạm Ngọc Lân

This day won’t last

Mouaad el Salem

Way My It Did I

Maria Anastassiou

Existence and disappearance: On documentation, the un-real image, and surveillance as a biopolitical weapon against Palestinian life in Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme’s At Those Terrifying Frontiers

by Jessica McGoff

Essay

An interview with Mariana Caló and Francisco Queimadela

by Herb Shellenberger

Essay

Yu Araki in conversation

Podcast

Stefan Ramírez Pérez in conversation

Podcast

Rhea Dillon in conversation

Podcast

Phạm Ngọc Lân in conversation

Podcast

Nelson Makengo in conversation

Podcast

Moouad el Salem in conversation

Podcast

Maria Anastassiou in conversation

Podcast

Luke Fowler in conversation

Podcast

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli in conversation

Podcast

Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky in conversation

Podcast

In, Out, Out, In: Maria Anastassiou’s Way My It Did I

by María Palacios Cruz

Essay

Filmmaker in Focus

Payal Kapadia

Over the past decade, Mumbai-based filmmaker Payal Kapadia has built up a remarkable collection of short films. In particular, a trilogy of sorts made between 2015–18—The Last Mango Before the Monsoon, 2015; Afternoon Clouds, 2017; And What is Summer Saying, 2018—stands as a massive achievement and as a hybrid form of new cinema.→

still from: Afternoon Clouds

still from: The Last Mango Before the Monsoon

still from: And What is the Summer Saying

Afternoon Clouds

The Last Mango Before the Monsoon

And What is the Summer Saying

Filmmakers in Focus: Payal Kapadia in conversation

26 September 2020, 17:00

Live Event

Dreams of Direct Love: The Films of Payal Kapadia

Essay

New Cinema Competition Features

A brand new remodelled New Cinema Competition, where all selected filmmakers share the Berwick New Cinema Award. For easy viewing the selection is presented in two screenings, one for short and medium length works, and the second for features.→

still from: Desterro

still from: maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

still from: N.P

still from: The Year of the Discovery

still from: This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection

Maria Clara Escobar

maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore

Lisa Spilliaert

The Year of the Discovery

Luis López Carrasco

This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection

Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese

Translating unspoken words: On death, the erotic, and translation in Lisa Spilliaert’s N.P

Essay

What has not yet come: On climate crisis, colonialism, displacement, and ancestral inheritance in This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection

by Natasha Thembiso Ruwona

Essay

Sky Hopinka in conversation

Podcast

Maria Clara Escobar in conversation

Podcast

Luis López Carrasco in conversation

Podcast

Lisa Spilliaert in conversation

Podcast

Cait Pansegrouw in conversation

Podcast

Filmmaker in Focus

Ayo Akingbade

In her own words, Ayo Akingbade’s work “addresses notions of urbanism, power and stance”. Characteristic of her films is a contemplation and celebration of the rhythms of everyday London life, as well as the histories and legacies that move through it.→

still from: Claudette’s Star

still from: So They Say

still from: No News Today

still from: A is for Artist

Claudette’s Star

Dear Babylon, Street 66, Tower XYZ

A is for Artist

Filmmakers in Focus: Ayo Akingbade in conversation

22 September 2020, 20:00

Live Event

On the Films of Ayo Akingbade

Essay

Previews

Previews is a new Berwick Film & Media Arts Festival (BFMAF) programme strand highlighting forthcoming feature-length films. For its first edition BFMAF has invited artist filmmakers Tim Leyendekker (NL) and Fern Silva (US) to introduce their debut—work in progress—feature films.→

still from: Feast: Work in Progress

still from: Rock Bottom Riser: Work in Progress

Feast: Work in Progress

Tim Leyendekker

Rock Bottom Riser: Work in Progress

Previews: Tim Leyendekker and Fern Silva

10 October 2020, 15:00

Live Event

Enceindre

still from: Enceindre

Dark Cinema with Chris Watson

Podcast

Festival Opening: Dark Cinema with Chris Watson

17 September 2020, 20:00

Live Event

Berwick Young Filmmakers

still from: Berwick Young Filmmakers 2020

Berwick Young Filmmakers 2020

Podcasts 1145

Dark Cinema with Chris Watson

Yu Araki in conversation

Stefan Ramírez Pérez in conversation

Sky Hopinka in conversation

Rhea Dillon in conversation

Phạm Ngọc Lân in conversation

Nelson Makengo in conversation

Moouad el Salem in conversation

Maria Clara Escobar in conversation

Maria Anastassiou in conversation

Luke Fowler in conversation

Luis López Carrasco in conversation

Lisa Spilliaert in conversation

Jessica Dunn Rovinelli in conversation

Elise Florenty and Marcel Türkowsky in conversation

Cait Pansegrouw in conversation