Official Film Festival Selection - Thursday

Welcome to the Official Selection for Day 1 of the Changing the Story Online International Film Festival 2020.

On Day 4 catch a series of compelling and provoking films about the varied human experience - films about hardship, precarity, tolerance, dignity and survival. These films will deepen your understanding of the social and economic and political challenges and barriers communities around the world face and the urgent need for institutional and systemic change.

NB. Research relies on personal testimony and the creation of an open space for the critical exchange of ideas. As a consequence, some content in these films refer to or depict topics you may find upsetting, such as sexual abuse, slavery, child abuse, self-harm or suicide, kidnapping or abduction, death or dying, hateful language directed at marginalised groups.

Striving for Survival is a documentary film by Keduokuolie Pienyii about the job opportunities young people in Nagaland, India are creating to economically empower themselves.

The short film made by the young people from the Youth Committee at Nigel Caring Community Safe Park, South Africa, explores issues around human trafficking in their community alongside contemporary suspicion of traditional beliefs.

The film is about Tuzla, city in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It used be a developed industrial city, proud of its multiethnic existence. Even during the time of overwhelming ethnic nationalist policies, Tuzla never accepted anything that separated people. The film is about the struggles of the city, and the question of how Tuzla maintained the spirit of openness in a country which is in a long-lasting crisis.

A powerful short film about sexual violence made by the young people at Rearabilwe Safe Park in Tsakane, South Africa. The film is part of a series made by young people in South Africa telling stories from their lives and communities, as well as how they can take power together to resolve the problems that they face.

This short film is part of series created by Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba, the “true voice of the land”, based in Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo. Has apartheid ended? This is the powerful question posed by Elizabeth Maarman, who says she still lives “in die verdukking” – under oppression.

This film is part of series created by Ilizwi Lenyaniso Lomhlaba, the “true voice of the land”, based in Graaff-Reinet in the Karoo. The film follows Leon Lakay and Christine Louw who have made their home in Vrygrond, meaning free or empty land.

PASSWORD TO VIEW: TLM2020

“The Last Man” is a documentary film about manual scavengers and the role of the caste system in Indian societies which defines the destiny of many poor and low class communities within the sub continent.