The Stimming Pool is an experimental—at times fantastical—hybrid feature film, co-created by a collective of autistic artists, the Neurocultures Collective, and filmmaker Steven Eastwood, who invite you into a neurodiverse world within the undulating logic of neurotypical environments.
Cinematography Greg Oke
Editing Sergio Vega Borrego
Production Chloe White, Steven Eastwood
Sound Steve Bond, Carlos Eligio San Juan Juanchi
Music Brain Audio, Tom Haines
AUDIO: English
SUBTITLE: Romanian
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Elvire Popesco - Institutul Francez
3:30 PM
67'
Followed by a discussion with Gabi Arghir (Neurodivers Romania) and Alina Dumitru (FDP - Protagonists in Education)
12
April,
Saturday
Cinema Elvire Popesco - Institutul Francez
3:30 PM
67'
Followed by Q&A with the directors Georgia Kumari Bradburn and Steven Eastwood
Georgia Kumari Bradburn,
Steven Eastwood
Georgia Kumari Bradburn
Georgia Kumari Bradburn is a filmmaker whose work focuses on metamorphosis and transformation
Steven Eastwood
Steven Eastwood is an award-winning artist filmmaker.
200 years after Simón Bolívar’s liberation campaign across Colombia, The Soldier’s Lagoon retraces The Liberator’s journey across the high-altitude marshlands, while searching for glimpses of his ghost still present in this historically contested territory and reflecting on the construction of oral history and its relation to the land.
Cinematography Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Editing Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Production Pablo Álvarez Mesa
Sound Erin Elizabeth Ryan, Alex Lane, Pablo Álvarez Mesa, Alex Lane
Three decades ago, the world was poised to stop global warming. Using exclusively archival material, The White House Effect tells the origin story of the climate crisis and how a political battle in the George H.W. Bush administration changed the course of history, documenting how a crucial opportunity to take real action on global warming was not just squandered but deliberately undermined.
Editing Daniel Claridge, Pedro Kos, Sara Newens
Production Justine Nagan, Josh Penn, Noah Stahl, Jon Shenk, Bonni Cohen
Music Ariel Marx
AUDIO: English
SUBTITLE: Romanian
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Elvire Popesco - Institutul Francez
8:00 PM
96'
Followed by a discussion with Mihnea Matache (Greenpeace Romania), Nicoleta Fotiade (Mediawise Society) and Alex Zlăvog
In the summer of 1989, thousands of people from various nations and beliefs gathered in North Korea for a grand student festival that championed peace, friendship, and anti-imperialism. Though primarily political, addressing issues like nuclear disarmament, environmental protection, women's and students’ rights, social justice, and above all, peace, the festival also took place at a pivotal moment in history.
Cinematography Emilian Urse
Editing Andrei Gorgan
Production Monica Lăzurean Gorgan, Andra MacMasters, KO Duhyun
Preview screening / Followed by Q&A with the director and historian Mihai Burcea / Presented by Let’s Talk About… Film (Romanian Cultural Institute)
Andra MacMasters,
Mihai Burcea
Andra MacMasters
Andra MacMasters is a Romanian audiovisual producer and archive researcher. In 2013 she founded Conset Film and since then worked with filmmakers from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Serbia, India. She also established the first archive dedicated to the cine-amateurism movement in the Socialist Republic of Romania, available on www.cineama.ro.
Intent on providing a better life for herself and her children after her farmer-husband’s suicide, Sanjivani struggles against her culture’s traditional abandonment of widows, until she joins a discussion group with other farmer-suicide widows. Empowered by community, shared stories of resilience, and unexpected solidarity, Sanjivani cautiously forges a path forward.
Cinematography Leena Patoli, Carl Rottiers, Vishal Vittal
Editing Joëlle Alexis
Production Evelien De Graef, Hanne Phlypo, Digna Sinke, Arya Rothe
Sound Puneet Dwivedi, Imtiyaz Jumnalkar, Mark Glynne, Olmo van Straalen, Marija Djukic, Pim Stoltz
Cast Sanjivani Bhure
AUDIO: Marathi
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Muzeul Țăranului
6:00 PM
108'
Followed by Q&A with the director
Kinshuk Surjan
Kinshuk Surjan
Kinshuk Surjan is an Indian filmmaker, based in Brussels and Bhopal. A graduate of the DocNomads program, his short, “Divided Lines,” was screened at the 2015 Jihlava Film Festival. In 2017 his graduation film “The Flandrien” won the Flanders Audiovisual Fund’s VAF “Wildcard”.
Filmography: The Flandrien (2017), Divided Lines (2015)
08
April,
Tuesday
Cinema Elvire Popesco - Institutul Francez
8:00 PM
108'
Followed by a discussion with Elena-Andreea Negoi (F-SIDES) and Ela Crăciun (Feminism Romania Association)
14
April
- 30
April
ONLINE
108'
Online access to this film is limited to 50 views.
Part verité essay, part political diary, 23 Mile follows Americans during cataclysmic events in the swing state of Michigan throughout 2020 (including a plot to kidnap the governor), painting a complex portrait that defies media stereotypes, while forcing viewers to question their own assumptions about race, class, social status and geographical demographics.
Cinematography Mitch McCabe
Editing Mitch McCabe
Production Christie Herring, Lucas Neufeld, Micaela Wilner
Leo Records is a symbol of musical resistance against authoritarian regimes and a pioneer of what we now know as avant-garde. It is the story of a man who single-handedly liberated an entire generation of illegal artists, musical misfits and Leningrad cowboys. It is the jazz story of modern times.
Cinematography Paul Chirilă, Ioana Grigore
Editing Cristian Georgescu
Screenplay Ioana Grigore
Production Marcian Lazăr
Sound Matei Vasilache
Cast Leo Feigin, Lora Denisenko
AUDIO: English, Russian
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Union
3:00 PM
70'
Followed by Q&A with the director and the editor
Cristian Georgescu,
Ioana Grigore
Cristian Georgescu
Ioana Grigore
Ioana Grigore is a Romanian film director, focused on documentary film and the boundary between what we call reality and fiction. She recently obtained her PhD in Cinema and Media Studies and teaches documentary film at the National University of Theatre and Film "I.L. Caragiale" Bucharest.
After 30 years of marriage, my parents announced me they were separating. In the midst of this painful process, I was falling in love and starting my own family. The film explores the different shapes that love can take between parents and children and children who become parents. (Tudor Platon)
Cinematography Tudor Platon
Editing Delia Oniga, Maria Salomia
Screenplay Tudor Platon
Production Carla Fotea, Ada Solomon, Tudor Platon
Sound Ioan Filip, Dan Ștefan Rucăreanu
Cast Raluca Platon, Vasile Platon, Carla Fotea, Tudor Platon
AUDIO: Romanian
SUBTITLE: English
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Union
5:30 PM
88'
Followed by Q&A with the director
Tudor Platon
Tudor Platon
Tudor Platon is a Romanian documentary director and cinematographer. He made his directing debut with ”House of Dolls”, which premiered in 2020 in the Documentary Competition of Sarajevo Film Festival. As a cinematographer he worked on over 20 films, like “The Christmas Gift” (dir. Bogdan Mureșanu), ”4:15 P.M. The End of the World” (dir. Gabi Șarga & Cătălin Rotaru), or “Arsenie. An Amazing Afterlife” (dir. Alexandru Solomon).
media gallery
TATA
TATA
Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
2024, 82'
Romania, Germany, Netherlands
AUDIO: Romanian, Italian
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English
A journalist from Moldova, estranged from her father, who had emigrated to Italy several years before, finds out he has become a victim of workplace harassment. Along with the decision to help him expose his employer and look for legal support, the wounds of the past re-open and she starts a simultaneous journey through her violence-laden present and past.
Cinematography Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
Editing Radu Ciorniciuc, Ciprian Cimpoi, Andrei Gorgan
Screenplay Lina Vdovîi, Radu Ciorniciuc
Production Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
Sound Hugo Dijkstal, Marcel Huibers
Music Jörg Follert
AUDIO: Romanian, Italian
SUBTITLE: Romanian, English
06
April,
Sunday
Cinema Union
8:00 PM
82'
Followed by Q&A with the directors
Lina Vdovîi,
Radu Ciorniciuc
Lina Vdovîi
Radu Ciorniciuc
RADU CIORNICIUC co-founded in 2012 the first independent media organization in Romania - Casa Jurnalistului casajurnalistului.ro; a community of reporters specializing in in-depth, long-form, and multimedia reporting. Since then, Radu has worked as a long-form writer and undercover investigative reporter. His research is focused on human rights, animal welfare, and environmental issues across the globe. The articles and films he has worked on have appeared in some of the biggest publications around the globe. Ciorniciuc’s debut feature documentary film, "Acasa, My Home", produced by Manifest Film, tells the story of a family that lived for two decades in the wilderness, in perfect harmony with nature, until they are chased out and forced to adapt to life in the big city. "Acasă, My Home" premiered at Sundance (2020) where it won the Special Jury Award for Cinematography. The film had an exceptional festival run, and has been selected for a nomination at the European Film Academy Awards.