VTIFF Program-Guide 2024 - Flipbook - Page 19
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FILMS A TO Z
MADE IN ETHIOPIA
Directed by Xinyan Yu and Max Duncan
Ethiopia | 2024 | Documentary | 91 min | Mandarin, Amharic, English w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Steven Wisbaum and Suzanne Lourie
LITTLE KID FLICKS
Germany, France, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Lithuania, United Kingdom | 2024 |
Fiction | 67 min
SHOWTIMES
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19 | 12:30 PM | FH
FREE!
Let your little ones discover the magic of the big screen with Little Kid Flicks. VTIFF is
excited to bring this popular collection of family friendly short films back for its 25th year.
Whether diving down into the ocean for a pufferfish standoff or skating to victory across
the ice, these shorts are sure to enchant and delight kids and adults alike! This year
features weird, wild, and fun animated films from Germany (Pufferfish, Forever Seven),
Czechia (My name is Edgar and I have a cow), France (Coquille), and Lithuania (Hoofs on
Skates). The anchor for this series comes from the UK with Jac Hamman and Sarah
Scrimgeour’s Tabby McTat, a lively adaptation of the fan-favorite children’s book by
celebrated author Julia Donaldson and illustrator Axel Scheffler, the pair behind classics
The Gruffalo and Room on the Broom. Recommended for ages 5+. ~OO
SHOWTIMES
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 | 4 PM | FH
A large-canvas story told on a basic human scale, Made In Ethiopia is a textbook
example of how to take an overwhelming topic and make it engrossing, informative, and
cinematic. The topic is China’s investment in Africa, specifically a mind-bogglingly
gigantic factory complex that China is building in Ethiopia. The film follows the progress
of this plan through the eyes of three women: Chinese factory manager Motto Ma; the
young Ethiopian factory worker Beti; and Workinesh, an Ethiopian farmer whose family is
displaced by the project. These three strong personalities anchor the film, showing how
different people can believe wildly different things. Motto thinks her factory is the only
path that will lead to modernization in Ethiopia and that her factory workers are all
grateful for it, yet Beti’s experience of thwarted expectations is 180 degrees apart from
Motto’s beliefs. These divergent dreams and desires form a complex reality, both for the
individuals involved and the country in which they live. ~SM
After the film, there is an in-person Q&A with director Xinyan Yu.
MAMIFERA
Directed by Liliana Torres
Spain | 2024 | Fiction | 93 min | Spanish w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Monika Jaeckle and Lou Slanina
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 2:15 PM | BB
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24 | 7:15 PM | BB
Mamifera is both a lovely, well-observed character study and a thoroughly relatable
portrait of a quarter-life crisis in slow-motion. The film focuses on Lola—a fabulous Maria
Rodriguez Soto—a woman who has always been certain that being a mother is not for
her. Of course, this being a movie, you can guess what happens next: Just when her
comfortable domestic life with her partner, Bruno, and her work as an art teacher
specializing in decoupage, feels complete, life throws a curve ball and she finds out she’s
expecting. Her choice is clear to her but she has to pause due to Spain’s mandatory
abortion waiting period. What follows is a parallel three-day existential journey for Lola
and Bruno filled with amusing familial interactions, friends enduring their own personal
crises, a bunch of vivid dreams where Lola’s cutouts and anxieties come to life, and hard
truths leading to life-changing decisions. Director-writer Liliana Torres clearly harbors a
lot of affection for these characters and their chosen family, all of which pours out in a
profound, moving final gesture. ~OO
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024
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