VTIFF Program-Guide 2024 - Flipbook - Page 20
FILMS A TO Z
FH: FILM HOUSE | BB: BLACK BOX THEATER | SR: SCREENING ROOM • All at Main Street Landing Performing Arts Center, Burlington
NO OTHER LAND
Directed by Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamden Ballal, and Rachel Szor
Palestine, Israel | 2024 | Documentary | 92 min | English, Arabic, Hebrew w/ subtitles
Sponsored by: Burlington-Bethlehem-Arad Sister City Program
SHOWTIMES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 | 2 PM | BB
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 25 | 7:15 PM | BB
In 2019, 1,000 Palestinian homes were selected for demolition in the village of Masafer
Yatta, the largest mass expulsion order in the West Bank since the Israeli occupation
began. Local resident Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham document this
destruction house by house over four years in No Other Land, winner of this year’s
Berlinale Documentary Film Award. This heartbreaking documentary captures the
trauma and confusion of the families who are displaced as soldiers enter their remote
village and bulldoze their homes. Water manes are busted, tools are confiscated, cars
are seized, residents are forced into caves, and dissent is met with violence. No Other
Land is a potent reminder of the importance and power of ground-level journalism in the
face of injustice. At the center of the story is a poignant friendship that we see deepen
and fray over time as Basel and Yuval shoulder the responsibility of telling the stories of
the dispossessed. ~TW
NOCTURNES
Directed by Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban Dutta
India, USA | 2024 | Documentary | 83 min | Hindi, English, Bugun w/subtitles
Sponsored by: Brianne Chase; Science on Screen®; The Vermont Chapter of the Nature
Conservancy
SHOWTIMES
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 20 | 1 PM | FH (SCIENCE ON SCREEN EVENT)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 23 | 4:30 PM | BB
OCEANS ARE THE REAL CONTINENTS
(LOS OCÉANOS SON LOS VERDADEROS CONTINENTES)
Nocturnes speaks to the lepidopterist in all of us. Through remarkable patience, keen
observation, and beautiful compositions, directors Anupama Srinivasan and Anirban
Dutta conjure a transportive, deeply immersive sensorial experience. Nocturnes is a
celebration of meticulous, rigorous observation, imploring us to look closer at the hidden
interconnectedness of the natural world. Following a research team deep in the Eastern
Himalaya mountains, we watch as they set up illuminated canvases night after night,
tracking and documenting countless species of moths at different elevations. The
dynamic between the researchers—lead ecologist Mansi and her hired help from the
Bugun community—is low-key, collaborative, and also revealing about the cultures and
people from this region of the world, a remote ecological “hot spot” on the border of
India and Bhutan. Nocturnes is ultimately about uncovering the profound, sometimes
imperceptible ripple effects of climate change, zeroing in on species we readily take for
granted. The pulsing, vibrating symphony of thousands of moths clustered together, and
the incredible, colorful biodiversity on display, is endlessly fascinating to behold, and
worth saving. ~OO
Directed by Tommaso Santambrogio
Cuba, Italy | 2023 | Fiction | 119 min | Spanish w/subtitles
An initiative of the Coolidge Corner Theatre, with
major support from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
After the film, there is a panel discussion featuring representatives from
The Nature Conservancy.
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Sponsored by: Anne Barbano and Michael George; Holly Cluse
SHOWTIMES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22 | 7 PM | BB
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 26 | 4 PM | BB
Tommaso Santambrogio’s debut feature is a stunningly photographed black-and-white
portrait of Cuba. A tryptic of gently intersecting stories, set in San Antonio de los Baños,
the film follows the romance of a young artistic couple as their creative passions pull
them in different directions, an elderly woman reliving her past through letters from a
long lost love, and two street kids who dream of playing for the Yankees. Strikingly lensed
by Lorenzo Casadio Vannucci, with a cast of non-professional actors, Oceans Are the
Real Continents has the texture and resonance of social realism, with unmistakable
echoes of Mikhail Kalatozov’s I Am Cuba, but a wonderful sense of style that is poetic,
emotional, and intoxicating. Santambrogio captures the essence of a country that is
unstuck in time, haunted by ghosts of past, present, and an uncertain future. Artful and
patient, these carefully woven stories portray a people in exile, with deep roots in their
homeland but a yearning for all there is to experience outside this isolated island. ~OO
VTIFF.ORG | VERMONT INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL 2024
