The Return of the Projectionist
Date: Friday, August 8
Screening Time: 6 pm
Directed by Orkhan Aghazadeh
Production: France and Germany
Production year: 2024
Duration: 87 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Languages: Talysh/Azerbaijani with English subtitles
Cast: Samid & Ayaz
Synopsis
Since losing his son in an occupational accident, Samid has been struggling with feelings of loneliness and melancholy. Bringing his village cinema back to life becomes an obsession, an endeavor in which he has no trouble encouraging the young and brilliant Ayaz to join him. Together, they must climb hills to find signal and order a bulb, convince the village to build and sew a screen, weld old video recorders, get past the censorship committee and ignore the rumors surrounding the project, all while trying not to become disheartened. Samid passes on his craft, patience and knowledge as a projectionist, while Ayaz, a budding filmmaker, provides a link with the modern world, that of social networks and a different relationship to images.
TRAILER: THE RETURN OF THE PROJECTIONIST
Festivals & Awards
2024 Visions du Réel. International Feature Film Competition Official Selection, 2024 +
Nominee Grand Prix
2024 Chicago International Film Festival, Nominee Gold Hugo
Best Documentary
2024 Jerusalem Film Festival | Official Selection
2024 Filmfest Hamburg | Official Selection
2024 Torino Film Festival, Winner Prize of the City of Torino
Best International Documentary Film
2024 Porto/Post/Doc
Official SelectionSalem Film Fest, US
2025 DocPoint – Helsinki Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection
2025 Winner American Cinematographer Magazine Award for CinematographyBest
2024 Winner Deutscher Kamerapreis
Best Camera Award in Doku Kino
2025 Margaret Mead Film Festival | Official Selection
2025 ZagrebDox International Documentary Film Festival
Official Selection
“There are gorgeous wide shots of the village and its natural surroundings, unmistakably shot with a love for the big screen (with which the documentary elegantly underscores its own main theme). More striking, however, is how the documentary is able to cover all the elements of the story: almost all important dialogues happen on camera; almost all shots are perfectly composed, often with dramatically interesting camera angles. Every time, the camera seems to know exactly where to be and when. Which seems unlikely – unless the scenes were staged.”
– BusinessDoc Europe
Press
Swimming out till the sea turns blue
Date: Saturday, August 9
Screening Time: 6 pm
Directed by Jia Zhang-ke
Production: China
Production year: 2021
Duration: 112 minutes
Genre: Documentary
Languages: Chinese (mandarin) with English subtitles
Cast: Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, Liang Hong, Tong Su, Huifang Duan
Synopsis
From master director Jia Zhang-Ke (Ash Is Purest White, A Touch of Sin) comes a vital document of Chinese society since 1949. Jia interviews three prominent authors—Jia Pingwa, Yu Hua, and Liang Hong—born in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, respectively. In their stories, we hear of the dire circumstances they faced in their rural villages and small towns, and the substantial political effort undertaken to address it, from the social revolution of the 1950s through the unrest of the late 1980s. In their faces, we see full volumes left unsaid. Jia weaves it all together with his usual brilliance. SWIMMING OUT TILL THE SEA TURNS BLUE is an indispensable account of a changing China from one of the country's foremost cinematic storytellers.
TRAILER: SWIMMING TILL THE SEA TURNS BLUE
Festivals & Awards
2021 Official Selection - The New York Film Festival
2021 Official Selection - Busan International Film Festival
2021 Official Selection - Sheffield International Documentary Festival
2020 Berlin International Film Festival, Nominee Berlinale Documentary Award
2021 Macau International Movie Festival, Nominee, golden Lotus Awards
2022 China Film Director's Guild Awards, Nominee: china Film Directors’ Guild Award
2022 Pingyao International Film Festival,, Nominee:People’s choice Award
2022 Youth film Manual Annual Award, Winner Youth Film Manual Award Best Documentary
Jia’s film chronicles an important stretch of modern Chinese history, an ambitious effort that weaves a diverse tapestry of themes — from the repercussions of the ending of arranged marriages, complications in filial relationships, and the rural versus urban cultural divide, to the role that literature and stories can play in transforming a small farming community in the province.
-The Harvard Crimson
Jia brilliantly uses footage not just of the writers talking about their works, but people like local farmers interacting with the words, or even scenes from his own films to further add depth and texture to a film about a China in flux, which can very much be how one describes China to this very day.
-CriterionCast