In 2016, 7 films were made within the framework of DocLab workshop with the help of experienced mentors. The participants arrived with already shot material, and had three days to plan and edit their shorts, which were screened for the first time in the film festival. Many of them are to be continued as a longer documentaries in the future.
The films:
Kurdish Lullaby (dir. Ania Domanska, 4:14)
Kurdish Lullaby is a short film - music video. The lullaby is sung by Yousef Abdi Alhousani, a Kurdish person from Syria, sung in refugee camps in Greece (Pireus and Skaramaga). Yusuf has arrived to Greece in early March and he’s lived in camp since then.
Flotation (dir: Alesandra Tatić, 3:57)
Majdanpek, Eastern Serbia. Colorful Socialist apartment blocks face the mine, hearth of the town’s economy. When not toiling under the earth, the workers spend their free time in the hills and forests following the same pastimes as generations before them: digging for treasure and hunting dragons. Flotation (Flotacija) is an excerpt from the film Dragan hunt, peeking into the peculiar work conditions the population is exposed to by necessity.
Olha's Italian Diary (dir: Olena Fedyuk, DoP: Eszter Csepeli, editor: Melinda Sükösd, 3:20)
Olha is a migrant woman whose life is packed with turning points enough to fill up a few telenovelas and yet, it is so similar to the lives of many women of such background – Ukrainian care workers in Italy. She believes in love and thinks it is possible to find a beautiful romantic relationship even at the age of 57. The short film is an intimate sneak-peek into one of the contemporary taboo topics: intimate lives of the female migrants away from home. Will Olha be able to give Naples a chance and find a true feeling among the condemnation and suspicion?
My Open Prison (dir: Karin Schuitema, 4:52)
In My Open Prison we get to know the Kurdish 44-year-old Hüseyin, who has been a political refugee in Athens for thirteen years. Before undertaking the cross-border journey to Greece he spent seven years in jail in Turkey, the short film focuses on his reflections of the seven years spent in Turkey, and intends to give expression to his internal dialogue and his changing world views, his dreams and spirituality, while still living in an open prison nowadays.
Train It Till You Make It (dir: Gábor Gervai, 5:46)
"What happens when refugees and locals gather to do boxing? Will they manage to overcome their fears and stereotypes? Can boxing help to build connections? Can it be a peaceful activity at all? Answers directly from the gym. Train it till you make it!' is a short movie about a boxing club organised by Menedék - Migránsokat Segítő Egyesület in Budapest.
Another Life (dir: Kati Egely, 2:38)
Another life is a shortfilm that shows fragments of the life of a barber, originally from Iraq, currently living and working in Budapest.
Sleepless bat (dir: Iulius-Cezar Macarie, 4:04)
Sleepless bat is a story of a migrant night shift worker in London, trapped like a sleepless bat blinded by the powerful lights of the 24-hour city, not knowing which way to escape.
