Eye For Film >> Festivals >> EIFF >> 2019 >> Shorts

Edinburgh International Film Festival 2019

These films were shown in number of short showcases (indicated after the film in italics)

  • Image is Memory
  • Bridging the Gap
  • Film is Resistance!
  • Satellites
  • Scotland - Acceptance
  • Scotland - Generations
  • Time Passes Me
  • Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
  • Youth Shorts: New Visions - This showcase was a contest for filmmakers, aged 14 to 25, with films announced on the day

View other Edinburgh International Film Festival Films by strand: American Dreams, Animation, Best Of British, Beyond EIFF, Black Box, Cage-A-Rama, CineCuisine, Documentaries, European Perspectives, Film Fest In The City, Focus On Spain, Four Views Of Scotland, Galas, Night Moves, Once Upon A Time In Spain After Dark: A Retrospective Selection Of Cult Spanish Cinema, Once Upon A Time In Spain: A Retrospective Celebration Of Modern Spanish Cinema, Once Upon A Time In Spain: Icíar Bollaín, Phenomenal Women, Pre-Festival Previews, Special Events, The Features Of Agnes, Unlocking The Archives, World Perspectives

Boys Night Boys Night
Boys Night and Duck Daze
Afronte (Country: Brazil; Year: 2017; Director: Bruno Victor, Marcus Azevedo)
A stirring portrait of Victor Hugo, the activist whose self-organised community brings together Afrofuturist thinking, radical identity politics and anti-colonialist activism to create a place of visibility and positivity for queer people of colour in Brazil.
Film is Resistance!
Ajo (Country: Kosovo; Year: 2018; Director: More Raca)
In order to escape from an arranged marriage, spirited teen Zana formulates an ingenious escape plan.
Constellations
Alien Culture (Country: UK, US; Year: 2018; Director: Iesh Thapar; Writer: Iesh Thapar; Stars: Matt Bhar, Neil D'Souza, Reiss Kershi, Elijah Khan, Sagar Radia, Aled ap Steffan, Matt Bhar, Neil D'Souza, Reiss Kershi, Elijah Khan, Sagar Radia, Aled ap Steffan)
West London, 1979: Two brothers of British-Asian identity navigate the complex challenges brought to the fore by the racial tensions rife within society.
Satellites
Altsasu (Kaixo Txiki) (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Eoin Wilson)
In the Basque town of Altsasu, a mother copes with the Spanish state’s controversial and lengthy imprisonment of her son and six other young people.
Bridging The Gap
...And So We Start Again (Country: Japan, US; Year: 2019; Director: Ei Toshinari, Duy Nguyen; Stars: Motonori Toshinari, Mihoko Toshinari, Derek Miao, Marie Miao, Chloe Ao Miao, Tom Thom)
Sound and image overlap to delirious effect in this dreamlike meditation upon the transience of memory, and the slow drift of passing time.
Image is Memory
Anna At The Cemetery (Country: US, Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Eduardo Lucatero)
Why is Anna so obsessed with cemeteries?
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
August Sun (Sol De Agosto) (Country: Argentina; Year: 2018; Director: Franco Volpi; Writer: Franco Volpi; Stars: Miguel Di Lemme, Silvina Sabater, Miguel Di Lemme, Silvina Sabater)
Javier finds himself in his hometown of Buenos Aires. Following his father's death, he helps his ailing mother, who suffers from a bipolar disorder, in settling a legal dispute with her medical insurance.
Time Passes Me
Belonging (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Rory Bentley; Writer: Rory Bentley; Stars: Oliver Bodur, Julia Cranney, Aliya Ali, Joanna Wake)
A young boy questions his new environment and cultural identity following a family tragedy.
Scotland - Acceptance
Beside The Water, 1999-2004 (Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Finn Paul)
An intensely powerful celebration of queer bodies and lives, and a rousing process of communal archiving that reclaims the stories and narratives of trans people that have been erased historically.
Film is Resistance!
Beyond the North Winds: A Post Nuclear Reverie (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Natalie Cubides-Brady)
Hybrid documentary about the search for a man who mysteriously disappeared while investigating a Scottish nuclear reactor.
Satellites
Bin Day (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Becky Manson)
An intimate portrayal of an old man that follows his daily routine.
Time Passes Me
A Black Hole Is A Black Hole In The Ground (Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Sophia Feuer, Tyler Macri)
An intimate immersion into the sensorial landscapes of a disparate cohort of youngsters, whose playful explorations offer a portal into their strange, ephemeral realities.
Image is Memory
Blood (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Christos Kardana; Stars: Sonny Hardy, Trevor White, Elliot Barnes-Worrell, Katie Brayben)
A teenage boxing prodigy, torn between his feelings and fierce family loyalties, has a panic attack minutes before his big fight.
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
Boys Night (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: James Price; Writer: James Price; Stars: Kyle Gordon, Cameron Jack, Kirsty Strain, Felicity Allen, Alan Mackenzie, Helen Curry, Melvin Jack, Jordan O'Hara, Conor McCarron, Kyle Gordon, Cameron Jack, Kirsty Strain, Felicity Allen, Alan Mackenzie, Helen Curry)
Twelve-year-old Reese must brave the mean and marvellous streets of North East Glasgow to bring his drunken father safely home.
Full Review
Scotland - Generations
By A Hair (Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Yvonnick Muller, Lauriane Escaffre; Stars: Gregory Gadebois, Madeleine Baudot, Brigitte Mauger)
In three days, Elodie is sitting an exam to get her beauty therapy diploma. Her father, Christophe, a butcher, would like more help from his daughter in the butcher shop. For now, Elodie has another problem: she must find a model – a model with hair – to pass her exam.
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
Catman's Greenock (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: James K Beaton, Leo Bruges; Writer: James K Beaton, Leo Bruges, Shaun Shalom)
In Greenock, on the west coast of Scotland, a curious creature leads us on a journey through the underside of a post-industrial town fallen on hard times.
Satellites
Chopin (Country: Sweden; Year: 2018; Director: Tris Vonna-Michel)
Experimental consideration of sound poet Henri Chopin.
Radical Archives
Dark Road (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Rory Gibson; Writer: Rory Gibson)
In a confined community, two young men are drawn towards one another through their shared grief.
Scotland - Acceptance
Duck Daze (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Alison Piper; Writer: Julia Taudevin; Stars: Daniela Nardini, Dolina MacLennan, Tam Dean Burn, Anna Hepburn, Lauren Malcolm)
Johnina gets revenge on her childhood abuser and the community that enabled him, with the help of a duck.
Full Review
Scotland - Acceptance
Edge Of Red (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Callie Mae Nichole Lyons; Writer: Callie Mae Nichole Lyons; Stars: Callie Mae Nichole Lyons, Simon Kigwana, Aniyah Harbin, Loraine Lyons, Jordan Wells, Charles Lyons, Nathaniel X. Smith, Orlando King, Javian King, Doris White, Robert Green, Jerald Vann, Quentin Porter, Jeff Hillman, Shameka Davis)
A non-linear short that follows a six-year-old as she tries to make sense of her identity and connection to spirituality.
Haunting The Image
Educated (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Tom Nicoll; Writer: Tom Nicoll; Stars: Silvie Furneaux, Stephen McMillan, Jamie Michie, Silvie Furneaux, Stephen McMillan, Jamie Michie)
After a strange encounter with his seemingly benign teacher, an isolated school boy must decide how to negotiate this contentious and intriguing relationship.
Scotland - Acceptance
The Egg And The Thieving Pie (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Lola Blanche Higgins; Writer: Lola Blanche Higgins; Stars: Ian Cairns, Noma Dumezweni, Ralph Ineson, Gemma Jones, Anna Maxwell Martin)
A community police officer investigating a theft encounters some surreal animalistic exchanges.
Scotland - Acceptance
Enceindre (Country: UK, Spain; Year: 2018; Director: Luke Fowler)
A study in of two 16th century fortified cities: Berwick, England and Pamplona in Navarre, Spain.
Radical Archives
Farmland (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Niamh McKeown; Writer: Niamh McKeown; Stars: Isobella Hubbard, Sarah Miele, Eilidh Fisher, Lewis Gribben, Alex Morrison)
Sibling rivalry takes a deadly turn after the reading of a father's will.
Scotland - Generations
Fucked Like A Star (Country: US, Haiti; Year: 2018; Director: Stefani Saintonge)
A meditation upon female-centred labour activities and the frequently unseen or undervalued nature of such toils. Set to the potent words of Toni Morrison, Saintonge implores us to look beneath the surface and to celebrate the narratives hidden therein.
Film is Resistance!
The Grab (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Deva Palmier; Writer: Mandy Lee; Stars: Shaniaz Hama Ali, Amrou Al-Kadhi, Adam Lannon, Melissa Jean Woodside, Marcus Hutton)
In a relationship between a couple enacted in cyberspace, one partner becomes subject to ever more coercive demands.
Satellites
Hydebank (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Ross McClean)
Situated in South Belfast, Hydebank Wood houses 94 young male offenders. Ryan is currently serving a 10-year sentence and has formed an unlikely bond with a flock of sheep currently living inside the prison walls.
Bridging the Gap
I Am TX (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Ryan Darbonne; Writer: Ryan Darbonne; Stars: Audrey Campbell, Jonathan Horstmann, Greg Williams, Audrey Campbell, Jonathan Horstmann, Greg Williams)
A lively night on the road with a punk trio of colour. They just want to play music, but constant curveballs are generated by the casual racism they encounter from their supposedly ‘woke’ peers.
Constellations
I Remember Ashes (Vzpominam Na Popel) (Country: Czech Republic; Year: 2019; Director: Graham Phillips Turner; Writer: Scott Sweitzer, Graham Phillips Turner; Stars: Gabriel Kibardin, Lucie Bohata)
A mischievous duo run amok in the Czech countryside.
Constellations
The Jarariju Sisters (Soeurs Jarariju) (Country: Switzerland; Year: 2019; Director: Jorge Cadena; Writer: Li Aparicio, Jorge Cadena; Stars: Rosa Jarariyu, Viviana Uriana Jarariyu, Yandris Uriana Jarariyu, Wilson Sapuana, Rosa Jarariyu, Viviana Uriana Jarariyu, Yandris Uriana Jarariyu, Wilson Sapuana)
In a polluted landscape, two teenage sisters plan to run away.
Haunting The Image
Jealous Alan (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Martin Clark; Writer: Martin Clark; Stars: Ryan Hunter, Jack Stewart, Elysia Welch, Ryan Hunter, Jack Stewart, Elysia Welch)
Alan, Stuart and Angela are inseparable teenage misfits. When Alan discovers Stuart and Angela are secretly going out, he deviously foils their budding union.
Scotland - Generations
Jupiter (Country: Germany; Year: 2019; Director: Benjamin Pfohl; Stars: Greta Bohacek, Cosima Shaw, Kai Ivo Baulitz)
As a comet threatens Earth, a shy teenage girl has to make a decision. Should she pursue her own path on Earth or follow her parents, members of a cosmic cult, in undergoing a fatal procedure that will lead to a higher existence on Jupiter?
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
KG (Country: Greece; Year: 2018; Director: Cynthia Madansky)
A performative inhabitation of the empty, scarred streets of Athens, harnessing radical political energies both contemporary and historical. Accompanied by the remarkable improvisations of musician Zeena Parkins.
Film is Resistance!
Lefty/Righty (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Max Walker-Silverman; Writer: Max Walker-Silverman; Stars: Charlotte Delpit Hacke, Marty Grace Dennis, Sam Engbring, Greg Hope, Hagen Kearney, Harry Kearney, Lewis Pullman)
A divorced rancher makes a last visit to his ailing father’s bedside, accompanied by his estranged six-year-old daughter.
Constellations
Let's Roll (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Chris Thomas; Writer: Allan MacLeod; Stars: Jethro Aukin, Joe Birch-Scanlan, Amy Bowden, Joel James Davison, Cameron Fraser, Nish Nathwani, Zara Ramm, David Seymour)
A teenager defies her mother by training in secret for a town’s dangerous tradition to try and live up to her brother’s past successes.
Scotland - Acceptance
The Line (Year: 2018; Director: Melisa Resch; Writer: Melisa Resch; Stars: Bex Taylor Klaus, Hayley Law, Jason Stuart, Toy Lei, Siya)
Drama highlighting the crucial importance of women’s agency over their own bodies and the power of community organisation.
Constellations
Lucky Star (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Russell Davidson; Writer: Russell Davidson; Stars: Amy Manson, Gerard Miller, Adam Mitchell, Sheila Grier, Cal Macaninch)
1980s Glasgow: As his family disintegrates around him, the only thing on eight-year-old Jonjo’s mind is getting his prized He Man figure for Christmas.
Scotland - Generations
Monument (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Tom Chick; Stars: Peter Jewell, Denna Cartamkhoob, Bruno Cartamkhoob Chick)
A tapestry of beautifully observed images and fragments of sound. Everyday moments are presented as both delicate and precious, and a parallel is drawn between the wonder at the advent of early cinema and the birth of a child.
Image is Memory
Moth (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Ewa Luczkow)
Moth follows eight-year-old Mabil as she escapes the troubles of her family through her vivid daydreams and imaginary moth friend.
Time Passes Me
My Name Is Anik (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Bircan Birol)
How many stories can one language hold? A Kurdish grandmother and her granddaughter set off on a journey to reclaim their once-banned mother tongue.
Bridging the Gap
Nefertiti (Country: US; Year: 2019; Director: Valerie Schenkman; Writer: Valerie Schenkman; Stars: Maria Huyghue, Eric Wright, Nefertiti Matos)
The experiences of Nefertiti, a young sight-impaired woman, as she navigates the challenges of both the physical and emotional world around her.
Constellations
Nefta Football Club (Country: France; Year: 2018; Director: Yves Piat; Stars: Eltayef Dhaoui, Mohamed Ali Ayari, Lyes Salem, Hichem Mesbah)
In the south of Tunisia, two football-fan brothers bump into a donkey lost in the middle of the desert on the border of Algeria. Strangely, the animal wears headphones over its ears.
Full Review
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
Never Actually Lost (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Rowan Ings)
An experimental archive film, exploring how we forget and how we remember. Suffering from dementia, Audrey attempts to recount stories behind her rich archival library of home video, shot in and around Glasgow.
Scotland - Generations
One, Yellow, You Will Marry A Handsome Fellow (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Ted Fisher; Writer: Ted Fisher; Stars: Katrine Haagh Thuesen, Lucas Ray, Mango Sheridan, Tomas Sheridan, Jennifer Williams, Katrine Haagh Thuesen, Lucas Ray, Mango Sheridan, Tomas Sheridan, Jennifer Williams)
What if you could pull your long-forgotten memories from the hazy past and hold them again in your hands? Three adults are asked to play a childhood game and remember their early dreams and desires. As they step into the past, they look again at their hopes for the future.
Time Passes Me
Pirate Boys (Country: Germany; Year: 2018; Director: Pol Merchan; Stars: Del LaGrace Volcano, Eric Llaveria, Henri Steeg)
The queer traces within the writing of Kathy Acker provide a framework through which to revel in the subversive and empowering act of gender experimentation.
Film is Resistance!
A Portrait Of The Artist Angus Fairhurst (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Saam Farahmand; Writer: Daniel Kanaber; Stars: Ferdinand Kingsley, David Whitney, Graham Vanas, Joseph Capp, Olivia Morgan, Jack Daw)
Artist Fairhurst’s Dada provocations aggregated in the piece ‘Gallery Connections’ in which he mischievously connected telephone calls between the major galleries of London, rendering them the helpless target of his surreal joke.
Satellites
Red Film (Country: US; Year: 2018; Director: Sara Cwynar)
Critiques the pressures on women to conform and consume.
Radical Archives
Rooftop Refugee (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Alexandra Brodski; Writer: Alexandra Brodski, Rebecca Martin; Stars: Ammar Haj Ahmad, Cameron Campbell, Neil D'Souza, Emma Davies, Brooke Haynes, Tylan Hernandez, Lorraine Hilton, Dino Kelly, Vince Leigh, Nick Malinowski, Anya McKenna-Bruce, Mimi Ndiweni, Madeleine O'Sullivan, Emmanuel Owusu-Boachie, Omar Tibi)
A comedy that follows Martha as she attends her daughter Kylie's annual summer performance. The event is thrown into chaos by Mehdi, a young Syrian refugee boy who is threatening to jump from the school rooftop.
Time Passes Me
The Sea Runs Thru My Veins (Country: Germany, France, Greece, Portugal; Year: 2018; Director: Zara Zandieh; Stars: Llanquiray Valioska Painemal Morales, Sabuha Salam, Amir Zandieh, Neomi Ilan)
The concept of personal happiness is explored through the oral testimonies of four individuals, whose journeys navigate and intersect migrant, political and queer narratives.
Film is Resistance!
Second Generation (Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Miryam Charles; Stars: Thuy Hang Duong, Eliza Bonnel)
The structural power of language and the continued reverberations of colonialism are inferred through a series of typewritten letters between parted lovers.
Image is Memory
Short Round-Up (Country: Canada; Year: 2018; Director: Nobu Adilman; Writer: Nobu Adilman; Stars: Nobu Adilman)
In 1983, Adilman auditioned to play the role of Indiana Jones’ intrepid sidekick in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Not having made the grade, Nobu now searches for all the other youngsters who auditioned.
Constellations
Souvenir (Country: Germany, Netherlands; Year: 2019; Director: Miriam Gossing, Lina Sieckmann)
Documentary featuring interviews with seamen's widows.
Haunting The Image
The Spirit Keepers Of Makuta'ay (Country: Canada; Year: 2019; Director: Lin Yen-Chao; Writer: Lin Yen-Chao)
Travels through villages on the east coast of Taiwan, where nature, colonisation and population migration merge to create a unique spiritual landscape.
Haunting The Image
Stalker (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Christopher Andrews; Stars: Sean McGinley, Martin McCann, Ewan Mitchell, Brid Brennan)
In the remote forests of the Scottish Highlands, an ageing stalker sets his wits and grit against a young poacher, who is taking the heads of his best stags.
Scotland - Generations
Temple Of Truth (Country: US, Germany, Italy; Year: 2018; Director: Giuseppe Boccassini)
Collage of repurposed archive material drawn from the Chicago Film Archives.
Radical Archives
That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Hannah Currie)
Can Lindsay's love for husband Paul sustain her through the trauma of his brain injury, which leaves him in a perpetual loop of joke telling?
Bridging The Gap
Toli Toli (Country: Guadeloupe; Year: 2018; Director: Minia Biabiany)
Evocation of a forgotten past told through a song that was part of a children's game on an island of Guadeloupe.
Haunting The Image
Vertical Shapes In A Horizontal Landscape (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: Mark Jenkin)
Vignettes from a Super 8 road trip to Derek Jarman’s cottage in Dungeness. The resonant elements uncovered in the landscape offered in celebration of Jarman’s fiercely independent creative vision.
Image is Memory
Vivir Bailando (Country: UK; Year: 2019; Director: Inma de Reyes)
When Cari (79) became a widow, she lost both the love of her life and her dancing companion. But she is a phenomenal woman who bounces back with wit, make-up and music. On meeting Vicente (80) she gets a second chance at teenage love, even if it means living in isolation.
Bridging the Gap
Wax And Feathers (Country: UK, Cyprus; Year: 2018; Director: Marios Lizides)
The filmmaker searches for a tangible sense of his father in fragments of memories and dreams.
Satellites; Time Passes Me
Winter Bees (Country: Austria, Japan; Year: 2018; Director: Josephine Ahnelt)
Cinema as self-reflection. A disorientating year spent in a faraway place is charted, reflected upon and elucidated through the process of image-making.
Image is Memory
Yulia & Juliet (Country: Netherlands; Year: 2018; Director: Zara Dwinger; Stars: Sara Luna Zoric, Dylan Jongejans, Dionne Verwey, Agnes Montecinos Muñoz)
Yulia and Juliet, both 16, are locked up in a closed juvenile detention centre. Despite their circumstances, they feel like they can take on anything together. They’re in love. Nothing can hurt them when they’re together.
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
Zero (Country: UK; Year: 2018; Director: The brothers Lynch; Stars: Bella Ramsey, Nigel O’Niell, Danny Shooter, James Oliver Wheatley)
After a mysterious electromagnetic pulse renders the world’s technology useless, a young girl finds herself isolated and alone with only her father’s strict set of rules to keep her alive.
Youth Shorts: Exploring Boundaries
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