SEPT 5 / 21:00 / APOLLO 111
SEPT 7 / 21:00 / GRĂDINA CU FILME – CINEMA & MORE

Land of Flickering Bodies travels through textures and bodyscapes with humor, sarcasm, courage, and sensitivity. Blending animated universes with distorted corporeal realities, the latest competition program reveals the human experience through a variety of lenses. A vibrant series of stories that brings to the foreground themes of self-discovery and adaptation in an unstable everyday life.

* The screening is not suitable for children. Free entry for the September 5 screening at Apollo 111.


ALWAYS SHOW COURAGE WHEN BURNING TO THE GROUND

10:55, 2024, UK
D: Joseph Wilson

12 men cruise amongst former East London sauna Chariots before Afrodite is chosen. When God throws down thunder bolts, Afrodite is chosen to protect the men from death. Whilst cruising on a former East London sauna site, Afrodite is called upon to protect the men from climate change.


SPROUT

4:26, 2023, DE
D: Florian Maubach

Emerging excitement, a dancing body, and the sensual awakening of sexuality turn this experimental animation film into the nucleus of a transformation process. Sprout is a stimulating short film that pushes boundaries but doesn't solely focus on the pleasure event. It's a metaphorically charged short film that allows an important look behind the curtain of male sexuality and relationships.


ORIGINAL SKIN

12:29, 2023, UK
D: Mdhamiri á Nkemi

In an alternate world where having sex means swapping bodies with the other person, a young woman struggles to be herself, defying her small conservative community where swapping is taboo. A deeply intimate portrait of identity in transition.


SECOND HAND

4:38, 2022, US
D: Jordan Johnson

A few friends sit for hours and discuss their smoking experiences.


IMMORTALS

5:28, 2023, CA
D: Mark Durand

Exploring the introspection of artist Bettina Szabo, Immortals delves into her relationship with her sense of belonging, her body, her imagination, and nature. Sometimes one must lose oneself to find oneself better, and burn everything down to start anew on a solid foundation.


MERMAN

11:32, 2023, US
D: Sterling Hampton IV

A 58 year-old black queer man speaks about his life as an emergency nurse, leather enthusiast and civil rights advocate.


HIEROGLYPH WOMAN

6:53, 2022, FR
D: Victoria Donnet, Alice Cathelineau
C: Victoria Donnet, Alice Cathelineau

What is a woman, what is me? Hieroglyph Woman questions the mystery of being alive, alive, alive. Stereotypes, archetypes, destruction of forms. Shake matter and let it speak.


SEIZE

6:10, 2024, IE
D: Douglas Reddan, Sela Vai
C: Douglas Reddan, Sela Vai

Seek. Settle. Seize. How do you respond to the call of opportunity? Seize is a short film that uses dance to interrogate the diverse human response to opportunity. Do we seize? Settle? Look for a sign? Or create our own opportunities?


27

10:38, 2023, FR
D: Flóra Anna Buda

Alice is 27 years old today. Even though she is suffocating a bit, she still lives with her parents and tends to live in her dreams to escape her dreary everyday life. After a psychedelic party on a factory roof, she has a serious drunken bike accident. Will this give her the courage to become an adult?


FR:AGILITY

7:50, 2024, SG
D: Amanda Tan
C: Jonit On

FR:AGILITY lenses the body and its form as sculpture; its undulating curves and slopes as landscape; and the skin we live in and shed as texture. It views movement and dance through the breath that heaves and fills our lungs; the muscles that stretch, tense and pulsate; and the limbs that elongate, contract and feed us the language of our bodies. Studying the parallel lines of strength and fragility, the piece inquires how the human form and its gestures are the embodiment of these seemingly contradictory elements.


ZAIDANCE

6:35, 2024, JP
D: Yumi Sonoda
C: Yō Nakamura

Choreographer and dancer Yō Nakamura visited each department of the theaters and halls associated with the Kitakyushu City Foundation for the Promotion of Arts and Culture to create choreography and lyrics. These, performed by foundation staff members, most of whom have little to no dance experience, incorporate unique aspects of each department, vividly portraying the real-life workplace atmosphere and conveying the excitement and thrill of the work that supports arts and culture.