PLAYING WITH STEREOTYPES

Rawhya is a 60 year old mother with 3 sons with special needs,  who are living all together under one roof in a village. The moment you hear Rawhya’s story you think it would be a sad one, but this one is different, her story is full of strength, love and faith. The film is about Rawhya’s heart that became her sons’ haven.

The main character of the film is a twelve-year-old blind boy who invites us into his own world and tells us about his biggest joys and concerns. The camera follows him during his daily chores and homework as well as during play or while walking outside the house. Staś talks with simplicity and sincerity about problems he has to overcome and about those who help him with his struggle. In parallel, the film focuses on the qualities of light, the exact aspect of the world that Staś is not able to perceive.

Alper’s, who has a hearing impairment and disfigurement, is clinging to life with art.

It has been more than forty years since the Vietnam War. Yet, its toxic remnants are not fading. Dancing between waking and dreaming, “Rhizophora” follows eleven Vietnamese youth, with disabilities caused by Agent Orange, on a whimsical and intimate journey through their day. As the film progresses we are welcomed ever deeper into their richly symbiotic world.

Curating The Lost is an effort to gather and exhibit a trail of lost or abandoned pieces of art. For the past four years, almost every week, I stumbled upon a photo, video, drawing, audio, sculpture, or painting that was abandoned by art students. Most of these objects were left alone in the art school for a long time. I tried to gather them all and exhibit them in this short experimental film. A close look at these items poses questions such as who did this belong to? What was the setting? What were they trying to capture? “Rhizophora” was conceived of and realized in a collaborative process between the featured group of residents and the Berlin based performing arts duo ¿Che.Ne.So?. It is both a meditation on the lasting impact of war as well as an ode to the power of life, which can flourish in even the most toxic of circumstances.

Can a terrible accident lead to a new beginning? We follow several wheelchair basketball players whose personal stories showcase the road from isolation and depression to socialization and self-realization.

The Garden of Hope tells the story of four young people who worked at a social co-operative business for persons with mental disabilities and autism. The film is a brief account of their effort to adapt to their working duties while at the same time they talk about their fears, hopes and wishes.