The summer edition of the 11th Cinéma du Sud film festival, organised every year by several Luxembourgish NGOs, will be held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic; from 10 to 31 July 2020, a film will be streamed each Friday for home viewing.
This year's summer festival will be under the slogan "Act now! Think global – Act local”, with the four chosen films inviting spectators to reflect critically on the consequences of globalisation and migration.
Over the past years, the organisers of Cinéma du Sud, a group of sixteen civil society organisations and networks, have consistently reinvented themselves and adapted to new circumstances. Therefore, due to the coronavirus pandemic, this year’s summer edition will go online. In collaboration with the platform La Vingt-Cinquième Heure and Caramba Cinémas (CineKursaal Rumelange and CineWaasserhaus Mondorf), viewers in Luxembourg can access each movie easily and safely from home within 50 kilometres of the respective cinema. Following each screening, viewers have the possibility to chat with the other participants as well as the organisers, directors or activists about the film, local initiatives and their own involvement.
How can we live and act responsibly in a world where everything is interconnected? Together the organisers want to discover approaches to global development, ecological and social alternatives to insure a more sustainable world for everyone. The fundamental idea behind the festival remains the same: to change the perspective and amplify the voices of marginalised people in the Global South. The festival aims to shed light on everyone's responsibility on the negative effects of globalisation.
Jaime Villarreal's The Journey of the others will kick off the festival on 10 July at 19:00 (in Arabic with French subtitles) and 21:00 (English subtitles) . The film addresses cultural resistance in Palestine, with an example of the power of dreams in the Freedom Theater in the refugee camp Jenin. In a seemingly hopeless situation, as a new Palestinian intifada is about to start, brave, young actors rehearse and risk their lives to fulfil their dream: to perform their play in New York. Together the youngsters forget the misery of the occupation and thus show the power of cultural resistance. Between the two screenings, there will be a discussion with the film director and actors.
Next up, Shraysi Tandon’s award-winning documentary Invisible Hands will be screened on 17 July at 19:00 (in English). The documentary exposes child labour and child trafficking within the supply chains of the world’s biggest corporations. Filmed across six countries, Invisible Hands offers a harrowing account of children as young as five years old making the products customers buy and consume every day. This film about modern slavery in times of globalisation investigates the question why the most important decision-makers still take part in this illegal and deadly practice. Following the film, there will be a discussion with the organisers about child labour, child trafficking and supply chains.
On the road from Afghanistan to Europe, audiences can witness on 24 July at 19:00 (in Arabic with English subtitles) the three-year long escape of director Hassan Fazili and his family from the Taliban. The movie Midnight Traveler consists only of smartphone footage, which allows the viewer to experience the different stages of flight and the search for safety first-hand. Despite the unsettling images, this film shows a journey full of hope for a better future. After the screening, producer Emelie Mahdavian will be answering questions.
Finally, on 31 July at 19:00 (in Spanish with French subtitles) and 21:30 (English subtitles), spectators can watch Minga – Voces de Resistencia, a film about civil resistance in South America. The film follows indigenous communities from Patagonia to the mountains of Mexico who witness the destruction of their territories and lives. When mines, oil drillings, tourism projects or deforestation to cultivate sugar cane and soy threaten them, these communities risk their lives to stop the overexploitation and to find solutions. The directors, Pauline Dutron and Damien Charles, granted full freedom of speech to the people included in the film and thus created a testimony of a common, determined resistance. Following the first screening, the Peruvian human rights activist Rocio Meza Suarez will discuss current cases of indigenous resistance with the audience.
Many of the involved NGOs and networks have participated in this film festival since its beginnings in 2010. The organisers this year are: Action Solidarité Tiers Monde (ASTM); Aide à l’Enfance de l’Inde et du Népal (AEIN); Luxembourg Red Cross International Aid; Les Amis du Tibet Luxembourg; ATTAC Luxembourg; Comité pour une Paix Juste au Proche Orient (CPJPO); Fondation Chrëschte mam Sahel; Fondation Follereau; Fondation Partage Luxembourg; Frères des Hommes; Iles de Paix, Kindernothilfe Luxembourg; Klima-Bündnis Lëtzebuerg; ONGD-FNEL; SOS Faim; and SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde.
The cost is €6 per film or €20 for all four films.
Further information, including registration and the complete festival programme, can be found at https://cinemadusud.wordpress.com/ as well as on the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/cinemadusud/.
