Manchester Lift-Off Film Festival 2021 - Network Round Features
Tuesday 13th April - Tuesday 20th April
1.
Rescue Story - Saving Companion Animals
Dir. Daniel Gartzke
USA
Logline: Without a doubt, the place of animals in our life is now permanent. Their companionship provides us with emotional support, responsibility, and deep bonds found in few other places. Although for many animals, the life of comfort and friendship isn’t the life they are dealt..
2.
Body Of Water
Dir. Benjamin Paul & Scott M Salt
UK
Logline: Over the past year, people all across the globe have been swept up in an exciting activity - wild swimming. From rivers to lakes to seas, swimming outside of the confines of a pool has seen a huge rise in popularity as many take the plunge. The documentary, Body Of Water, spends a winter following wild swimmer Gilly McArthur on her mental and physical journey to seek out remote, icy waters. From the windswept mountain tarns of her home in the Lake District to frozen lochs in the Scottish Highlands, one thing is clear, the search for ice is not as easy as it used to be.
3.
Samos The Faces of our Border
Dir. Shams Abou El Enein
Switzerland
Logline: At the border of the Schengen Area, international laws and conventions forced thousands of people to live in inhuman camps.
One of them is the « hotspot » of Samos, on the island that has the same name. Focusing on the people in and around this migrant camp, built for 600 persons and where more that 6000 live now, it also gives an insight on the European politics that have led to this catastrophic situation.
4.
Portrait
Dir. Lily Ekimian & A.T. Ragheb
USA
Logline: 91-year-old American-born Canadian physicist Anthony S. Arrott spends his days alone in his Vancouver apartment, continuing to work on his research in the field of magnetism. He lives surrounded by the hundreds of faces drawn by his late wife, New York City- and Vancouver-based portrait artist Patricia Graham Arrott. Dr. Arrott is filmed over the course of a five-month period by first-time filmmakers Lily Ekimian (Arrott’s granddaughter) and A.T. Ragheb. Dr. Arrott works hard to finish his work as he reflects on his life and marriage in this intimate portrait.
5.
The Yellow Queen - a road movie
Dir. Lucio Arisci
Belgium
Logline: A one-way journey from Koln (Germany) to Bamako (Mali),crossing Europe and then the biggest desert of our planet: 7200 kilometers.
A journey whose protagonists are a 12-meters-long yellow bus and its driver, Christian, a German giant with a passion for traveling and mechanics. Since 2012 he has been delivering the indestructible Mercedes O303 coaches to Mali to give them a second life.