To My Father

In November 2001, Quebec Painter Edmund Alleyn (1931-2004) agreed to be filmed in his Montreal studio by his daughter, filmmaker Jennifer Alleyn. There, something unexpected happened : an authentic encounter, with no beating around the bush, no mask. From a few existential questions –about life, painting, death- thruth emerged. The artist died of cancer in December 2004 before Jennifer could film him again. After inheriting his studio, she found herself in this sacred space, still imbued with the presence and imagination of her father. Her film is an attempt to prolong the dialogue, to find the missing fragments of her father’s life. Edmund Alleyn was an intense and complex man of integrity who left his mark on Canadian art history.

In 1982, a fourteen-year-old movie fanatic from an underprivileged family in the Municipality of Manapla coincidentally witnesses the production shoot of Oro, Plata, Mata in his hometown. Full of determination he approaches the director, Peque Gallaga, in the hopes of landing a job that would help in providing for his family, and feed his passion.

This short film tells the story of what happened after 30 years of Iran-Iraq war. A girl who, after 30 years of missing her father's body, on her wedding night, her father's body also arrives at her daughter's wedding ceremony.

Summer of 1959. 11-year old Osvald spend his summer holiday with his parents in the countryside of Södermanland. His father has promised to play soccer with him and get some exercise. He also promised the locals to teach the church choir an Argentine mass. The father has a slight alcohol problem, so will he be able to do it?

Against the backdrop of the Unification of Italy, two men have the dream of being recognized by their respective, illustrious, fathers: a bishop and the King.

Nabila returns to Egypt after a long period of living abroad in search of her father's killer. She meets Mazloum, who asks him to help her catch the culprit. The two are exposed to many pranks, especially after meeting the real culprits. Every time they reach the truth, another murder occurs, and Nabila and Mazloum continue searching for her father's killer.

A subtle combination of documentary and fiction filmmaking, Luo Li’s remarkable Rivers and My Father was inspired by stories from his father’s childhood. Li inventively structures sound, image and narration, evoking the ways in which memory operates.

"Hermann mein Vater" is a companion piece by director Helma Sanders-Brahms to her 1980 film "Germany Pale Mother". The latter work was focused on the impact of war on a German family. This made-for-tv documentary follows Sanders-Brahms and her father Hermann on a trip to Normandy, where he was stationed as a soldier in 1940-41.

Juan Ignacio Fernández Hoppe was just eight years old when his father’s body was found on a beach. His mother, a psychiatrist, decided an autopsy was unnecessary, even though his father had been depressed and had psychiatric medication among his belongings. Thirty years later, the filmmaker tries to find out what happened, who his father was and how his mother arrived at her decision.

"I am going on a trip to the US. I want to make a film about my father’s absence. I grew up watching American movies. Over time the characters seemed to resemble my father more and more. During the journey to Montana, I write him letters."

Self-made banker Boriss Osipovs achieves quick success immediately after the collapse of the USSR, but he flees Latvia to avoid arrest for illegal operations. Fifteen years later, his family receives a photograph from Interpol of an elderly gentleman with the same name who resides in a Malaysian mental asylum. Could it be him? Despite the reservations of her family, Osipovs’ daughter, documentary director Ieva Ozoliņa, starts an investigation to find out the truth about the man in the photograph. An emotional story about a man who loses himself in times of change...and the daughter who hopes to find him.

The family of a man falsely accused of car theft goes through tremendous abuse and turmoil in an attempt to free him from imprisonment.

A surreal and disturbing tale centred on two divided villages in a civil war where women are unable to conceive and a remedy is desperately sought.

Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my Soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my Soul to take.

After Xiao Yu's mother died in an accident, she moved back to live with her birth father who she knows little about. Gradually, they grew to know each other and to accept each other for who they are.

On the age of 51, a father leaves his family to live as a carpenter. Away from the family and house burdens, he spends his last 15 years living alone. From the point of view of his child, the idealistic father then changes his mind to let go of everything and lives his dream of traveling.

Summer. Half a day in the life of 10-year-old Mika, who lives in the countryside with his family in reduced circumstances. His father is very ill and is unable to handle the daily work on the farm. Mika's help is needed. But he is easily distracted by his 6-year-old sister, who is still enjoying the carefree days of childhood, regarding the farmyard as her playground.

My father was a landowner’s son and an ex-Kuomintang Air Force pilot, who remained in mainland China after 1949. For survival, he tried to transform himself from a man of the ‘old society’ to a man of the ‘new society’. As his son, I started investigating his ‘history before 1949’, which he had kept away from me. This film documents the process of my investigation over twenty years.

Through the maze of a nightmare, a young man faces his father. His trauma springs from the darkness and he gradually exorcises his bitterness.