ID Docs
Identity cannot be reduced to stats on a badge. It is both personal and public, elusive and fixed. Using a patient camera and lyrical imagery, these filmmakers gently probe how society, biology, place, and even appliances play a role in who we are and how we think of ourselves and others.
Curated by Ariella Ben-Dov

The Widows' Coast
Janina Lapinskaite
2006 • 25 min • Color • Mini-DV • Lithuania
A poetic portrait of the residents of a Baltic seacoast village whose lives are marked by painful loss. The heroes of the film are widows who face their seemingly tragic destiny with the strength and vitality usually reserved for the unscathed.

The Market
Ana Husman
2006 • 9:32 min • Color • Beta SP • Croatia
A stop-motion homage to locally grown produce and tight-knit communities. The ladies of this Croatian market gregariously share the art of growing the perfect piece of fruit and how to prepare traditional preserves. But do not dare cross the unspoken boundary and handle the goods--these jolly ladies mean business.

Lost Without You
Fiona McGee
2006 • 5:22 min • Color • Mini-DV • Australia
Girls and their mobile phones. How attached can they get?

Benidorm
Carolin Schmitz
2006 • 19 min • Color • Mini-DV • Germany
In high tourist season eager sunbathers flock to Benidorm's concrete coast on the Mediterranean for its endless sun and cheap amusements. Off season, its residents are largely pensioners. Winner of the 2006 German Short Film Prize, this documentary examines the changing age structure of our society and its obligatory clichés through the lens of this small Spanish town.

Portraits & Testimonies #3
Cris Sequeira Kyja Kristjansson-Nelson
2006 • 1 min • BW • Mini-DV • US
Part of a series of animated interviews, this film features Brazilian Cris Sequeira discussing her beliefs on life, death, and life after death.

Miriam, Impression of Light An Coenen
An Coenen
2005 • 11:50 min • Color • Mini-DV • Belgium
An adopted albino girl and her boyfriend talk about her identity and appearance. How does it feel to be different in a world that strives for uniformity and perfection?

I Am Me
Kathrin Resetarits
2006 • 30 min • Color • Mini-DV • Austria
Twin ballerinas Olga and Anastasia can be made to dress alike and look identical. But when they dance the part of the dying swan, their movements demonstrate two individual personalities. Following two sets of twins, the filmmaker explores the meaning of individuality in uncommon and everyday routine.

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Private Eyes
Private Eyes features an eclectic selection of experimental documentaries and animated works from the UK, Czech Republic, Norway and the US. The Intimacy of Strangers, follows a clandestine film crew that prowls the streets, capturing phone conversations. The filmmaker "steals" these intimate moments and explores the ever-shrinking gap between private and public spheres. Deep Woods is a performative video that lures male participants through evocative advertisements. These innovative works reveal the power of modern technologies to upend of notions of privacy.
Curated by Ariella Ben-Dov.

Dear Bill Gates
Sarah Christman
2006 • 16 min • Color • Mini-DV • US
A simple correspondence evolves into a poetic visual essay exploring the well-documented co-optation of our visual history and culture. Combining original and archival images, video and images from the internet, Dear Bill Gates draws unexpected connections among mining, memory and Microsoft.

Deep Woods
Alison O'Daniel
2006 • 6 min • Color • Mini-DV • UK
Part of a series, this performative video lures its male participants through the filmmaker's enticing yet vague Web advertisements.

Winter Return
Chelsea Walton
2006 • 1 min • Color • Mini-DV • US
A moody stop-motion peek at a city.

The Intimacy of Strangers
Eva Weber
2005 • 19:35 min • Color • Beta SP • UK
A clandestine film crew prowls the streets of London capturing phone conversations that take place in public. Weber "steals" these intimate moments and explores the ever-shrinking gap between private and public spheres. She weaves seemingly random exchanges into a modern-day love story, from first attraction to bitter end, creating an anonymous dance of life, love, loss and hope.

Human Nature
Stine Gonsholt
2006 • 1:40 min • B/W • DVD • Norway
A stick figure runs, and runs, and runs...

The Carnival of the Animals
Michaela Pavlåtovå
2006 • 11 min • Color • Mini DV • Czech Republic
This erotic animated musical takes viewers on a sensual and obscene tour of the lives of lascivious characters looking for love anywhere they can find it. Men, women, birds and their prey roam parks, restaurants and back alleys searching for pleasure in a fantastical world where genitals pop up in the most unexpected places.

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