Arranged by the Ministry of Education and Culture (1.000 EUR) and the Duna Television Network (the purchase of the film)
Austria
2006, 80'
Director: Timo Novotny
'Life in Loops' is an alternative interpretation of the award-winning Austrian documentary 'Megacities' in which Michael Glawogger, depicts the chaos of the world's metropolis. The film takes the viewer to strange, dark and otherwise impenetrable parts of Mexico City, New York, Moscow, Mumbai and Tokyo and presents a cast of characters: like the man in Mumbai who changes colour every day and the pimp in New York who sells imaginary prostitutes.
Novotny complements 30 % of material taken straight from the film (and re-edited) with 70 % as yet unseen footage in which he blends original shots unused by Glawogger with his own sequences (shot by Megacities cameraman Wolfgang Thaler) from Tokyo.
Arranged by the Ministry of Education and Culture (1.000 EUR)
Attila kincsei (The Treasures of Attila)
Hungary
2006, 92'
Director: Elemér Szabó
Attila, the bell-ringer of a small village of Cserehát mountains sets forth to rebuild a tiny wooden chapel in the heart of the woods, on the spot of an earlier Virgin Mary apparition, which once had been a debated issue, but has been long forgotten since. The repressed local memory of the miracle gradually revives... The parson nods approval to the initiation, a crazed and gummed concrete-moulding Mary-statue is getting fixed up for the chapel and the local old women are willing to clamber up on the trailer of a tractor in order to take part in the consecration of the chapel in the woods.
The Curse of the Hedgehog (Blestemul aricilui)
Romania
2004, 93'
Director: Budrala Dumitru
Description of the content "I cared for my donkey more than I do for my own man and kids. But now it's dead. If I had a donkey now, I would live like a Member of Parliament" - concludes Turica, one of the main characters in the film. She and her relatives wander from village to village, carrying handmade brooms and baskets, which they try to trade for food. The filmmaker goes beyond stereotypes, following an extremely poor Gypsy family in their survival winter trips.
Denmark
2006, 28'
Director: Hansen Esben
Alberto Cairo is an Italian physiotherapist, who is helping mine victims and disabled people in an orthopaedic centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. "This Work of Mine" depicts one of Alberto's hectic and conflict-ridden workdays. The film also tells the story of two disabled Afghans, the old grandma Fatima, who has travelled several days to get a treatment, and the 8-year-old boy Mehdi, who has lost a leg and most of his family.
Poland
2005, 50'
Director: Adam Sikora
"Silesia is going down the drain. There is no future here", complains an unemployed man. "Silesia is Silesia, I will not let it be taken away from me", says an older woman with local accent. "The most important thing is to never give up, fuck, never", blurts out a young boy who wants to become a rapper. All of them will probably meet at the annual Corpus Christi procession. A story about unemployment, poverty and hopelessness.
... for promotion of a unique local cultural heritage in an innovative film language in support of oral history.
Arranged by the Ministry of Education and Culture (800 EUR)
11 donkeys fall in an empty stomach (11 burros caem no estomago vazio)
Portugal
2006, 26'
Director: Tiago Pereira
A meta-documentary about how people live in the north of Portugal, their relationship with donkeys and the way they live with them. The topic is so musical that it is perfect to scratch, extend, and manipulate never loosing its primary essence...
Arranged by the Hungarian Open Air Museum in Szentendre
(free entrance during one year).
A Suszter és a Lángi gróf (The Cobbler and the Count of the Flame)
Hungary
2006, 12'
Director: Tamás Helényi
The film tells the story of an old cobbler, whose life was ruined by a tragic fire accident but his exemplary strength and the love for his profession, helped him to surmount the difficulties. He still works in his tiny workshop, making shoes in the old-fashioned way. He is one of the last to know these moves that were refined from generation to generation.
"Hát, elmentünk kaszavenni" ("So we went to buy a scythe")
Hungary
2006, 10'
Director: Tibor Tóth
Although we are supposed to live in the era of knowledge, we are losing a lot of knowledge that would be good enough to live a life with. One of these is the accumulated experience concerning the scythe. Amongst others, the film shows the appropriate height of the scythe, and the right way to strop it.
... for expressing visual studies of the craftsmanship and the human values
Arranged by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Ethnographic Institute (collections of books)
Practice and mastery (Pratica e maestria)
Italy
2005, 46'
Director: Rossella Schillaci
Zi (Uncle) Antonio and zi Vincenzo, two elderly brothers with a big passion: the zampogna (bagpipe). Constructor the first one, player the second, they still spend their life making bagpipes and playing all around Italy at festivals. This year is a big surprise for them: they record a CD. The documentary follows their trip and also their everyday life spent in the mountains with zi Carmela, zi Antonio's strong wife and Cardillo, the dog that howls to the sound of the bagpipe.
Tales of earth and river (Racconti di terra e di fiume)
Italy
2005, 45'
Director: Mario Piavoli
A journey in the memories of Gazzuolo Belforte. Customs and old crafts of the Mantuan village represented through the voices and gestures of some 'rural world survivors'.
Fole, an object from daily rural life (O Fole, um objecto do quotidiano rural)
Portugal
2006, 32'
Director: Carlos Eduardo Viana
The 'fole' is an object, which despite being almost unknown today, was a common item in the daily rural life of Sao Lourenço da Montaria (Portugal). It served for transporting cereal in the old subsistence farms. The acquisition of a 'fole' for the Museum of Ethnography of Viana do Castelo within the ambit of the research carried out on mills of Montaria, served as a pretext for recording the whole process - with its local knowledge and specific practices.
Hungary
2005, 9'
Director: Dani Besnyő
The film presents a ticket inspector at work, who, as a child, would have liked to be a policeman. We get acquainted with the difficulties and the secrets of his work..
Denmark
2005, 9'
Director: Pila Rusjan Zupan
How do people act when they are alone, how do they act when they know they are being filmed and how when they are told to be themselves. The film consists of three different parts of the same event - a casting for being yourself. First the participants are filmed with secret cameras in the waiting room, then in casting room sitting in front of the camera and when "the director" enters instead of giving a normal task, they are asked to be themselves.