We are pleased to announce the short and feature length documentary films in competition at ttff/22. Films in juried competitions are rigorously discussed and dissected before being selected by the programming team, and must be unanimously agreed by the five programmers. They are then watched, scored and debated by the relevant jury, with the winning films ultimately being those which receive the highest aggregate scores. All the winners will be announced at the ttff/22 awards, 27 September, with cash prizes and trophies furnished by our sponsors.

For film synopses, screening details and director bios, please click the links (indicated as blue underlines) below.

BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE FILM

• Lo que se hereda (It runs in the family), directed by Victoria Linares Villegas
• Mafifa, directed by Daniela Muñoz Barroso
• Mr Emancipation: the Walter Perry story, directed by Preston Chase
• Paroles de nègres (The words of negroes), directed by Sylvaine Dampierre
• Studio 17: the lost reggae tapes, directed by Mark James

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT FILM

• Danaé, directed by Julio Benito Cabrera
• King David, directed by Walt Lovelace
• Pam’s kitchen, directed by David Gwynn
• Still we thrive, directed by Campbell X
• Strictly two wheel, directed by Ania Freer
• The sound of the time, directed by Jeissy Trompiz

Featured images: production stills from Studio 17: the lost reggae tapes and King David .

The new media section comprises avant garde and experimental film and video works from artists and filmmakers in the Caribbean and diaspora. These are the works in competition for best new media work at ttff/20:

Centella (Firefly), by Claudia Claremi
Looking for ‘Looking for Langston’, by Ada M. Patterson
Murciélago (Bat), by Claudia Claremi
The Whole World is Turning, by Ada M. Patterson

synopses

Centella (Firefly)
by Claudia Claremi/ 2019/Cuba/ 17 minutes

In Cuba the flight of fireflies, in the night, is said to be like a meeting of miniature spectres, weakened fires or wandering souls. Isabel invokes them and triggers the dance.

Looking for ‘Looking for Langston’
by Ada M. Patterson/ 2018/Barbados, Netherlands/ 16 minutes

A performative video work in search of Isaac Julien’s “Looking for Langston” (1989). A captain dreams of setting sail, in search of a mysterious, intangible, comforting vision that rests at the edge of the horizon. An exploration of desire and distance, pleasure and disappointment, secrets and surprise, “Looking for ‘Looking for Langston’” is a cruise of poetic correspondence, queering sailors and transgressing horizons.

Murciélago (Bat)
by Claudia Claremi/ 2018/ Cuba/ 12 minutes

A sensory essay told through body and sound. A composition made from the trance and the vibration of macroscopic figures seen at a millimetric distance from the skin of eight people in Cuba. Inside a black hole, rapid movements fill the void. Macroscopic corporal landscapes follow one after the other to percussion in crescendo. White skin pulsates serenely and black skin wiggles, showing a face. Bright discharges explode in the air. In a slow, swaying trance, a shining eyelid reveals and then hides a liquid eye. The swelling and contracting skin of an abdomen makes deep sounds to an unrelenting beat.

The Whole World is Turning
by Ada M. Patterson/ 2019/ Netherlands/ 21 minutes

A group of lovers is visited by a familiar guest. They remark on how this guest has turned, how they have turned and how the whole world keeps turning. How will they receive this turn of events?

Image: still from ‘Murciélago‘ by Claudia Claremi