First Look Shorts: Nonfiction Showcase

Four films from First Look 2022 that exemplify the diversity of the nonfiction short form, from Tsai Ming-liang’s nocturnal portrait of Hong Kong to associative essays by Jessica Bardsley and Maxime Jean-Baptiste and Audrey Jean-Baptiste, to an attentive family portrait by Polen Ly. (TRT: 68 mins)

The Night

Dir. Tsai Ming-liang. Taiwan/Hong Kong. 2021, 19 mins. Made in November 2019 at the height of mass protests against Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Law, Tsai’s plaintive durational portrait of emptying streets and an overpass on Causeway Bay builds almost imperceptibly to its exquisite pang of sorrowful longing. New York premiere

Listen to the Beat of Our Images

Dirs. Audrey and Maxime Jean-Baptiste. France/French Guiana. 2021, 15 mins. In French with English subtitles. Recovering a history of colonial expropriation in Kourou, French Guiana, where, in 1964, France established its Guianese Space Center by displacing 600 Guianese villagers, the Jean-Baptistes’ delicately composed archival film orchestrates a mesmerizing, radio soundtrack to conjure an image of a lost time before the Europeans. New York premiere

Life Without Dreams

Dir. Jessica Bardsley. U.S. 2022, 13 mins. Life Without Dreams is set within the outer space of consciousness, where the surfaces of far-out planetary bodies form the terrain for an exploration of the gradual disappearance of darkness, 24/7 capitalism, and insomnia. World premiere

Side by Side

Dir. Polen Ly. Cambodia. 2021, 21 mins. In Tampuan and Khmer with English subtitles. Through daily routines in a rural village, an indigenous elderly couple recalls their strange marriage to their granddaughter, and sometimes to each other, in the changing rhythm of nature around them.