In June, at the 56th Krakow Film Festival, comprised of Ewa Puszczyńska (Chairwoman, Poland), Benjamin Cleary (Ireland), Aleksandra Maciuszek (Poland), Nancy Phelps (Belgium), and Enrico Vannucci (Italy), decided to give the Krakow Short Film Nomination for the European Film Awards 2016 to I’M NOT FROM HERE.
“Me and Maite met each other by invitation from CPH DOX:LAB (Denmark). It was like a blind date and we had to make a film together. We found we both were interested in the past and in collective mysteries of memory, especially the premise of forgetting. We wanted to explore how past can determine ourselves, even when we are not able to remember what happened yesterday. While researching, we learnt that in the first stages of Alzheimer’s, a person is likely to remember early childhood most clearly—in many cases, almost as if it is the present. We were thinking what this experience would be for an immigrant afflicted by the disease and decided to search for an European immigrant in Chile, That’s how we started. ” – says Giedrė Žickytė.
The protagonist of the film is Josebe, a Basque woman who lives in a nursing home in Chile. Days slip by imperceptibly at this closed institution. Because of dementia, Josebe does not have an easygoing personality; she is stubborn and seldom manages to establish contact with other residents. Although the woman has lived in Chile for several decades, she still recalls her happy youth spent in the Basque town of Renteria. I’m Not From Here is a poignant documentary about old age and a desperate attempt at hanging on to the memories which are still very vivid.
The film is the result of Lithuanian film centre collaboration with Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival‘s program CPH:LAB. Each year twenty filmmakers from ten European and ten non-European countries are carefully invited to take part. The program is focused on training / project development, pitching events at international co-production markets and subsequent production. Lithuanian film centre became the partner of the programme and joined a number of Film Institutes and Centres co-operating with CPH:LAB in 2012.
“Maite and Giedre are such a wonderful team, and we could not be more thrilled to see that their joint efforts to create this little gem of a film have now been rewarded in Nyon. Being there at the world premiere was simply an incredible experience: To feel that the audience really connected with the film in the same way we do. Congratulations to the talented team, ” – says Mille Haynes, Head of CPH:LAB.
Awards: The film was premiered at the „Visions du Réel“ international documentary film festival (Switzerland) in the official competition where it won Sesterce d’or Fondation Goblet (Best short film) award. Other awards: Sheffield Doc/Fest (Great Britain) - Best short film award; Krakow Film Festival (Poland) - Prix EFA Krakaw for the Best European Film, Message to Man (Russia) – Best short film award; Budapest International Documentary Film Festival (Hungary) – Best short film award, Documenta Madrid (Spain) – audience award, Concorto film festival (Italy)– second prize, Huesca Film Festival (USA) – special prize.
All the nominated films will soon be submitted to the more than 3,000 EFA Members to elect the winner. The European Short Film 2016 will then be presented at the European Film Awards Ceremony on Saturday, 10 December, in Wroclaw, European Capital of Culture 2016.
The The New York Times Opinion section Op-Docs presents Screening Series with I‘M NOT FROM HERE in the program.
See the filme here