Document Friday Shorts Programme

Year upon year, some of the best documentaries we receive are under 30 minutes in length. Managing to get right to the heart of a niche story or offer unexpected insight in a flash is a skill that continually surprises us.

This year we have chosen to honour that craft with a dedicated shorts programme in Intermedia Gallery. All screenings here will be free-of-charge. Outside of screenings, the space will function as an open social hub for informal talks and discussion.

Intermedia will also play host to our videotheques which allow visitors to view our full shorts programme on demand over the festival weekend.

3pm: Nobody Plays the Trombone Anymore
Cuberto Ortíz Ramos has been missing since September 26, 2014. Together with 42 other young students, he was kidnapped and murdered in the town of Ayotzinapan. In his rural village, his absence is acutely felt by family, friends and the local band in which he played the trombone.

3pm: Siberia in a Summer Dress
With the ardor of his 25 years, Alexei Lungu lives life to the fullest, even if his village is under Soviet occupation. On the night of June 12th 1941, he will be the witness of a deportation orchestrated by the political police and the Red Army. 55 years later, all that is left is the memory of that summer night recounted to his grandson.

4pm: Catch-19to25
From the director of Document 2015’s 9999, CATCH-19to25 is a personal reflection about the relation between a man and his peculiar live and work circumstances. Like the protagonist, the film focuses on details, and gives insight in a major problem of society: the temporal housing of victims of war.

5pm: Then Then Then
When protest fails, what’s left? A hypnotic and unsettling blend of archival footage and music, Then Then Then offers a stark glimpse into the moral struggles of a generation coming to terms with its own inability to affect social change. Lesser-known acts of protest spotlight dissenters' turn to more radicalized acts of protest against those in power and the machinery designed to stifle their opposition. This meditation on civil disobedience is a timely reminder of the lengths some have gone to in order to have their voices heard.