These are eight Asian short films you shouldn’t miss at the Ji-hlava International Documentary Film Festival which will take place from October 24 – 29, 2023 in Jihlava, Czech Republic.

Bamboo in the Water by Wei Gao – Korea, China | 2022 – 2 minutes
Reflections of sun rays and bamboo leaves flowing in hypnotic choreographies on the wind-driven water surface were filmed by the director on Super 8mm film on the roof garden of her Seoul apartment. The shaky image and the music by Chinese composer Ding Ke underline the fragility and mystery of this plant, laden with poetic allusions, which remains unrecognisable despite all its representations. (JIDFF 2023)

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Believer by Xinran Liu – China | 2023 – 22 minutes
A young woman in love embarks on a dangerous journey to find a man she met on the internet and doesn’t know much about. Her stubbornness goes so far that the director is forced to stop her. The film thus opens up questions about the author’s responsibility for the subjects she is following in documentary filmmaking. (JIDFF 2023)

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Brilliant A by YoungEun Kim – USA, Korea |2022 – 16 minutes
The piano is an instrument without which it is impossible to imagine the musical world. But how did it first make its way from Western civilization to areas where it was traditionally unavailable, and what were the consequences? In her short film poem, the author becomes an archaeologist of sorts through evocative images of the piano amidst natural scenery and questions about the Korean adoption of the chamber note A, which is a tuning standard in music, as she uncovers historical, social, and cultural layers in relation to sound. (JIDFF 2023)

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I Was There by Chi JangYin – Japan, USA | 2023 – 14 minutes
The unique testimony of a physician who, thanks to a series of coincidences, survived the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, brings to life the horror of such an act of mass destruction, even after more than 70 years. The mechanics of the forces that could no longer be stopped once they were set in motion are revealed in a cinematic essay that deconstructs petrified historical interpretation. (JIDFF 2023)

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It Follows It Passes On by Erica Sheu – USA, Taiwan | 2023 – 5 minutes
Memories of family members and the stories and tales that nourished us in childhood often become part of our own memory. Erica Sheu dives to their inner depths to touch on the experiences of those who lived on Taiwan’s Kinmen archipelago during and just after the war. She is guided by the flickering light of incense, which those seeking shelter used to light their way during the war, and the few scraps and grains that she has given the role of witnesses. (JIDFF 2023)

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Shanghai Quarantopia by Clarissa Zhang – Malaysia | 2023 – 13 minutes
How has the coronavirus epidemic transformed everyday life in Shanghai? The world seems to have gone black and white. New routines are replaced by often harrowing and bleak intertwining stories, public announcements or cries for help. The director observes these from the shelter of her home, but even this, as a result of isolation, no longer evokes a sense of safe haven. (JIDFF 2023)

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Silhouette by Yoshiki Nishimura – Japan | 2023 – 7 minutes
Nishimura created a long band of still silhouettes of greenhouses and buildings, columns and bushes cast on the surface of an asphalt road using a LiDAR laser scanner installed on an iPad. He used it to scan the streets of a suburb of the northern Japanese city of Yamagata. He then tore out the road marked by shadows like a piece of paper and left it floating in the darkness, without a destination or life, accompanied by a reverberating soundtrack. (JIDFF 2023)

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White Grass by Justin Kim WooSŏk – Mongolia | 2022 – 16 minutes
In Mongolia, the word dzud refers to extremely cold winters that make it impossible for cattle to dig food out from under the snow. The fundamental transformation of pastoralists’ lives caused by climate change is captured in this documentary portrait of a multi-generational family threatened with the loss of their traditional livelihood due to more frequent dzuds. (JIDFF 2023)

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More information: https://www.ji-hlava.com/