Watch the seven shortlisted films and meet the filmmakers who reinterpreted the Reuters archive to give us insightful new takes on global conflict, colonial legacies and migrant stories from fresh and original perspectives.
A whale bears witness to fifty years of human oppression. The Mediterranean Sea holds migrant journeys of loss and survival. Migratory birds meet transgender exiles. A daughter talks to her absent father about the Yugoslav Wars. An African child’s role in a colonial propaganda film is subtly reframed. A decade of race riots against colonial rule in Bermuda is reassessed. And a farcical tale about the birth of cinema can finally be told.
These seven archive-inspired shorts were created for the Reuters Connect Make Film History Challenge, which gave 100 filmmakers from 26 countries around the world access to over one million clips from the Reuters Connect archive for creative reuse. Seven filmmaking teams from the UK, Ireland, Germany, Italy and Bermuda discuss their creative approaches to archive inspired storytelling and the winning film will receive a £1000 cash prize.
Films:
52Hz (Federico Barassi)
In a world dominated by wars and the oppression of the stronger over the weaker, a whale that sings at a unique frequency becomes a global observer. Its song echoes through the depths of the ocean, bearing witness fifty years of history and revealing how human brutalities repeat across time.
'Little Black Boy' (João Belchior)
In a Portuguese colonial Propaganda film of the 1930s, as an African child plays with plant fibres, a voice-over calls him the image of the African of tomorrow. This film questions this imposed title through a simulated conversation with this child, acknowledging that the 'tomorrow' imagined by the colonial project has taken on different contours.
Bermuda Riots are Different (Alyson Thompson and Matt Mead)
Bermuda Riots are Different examines a decade of race riots between 1968 and 1977, and a triangle of colonial influences: Bermuda, Great Britain, USA.
Yugoslavia (Angela Bedekovic)
A daughter talks to her absent father about war, nationality, and invincible estrangement.
No Man’s Sea (Marianna Tsatsou)
The Mediterranean Sea emerges as witness and character, tracing migrant journeys of loss, arrival and survival across Europe´s contested waters.
Zugunruhe (Benjamin Rupprecht and Florence Humphrys)
"Zugunruhe" shares the stories of transgender people across the globe faced with the loss of legal self-determination, in juxtaposition with the lives and freedom of migratory birds. During a time of binary categorisation, can we imagine what a world without borders would look like?
EQUITY 6928 (Rory Carroll)
At the dawn of cinema and the notion of a moving image, a fierce battle commenced between inventors Louis Le Prince and Thomas Edison to conceive and design a machine capable of projecting multiple frames a second. Who shall win, and perhaps more importantly, how?
Speakers:
Helen Walker (Archive Manager, Reuters Connect)
Federico Barassi (52Hz)
João Belchior ('Little Black Boy')
Alyson Thompson and Matt Mead (Bermuda Riots are Different)
Angela Bedekovic (Yugoslavia)
Marianna Tsatsou (No Man’s Sea)
Benjamin Rupprecht and Florence Humphrys (Zugunruhe)
Rory Carroll (EQUITY 6928)
Moderator:
Shane O’Sullivan (Head of Film and Photography, Kingston University)
Supported by Reuters Connect
