Session Six
SECOND SKIN Brazil
Second Skin is an experimental documentary about identity development. Through stories tied to a piece of clothing, four characters talk about their childhood experiences, adult relationships, and experiences of mourning.
LOVE LOCS UNITED KINGDOM
In a state of melancholy, a hairdresser locks her lover’s hair for the last time.
AN EXTRA DAY IN PRAGUE CZECH REPUBLIC
Before moving across the ocean, a 13-year-old hockey player spends an extra day in his home country, reuniting with his estranged father and saying goodbye to his “best friend.”
Closing Film
We’re so honoured to have had Desmond’s Not Here Anymore as our film festival’s closing film this year.
Inspired by the writer’s long-held secret, Desmond’s Not Here Anymore explores the role of memory in intimate relationships through a strained mother-daughter bond, in which a daughter struggles to overcome the torment of a painful memory that her mother simply cannot remember. Directed by multi-award-winning South African director and writer Mmabatho Montsho, and written by award-winning screenwriter Lindiwe S. Müller-Westernhagen, Desmond’s Not Here Anymore is a surprisingly cathartic price of cinema.
Desmond’s Not Here Anymore Directed by Mmabatho Montsho | South Africa
Abigail battles moving her elderly mother with dementia out from the family home. When her mother unconsciously haunts her by continually questioning Desmond’s whereabouts it forces her to finally face the question.
About The Director Mmabatho Montsho
Mmabatho Montsho is a multi-award-winning writer and director based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She launched her writer-director career with her first short film, The Groom’s Price. This premiered to a viewership of over 4 million on the South African Broadcast Corporation television.
Her subsequent short films, The Award Ceremony and Joko Ya Hao, have been selected in various international film festivals, with Joko Ya Hao nominated for Best Short Film at the South Africa Film & Television Awards, and The Award Ceremony, winning Best Short Film at the Worldwide Women’s Film Festival. She boasts extensive experience as a television director, across various genres and formats. Close to her heart is her work as a Script Development Mentor, with over 10 of the scripts she mentored being selected for production and television broadcast.
As a consummate creative and champion of the black, female experience – Mmabatho’s work hones in on the essence of everyday existence, the beauty, agony and politics of what it means to be a black woman in South Africa today.
