BxFW: Best Women Directors from 21 Islands ISFF

This month, dive into the power of documentary film — a genre that informs, inspires, and opens your eyes to real stories from around the globe. Join us as we explore powerful truths and bold perspectives that challenge the way we see the world.

• THE SMELL OF THE SCENERY– There is a kind of visional road trip about four different lives. Such as four couples, four sceneries, and four stories. This film includes four different stories , but they were strangely connected by scents. Director: Hsing Ying Tseng. Taiwan, 17 min.
• THE INVITATION– 11:04 min. A woman enters an art gallery and is captivated by all the characters in the paintings. But only one of them can set her free. Director: Nicole Cuschieri. 2021, Malta.
• ITACA–  A young woman decides to return, after a long time, to a small island in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea where she lived a great love story with a mysterious girl who haunts her dreams. By recalling the memories of the past and revisiting those places full of absence, she will have to overcome the pain that keeps her life suspended in limbo. Director: Francesca Giuffrida. 2018, Sardinia,19:42 min.
• DRAGON RECIPES is a sweet story about friendship and acceptance, for the whole family to enjoy. The protagonist, a young apprentice witch, idolizes a really scary, wicked witch from magazine clippings and posters. She dreams of becoming a grand witch like her icon and of having her own fierce, fire-breathing dragon. Spontaneous as she is, our little hero decides to create her own dragon, using an old recipe and magic spells. But the inexperienced witch will surely make mistakes; magic mistakes that will eventually get her a dragon, just not the one she had in mind. Director: Maria Pavlou. 2019, Cyprus, 7:12 min.
• THE WARIA OF JAVA– Shinta Ratri is the founder of the world’s first and only Islamic school run by and for transgender women. Over a decade ago, Shinta opened Al-Fatah Pesantren in the Muslim city of Yogyakarta. Her goal: to offer fellow waria* the opportunity to discuss and practice their Islamic faith in a communal space. The waria community of Yogyakarta has been threatened by ultra-conservative groups. Director: Ana González. 2019, Indonesia, 13 min.
• SECOND RESPONDERS is a short documentary highlighting the experiences of four “second” responders employed at St. John’s Episcopal Hospital in Queens, NY, where the first case of COVID-19 in NYC was diagnosed. While doctors and nurses are rightfully praised as heroes, the support staff at St. John’s –the Head of Security, a Janitor, a Logistician, and a Chaplain— must also bear witness to the untold ravages left in the wake of a worldwide pandemic. Director: Julissa DelaCruz, Producer: Myrta Vida. 2021, NY, 9 min.

Program presented in English and Spanish with subtitles.

9:30 PM | Bronx Film Wednesdays Digital on BronxNet TV — Hosted by Sonyi Lopez.

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