Zonta2016

At “Fifi’s”, a hair salon owned by a Christian Arab in Haifa, Iris Zaki installs a minimalist film set over the sink, where she converses with the clients she’s shampooing. She thus paints an unexpected choral portrait of this space that provides temporary freedom; where women share their differences and/or a community of views on politics, history and love.

Downstream from a De Beers diamond mine, the remote community of Attawapiskat lurches from crisis to crisis, while facing mounting environmental issues and an inability to directly benefit from resource revenues.

The danger is palpable as intrepid young filmmaker Nanfu Wang follows maverick activist Ye Haiyan (a.k.a Hooligan Sparrow) and her band of colleagues to Hainan Province in southern China, to protest the case of six elementary school girls who were sexually abused by their principal.

If 18-year old Sonita had a say in things, Michael Jackson would be her father and Rihanna her mother. She captures her dream of being a famous rapper in her scrapbook. For the time being, her only fans are the other teenage girls in a Tehran shelter. There, Sonita, a refugee from Afghanistan, gets counseling for the traumas she has suffered and guidance in shaping her future.