Biodestructors receives the EWA Award for Equality and Inclusion in Trieste
What a year in Trieste! A plethora of EWA members with projects selected throughout the sections and programs and two awards to support female-led projects.
Lithuanian director Aistė Žegulytė has received the award to support her sophomore film, the documentary BIODESTRUCTORS, which will explore through an immersive journey the unseen, delving into humanity’s struggle to preserve against microfungi’s relentless decay, revealing a deep connection between creation and destruction.
Graziella Bildesheim, EWA Network's president, presented the award to a project that is creative, mind-opening, both visual and visionary and ever so current: "when the world as we know it will invariably explode, these little creatures will be the ones to ensure that life will go on".
Also, EWA Network has acknowledged Xin Fang's Letters From Home, a project in the Circle Women Doc Accelerator programme, that chronicles three generations of a Chaoshan family that experience the rise and fall of the Chinese dream against a backdrop of hyper-development in Shenzhen, China’s Silicon Valley.
Director’s Profile: Aistė Žegulytė
Aistė Žegulytė studied photography and film directing. She explores human relationship with nature in its various forms, in its all variety and complexity. Her first long-form documentary, Animus Animalis, premiered at the DOK Leipzig Film Festival. The film has already visited many festivals around the world: the CPH: DOX, the Tallinn Black Nights (PÖFF), the Thessaloniki International Film Festival, the Hot Docs, and many more. Fascinated by the microscopic fungi and mould, she has been working on new documentary film Biodestructor since 2019.
Company Profile
Lead producer is Studio Uljana Kim, a leading company in Lithuania, with 34 feature and documentary films produced / coproduced since 1997, including “Kiemas” by Valdas Navasaitis (1999, Cannes IFF – Director’s Fortnight), “You am I” by Kristijonas Vildžiūnas (2006, Cannes IFF – Un Certain Regard), “Parthenon” by Mantas Kvedaravičius (2019, Venice Critics Week), “Mr Landsbergis” by Sergei Loznitsa (2021, IDFA Best Film Award), “Mariupolis 2” by Mantas Kvedaravičius (2022, Cannes IFF Special Documentary Jury Prize; European Documentary Award at European Film Awards), “The Natural History of Destruction” by Sergei Loznitsa (2022, Cannes IFF, Special Screening).
To Be Continued, coproducer in France, is an independent collective production house with an editorial line of art house – “cinéma d’auteur” projects that have a strong commercial value, both demanding and accessible. Feature films include “Onoda, 10 000 nights in the jungle” by Arthur Harari (2021, Opening film Un Certain Regard at Cannes IFF, French academy award for best screenplay), “All the Gods in the Sky” by Quarxx (2018, BFI, Austin, …), “Land” by Babak Jalali (2018, Berlinale), “Hannah” by Andrea Pallaoro (2017, Venice – Mostra award for best actress to Charlotte Rampling, TIFF…), “Rock’n’roll… Of Corse!” By Lionel Guedj & Stéphane Bébert (2010, Cannes IFF – Out of Competition, SXSW…), “Blind Sun” by Joyce A. Nashawat (2015, TIFF – Creativity in Cinematography award, BFI, …), and others.
Letters from Home by Xin Fang
And after our long term collaboration with Circle Women Doc Accelerator, this year we fell in love with Letters from home, to offer a mentorship session and a one year membership.
Synopsis: After a decade in the United States, Xin returns to Shenzhen to tend to her aging grandparents after her parent's incarceration following missteps in their business expansion. Back in her hometown, transformed by the post-pandemic geopolitical landscape and facing much uncertainty, she begins to forge a new relationship with her father, this time as an adult.
Director’s Profile: Xin Fang
Xin Fang is a Chinese artist and documentary filmmaker. Born and raised in Shenzhen, Xin came to the United States to continue her bachelor's degree in visual journalism and sociology at Boston University (2016). She graduated with the Paula Rhodes Memorial Award from the School of Visual Arts in documentary filmmaking (2019). She works as a freelance director and is directing her first feature-length documentary. She is a 2023 Points North Fellow and CIRCLE Women Doc Accelerator fellow in 2024.
Producer’s profile: Nicole Tsien is keen on uplifting BIPOC filmmakers and supporting creative documentaries. Her recent producing credit includes DocNYC Audience Award winner, Slumlord Millionaire. She has received multiple News and Documentary Emmys, and Peabody nominations and awards.