FESTIVALS:
* Amherst Cinema Arts Center (USA)
* Bellwether Series
* Museum of the Moving Image (Astoria, USA)
* Biografilm Festival | International Celebration of lives (Italy)
* Visions du réel (Switzerland)
* Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival (Canada)
* DokuFest (Kosovo)
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1999
| Category | | Youth |
| Year | | 2018 |
| Country| | Canada/Switzerland |
| Running time | | 90’ |
| Format | | HD |
| Production | | Parabola Films, Beauvoir Films |
| Director | | Samara Chadwick |
When death haunts a high school in a small town in the late 1990s, everyone is forever transformed. In this gentle prismatic film, Samara returns to the town she fled as a teen to re-immerse herself in the memories still lurking there, in its spaces and within the dusty boxes of diaries, photos and VHS tapes.
1999 is not a ghost story, but the ghosts are palpable at every turn. The snow-covered streets, the schools’ hallways and lockers are preserved as in a dream. The absences left by the relentless teenage suicides still shimmer with questions, trauma and regret. Samara encounters people who are as breathtaking as they are heartbroken, and, finally,
16 years later, the community strengthens itself by sharing the long-silenced memories. Ultimately the film weaves together multiple voices in a collective essay on how is grief internalized - and how, as children, we so painfully learn to articulate our desire to stay alive.
REVIEWS :
* "Samara Grace Chadwick's doc about a rash of suicides in her old school is a powerful meditation on trauma and resilience"
- NOWTORONTO, by Norman Wilner, april 25, 2018
* - " we can only live forever in the hearts and minds of others. "
- FILMMAKER, by Pamela Cohn in Festivals & Events on Apr 24, 2018
* - 1999 is one of the most haunting documentaries I’ve ever seen, which perfectly suits its subject matter.
- by Astra Taylor in Directors, Interviews on Apr 24, 2018
PHOTOS PRESSE
TRAILER :
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