17th August 2015
We are delighted to announce that New Eyes has been selected by three major international film festivals, and a film screening by the British Council:
- The Venice Biennale (the Venice International Film Festival), showing in competition in Venice in September 2015, in the Orizzonte section.
- The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), showing in the “Short Cuts” section, also in September 2015
- The Rotterdam International Film Festival
- The British Council’s “Encounters” presentation at the Bristol Short Film and Animation Festival, also in September 2015.
British Council Support
As part of the British Council’s remit to support British independent film-making, the producers are very grateful to the film fund who supported the film producers’ attendance at the Venice Biennale and the Toronto International Film Festival. The British Council continues to support this short film, and many others.
The Story So Far
Jointly with Les Films de l’Après-Midi, GBGG Productions LLC has developed “New Eyes”, a short fiction film by talented director and writer Hiwot Admasu. Filming and post-production have now wrapped: the film is ready for distribution and performance.
Hiwot Admasu was chosen to participate in the “Addis to Cannes” programme in 2014 run by the International Emerging Film Talent Association and the Ethiopian Film Initiative. She brought with her some existing productions, and pitched her latest script, “New Eyes”.
The filming of Hiwot’s script was made possible partly by a successful IndieGoGo campaign, which led to the completion of principal photography and all post-production.
Hiwot writes about the film:
A shy girl who is about to enter into her puberty encounters a couple having sex in what seems to be an ordinary morning in her semi-urban environment. She struggles to concentrate on what she is doing when the lovemaking couple joins the river to take a bath where she is washing clothes. She cannot make herself stop staring at the guy who washes his naked body, and who looks irresistible.
She gets restless physically and mentally, looks at everything with her new eyes; turning everything and everyone into sexual objects. She gets jealous of the woman from the love-making couple, her neighbor, who seems to have everything the girl does not have; the sex, a womanly curvy body and all the men’s attention.
In order to stay in the feeling and understand it, she takes steps; her courage to approach men grows moment after moment, taking her into extreme points, to a stage where she might not be safe. She feels touches and sees in unlikely situations. Her progress is both frightening and exciting that it even makes her desperate and tempted with no satisfaction.
She recalls a scene from the river with the guy. Her fantasy drives her into the climax of her emotions finally forcing her to take measure by herself to get the fulfillment that she has been longing for.
Floating on the river, she foresees the coming inevitable years of her sexual life and her place as a young woman.
