BIFF Shorts: Reciprocity

Fiction and nonfiction shorts that share decolonial themes, and focus on reciprocity and gratitude. 61 minutes.

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"Ma ŋaye ka Masaala a se ka Wɔmɛti / From God To Man"

Lansana Mansaray (Dir), 15 minutes, Sierra Leone, New York State Premiere

In Cameroon and English w/ English subtitles.

On the day that Lansana Mansaray was born, a tree was planted in his name in his father’s Limba village. Now an Emmy and Peabody nominated filmmaker, Mansaray returns to the same village to better understand the essential relationship that Limbas share with the trees that define every aspect of community life.

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"Tayal Forest Club"

Laha Mebow (Dir), 19 minutes, Taiwan, New York State Premiere

In Atayal and Mandarin Chinese w/ English subtitles.

Bullied at school and weighed down at home by his dad’s drinking, Yukan is eager to escape it all. When his best friend, Watan, invites him on a hike, a physically and emotionally bruised Yukan grabs his machete and the two boys head into the woods. But this isn’t just any hike, or just any woods — as Yukan and Watan’s youthful overconfidence runs them up against the realities of nightfall in the dense and mountainous Atayal homelands, other forces begin to reveal themselves. Before they can find a way home, these two young Tayal men must first humble themselves enough to learn the lessons that the land itself has to offer.

Taiwan’s first Indigenous female film director (Mebow) shares a coming-of-age tale that interweaves Tayal characters, settings, and symbols with the complexities arising from her community’s interactions with contemporary society.

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"Gath & K'iyh: Listen to Heal"

Princess Daazhraii Johnson (Dir), 8 minutes, USA, New York State Premiere

In Benhti Kokhut’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana) and English w/ English subtitles.

Gath and K’iyh is a poetic visual exploration of a community-led creative arts project aimed at better understanding and restoring our relationship with gath (king salmon) and k’iyh (birch) relatives as we navigate our feelings around climate change in Alaska. Gath and K’iyh are words from the Benhti Kokhut’ana Kenaga’ (Lower Tanana) dialect spoken in the Interior Region of Alaska. Guided by the voice and wisdom of Ahtna Elder Fred John, this film invites viewers to pause, to listen, to sing and dream together and ask how we might be in better relationship to the natural world around us.

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"Áhkuin"

Radio-JusSunná / Sunná Nousuniemi + Guhtur Niillas Rita Duomis / Tuomas Kumpulainen (Dir), 20 minutes, Gáregasnjárga / Finland, New York State Premiere

In N. Sami and English w/ English subtitles.

With the singular Sámi oral storytelling tradition of joik at its center, Áhkuin is a visual and musical call-and-response between a grandmother and her descendants. Archival interviews and the joik of Maarit-áhkku (Dir. Nousuniemi’s grandmother) unspool as a connective thread across time, inviting the viewer through a portal into this corner of Sápmi. Here, the rhythms of time are set by the daily tasks that assured the survival of those who came before; seemingly mundane chores — carrying water from the river, setting up the sauna, boiling reindeer bone marrow — offer up gifts of memory, music, and Indigenous knowledge.

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Presented in partnership with The Reciprocity Project.