Discriminations off the pocket is an educational project raising awareness of discrimination in society.
The project aims to young people between 13 to 26 of all genders, social and cultural backgrounds, and nationalities. It focuses on both formal (lycées) and non-formal education (e.g. maisons de jeunes).
The participants will work in small groups using their smartphones to create short films – “pocket films”. Social media and smartphones are usually seen as something negative; the project shows how to use them differently. We want to present them as tools that enable expressing ideas to fight discrimination, clichés, and stereotypes we still have in modern society.
The short films will be shared on social networks bringing their message to a broad audience, and finally, they will be a part of a national short film competition.
Jury
Donato Rotunno
President of the Jury
Donato Rotunno was born in Luxembourg in 1966 and graduated from IAD in Belgium in 1992. He founded Tarantula Luxembourg in 1995, through which, to date, he has produced over 40 feature films. After graduating from the EAVE program in 1999, he co-produced Bénédicte Liénard's first feature film: « A piece of sky », a film that was noticed in 2002 at the Cannes Festival at Un Certain Regard. His career as a film director started with his graduation film "Nebbiolo Rosso » and continued with documentaries on specific themes to Luxembourg, including immigration ("Terra Mia Terra Nostra", "Les Mesures du rectangle"), multicultural society ("Blà Blä Blá") ; questioning the role of politics with "André et les voix dissidentes", and the relationship between contemporary art and film through "Making of a picture", "Landscape with a corpse », "Dreams have a language". His first fiction film, "In a Dark Place", won the award for best artistic contribution at the Lëtzebuerger Filmpräis in 2007. His second film, "Baby(a)lone", an adaptation of the novel Amok by Tullio Forgiarini, was selected in many international film festivals and was chosen to represent Luxembourg at the 88th Academy Awards for International Feature Film award. After a great run in Festivals, "Io sto bene", his 3rd feature with Renato Carpentieri, was also chosen to represent Luxembourg at the Academy Awards for International Feature Film award.»
Raha Razavi
Member of the Jury
Raha Razavi Ghashghai is a Filmmaker and Video Artist. Born in Tehran, Iran (1986). Raha gained her B.A. in Architectural Engineering. While working on her bachelor's thesis project, which was about designing and constructing a film festival palace, she became interested in film and conceptual arts. Right after her graduation, she started a short course in Contemporary Art and attended Abbas Kiarostami's filmmaking workshop (2009-2010). Regarding Film making, she took two courses in Scriptwriting (2016) and Directing (2019) with Asghar Farhadi. She began her filmmaking career, as an independent artist, in 2009 by making an experimental short film named "On losing the train of my thoughts". Raha has made ten short films (experimental, documentary, and video arts) since 2014, which all were screened in some prestigious Iranian film festivals and also in Georgia, France, and The States, including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Due to her interest in video making, she started working with some well-known advertising agencies in Tehran, as an editor and a motion designer, between the years 2014 to 2018. In 2018, Raha founded her own film and production studio "Miaan Studio" in Tehran, to develop her profession as a video/ filmmaker and producer. She moved to Luxembourg in September 2019 and has started a Master in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Luxembourg in the same year. Besides finishing her last short film script, Raha has continued writing the script for her first feature film in 2021, funded for the film development phase by Œuvre Nationale de Secours Grande-Duchesse Charlotte. In her most artworks, Raha tries to explore the social issues and cultural obstacles through her own fantasy point of view by an experimental visual language. She entered the Selection Committee of the 2021 Luxembourg Film Festival in July 2020."
Alexis Juncosa
Member of the Jury
Alexis Juncosa Journaliste culturel français, Alexis Juncosa rejoint le Luxembourg en 2003 pour y occuper la fonction de rédacteur en Chef d'un magazine culturel. Il monte à bord du Luxfilmfest à quelques mois de sa première édition en 2011 et y occupe depuis la fonction de Directeur Artistique.
Marie Jung
Member of the Jury
Marie Jung 1985 in Luxemburg geboren und in Basel aufgewachsen, beendete 2009 ihr Schauspielstudium am Max-Reinhardt-Seminar in Wien. Mit der Spielzeit 2010&2011 wurde sie festes Ensemblemitglied am Theater Basel, wo sie unter anderem mit Anna Viebrock, Werner Düggelin und Peter Kastenmüller arbeitete. 2012 wechselte Marie Jung zum Ensemble der Münchner Kammerspiele, wo sie u.a. mit Johan Simons, Luk Perceval, Stephan Kimmig und Armin Petras arbeitete. Ab 2015 war sie Teil des Ensembles am Thalia Theater Hamburg wo sie u.a. mit Jette Steckel, Franziska Autzen und Luk Perceval arbeitete. Sie spielte in Kinofilmen u.a. von Detlev Buck, Margarethe von Trotta, Elfi Mikesch, Donato Rotunno und Just Philippot. Seit 2020 lebt und arbeitet sie als freie Theater- und Filmschauspielerin zwischen Belgien, Luxemburg, Deutschland und der Schweiz.