5 in 5 IN BLOOM Short Film Anthology
Paramount+ and Staying Alive Foundation
A collection of short films from around the world telling unexpected, unheard stories exploring the imbalance of gender complexities to evoke divergent thinking. The content supports UN Sustainable Development Goal no.5 : to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls.
These 5 short films are directed by emerging female filmmakers from Brazil, India, Kenya, Nigeria and the U.S. in collaboration with Paramount+ Staying Alive Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gate Foundation
Maré (2024)
5 in 5 IN BLOOM Short Film Anthology
Directed by Giuliana Monteiro
9 min
A mother on the edge of her sanity seeks solace from a tumultuous life situation.
Period (2024)
5 in 5 IN BLOOM Short Film Anthology
Directed by Nicole Sweeny
10 min
Like many of her classmates at her underserved school, Fay cannot afford menstrual products, so she sets out on a crusade to get them for free.
What Did You Dream? (2019)
Directed by Karabo Lediga
20min
It’s the summer school holidays in 1990 South Africa, and 11-year-old Boipelo is back at her grandmother's four-roomed house in the Pretoria township, Atteridgeville. It’s a point of uncertainty for a country on the brink of democracy, but also for Boipelo, who will be attending a multiracial school soon.
Awards
Best African Short Film, Durban International Film Festival 2021
Best International Short, Palm Springs International Short Fest 2020
Official Selection
International Competition, Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, France 2020
Official Selection to Festivals Seattle International Film Festival 2021
Film O’Clock International Festival 2021 Pittsburgh Shorts Film Festival USA 2020
Film Africa, Baobab Award Shorts programme, United Kingdom 2020
18º Bogotá Short Film Festival / Festival de Cortos de Bogotá, chiquiSHORTS, Colombia 2020
SA/X (2004)
Directed by Gilli Apter
20 min
SA/X is a comic mock-documentary, set in 2004 Johannesburg, following the journey of Kim Smart; a fair- skinned African girl who dares to look outside of her burglar-proof suburban world. What she finds is a city both tattered and triumphant and a generation come-of-age in a post-apartheid reality. SA/X profiles a truly contemporary slice of urban youth culture. The film inter-cuts an absorbing, simple narrative with (staged) documentary-style interview clips of random South African 20-somethings exploring their concerns and values. The interviews bring a universal element to the story, as Kim breaks free from her controlling and prejudiced family and boyfriend, makes friends with a multiracial punk band, and ventures into a part of the city long considered to be a no-go zone by most whites. Ten years on, amid a landscape rife with urban and social blight, this is the story of a liberated South Africa and Kim Smart as they make their ambling way down the continuing road to freedom.
Awards
Winner of Silver Leopard of Tomorrow Award, Locarno Leopards of Tomorrow Festival, Switzerland 2005
Short Film in Competition (Finalist), Cape Town World Cinema Festival, South Africa 2004
Official Selection
Silhouette Film Festival, France 2007
Ongeriewe, Rome Film Festival, Italy 2007
The ReelWorld Film Festival, Canada 2006
Munich International Festival of Film Schools 2005
London Short Ends Festival 2005
Tous Les Cinemas du Monde, Cannes Film Festival, France 2005
Durban International Film Festival, South Africa 2005
Apollo Film Festival, South Africa 2005
Box (2004)
Directed by Gilli Apter
15 min
Official Selection
Tous Les Cinemas du Monde, Cannes Film Festival, France 2005