The Garden of Rest, a deconsecrated cemetery overlooking Marsamxett Harbour, will be the venue for the Kinemastik International Short Film Festival, which this year marks its 15th edition.

Emma Mattei is a founder member of the cultural NGO Kinemastik, as well as being its vice president and the festival’s programmer.

She says it is the team’s dedication that has kept the festival going for 15 years.

“Anyone who has ever been involved with the organisation comes to it with the knowledge that being impractical and unconstrained due to a micro budget is the starting point for all Kinemastik endeavours,” says Mattei.

“It’s a team of dedicated individuals who feel that the need for independent, non-commercial cultural activity outside of the mainstream is crucial and strive to make it happen every year.

“Perhaps if we lived in a place with a more diverse cultural scene, we might not have survived, but it is necessity that keeps us alive, and hopefully relevant.”

This year’s edition of the festival will open with a special screening of In Praise of Nothing, a satirical documentary parable about, in fact, ‘nothing’, narrated by the iconic musician/songwriter Iggy Pop.

The film will be screened with subtitles in Maltese, translated by Miriam Calleja. Directed by Boris Mitic, the documentary has won multiple awards at numerous film festivals across the world.

On Friday and Saturday, the main screen will show a selection of 17 films from 12 different countries across the globe; from Europe to China and beyond. It is a catalogue of winners from myriad prestigious international festivals such as Berlinale, Cannes, Venice, Visions du Reel and Clermont Ferrand, as well as entries from emerging and Maltese film-makers.

Rise - Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Barca//Canada

This year’s films are preoccupied with identity – the ‘self’ versus the ‘big other’, a theme which develops organically. “The theme is never chosen, it generally reveals itself as the viewings get underway,” explains Mattei. “This year Kinemastik was able to attend the Berlin Film Festival (Berlinale) thanks to the Arts Council, and this film festival is always on point in terms of what is in the ether, you simply have to catch it.”

Among the titles ‘caught from the ether’ are Watermelon Juice by Spanish director Irene Moray in which a young woman puts her friends and putative lover on the spot with some confronts some surprising and dramatic revelations about her past. In a mere 10 minutes All Inclusive spotlights the comings and goings of life on a cruise ship (the jury is out on whether this is supposed to entice you to actually go on a cruise… or avoid it for life). The Golden Legend, from Spain, directed by Chema Gracia Lbarra and Ian de Sosa, celebrates the swimming pool, a place of fun, friendship and community.

What will undoubtedly catch the eye is Past Perfect, a film by Portuguese director Jorge Jacome. Winner at the Hamburg Film Festival, it is a fascinating and stimulating film that projects a series of abstract images with an accompanying imaginary dialogue giving a melancholic commentary on the state of the world going back from the present to a very distant past.

These are a mere four titles from the eclectic mix of shorts that run the gamut from comedy to drama and from documentaries to the experimental; a list that promises to take Kinemastik’s faithful audiences on a wondrous journey of discovery. 

Four Maltese works are also featuring in this year’s programme, including the premier of Unknown Ocean by Dolphin Club, an audio-visual duo based in Malta. Two music videos, one by Francesca Mercieca and another made by Ian Schranz and Nick Theuma for local band Brikkun will also be featured as will Filfla, an animation directed by Fabrizio Ellul that premiered at the Valletta Film Festival earlier this year.

Aħfirli missier għax ser nerġa - Brikkuni//music video directed by Ian Schranz and Nick Theuma//Malta

All films on the main screen will be adjudicated by an international jury and are eligible for the Kinemastik Golden Dot award. The five jurors are art curator Lisa Gwen Baldacchino, multi-disciplinary artist Roxman Gatt, artist and curator Mark Mangion, advertising creative Glen McLeod and ‘compulsive collector’ Antonio Tufigno.

It is worth nothing that Kinemastik will this year also be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Little Rock People (LRP) – its International Kids Film Festival. With LRP, Kinemastik wanted to leave a legacy, create an impact and a chance to walk hand in hand with young minds and see things as they really are; offering a list of superb titles in the line-up aimed at younger film buffs.

And Kinemastik is not merely about film – the organisers invite patrons to stay on post-screenings, with various musical acts ensuring the partying will carry on late into the night. Thursday’s line-up consists of Kinemastik All Stars including: Wioletta Kulewska, Jon Banthorpe, Tom Van Malderen, Sandra Zaffarese; Friday will see sets by Felix (sunset mix), Dean Wengrow, and Capitol K; while Saturday will see live performances by Fattima Mahdi, Nigel Baldacchino, Uncle Al, Lucie Grace and Steph Von Reiswitz.

The Kinemastik International Short Film Festival will take place from Thursday to Saturday at the Msida Bastion Historic Garden. Doors open at 7pm, and screenings start from 9pm. For more info visit: http://www.kinemastik.org

Kinemastik is supported by Arts Council Malta through a Cultural Partnership Agreement. Other sponsors and partners include Din l-Art Ħelwa, Stretta Beer, Marks & Spencer, British Council Malta, Malta Tourism Authority, Aldo, P31, Nextbike and The Film Grain Foundation.

AKABOUM - Manon Vila//France