Line up: Shards, Beijing Mushrooms, The Novelist, Ice Rink, Cocoon, Crocodile Angel, And I Talk Like a River
Open: 15:30 - 21:00 hrs
Tickets: € 8 / €15 Day Pass
DRIFT presents
Film Screening + Director Q&A: Rebuilding the Nearby
A program supported by FIRST Public Programming
What does it mean to be close—to a place, a person, a memory?
Rebuilding the Nearby explores “the nearby” not just as physical proximity, but as emotional and relational closeness: a lifeworld built through shared experiences, familiar spaces, and quiet gestures of care. The program reflects on how we might re-encounter what has faded, reconstruct what’s been fractured, and revive the traces of connection still lingering in the present.
Part I: The Obscured Theater of Intimacy
Featuring the film Shards, this section focuses on everyday spaces filled with silence, tension, and attempts at reconnection. Through a minimal cast and confined interior, it captures the emotional density of intimacy interrupted.
Part II: The Overlap of Space and Memory
A selection of short films delving into how memory transforms space. These works revisit homes, cities, and inner landscapes, places once known, now reimagined through longing, reflection, and the urge to return.
Founded in 2006 and held annually in Xining, China, the FIRST International Film Festival is one of Asia’s leading platforms for emerging filmmakers, known for championing independent cinema and new voices. Its year-round initiative, FIRST Public Programming, brings recent festival selections to broader audiences through non-profit, offline screenings across urban art spaces and university campuses. Evolving from its roots in the College Tour, the program now forms a dynamic national and international network dedicated to cinematic outreach—offering access to bold, independent works and fostering inclusive, dialogue-driven film culture through curated screenings and collaborations with local curators.
AGENDA
15:30 - 18:00 Part I + Director Q&A: Shards
18:00 - 18:30 Intermission
18:30 - 20:30 Part II + Director Q&A: Beijing Mushrooms, The Novelist, Ice Rink, Cocoon, Crocodile Angel, And I Talk Like a River
TICKET INFO
Part I: €8
Part II: €8
Day Pass: €15
Limited tickets available at the door
SUBTITLES
Chinese & English
ABOUT DRIFT:
DRIFT is an Amsterdam-based curatorial collective rooted in migrant voices and fluid identities. We are dedicated to showcasing independent films of artistic and social significance from around the world. Through regular screenings, filmmaker Q&As, panel discussions, and cross-cultural exchange events, we provide a platform for meaningful dialogue and creative connection among film lovers, creators, and broader communities. Our mission is to use cinema as a medium to spark public engagement with contemporary issues, allowing ‘drifting’ to become a form of resistance, and offering greater visibility to voices at the margins.
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