Unlike Cannes’ industry-catered competition section, the festival’s independent sidebar Directors’ Fortnight defines itself around audience outreach.
Headquartered halfway down the Croisette, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals, where the official selection screens for an industry-only crowd, Fortnight embraces the sprawl. The 56th edition programs 21 features and another eight shorts from May 15-25 (starting with Sophie Fillières’ posthumous “This Life of Mine”) while bringing select titles to many theaters far from the main drag.
That same selection will also offer the easiest point of access for so many locals, for whom Fortnight is often synonymous with Cannes, and who can always count on a 30-minute Q&a after each screening. Further afield, however, that clarity of identity begins to fade.
For one thing, the showcase doesn’t have a recognizable pitchman. In the time since Thierry Frémaux took over the official selection in 2004, Directors’ Fortnight has seen four artistic directors come and go,...
Headquartered halfway down the Croisette, equidistant from the Palais des Festivals, where the official selection screens for an industry-only crowd, Fortnight embraces the sprawl. The 56th edition programs 21 features and another eight shorts from May 15-25 (starting with Sophie Fillières’ posthumous “This Life of Mine”) while bringing select titles to many theaters far from the main drag.
That same selection will also offer the easiest point of access for so many locals, for whom Fortnight is often synonymous with Cannes, and who can always count on a 30-minute Q&a after each screening. Further afield, however, that clarity of identity begins to fade.
For one thing, the showcase doesn’t have a recognizable pitchman. In the time since Thierry Frémaux took over the official selection in 2004, Directors’ Fortnight has seen four artistic directors come and go,...
- 5/15/2024
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
The social mistreatment of caregivers is interrogated in indie film “Mongrel,” which will debut at the Directors’ Fortnight at Cannes.
Written and directed by Chiang Wei Liang, “Mongrel” follows Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad), a professional caregiver who has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.
Kuo Shu-Wei and Atchara Suwan also star.
Chiang told IndieWire that the inspiration for “Mongrel” came from his own personal experiences working as a caregiver in Taiwan.
“The film came from a convergence of personal experiences and societal observations,” he said. “My own journey as a caregiver, alongside encounters with migrant caregivers, laid the groundwork.”
In a press statement, Chiang reflected on how “Mongrel” is unfortunately a universal story that enters on the “precarious, invisible lives of undocumented migrant workers,...
Written and directed by Chiang Wei Liang, “Mongrel” follows Oom (Wanlop Rungkumjad), a professional caregiver who has no papers or formal training but is good at caring for the elderly and disabled. When his situation as a caregiver in the mountains becomes too much for him, he has to choose between survival or dignity.
Kuo Shu-Wei and Atchara Suwan also star.
Chiang told IndieWire that the inspiration for “Mongrel” came from his own personal experiences working as a caregiver in Taiwan.
“The film came from a convergence of personal experiences and societal observations,” he said. “My own journey as a caregiver, alongside encounters with migrant caregivers, laid the groundwork.”
In a press statement, Chiang reflected on how “Mongrel” is unfortunately a universal story that enters on the “precarious, invisible lives of undocumented migrant workers,...
- 5/14/2024
- by Samantha Bergeson
- Indiewire
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