International Dawn Chorus Day
On International Dawn Chorus Day (May 3, 2020), birds from six continents join an online video call. They gossip about storms and cats and wires and dates. They share speculations about Egyptian filmmaker Shady Habash, known for his satirical anti-dictator music videos, who died the day before in Cairo’s notorious Tora prison. They talk about Egyptian queer activist Sarah Hegazi, famously incarcerated for flying a rainbow flag at a Cairo concert, now living as a political refugee in Toronto. They don’t realise that a month later, Sarah will take her own life, unable to bear the pain of her prison trauma. “The experience was harsh and I am too weak to resist it, forgive me,” she wrote.
details
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Runtime
15 min -
Country
Canada -
Year of Presentation
2021 -
Year of Production
2021 -
Director
John Greyson -
Cast
Shady Habash, Sarah Hegazi -
Production Company
Greyzone Ltd. -
Berlinale Section
Shorts -
Berlinale Category
Experimental Film
pictures from the movie
Biography John Greyson
The Canadian film and video artist was born in Nelson, British Columbia in 1960. He studied film at the Canadian Film Center and has made over 60 award-winning feature films, installations, transmedia works and shorts. In 1989, he won a Teddy Award for Urinal; in 1991, he received another for The Making of Monsters. His work combines documentary and fictional elements and explores issues including queer activism, homophobic violence, AIDS activism, anti-apartheid and anti-war struggles, conflicts in the Middle East, police entrapment and prison abolition. He has taught film production at York University in Toronto since 2014.
Filmography John Greyson
1993 Zero Patience | 2007 Orange Clouds | 2010 Rex Vs. Singh | 2017 Memurial | 2018 Gazonto | 2018 Towel | 2020 Prurient | 2020 Auterson Clock