Films A to Z
International Dawn Chorus Day
- Runtime:
- 15 min.
- Year of Production:
- 2021
- Country:
- Canada
- Director:
- Cast:
- Shady Habash
Sarah Hegazi - Production Company:
- Greyzone Ltd.
- Berlinale Section:
- Shorts
- Berlinale Category:
- Experimental Film
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.
BIOGRAFIE 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.
FILMOGRAFIE John Greyson (selection)
2021 International Dawn Chorus Day
2020 Auterson Clock
2020 Prurient
2018 Towel
2018 Gazonto
2017 Memurial
2011/2012 Teddy Kurzfilmrolle 2012
2011 Green Laser
2010 Rex Vs. Singh
2010 Covered
2008 Fig Trees
2007 Orange Clouds
1997 Uncut
1993 Zero Patience
1990 The Making of Monsters
1988 Urinal