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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 

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