Laura Montanaro

In a strange place where daily broadcasts require everyone to “keep the silence”, the long-isolated residents of Edifice 129, trapped in their apartments and by distant memories, creep forwards, day by day.  / Edifice 129 is a particular collaborative project, created by filmmakers across three countries. In the midst of the COVID-19 lock-downs, Linda Gasser — director of the Arc Film Festival in Mainz, Germany — invited filmmakers to join her Creatives Across Borders initiative. The aim was to meet via Zoom, support each other, and talk film, but talking film soon turned into developing a film. Meeting regularly, sometimes weekly, four writer/directors and a digital 3D artist created short films designed to work both as standalone projects and, when inter-cut, as one cohesive story, despite being filmed in Germany, the UK and Malta, and with the filmmakers never having met in person until after the films were finished.

Amy is a young Chinese-American girl working at her local grocery store during the height of the pandemic. Amy must confront growing racism towards Asian-Americans, while at home, she must mitigate her mother’s expectations and personal bias towards African-Americans. After a brutal assault, Amy and her family must reevaluate their perceptions, and Amy must come to terms with who she really is and what she really wants.

Strangers June and Charlie wind up double-booked in the same upstate New York Airbnb during the start of COVID-19. Exasperating the situation, the lockdown forces them both to stay and confront the unexpected feelings that develop between them.

Sarah seems to have found her calling working in a Liverpool care home where she has a special talent for connecting with the residents. Then, in March 2020, the Coronavirus pandemic hits.

Juan, a seventy-year-old man with senile dementia, shares a room with Manuel, a young sparrow.

After going through an emotional breakdown, a woman tries to realign herself before deciding if she can take on another job.

A man eats breakfast during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faced with the global crisis due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the head of a family trusts in the curative and preventive properties of the Palo Amargo tea, but his believes end up reverberating within the family dynamic.