Evolution International Film Festival (EIFF) joined cultures from Egypt, Spain, Germany and the US. The Evolution International Film Festival opened on March 17, 2012 in Hollywood. Among the program are films from Egypt ( “Feature presentation ASMAA”), Mexico (“Gustavo”), Lebanon (“Beirut… Hide & Seek” ) Switzerland (“Good Buy Mandima”), and the 2012 Oscar nominated German short film RAJU.

Stefan Gieren , the producer of RAJU described the film. Inspired by a newspaper article about child trafficking after the earthquake in Haiti, the team spent half a year of research and 2.5 months of prep in Calcutta before their 10 day shoot. They shot a documentary about child trafficking in Calcuuta, with the input of some local NGOS. Funded by their film school and  FFHSH – a North German Filmfund, The film has played numerous international festivals and collected twenty eight awards to date.

The winning films screened in Hollywood will then travel to four more cities; Palma de Mallorca (Spain), Cairo (Egypt) and Dubai (UAE), where the festival will take place throughout 2012.

‘Make Peace Through Art`- EIFFs mission is, to bring cultures together, to share visions, believes, fears and help each other understand our conflicts.

The diverse Hollywood festival slate represents filmmakers from all over the world such as Germany, Lebanon, Switzerland, US, Mexico, and Canada.

The creators of EIFF are filmmakers Sandra Seeling, Mahmoud Awad and Seif Abdalla. Seif and Mahmoud were born in Egypt and Sandra is originally from Germany. Together they seek to give independent filmmakers a platform to showcase their work that can potentially influence tolerance, peace and awareness towards each other.

Block 1 11am – 12:33pm 93 min
Photographs                  Animation Short            6 min USA
Gustavo Student            Short                           12 min Mexico
Shunka                         Doc. Feature                75 min USA

Block 2 1pm – 2:32pm 73 min
Bottle Animation           Short                          5:24 min USA
Switchboard                  Short                          17 min USA
Regret                         Student Short              14 min USA
Crabnet Antarctica         Doc. Short                   13 min USA
NOOR                          Short                          13 min Lebanon
Good Buy Mandima       Short                          10 min Switzerland

Block 3 3pm  4:33pm 93 min
Wake                          Music Video                  4 min USA
Seedlings for Change   Doc. Short                    6 min USA
Some things are worse than being Gay   Short   7 min USA
My Mother                   Short                           14 min USA
Project Happiness        Doc.Feature                  62 min USA

Block 4 5pm – 6:40pm 100 mi
Raju                           Short                             25 min  Germany
Grief, A Comedy          Short                             15 min   USA
Fragments                  Short                             20 min  USA
Beirut..Hide &Seek      Short                             35 min  USA
Bridge of Egypt           Short                             9:59 min  USA

 “Good Bye Mandima” (Kwa heri Mandima, 2010), Documentary short by Robert-Jan Lacombe, Switzerland, 10min Synopsis: “Through home-movies discovered at my grandparents’ home in Bordeaux, I recount my childhood in Mandima, a little village in northeast Zaire, where I was born. Starting with a panoramic still of the great departure, I observe and recall those first ten years of that young boy who would, one fine day, have to leave for the city, for high school. He leaves behind his friends and a whole way of life. That life, his thinking and his codes, are to be learned anew.“

Block 5 7pm -8:36pm 115 min
Casualties                   Short                            19min  USA
Asmaa                        Feature                         96min  Egypt

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Robin Menken Robin Menken lives in Los Angeles. She was the Artistic Director of the Second City Workshops, taught at UC Berkeley, USC, Barcelona\'s Ateneu and the Esalin Institute. She was Roberto Rossellini\'s assistant, and worked with Yevgeny Vevteshenku, Glauber Rocha and Eugene Ionesco. She sold numerous screenplays and wrote the OBIE winning The FTA SHow (touring with Jane Fonda, Donald Sutherland and Ben Vereen.) She was a programming consultant and Special Events co-ordinator for numerous film festivals, including the SF, Rio, Havana and N.Y Film Festivals. Her first news outlet was the historic East Village Other.

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