In 2018, Brazilian artist and filmmaker Janaina Nagata stumbles upon a 16mm footage acquired online. The unassuming footage captures scenes from a white family's trip to South Africa during the 1960s. The seemingly innocent images lead to an insatiable investigation. Through a meticulous desktop sequence, Nagata examines the footage, dissecting the clues and signs embedded within this private and anonymous archive. Juxtaposing the analog material with digital resources, the film uncovers hidden narratives of Apartheid and South Africa's troubled past.

-- Dir. Janaína Nagata - 91min - 2022 - Brazil --

"Janaína Nagata’s documentary debut resembles a detective investigation. In 2018, the Brazilian film-maker chanced upon an old 16mm reel of what looked like a typical homemade travelogue....Her excursion into the past plays out almost in real time. Using a split-screen composition, she places scenes from the old reel side by side with her web browser. Like a gleaner, she looks for visual clues – a park sign, a portrait on a wall – which she then feeds into a search engine." - Guardian

"The apparently innocent images conceal the appalling apartheid system; meanwhile its architect, Hendrik Verwoerd, can be seen enjoying dinner with fellow members of the white elite. The jarring, dissonant soundtrack intensifies the queasy atmosphere and the sense that there is something fundamentally wrong with the scenes from this vacation." - IDFA

"After purchasing a seemingly innocuous home movie from South Africa online, the filmmaker begins peeling back its layers to uncover a strange and violent history of Apartheid in this riveting desktop thriller. Seeing Nagata’s mind at work as she isolates and expands details frame-by-frame is a masterclass in active viewing." - Prismatic Ground

"an engrossing work that recalls both the found footage tradition of the avant-garde and the desktop documentary...Nagata’s film also becomes about the legacy of apartheid, in which she mines the footage like an archaeological dig." - Senses of Cinema

"In the street signs, in the faces, in the landscape details of the daily records of a white family in South Africa the questioning eye reveals in a particular way and on a particular timeline the story of Apartheid." - Indie Lisboa

"shows us how thought-provoking the imaginary petrification of time through the power of camera footage can be in the context of cinematic art." - Modern Times Review