Dina Elnaggar is the World Bank communications lead for the Finance, Competitiveness Innovation (FCI) Global Practice. Dina has more than 20 years’ experience in advocacy, strategic communications, risk management, media CSO relations. She joined the World Bank Group in 2007 as Senior Communications Officer in the MNA and then moved to the Integrity Vice Presidency (INT) as its communications lead. Prior to joining the World Bank, Dina was a UNDP project manager responsible for the design and implementation of projects related to the environment and child rights.

Coming at a moment of profound political and social crisis, WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? reflects on a word we often take for granted. This philosophical journey spans millennia and continents: from ancient Athens’ groundbreaking experiment in self-government, to modern-day Greece grappling with financial collapse, and a mounting refugee crisis to the United States reckoning with its racist past and the growing gap between rich and poor. This urgent film connects the past and the present, the emotional and the intellectual, the personal and the political, in order to provoke and inspire.

After the popularity of his online diary, “My Father,” filmmaker Lu Qingyi decided to turn a camera on his parents’ everyday life in a remote town in Guizhou. Over four springs, we see the flow of life: chores, singing, hikes, celebrations, funerals, reunions, and separation. After a family tragedy forces Qingyi from the role of participant to observer, he becomes more deeply moved by the open-minded, pristine life philosophy his parents reveal through their everyday interactions with people and nature.

3 FACES is Iranian director Jafar Panahi’s fourth completed feature since he was officially banned from filmmaking. The film follows well-known actress Behnaz Jafari--playing herself--as she becomes distraught after watching a provincial girl’s video plea for help. Through tears, the girl laments she is oppressed by her family, who will not let her pursue her studies at the drama conservatory in Tehran. Behnaz, fearing for the young girls life, abandons her shoot and turns to filmmaker Jafar Panahi--playing himself--to help solve the mystery of the young girl’s troubles.

Our Short Film Competition buzzes and hums under the umbrella of the Carnegie Mellon International Film Festival. But we bring a lot of excitement to the Festival season on our own! Our annual competition event unites local and international filmmakers with professionals and with in-house audiences. All the eyes a filmmaker could ask for under one roof. We will shine the spotlight on those who present a unique vision and create poignant conversation through their films. Each year, the festival chooses a theme that focuses on a current social issue or idea. This year’s theme is WO/MEN.

Director Lila Avilés's compelling debut follows Eve, who works long hours as a maid at a luxurious hotel in Mexico City. A young, single mother who travels far to get to her place of work, Eve has aspirations for the future and hopes that her diligence will get her a coveted spot as the cleaner on an executive floor. She enrolls in the hotel's adult education program in her quest for a better life, but quickly discovers that it's not necessarily the most hard-working who get noticed for advancement.

Elpida has reached a critical juncture in her life: menopause. Unquenchable desires, the longing for love, her own body, even time itself all seem to conspire against the routine existence she had been enduring as wife and mother. As her tenuous hold on reality begins to crumble, Elpida finds herself uncertain as to what is real and what is her imagination, leading her to the brink of catastrophe. In its bleak tone, Pause provides a depressingly accurate account of the domestic abuse thousands of Cypriot women face each year.

MY FRIEND THE POLISH GIRL borrows from cinema verite and video bloggers to create a rare naturalism in style and performance. Katie, a young, rich American, decides to make a documentary film about Alicja, an impulsive Polish actress living in London. During the making of the film, the interference of Katie in the life of her character proves to have serious consequences, both in their relationship and the film’s narrative. Set in a post-Brexit-vote London, Katie’s colonizing, disruptive presence in Alicja’s life mirrors the treatment of migrants in the UK: Welcomed, used, then discarded.

The first Kenyan film to screen at Cannes & banned in its home country, RAFIKI bursts onto the screen with fresh energy. “Good Kenyan girls become good Kenyan wives,” but Kena and Ziki long for something more. A tender tale of forbidden first love told in an electric, colorful Afropop style, RAFIKI tells the story of the touching, but illegal romance between Kena, a skateboarding tomboy, and Ziki, the charismatic daughter of a conservative local politician. When rumors begin to swirl about the nature of their relationship, the young lovers find themselves in great jeopardy.

Wu is in her mid-twenties and lives with her mother in a traditional one-story house in one of Beijing’s hutongs. Both consider themselves to be writers, but success has so far eluded them. Their unhealthily close relationship is characterised by reproaches and quibbling; only during meals do they appear to lay down their verbal weapons. The situation escalates when both Wu and her mother hit an emotional low.