Love your city – that’s rule number one in Jürgen Wiebicke’s Erste Hilfe für Demokratie-Retter (First Aid for Democracy Saviours). With this popular Specials programme, the city of Dortmund itself becomes the big screen. We are taking our mobile cinema to the city centre and screening films on the walls of buildings and façades. As Wiebicke explains, we can influence things and start changes on a small scale, in our immediate surroundings. IFFF Dortmund+Köln is an international film festival – but it’s always been very attuned to its own environment and is closely connected to the local scenes of both cities. A »Best of« from all the festival sections means that we can present this popular programme, which always attracts a big audience – despite this year’s financial cuts.
We are showing the silent film era’s female slapstick heroines from the Programme for Kids and Young Adults, impressive animation films, punky music videos from the Film All-Nighter section, films from local filmmakers, plus award-winning shorts from the Focus and desired! queer sections. One major highlight is a screening of one of the very first short films from the 1960s made by a woman: Claudia von Alemann’s Einfach.

The films being shown, in alphabetical order:

All The Money
Cauleen Smith
USA 2024, Musikvideo, 4’

Children of the Bird
Júlia Tudisco
HU 2024, Animationsfilm, 11’

Einfach
Claudia von Alemann
BRD 1966, Experimentalfilm, 5’

Gib mir den Stoff
Transnationales Ensemble Labsa
DE 2024, Musikvideo, 6’

Hey Sweet Pea
Alee Peoples
USA 2023, Hybrider Dokumentarfilm, 11’

ich muss mit ihnen sprechen
Kerstin Honeit
DE 2015/2018, Experimentalfilm, 2’

K-BOB STAR
Hansol Kim
KR / DE 2024, Musikvideo, 3’

Léontine en vacanes
Romeo Bosetti
FR 1910, Stummfilm, 8’

Le bateau de Léontine
Romeo Bosetti
FR 1911, Stummfilm, 5′

mutterstadt
schubert-stegemann, Mirella Drosten
DE 2024, Experimentalfilm, 8’

Nunca fuimos un Desierto
Agustina Comedi, Chiachio & Giannone
AR 2024, Experimentalfilm, 12’

STARS
Mojisola Adebayo and the STARS Collective – Candice Purwin, Debo Adebayo, Tyler Friedman
GB / DE 2025, Animationsfilm, 7’