Focus

Focus

The Connection II – Films that heal

The films in the Focus section THE CONNECTION II expand on the important topic of the connection between plants, humans and other animals. While the emphasis in 2021 was on filmic approaches that allow us to adopt more-than-human perspectives, the upcoming festival will be all about healing. Films that heal by determining the essence of ›natureculture‹ relationships or offering other helpful symbiotic solutions where the natural world returns to the preserve of capitalist thought.

Tarot will be a source of inspiration and serve as an unusual curatorial tool. We will abandon familiar thought processes and play with the change of perspective that occurs by chance when cards are drawn. We will make use of unpredictability for new thought-provoking ideas and a joint discussion about film that relates specifically to us.

Standing for high-quality discourse, the Focus section will undertake a reassessment of the subject of healing in film history. Films as a remedy in uncertain times – Who draws the cards?

Curators:

Previous Focus topics have included:
THE CONNECTION: Between Plants, Humans and other Animals (2021)
After Reunification 1990 | 2020 (2020)
Image Traps (2019)
In Control (2017)
Comfort (2015)
Excess (2013)
NOW WHAT – Films about Getting out of Here (2011)
Freedom (2009)
Music (2007)
Money (2005)
Kiss-proof: who’s kissing who, when and why? (2001)
Uncanny Pleasure (1997)
The Subversive Power of Laughter (1993)
The Female Machine Saboteurs (1991)

US
1994
Documentary
25’
OFe

One of the most positive films from the Super 8 epic Five Year Diary, in which Anne Charlotte Robertson and […]

FI
1991
Experimental
11’
OFe

This experimental film combines the deconstruction of the image into repetition and rhythm that is typical of analogue structural film […]

US
1984
Short film
4’
OFe

In this short, magical film experiment, independent film pioneer Shirley Clarke interprets the musical universe of jazz giant Ornette Coleman […]

DE
2018
Short film
8’

Sometimes, it’s two steps backwards. Berlin Zoo’s multi-million-dollar investment refuses to cooperate. In a cross between short film and performance […]

Precautionary Measure

Lizzy Deacon und Ika Schwander

GB
2021
Short film
14’
OFe

Helen wins a life coaching session in a raffle. She is assigned life coach Hazel, who introduces Helen to the […]

Radiant Green Field

Sophie Hilbert

DE
2021
Short film
26’
OF

What do you actually find if you start digging a hole? Fifty years of uranium mining in the Ore Mountains […]

Rat Women

Minkie Spiro

UK
1997
Documentary
9’
OFe

»Do you mind rats? Because I have some …« Women who keep rats as pets – lots of rats – […]

Esteemed colleagues give seven filmic responses to the question: Which film healed you and why? The curators explain their own […]

In gardens, forests and parks, on meadows and in the open countryside, the film-makers connect with flowers, seeds, and the […]

How can we continue to live in contaminated mining regions? While valuable ecosystems are being destroyed in Lusatia and Brazil, […]

Still the Water

Naomi Kawase

ES / FR / JP
2014
Feature Film
118’
OmU

»I would like spectators to realize that we human beings are not the centre of all things. We are but […]

Ines Johnson-Spain in Conversation with Tsitsi Dangarembga The film Kare Kare Zvako – Mother’s Day is based on a Zimbabwean […]