Focus: Rage & Horror

Focus: Rage & Horror

»The very expression of anger in a context of everyday life is liberating for women.« – Martha Rosler

A perpetual state of crisis is a genuinely fear-inducing prospect. Why don’t we rage against it? Rage & Horror, the theme of this year’s Focus, is an invitation to think about a more constructive approach to rage. It shows films made between 1899 and the present day that are a platform for angry female visions, whether they are monstrous or heroic or a chaotic combination of both. Brutal, supernaturally powerful, activistic, comic, uninhibited, supportive. We shine a light on women who express their anger without restraint.

Expressing anger is a bold and threatening act of defiance and rebellion. Anger is loaded with information and energy, said Audre Lorde in her 1981 speech entitled »The Uses of Anger«. Her fear of anger taught her nothing, she claimed. On the contrary, anger was her response to racism. By recognising their anger, women can detect discrimination and develop strategies to defend themselves against it. And so we search for enraged women in film history from 1899 until the present day – ignoring the constraints of genre boundaries.

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)

9 to 5

Colin Higgins

US
1980
Spielfilm
110’
OmU

»Workin’ 9 to 5, what a way to make a livin’ | Barely getting’ by, it’s all takin’ and no […]

Screening of A Place of Rage + Black Panthers Introduction: Bernice Lysania Ekoula Akouala Bernice Lysania Ekoula Akouala (she/her), born […]

Dry Ground Burning

Joana Pimenta, Adirley Queirós

BR / PT
2022
Spielfilm
153’
OmeU

Fresh out of prison, Léa returns to the Sol Nascente favela and joins a formidable gang of women led by […]

Hellbender

Toby Poser, John Adams, Zelda Adams

US
2021
Spielfilm
83’
OFe

Izzy lives with her mother in an isolated location in the mountains. The 16-year-old spends most of her time roaming […]

Hello Dankness

Soda Jerk

AU
2022
Experimental
70’
OFe

In a stunning collage of hundreds of borrowed film clips, Soda Jerk dissect American society and politics between 2016 and […]

A discussion with Nancy Mac Granaky-Quaye, Sara Neidorf, Jennifer Reeder, Toby Poser and Festival guests Expressing anger is a bold […]

Perpetrator

Jennifer Reeder

US / FR
2023
Spielfilm
100’
OmU

Jonquil Baptiste (known as Jonny) makes a living from burglaries and petty crimes. Her single father suffers from a strange […]

Prevenge

Alice Lowe

UK
2016
Spielfilm
88’
OFe

»Pregnancy is traditionally a world in pastel. Softness, lightness, inherent kindness. And yet here I was experiencing an unexpected vividness […]

These rarities from the early years of cinema are revenge films of a truly special kind. They utilise the sensational […]

Tiger Stripes

Amanda Nell Eu

TW / SG / FR / DE / NL / ID / QA
2023
Spielfilm
95’
OmU

Twelve-year-old Zaffan leads a carefree existence, despite the constraints imposed on her by her strict teachers and parents. She likes […]

Trying to Forget You

Aérea Negrot, Simon*e Jaikiriuma Paetau

DE
2019
Music video
8’
OF

A spontaneous performance brimming with confrontational energy and beauty in the streets of Berlin. In the middle of the night, […]

Wolf’s Hole

Věra Chytilová

CZ
1986
Spielfilm
92’
OmeU

A group of eleven young people have been picked to take part in a special ski course, but their excitement […]