IFFF revisited

IFFF revisited

And the Image Gazes Back
A programme with short films by belit sağ, curated by Cana Bilir-Meier

Film artist Cana Bilir-Meier has dedicated this programme to the artist belit sağ. The films by sağ undertake a form of media archaeology relating to the power of images. She asks a lot of questions in her short films: Can an image capture a soul? Can I monitor someone by recording his/her image? Is censorship something that impairs my use of speaking? Through these questions, sağ thinks about the ((ideas / pictures / metaphors ??))she produces through the impact of images, namely ones of conflict or violence. Images can be images of violence, but they can also become an extension of the same violence.

In this archive programme we dip into the Festival’s now 30-year-old-plus back catalogue and present ground-breaking films by women directors that are still highly topical today. By our curators combing through the archive, different themes and aspects possibly overlooked in the past can be spotlighted, thus connecting links in the history of emancipation and film where none were previously present (or visible). The long-term aim of this programme is to strengthen queer-feminist historical representation and memory culture.

The signature of the curators of this programme comes through in the films they select. In 2020, Berlin scholar Kat Gorska curated a selection of experimental films from the 70s and 80s. The 2021 programme features a group of students from Ruhr University in Bochum presenting the subject of Club culture. In 2022 Borjana Gaković used this invitation to present a program with films by Ula Stöckl.