GENERAL EVENTS 2019

The 16thPROVINZIALE − Filmfest Eberswalde will be opened in the Paul Wunderlich Haus. As an opener to the festival and the competitions, we show Jaśmina Wójcik‘s one-hour documentary SYMFONIA FABRYKI URSUS / SYMPHONY OF THE URSUS FACTORY.

SYMFONIA FABRYKI URSUS

Using sound and memories of bodily movement, former employees of the Ursus factory re-enact a working day amidst nonexistent machinery on the original site, re-staging the ties they once had in the production process. A proud artistic contribution to the ongoing debate on how to manage industrial restructuring.

Polen 2019 61min OT Polnisch UT Englisch

This year‘s festival start will be accompanied by Kala Tuli.

Chansons in Nouveau Heleä Polka style by the band from Maxim Gorki Theatre, Berlin. Founded just in spring 2019, Kala Tuli merges Finnish polka, French chanson, Russian rock and boogaloo from the 60s into a multilingual cross-over project.

The remaining three competitions –Short Documentary, Short Feature Film and Animated Film – present their opening films in a joint programme slot.

Short Feature Film

GORATA NA DIMO / DIMO‘S FOREST
Bulgaria / France 2018 24 min
OT Bulgarian UT English
German playback via headphones

Short Documentary Film

ANYWHERE / IRGENDWO
SWITZERLAND 2018 31 min
OT English/ Swiss German UT German

Animated Film

DER TOD DES FILMEMACHERS / THE DEATH OF THE FILMMAKER
Germany 2018 20 min
OT German UT English

2-channel-videoinstallation,
22 min,
HD, 2017/2018
with: Didi Cheekacamera:
Constanze Fischbeck, Siskasound,
edit: Constanze Fischbeck
soundmix: Jochen Jezussek

The video installation combines photographs of landscapes of the lignite mine Jänschwalde near Cottbus and the energy factory Knappenrode, with landscapes of the Enuguhard coal mining area in eastern Nigeria, which has been closed since more than 15 years. Today, Enugu ruins of the mining industry are overgrown by the fast-growing tropical vegetation and can only be found with expert help. But there are still long-termconsequences such as landslides and ditches that continue to change villages and landscapes.

With the Nigerian filmmaker and critic Didi Cheeka, who spent his childhood in Enugu, we visit New Horno, which was rebuilt 10 kilometers further south as a village copy due to protests against its devastation. Here he plays and analyzes a song of the Nigerian acid rock band Ofo -The Black Company of 1972, which reminds him of the land of Biafra, which, like the original village of Horno, no longer exists materially.

This music is based on memory, independent of spatial and landscape transformations, which can be faster than human memory can handle.

„What can abandoned spaces say about absence, about amnesia? What feelings of longing, of nostalgia are evoked when we recall music from a forgotten period?Iuse the term Funkadelia to retroactively refer to the music that arose from the ruins of the Biafran-Nigerian War (1967-70), a psychedelic blend of rock and soul that presented the society that arose from thedefeat of Biafra in a defiant dance on unexploded bombs -a crazy mix of hedonist lust and unspoken resistance to the threat of destruction. Didi Cheeka, excerpt from „Heimweh -The Call of Old Lost Things“

The province matters
The Eberswalde film festival has given itself the epithet PROVINZIALE, which says a lot about our programmatic line. We strive to explore the bright and dark sides of what we call province and to discuss the future of rural and remote areas. Above all, we wish to make decisions not subject to the rules of attention dictated by showbusiness but serving civil society here and now.

PROVINZIALE invites you
We have seen in recent years that film is a perfect medium to achieve the kind of communication we are looking for. But we want to integrate and invite artists from other genres as well to take part in a debate about meaning and content – referring mostly to visual artists based in the region, although local ties are not an absolute must.

Artists show us their province – the idea
Every year the PROVINZIALE invites an artist to decorate the entrance area of the Paul Wunderlich Haus for the duration of the festival. Each work is self-contained and unique in its approach but may also comment on those of the past. Over the years, we thus want to establish a dialogue between artists. The usable area is fixed, but the artists are free in applying any means and techniques they may choose.

This year, we invited the artist Henrik Schade to design the gateway to the province 2019 for us. We are glad he accepted

HENRIK SCHADE

Henrik Schade was born in Hennigsdorf in 1973. He is a qualified industrial mechanic and works as a paramedic to this day. Since 2017, he has been running his own business offering event services. Henrik has contributed to a lot of projects with his illuminations and has collaborated with the PROVINZIALE before. He regularly creates illuminations for the Inselleuchten Festival in Marienwerder, amongst other events. He loves to amaze people with his creative and artistic potential.

The winning filmmakers will receive awards worth 11,000 EUR in total.

• The “e” award for the best documentary film in the PROVINZIALE competition: 4,000 EUR, donated by the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy of the State of Brandenburg
• The “e” award for the best short feature film: 2,000 EUR
• The “e” award for the audience’s favourite documentary film: 1,000 EUR, donated by the mayor of Eberswalde
• The “e” award for the audience’s favourite short documentary: 1,000 EUR
• The “e” award for the audience’s favourite short feature film: 1,000 EUR, donated by Sparkasse Barnim
• The “e” award for the audience’s favourite animated film: 1,000 EUR
• Special award “THE PRICKLE” for the best cinematic contribution to the sustainability debate: 1,000 EUR, donated by Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development

The award ceremony is followed by a reception in the hall. Afterwards, the guests can choose between a screeningof the award-winning films or head over to the Festival Club to see the closing concert with „Ben Barritt & Band.”

Ben Barritt & Band (pop, rock & funk)

The PROVINZIALE winds up with a funky party. Singer, guitarist and songwriter Ben Barritt, born in London in 1984 and firmly rooted in the local scene for many years, has worked with Bobby McFerrin and Kenny Wheeler, excelled on stage at the venerable Royal Albert Hall and toured Europe and Asia.