BLOCK 1 / Eröffnungsabend I
Saturday, 12. October, 18pm
GERLACH /
Netherlands / 2023 / Documentary / 77 min
OT Dutch / UT English
Gerlach is one of the last small farmers in the Netherlands. Over the decades, his fields have become increasingly constricted, squeezed out by motorways, franchise companies and petrol stations. His small farm shop is one of the last places where producers and customers can still meet in person. In impressive images and motifs, the close relationship with the land that feeds us all becomes tangible. And the unspoken question is posed as to where we ourselves actually stand with regard to this relationship. A story of change and resistance, of brothers and friends, of loss and regrowth - in the cycle of the seasons and of life.
Director: Aliona van der Horst & Luuk Bouwman, Producer: Ilja Roomans,
Script: Aliona van der Horst & Luuk Bouwman, DoP: Luuk Bouwman
,
Editor: Luuk Bouwman
, Sound: Aliona van der Horst, Music: Annette Kruisbrink, Bram Meindersma, Harry de Wit, Emanuele Pellegrini
Dutch director Aliona van der Horst has directed eight international award-winning documentaries in the past 25 years. Her films are known for her gentle, compassionate view of her subjects and poetic style, with a sense of tragic-coming humor. She is a member of AMPAS documentary branch and EFA. Luuk Bouwman is a filmmaker and musician. He has made several feature-length documentaries, including 'It Is True But Not Here' (2017) about artist and cult musician Dick Verdult and 'All Against All' (2019) about the rise of fascism in the Netherlands, which premiered at IDFA and for which he was awarded the IDFA Stipend 2023. His documentaries are driven by extensive research and long-term engagement with his subjects, revealing processes and mechanisms. As a musician, Luuk was part of the technopunk band Aux Raus with which he played all over the world.
BLOCK 3
Saturday, 12. October, 22pm
I AM FINE BUT / / MIR GEHT ES GUT, ABER
Germany / 2024 / Documentary / 55 min
OT English / UT German
Angeli from Cameroon is in Berlin for a year of voluntary service. It is the first big trip of his life. He is expected, he is looked after, but the food, the accommodation, the work, the demands - it's not easy. Angeli accepts the challenges with patience and cheerfulness, but he also tries to remain visible and in dialogue. Then comes corona, Angeli has to sit at home and has online seminars. A documentary film about falling down and getting up, about good intentions and about white shoes. Eye level, what is that actually?
Director: Marc Sebastian Eils, Producer: Marc Sebastian Eils,
Script: Marc Sebastian Eils, DoP: Hannes Schulze,
Editor: Marc Sebastian Eils, Sound: Nils Plambeck, Music: Paul Bittmann
Marc Sebastian Eils, born in 1990, studied documentary film directing at the self-organised film school filmArche Berlin. In 2021, his short documentary DEUTSCHLAND IST EIN TRAMPOLIN was screened at the 18th Provinziale.
BLOCK 4
Monday, 14. October, 18pm
ATIRKÜL IN THE LAND OF REAL MEN / / ATIRKÜL IM LAND DER ECHTEN MÄNNER
France, Czech Republic, Kyrgysztan / 2023 / Documentary / 65 min
OT Kyrgyz / UT English
Buzkashi is a team sport that has been popular in Central Asia for centuries. The aim of the game is to steal the trophy of a dead goat on horseback from the opposing team. In this masculine world, Atirkül asserts herself as a woman with enterprise and wit. Her ambition is to find local young men to form her own buzkashi team and thus preserve the heritage of her home region. A film about old traditions, the traces of the Soviet era and a society in which everything seems to have changed except for the human heart.
Director: Janyl Jusupjan, Producer: Alice Tabery,
Script: Janyl Jusupjan, DoP: X,
Editor: X, Sound: X, Music: X
Born in Kyrgyzstan, Janyl studied literature in Almaty. She worked as a journalist at Radio Free Europe's Kyrgyz Department for 20 years and was the Artistic Director (2006–2009) of the One World Festival of Documentary Films on Human Rights, Kyrgyzstan. Her radio series "Invisible Women of Osh" on sexual violence during the ethnic conflict in Kyrgyzstan received the AIB Diploma (UK). She is a Founding Member of Central Asian Music and Dance, Prague (2005-2010). Curiosity, genuine interest in people, and direct ties to the culture in Central Asia allow Janyl to encounter amazing people and create strong connections. She studied film with Cinedoc Formation, Annecy and Les Ateliers Varan, Paris.
BLOCK 7
Tuesday, 15. October, 20pm
ANTIER NOCHE / NIGHTS GONE BY / VERGANGENE NÄCHTE
Switzerland, Spain / 2023 / Documentary / 106 min
OT Spanish / UT German
Juan Francisco is twelve years old and lives in a village in southern Spain. In the tranquillity of rural life, he forms relationships with the animals, for example when hunting with greyhounds. Pepa is a young mother who works as a seasonal labourer in a slaughterhouse. Encounters and dialogue, play and staging determine the action. The choral portrait of the young people shows a land of rabbits and donkeys, love stories, fire and roaring festivals in an old-modern world, surrounded by thousand-year-old oaks and solar panels.
Director: Alberto Martín Menacho, Producer: David Fonjallaz, Louis Mataré, Pedro Collantes de Terán,
Script: Alberto Martín Menacho, DoP: Sara Gallego, Sergio Garot,
Editor: Alberto Martín Menacho, Sound: Luis Cotallo, Music: Carreño
Alberto Martín Menacho was born in 1986 in Madrid, Spain. He is a filmmaker, graduated in Visual Arts at the Haute école d’art et de design - HEAD in Geneva. In 2015, he directed his first short film «Pata negra». In 2018, «Mi amado, las montañas» was presented at Rotterdam IFF and received the Best short film Award at Las Palmas IFF. Alberto has been artist in residence at Tabakalera and Casa de Velázquez, Academy of France in Madrid. His work has been shown in art galleries, museums and film festivals, including the Photo Elysée Museum in Lausanne, Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris, FIDMarseille, Entrevues Belfort or Visions du Réel. «Antier noche» is his first feature film.
BLOCK 8
Wednesday, 16. October, 18pm
SUZANNE JOUR APRÈS JOUR / SUZANNE FROM DAY TO DAY / SUZANNE VON TAG ZU TAG
France, France / 2023 / Documentary / 88 min
OT French / UT English
Suzanne is 91 years old and has been living alone in the house where she was born since she retired. It is a remote farmhouse on the edge of the forest that her grandparents once built in the Vosges mountains. With no running water or electricity, she follows the seasons as she works in the vegetable garden, processes the harvest, reads the newspaper, receives neighbours and visitors, talks to her family on the phone and drives to the nearby village to do the shopping. Always with a smile on her face, she enjoys life's little pleasures and faces her life day after day with calm and composure.
Director: Stéphane MANCHEMATIN and Serge STEYER, Producer: Les Films de la pluie, Ana Films,
Script: Stéphane MANCHEMATIN and Serge STEYER, DoP: Stéphane MANCHEMATIN and Serge STEYER,
Editor: Stéphane MANCHEMATIN and Serge STEYER, Sound: Stéphane MANCHEMATIN and Marc Namblard, Music: Muckrackers
The two directors have been working together for almost 25 years. They have co-directed three films together: Le complexe de la Salamandre, a portrait of Lorraine artist Patrick Neu, released in cinemas in 2014, In the Stillness of Sounds, with sound recordist Marc Namblard, presented at Cinéma du Réel in 2018, then selected in some thirty French and international festivals - this film received the Prix de l'œuvre audiovisuelle 2020 awarded by SCAM - and Suzanne from Day to Day, their third co-direction, selected in international competition at DOK Leipzig as well as at the Traces de Vies festival in 2023.
BLOCK 10
Thursday, 17. October, 18pm
RÍO ROJO / RED RIVER / ROTER FLUSS
France, Colombia / 2023 / Documentary / 70 min
OT Spanish / UT -
The Río Rojo - the red river, the "river of seven colours" - flows through the deep wilderness of central Colombia. A special mixture of rocks, aquatic plants and sunlight make the river blossom every year into a unique natural wonder. For the locals there, it is a mythical place. For a long time, the area was closed to the public because the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) were camped there - too dangerous for travellers. Young Oscar, Doña María and Sabino tell us about life in this wilderness, before and after the peace agreement with the FARC in 2016, which also brought new visitors who wanted to see the "most beautiful river in the world", which had been hidden for so long and is now no longer protected from the outside world.
Director: Guillermo Quintero, Producer: Pierre-Emmanuel Urcun, Guillermo Quintero,
Script: Guillermo Quintero, DoP: Guillermo Quintero,
Editor: Julie Borvon, Sound: Isabel Torres, Marc-Olivier Brullé, Music: Violeta Cruz
Guillermo Quintero was born in Bogotá, where he studied biology at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. After working for the Señal Colombia television channel, he studied philosophy at Paris 4 and is currently working on his third documentary.
BLOCK 11
Thursday, 17. October, 20pm
VISTA MARE / / MEERBLICK
Austria, Italy / 2023 / Documentary / 80 min
OT Italian / UT German
Summer holiday on the beach with a sea view: This is what many people wish for on holiday on the Italian Adriatic. The film was shot over the course of a season in the strongholds of Italian summer tourism between Lignano and Riccione. The result is a witty collage about "mass tourism on the beach". The camera shows the recreational activities, but also looks behind the tourist facades and reveals the many challenges faced by seasonal workers.
Director: Julia Gutweniger Florian Kofler, Producer: Bernhard Holzhammer,
Script: Julia Gutweniger Florian Kofler, DoP: Julia Gutweniger Florian Kofler,
Editor: Julia Gutweniger Florian Kofler, Sound: Floria Kofler, Music: na
Julia Gutweniger, born 1988 in Merano, Italy. Studied Fine Arts at the University of Art and Design Linz. Florian Kofler, born 1986 in Merano, Italy. Studied Timebased Media at the University of Art and Design Linz. Since 2011 they are making films and documentaries together in the artists collective Villa Mondeo. They live and work in Linz, Austria
BLOCK 14
Friday, 18. October, 20pm
CH'UL BE, SENDA SAGRADA / CH'UL BE, SACRED PATH / CH'UL BE, HEILIGER WEG
Mexico / 2023 / Documentary / 70 min
OT Maya / UT English
The small town of San Andres Larrainzar is located in the state of Chiapas in southern Mexico. Most of the people living there are members of the Tzotzil cultural and linguistic ethnic group, who are part of the Mayan culture. Everyone here is responsible for the well-being of the community: those who are chosen follow the call and embark on a path of service to the gods in order to maintain the cycle of life in the community and preserve knowledge for the future - traditions, festivals and music. The film by the filmmaker, who comes from this culture, impressively shows the efforts and challenges, but also the fruits of this path.
Director: Humberto Gómez Pérez, Producer: Daniela Contreras, Nicolas Défossé,
Script: Humberto Gómez Pérez, DoP: Xun Sero,
Editor: Xun Sero, Nicolas Défossé, Sound: Martin de Torcy, Ricardo Lavalle, Jaime Álvarez, Mireya Sánchez Gómez, Humberto Gómez Pérez, Music: Román Montejo Hernández, Agustín Montejo Hernández, Agustín Díaz Díaz, Carlos Román Montejo Hernández
Humberto Gómez Pérez was born in San Andrés Larráinzar, Chiapas. He speaks Tsotsil and studied intercultural communication at the Intercultural University of Chiapas. He supplemented his training through different workshops and courses in writing, technical narrative, literary and audiovisual creation and film. Within the framework of the School of Documentary Film of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, he made the short film ''J'vobtik, our music'' and finished developing ''Ch'ul be, sacred path'', his first documentary feature film. Humberto has developed professionally in communication and the arts and culture, focusing on the development of works and proposals in Tsotsil. He has given talks in different spaces, translated scripts, provided Spanish-Tsotsil simultaneous interpreting, and organized different cultural initiatives. In 2014, Humberto founded Satil Film, an organization dedicated to the promotion and production of documentary and audiovisual film. He is a member of the civil association, Mayan and Zoque Writers Unit, and co-author of the books “Stso’op Joj, Crows' Nest”, “Sk’op bolom-sk’op choj / Words of the Jaguar”, published by UNEMAZ, and “Cuentos indígenas mexicanos desde Chiapas [Mexican indigenous stories from Chiapas]”, published by Ediciones Catay.