(M)Other
Antonia Hungerland
How does the image of motherhood change when egg donation, surrogate motherhood or adoption add various alternatives to the male-female-intercourse-biology model?
D
Film Archive
(M)Other
Documentary Film
Germany
2018
88 minutes
Subtitles:
English
German
Credits
Producer
Christopher Zitterbart, Saskia Veigel, Filmuniversität Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF
Director
Antonia Hungerland
Music
Markus Zierhofer
Cinematographer
Antonia Hungerland
Editor
Antonella Sarubbi
Script
Antonia Hungerland
Sound
Tim Altrichter, Benedikt Ludwig, Christoph Walter, Luise Hofmann
It’s quite realistic today for a child to have three mothers: an egg donor gives her genes to a baby who is born by a surrogate mother and raised by another woman or a person who may be male and gay. The classic concept of “natural” motherhood reaches its limits here (and elsewhere).
The definition of motherhood is being contested. The general controversy about changing social norms is reflected in the debate about (good) mothers. This discussion, as “(M)Other” very clearly demonstrates, concerns everybody. Both those who have to contend with stereotypes and prejudice as “classic” mothers and those who claim the term even though they do not correspond to the established “model” that stubbornly resists all obvious changes. Antonia Hungerland shows that the seemingly personal is still (or: today more than ever) highly political.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
Nominated for the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize
The definition of motherhood is being contested. The general controversy about changing social norms is reflected in the debate about (good) mothers. This discussion, as “(M)Other” very clearly demonstrates, concerns everybody. Both those who have to contend with stereotypes and prejudice as “classic” mothers and those who claim the term even though they do not correspond to the established “model” that stubbornly resists all obvious changes. Antonia Hungerland shows that the seemingly personal is still (or: today more than ever) highly political.
Luc-Carolin Ziemann
Nominated for the Goethe-Institut Documentary Film Prize
#Female Pleasure
Barbara Miller
Misogyny is structurally inscribed in the cultural cores of all social systems in the world. “#Female Pleasure” exposes these cores, lucidly and from a global perspective.
#Female Pleasure
Documentary Film
Germany,
Switzerland
2018
97 minutes
Subtitles:
German
Credits
Producer
Philip Delaquis, Arek Gielnik
Director
Barbara Miller
Music
Peter Scherer
Cinematographer
Anne Misselwitz, Gabriela Betschart, Akiba Jiro
Editor
Isabel Meier
Script
Barbara Miller
Sound
Tom Weber
Women are subordinate to men. They are born sinful and have no legal claim to their own body. Misogyny is more than a phenomenon observed across continental divides all over the world and in some cases the cause of abuse and crime. It is structurally inscribed – literally – into the core of all social systems founded on religious beliefs. In the bible, for example, we read: “I find woman more bitter than Death […] The man who is pleasing to God eludes her.”
In this lucid film, which takes a global perspective, five female protagonists talk about misogynistic behaviour they experienced, hostilities they were exposed to, crimes committed against them. Rokudenashiko, a Japanese artist, is on trial for the obscenity of her art. Deborah Feldman escaped with her son from a Hassidic community in Brooklyn, leaving her husband to whom she was forcibly married. Leyla Hussein, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav talk about rape and mutilation, lack of legal protection, homophobia, shame and the strange feeling that one’s sexuality and body are associated with sin from birth.
Lukas Stern
Awarded with the Special Prize of the Interreligious Jury
In this lucid film, which takes a global perspective, five female protagonists talk about misogynistic behaviour they experienced, hostilities they were exposed to, crimes committed against them. Rokudenashiko, a Japanese artist, is on trial for the obscenity of her art. Deborah Feldman escaped with her son from a Hassidic community in Brooklyn, leaving her husband to whom she was forcibly married. Leyla Hussein, Doris Wagner and Vithika Yadav talk about rape and mutilation, lack of legal protection, homophobia, shame and the strange feeling that one’s sexuality and body are associated with sin from birth.
Lukas Stern
Awarded with the Special Prize of the Interreligious Jury
#resistayol
Rüzgâr Buşki
In the summer of 2013, Rüzgâr Buşki was on his way to Istanbul to make a documentary about his close friend Şevval, a trans-LGBTI activist.
#resistayol
Documentary Film
Germany,
Turkey
2016
56 minutes
Subtitles:
English
Credits
Producer
Rüzgâr Buşki
Director
Rüzgâr Buşki
Music
Gizem Oruç
Cinematographer
Zara Zandieh
Editor
Rüzgâr Buşki
Animation
Fehmican Gözüm
Script
Senem Donatan, Rüzgâr Buşki
Sound
Ulaş P. Dutlu, Gizem Oruç
In the summer of 2013, Rüzgâr Buşki was on his way to Istanbul to make a documentary about his close friend Şevval, a trans-LGBTI activist. What he didn’t realise was that his visit coincided with the Gezi Park protests, one of the biggest demonstrations in Turkish history. Inevitably, the focus of the documentary shifted in light of these events and we, just like Şevval, participate in this turning point. High spirited and whimsical, “#resistayol” shows us a magical moment in the lives of thousands of people and gives us a better sense of the contribution of the LGBTI community to the human rights movement in Turkey.
Özge Calafato
Özge Calafato
#uploading_holocaust
Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir
Young Israelis performing a rite of initiation, the “Journey to Poland”: seven days, three mass graves, four concentration camps, and cameras running all the time. An exercise in identity made up of YouTube videos – horror 2.0.
#uploading_holocaust
Documentary Film
Austria,
Germany,
Israel
2016
75 minutes
Subtitles:
English
Credits
Producer
Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion, udiVsagi production
Director
Sagi Bornstein, Udi Nir
Music
Uri Agnon
Editor
Sagi Bornstein, Gal Goffer
Sound
Aviv Aldema
It’s like an initiation ritual. Every year 25,000 Israeli pupils and students go on a trip to Poland, visiting four concentration camps, three mass graves and two ghettos in seven days. It’s a journey to the dead, their roots, and themselves: as Jews and citizens of Israel. They document everything on their smartphones: hotel rooms, barracks, shooting ranges, themselves, their friends. The material shared on YouTube is the basis of this film – and it’s revealing. The two Israeli directors Sagi Bornstein and Udi Nir set contemporary recordings against videotapes from the 1980s. How will the memory change when there are no more contemporary witnesses? What can the crumbling sites still reveal? When will the rituals become hollow?
The Holocaust is the narrative of Israel, the constituent element of the state, even more than Zionism. That’s what the young people are taught to believe. The concept is historical imagination and immersion. They are supposed to feel the squeeze of the cattle wagons, the hardness of the narrow pallets and the oppression of the gas chambers. Horror 2.0. The video material also shows, however, how much smarter the young people are. There are no stupid questions, documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophüls once said, only stupid answers.
Cornelia Klauß
Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award
The Holocaust is the narrative of Israel, the constituent element of the state, even more than Zionism. That’s what the young people are taught to believe. The concept is historical imagination and immersion. They are supposed to feel the squeeze of the cattle wagons, the hardness of the narrow pallets and the oppression of the gas chambers. Horror 2.0. The video material also shows, however, how much smarter the young people are. There are no stupid questions, documentary filmmaker Marcel Ophüls once said, only stupid answers.
Cornelia Klauß
Nominated for Young Eyes Film Award
1/2
Animated Film
Germany
2012
14 minutes
Subtitles:
_without dialogue / subtitles
Credits
Producer
Jürgen Schopper, Georg-Simon-Ohm Hochschule Nürnberg
Director
Kate Haase
Music
Verena Marisa Schmidt
Cinematographer
Sebastian Hühnel
Editor
Kate Haase
Animation
Kate Haase, Sebastian Hühnel
Script
Kate Haase, Sebastian Hühnel
Sound
Verena Marisa Schmidt
"1/2" is an animated short film about one question: How do you get up if you have lost everything that is worth living for?
10 Years Smart
Credits
Producer
Stephan Reinsch, Sehsucht
Music
NHB, Gerret Frerichs, Wenke Kleine-Benne
Animation
Hannes Geiger, Timo Schädel, Niko Tziopanos
Client
BBDO Duesseldorf / Smart
15 Corners of the World
Zuzanna Solakiewicz
A film portrait of Eugeniusz Rudnik. He wrote musical history with magnetic tape cassettes and a pair of scissors, changing our idea of the nature of music fundamentally.
15 Corners of the World
Documentary Film
Germany,
Poland
2014
75 minutes
Subtitles:
English
Credits
Producer
Marta Golba, Erik Winker
Director
Zuzanna Solakiewicz
Music
Eugeniusz Rudnik
Cinematographer
Zvika Gregory Portnoy
Editor
Mateusz Romaszkan
Script
Zuzanna Solakiewicz
Sound
Marcin Lenarczyk
“Digital is better” – nowadays this title of a 90s track by the German band Tocotronic is a popular phrase we use without thinking. It’s a good thing then that our memories of the unique opportunities offered by analogue technology are now impressively revived by this film, which imaginatively demonstrates what spaces are disappearing in the wake of its loss. Its audiovisual journey starts at Polish Radio’s legendary experimental studio, which in the 1960s saw science fiction sounds created in a sound lab that looked like a spaceship’s control room. The head-strong composer Eugeniusz Rudnik, a former pioneer of electroacoustic music, is still working obsessively at his analogue editing station, trying to create unknown sound spheres in order to learn more about human nature. A discarded piece of tape, a voice, a stone, anything can become the basic material of a composition. Even a house – pending proof.
This tongue-in-cheek portrait of the artist as a sound tinkerer invites us on a visual expedition into his sound worlds. The camera, too, takes experimental choices, translates the acoustic dimensions into architecture, dance or landscapes, offers multiple interpretations and creates a synaesthetic experience for the big screen. No need to add that the film is also an ode to the analogue age.
Lars Meyer
This tongue-in-cheek portrait of the artist as a sound tinkerer invites us on a visual expedition into his sound worlds. The camera, too, takes experimental choices, translates the acoustic dimensions into architecture, dance or landscapes, offers multiple interpretations and creates a synaesthetic experience for the big screen. No need to add that the film is also an ode to the analogue age.
Lars Meyer
1813 – Gott mit uns
Schwarwel
The Leipzig Battle of the Nations as animated by Schwarwel.
Credits
Producer
Sandra Strauß
Director
Schwarwel
Music
Ludwig van Beethoven
Editor
Thomas Reichl
Animation
Schwarwel, Dirk Reddig
Script
Schwarwel
Sound
Maik Hartung
In October 1813, the decisive battle in the wars of liberation against Napoleon’s foreign rule – the Battle of the Nations – took place near Leipzig. More than 92,000 of the roughly 600,000 soldiers from over a dozen nations lead into this battle were killed or wounded. A typhus epidemic following the battle claimed many more victims among Leipzig’s civilian population. This fully animated film by Leipzig-born comic strip artist Schwarwel shows these victims, the war, destruction and suffering. “1813 – God With Us” is a film to promote community.
1989 – Lieder unserer Heimat. Himmlischer Frieden
Schwarwel
Episode from a series of animated films about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution.
1989 – Lieder unserer Heimat. Himmlischer Frieden
Credits
Producer
Sandra Strauß, Schwarwel
Director
Schwarwel
Music
Schwarwel
Animation
Schwarwel, Dirk Reddig, Sara Bock, Laura Wempen
Script
Schwarwel
Sound
Schwarwel
Episode from a series of animated films about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution. Here and elsewhere. Questions of personal courage and resistance. Elsewhere and here.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
1989 – Lieder unserer Heimat. Ich liebe – ich liebe doch alle.
Schwarwel
Episode from a series of animated films about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution: Erich Mielke.
1989 – Lieder unserer Heimat. Ich liebe – ich liebe doch alle.
Credits
Producer
Sandra Strauß, Schwarwel
Director
Schwarwel
Music
Schwarwel
Animation
Schwarwel, Dirk Reddig, Sara Bock
Script
Schwarwel
Sound
Schwarwel
Episode from a series of animated films about the fall of the Berlin Wall and the peaceful revolution. Erich Mielke (1907–2000) is completely lost as he wanders through the new era and declares his love for the people. He is surrounded by the rubble of the fallen GDR and his former Ministry for State Security.
Ralph Eue
Ralph Eue
1989 – Unsere Heimat, das sind nicht nur die Städte und Dörfer
Tommy Schwarwel
The story of the “Peaceful Revolution”, which saw its turning point at the Monday demonstration in Leipzig on October 9, 1989, is told by two protagonists who are archetypes of the late GDR.
1989 – Unsere Heimat, das sind nicht nur die Städte und Dörfer
Credits
Producer
Sandra Strauß, Tommy Schwarwel
Director
Tommy Schwarwel
Music
Hans Naumilkat, Hanns Eisler
Editor
Thomas Reichl
Animation
Tommy Schwarwel, Dirk Reddig
Script
Tommy Schwarwel
Sound
Maik Hartung
The story of the “Peaceful Revolution”, which saw its turning point at the Monday demonstration in Leipzig on October 9, 1989, is told by two protagonists who are archetypes of the late GDR.
199 kleine Helden: Jésùs aus Mexiko
Lina Luzyte, Sigrid Klausmann
Eleven-year-old Jésùs lives in Mexico City and has a very special way to school: Every morning he and his little sister row a boat through a network of canals.
199 kleine Helden: Jésùs aus Mexiko
Credits
Producer
Gerhard Schmidt, Walter Sittler
Director
Lina Luzyte, Sigrid Klausmann
Music
Roland Klausmann
Cinematographer
Justyna Feicht
Editor
Lina Luzyte
Script
Lina Luzyte
Eleven-year-old Jésùs lives in Mexico City and has a very special way to school: Every morning he and his little sister row a boat through a network of canals. Every day he sees how much the pollution of the water affects nature and people. Jésùs fears that his beautiful home will not exist for much longer.
Marie-Thérèse Antony
Marie-Thérèse Antony
199 kleine Helden: Koolee aus Australien
Kaye Harrison
Koolee’s path to school takes her over the dust-dry roads of Australia. Koolee is an Aborigine, but their language is not on the timetable at school.
199 kleine Helden: Koolee aus Australien
Credits
Producer
Greer Simkin
Director
Kaye Harrison
Music
Archer Darcy
Cinematographer
Kaye Harrison
Script
Kaye Harrison
On the other side of the world, Koolee’s path to school takes her over the dust-dry roads of Australia. Koolee is an Aborigine, but their language is not on the timetable at school. That’s why she tries especially hard to learn more about her identity so that her culture won’t get lost. Luckily, there’s still plenty of time to play football!
Marie-Thérèse Antony
Marie-Thérèse Antony
199 kleine Helden: Rania aus Jordanien
Gessie George
In this documentary we are introduced to Rania. She looks forward to school every day, because not all the children in her home are allowed to study.
199 kleine Helden: Rania aus Jordanien
Credits
Producer
Gerhard Schmidt, Walter Sittler
Director
Gessie George
Cinematographer
Tobias Müller
Editor
Cem Springer
Script
Gessie George
Sound
Rami Alquaisi
In this documentary we are introduced to Rania. She looks forward to school every day, because not all the children in her home are allowed to study. She has lived in a huge tent city in Jordan ever since she and her family had to flee Syria before the war. The difficult conditions only reinforce her wish to become an engineer to turn the world into a better place one day.
Marie-Thérèse Antony
Marie-Thérèse Antony
2+2=22 [The Alphabet]
Heinz Emigholz
The German band “Kreidler” recording in Tbilisi. The city seen through strangers’ eyes.
2+2=22 [The Alphabet]
Credits
Producer
Heinz Emigholz, Andreas Reihse
Director
Heinz Emigholz
Music
Kreidler
Cinematographer
Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Editor
Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Script
Heinz Emigholz
Sound
Jochen Jezussek
Of course, Heinz Emigholz is not a Georgian filmmaker. But there are good reasons for showing the first “chapter” of his four-part cycle of films “Streetscapes” here. It’s valuable: as a view from outside and a case study of the orientation and desires of such a foreign look. In 2013, Emigholz accompanied the Düsseldorf-based band Kreidler to Tbilisi, where the musicians recorded parts of their “ABC” album. They used an old film studio lot, one of the last places with a “Soviet look and feel” that had managed to escape the craze for modernisation. Urban architecture unfolds around the studio, in skewed perspectives that maybe only travellers from the West can think of.
Zaza Rusadze
Zaza Rusadze
A Free Man
Andreas Hartmann
After Kei tried and dropped out of university and military service he finds his happiness in turning his back on his performance-oriented society.
A Free Man
Credits
Producer
Andreas Hartmann
Director
Andreas Hartmann
Cinematographer
Andreas Hartmann
Editor
Andreas Hartmann
Script
Andreas Hartmann
Sound
Florian Marquardt
A young man deliberately chooses to live on the streets. After Kei tried and dropped out of university and military service he finds his happiness in turning his back on his performance-oriented society. He sleeps under bridges, meets new people in the streets and devotes all his time to his passions – classical music and military games. It’s doubtful whether he can keep up this lifestyle, because reality always catches up with him. The film follows this freedom-loving dreamer who is completely carried away by his outsider’s role with an almost meditative calm and breathtaking music.
Kim Busch
Kim Busch
