Special Programmes

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Since the founding of the International Sámi Film Centre in Kautokeino (Guovdageaidnu), Norway, in 2007, a very productive film scene has come into being in the very North of Europe. Across national borders, Sámi filmmakers from Norway, Sweden and Finland are dealing with their cultural roots – exclusively in short fiction films and documentaries, as of yet – which address the social and political implications of the Sámi People as an ethnic minority in the modern world.

The post-millenial works that will be screened in three programmes at the ISFF range from anthropological documentations of reindeer breeding and artisan craftwork, to surveys of changing lifestyles, as well as fiction shorts and videos for the Eurovision Song Contest.

We are looking forward to welcoming many special guests at our screenings.

Curator: Jörg Schöning (Szene Hamburg, CineGraph, Nordic Film Days Lübeck)

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"Those who grew up in the 50s and started to go to cinema screenings and developed an interest in sophisticated films saw – intentionally or unknowingly – films of the »Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner«." (epd)

Back then, Walter Kirchner did not only bring films by Bunuel, Clair, Antonioni or Renoir to the silver screen, he also revived film history and uncovered works by Lubitsch, Ophüls and Hitchcock from the 20s and 30s. However, Kirchner’s interest was not restricted to feature films only. Up until the bankruptcy of his company, "Filmkunst GmbH" in 1974, he also collected short films. From renowned festivals such as Cannes and Mannheim he acquired all types of film art – mostly avant-garde, documentary, fiction or animation. After Kirchner’s death in 2010, his daughter Sandra Kirchner left about 100 35mm short film prints film to the faithful safekeeping of the KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg (Hamburg Short Film Agency).

We have carefully examined the gems of this treasure, which had been hidden under four decades of dust, and proudly present the highlights of the Film Art Kirchner Collection.

Curator: Giuseppe Gagliano (Hamburg Short Film Agency, Short Film Archive)

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Avant-garde Between Advertising Film and Eye Music

The 1920s was a time of fantastic collaboration between avant-garde filmmakers and the film industry. These experimental filmmakers were motivated by financial pragmatism on the one side, and on the other, by the aspiration to subvert the commercial film and its aesthetics by use of new visual forms. In 1921, the film critic Bernhard Diebold referred to this novel fusion of painting and music in the so-called abstract film – as represented by artists like Walther Ruttmann or Hans Richter – as "eye music". Somewhere between advertisements for chocolate and face cream, women on the moon and dreaming Hunnish queens, avant-garde and industry worked hand in hand, as the vision of creating an "eye music" in abstract film influenced the aesthetics of contemporary cinema.

Curator: Anja Ellenberger (art historian and film scholar)

Some More Logos

Advertising, marketing, and PR translate into film shots with seemingly unlimited budgets, money, style, corruptibility – not just since the advent of "Mad Men". The advertising industry is the launch pad for careers and a financial paradise of milk and honey. Throughout the years, advertising film production has brought about a great number of both masterpieces and the bizarre, as well as bread-and-butter works from famous film directors. This year’s special programme of early and commissioned works presents a number of excellent examples of advertising on film. Our guests from the advertising industry and experienced filmmakers with a background in advertising will help us take a closer look, in order to catch a glimpse behind the polished surfaces. Colleagues and peers are welcome to applaud each other, pass criticism or share a good laugh … We are looking forward to an evening full of fascinating commercials beyond the standard advertising film stock.

Curators: Sven Schwarz (Administrative Director of the Hamburg International Short Film Festival) and Mirjam Wildner (Hamburg)

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Anachronistic dualisms such as good and evil, traces of abysms, and myth building around places and people are impulses that can be discovered in various kinds of forms in video art. The selection of works focuses on these ambivalent, at times subtle traces, that abstractly present the fascination for the cynical-diabolical, as well as the apotheosis of historical and fictional figures and circumstances.

Curator: Monika Lahrkamp (Cologne)

The title of the programme may be borrowed from Siegfried Kracauer’s same-titled collection of essays, but unlike his studies about the "exotic of daily life" it is compliant with its literal meaning and addresses the aesthetics of surfaces. The programme features the biomechanic choreographies of the Spartakiads, the ad infinitum aiming demonstrations of power, animals that are driven by instincts of defense and attack, industrial chorus lines and enigmatic molecular structures. In two programme blocks, our curator Lars Frehse presents the fascinating and ephemeral gathers on the topmost layers of the moving image.

Curator: Lars Frehse (Hamburg)

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Since apparently everyone is moving towards the center of societies and the urban areas of this world, we take the time to listen to the sounds at the fringes of society, perception and cultures – their crunches, whistles and chirps. Frontier crossers, smugglers, neuroscientists, dropouts and other specialists for borders and the marginal serve as motion detectors and scouts. Following their festival programmes of the past four years ("Urban Sounds" in 2009, "Sound, Picture, Action" in 2010, "Man-Machine: Where Are the Riots?" in 2011 and "Onomatopoeia - Poetry and all that Jazz" in 2012), our lab duo Hanna Nordholt and Fritz Steingrobe listens once again very carefully to detect the sounds that have been preserved on celluloid, magnetic tape and digital video discs.

Curators: Hanna Nordholt and Fritz Steingrobe (Hamburg)