Eröffnungsprogramm

West Berlin artists’ group Die Tödliche Doris sets the tone in the opening program with their 1983 Super 8 film NATURKATASTROPHENKONZERT. In her film ARSENAL FILMARCHIV 20.12.2022, Ute Aurand moves her 16mm camera along the rows of shelves. Out of the labels on the film cans, a story takes shape which could have gone in many different ways. After the welcoming remarks, we will continue with Maria Thereza Alves’ BRUCE LEE IN THE LAND OF BALZAC: Bruce Lee’s martial arts screams are transformed into the beauty of French landscapes as described by Balzac. In THE SOUND OF THE DEPTH OF THE SEA, Sudanese filmmaker Ibrahim Shaddad – living in exile in Cairo since 2023 – recounts a dream one afternoon in the Swiss Club. HAPPY BIRTHDAY! by Monika Kin Gagnon is based on cassette recordings of a children’s birthday party in 1970. In the background, we can hear the motor of a 16mm camera while a father directs his daughter to mark the takes on a roll of 16mm film whose images are now lost. For their documentary KASSIEREN, Amelie Vierbuchen, Franca Pape, and Lea Sprenger go in search of archival material about the chemical factory Kalk in Cologne, including a 16mm film that is challenging for the archivist to handle. KASSIEREN is a film about material resistance, discarding, gaps in archives, and our own inabilities. The sound recordings of Antoine Bonfanti’s LA CHARNIÈRE were made during a post-screening discussion for Mario Marret and Chris Marker’s À bientôt, j’espère (1967), during which workers expressed their dissatisfaction with how they were portrayed in the film. Marker suggested handing the cameras over to them, which became the origin of the Medvedkin Groups. KATASUMBIKA, the newest film by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo, uses personal memories to reflect on what has been disregarded in East Congo within the context of its colonial project and heritage. Will the sounds of indigenous resistance be heard if we continue to follow the common thread of history – the chain of the exploitation of natural resources and the course

Naturkatastrophenkonzert    Die Tödliche Doris  West Germany 1984  DVD | no dialogue | 3 min.
Arsenal Filmarchiv20.12.2022  Ute Aurand Germany 2022  16mm | silent | 3 min.
Welcoming remarks: Stefanie Schulte Strathaus
Bruce Lee in the Land of Balzac    Maria Thereza Alves  France 2007  Digital file | no dialogue | 3 min.
The Sound of the Depth of the Sea (Tonaufnahme)  Ibrahim Shaddad Egypt 2024  Digital file | English OV/EnS | 3 min.
Happy Birthday!   Monika Kin Gagnon  Canada 2010  Digital file | English OV | 8 min.
Kassieren    Amelie Vierbuchen, Franca Pape, Lea Sprenger  Germany 2023  Digital file | German OV/EnS | 9 min.
La charnière  (Transition)  Antoine Bonfanti  France 1968  DCP | French OV/EnS | 13 min.
Katasumbika    Petna Ndaliko Katondolo  DRC/USA 2024  DCP | Swahili OV/EnS | 37 min.

Franca Pape, Lea Sprenger, and Amelie Vierbuchen are filmmakers studying at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne, where they live and work. With backgrounds in different disciplines, they share an interest in artistic research, working with archives, and constructing stories. Their work oscillates between text, film and performance.

Petna Ndaliko Katondolo was born in Goma, DR Congo, and is a filmmaker, educator, and ancestral ecologist. His multi-genre artistic works are acclaimed for their decolonial Afrofuturist style, which engages historical content to address contemporary sociopolitical and cultural issues. In 2000, he co-founded the educational center Yolé!Africa and in 2005, he founded the Ishango Encounter (formerly known as Salaam Kivu International Film Festival). Ndaliko Katondolo teaches and consults regularly for international organizations, addressing social and political inequity among marginalized groups through culture and art.