The Berlinale Forum of the Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its anniversary: 50 years of dedication to independent, adventurous, daring cinema . It is what the festival describes as “A perfect opportunity to look back at the past, celebrate what’s been achieved and think about what the future will bring.”
Many of the 35 films in this year’s The Berlinale Forum under theme ‘Galloping Between Different Eras’ – 28 of which are world premieres – are characterized by how they look for ways to mediate between past and present. This applies in spades to EL TANGO DEL VIUDO y su espejo deformante (THE TANGO OF THE WIDOWER and Its Distorting Mirror) by Raúl Ruiz and Valeria Sarmiento, which opens this year’s Forum. Ruiz shot the material in Chile in 1967, but was unable to complete it before going into exile in 1973. Editor, director and Ruiz’s widow Valeria Sarmiento has now transformed it into a finished film via various elaborate techniques. The film experiments with its own temporality in wonderfully idiosyncratic fashion, as it encompasses the half-century since it was originally shot and allows its plot to run forwards and backwards; in the latter case, quite literally.
Other films – such as Clarissa Thieme’s Was bleibt I Šta ostaje I What remains / Re-visited, Radu Jude’s Tipografic majuscul (Uppercase Print) or Jonathan Perel’s Responsabilidad empresarial (Corporate Accountability) – raise the question of how the political fault lines of recent history can be translated into film images and try out essayistic forms in the process. Ouvertures, made by a collective surrounding directors Louis Henderson and Olivier Marboeuf, looks back at the Haitian revolution and the aporias of the Enlightenment. Paula Gaitán’s more than four-hour Luz nos trópicos (Light in the Tropics) gallops between different eras like a wild horse, culminating in brilliant tribute to the forests and rivers of North and South America and the Indigenous peoples that live there. This forges links to further films in the programme which explore the increasingly precarious relationship between humans and their environment, such as Viera Čákanyová’s.
The group exhibition of Forum Expanded program themed “Part of the Problem” opens at the Betonhalle of silent green Kulturquartier on February 19 and features The Otolith Group for the second time already. Their installation INFINITY minus Infinity uses dance, music, recital and animation to examine the relationship between capitalism and racism and intertwines these with the repercussions of climate policy. Based on the history of weaving in western Africa, Filipa César tells a story of subversion in her collectively-produced work Quantum Creole. The Palestinian collective Riwaq pursue a similar undertaking with their multimedia project Secrets of a Digital Garden: 50 Villages – 50 Flowers, which considers the subversive potential of seeds as repositories of memory.
In Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe, Lesvos, Aegean Sea: 28 October 2015, Forensic Architecture meticulously reconstruct an accident involving a boat full of migrants close to the European coast. The work is based on video material recorded by artist and survivor Amel Alzakout as the boat was sinking. How such images are to be dealt with and the relationship between them and their history is the theme of her own film Purple Sea, a collaboration with filmmaker Khaled Abdulwahed made beforehand.
The additional twelve film programs of shorts and feature-length works contain considerable linguistic diversity, including the sign language used by a group of people in the northeast of Brazil (Jogos Dirigidos by Jonathas de Andrade) as well as the body language employed in the Congolese short Matata by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo or the experimental sounds and tones which appear in Akram Zaatari’s Al-Houbut.
Letter from a Guarani Woman in Search of the Land Without Evil, an exhibition at SAVVY Contemporary, sifts through the archive of the audio-visual journey of Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy, likely the most active representative of Brazilian indigenous cinema.
The NDN Survival Trilogy by Thirza Cuthand can be seen at the Marshall McLuhan Salon. It explores the consequences of raw material extraction for Canada’s Indigenous population. The three videos create a space to expand the theme to include queer perspectives.
The program of the “EFM Producers Hub” (February 20 – 26) will cover all topics of current relevance for producers while offering its usual diverse range of content for industry attendees. “DocSalon” (February 21-26) will once again provide guests from the documentary film branch with opportunities for networking and exchange. Already familiar formats will be expanded with the Toolbox program and a partnership with DAE.
Berlinale Forum
Anne at 13,000 ft
Canada / USA
by Kazik Radwanski
European premiere
Anunciaron tormenta (A Storm Was Coming)
Spain
by Javier Fernández Vázquez
World premiere
Chico ventana también quisiera tener un submarino (Window Boy Would Also Like to Have A Submarine)
Uruguay / Argentina / Brazil / Netherlands / Philippines
by Alex Piperno
World premiere
Entre perro y lobo
Cuba / Spain
by Irene Gutiérrez
World premiere
Eyimofe (This Is My Desire)
Nigeria / USA
by Arie Esiri, Chuko Esiri
World premiere
FREM
Czech Republic / Slovakia
by Viera Čákanyová
International premiere
Generations
USA
by Lynne Siefert
World premiere
Gli appunti di Anna Azzori / Uno specchio che viaggia nel tempo (The Notes of Anna Azzori / A Mirror that Travels through Time)
Austria / Germany / France
by Constanze Ruhm
World premiere
Gorod usnul (In Deep Sleep)
Russian Federation
by Maria Ignatenko
World premiere
Grève ou crève (Strike or Die)
France
by Jonathan Rescigno
World premiere
Ieşirea trenurilor din gară (The Exit of the Trains)
Romania
by Radu Jude, Adrian Cioflâncă
World premiere
Kama fissamaa’ kathalika ala al-ard (As Above So Below)
Lebanon
by Sarah Francis
World premiere
Kunst kommt aus dem Schnabel wie er gewachsen ist (Art Comes from the Beak the Way It Has Grown)
Germany
by Sabine Herpich
World premiere
La casa dell’amore (The House of Love)
Italy
by Luca Ferri
World premiere
Lúa vermella (Red Moon Tide)
Spain
by Lois Patiño
World premiere
Luz nos trópicos (Light in the Tropics)
Brazil
by Paula Gaitán
World premiere
Maggie’s Farm
USA
by James Benning
World premiere
Medium
Argentina
by Edgardo Cozarinsky
World premiere
Namo (The Alien)
Iran
by Nader Saeivar
World premiere
Oeconomia
Germany
by Carmen Losmann
World premiere
Ouvertures
United Kingdom / France
by Louis Henderson, Olivier Marboeuf together with The Living and the Dead Ensemble
World premiere
Petit Samedi
Belgium
by Paola Sermon-Daï
World premiere
Ping jing (The Calming)
China
by SONG Fang
World premiere
Responsabilidad empresarial (Corporate Accountability)
Argentina’
by Jonathan Perel
World premiere
Seishin 0 (Zero)
Japan / USA
by Kazuhiro Soda
European premiere
EL TANGO DEL VIUDO y su espejo deformante (THE TANGO OF THE WIDOWER And Its Distorting Mirror)
Chile
by Raúl Ruiz, Valeria Sarmiento
World premiere
Tipografic majuscul (Uppercase Print)
Romania
by Radu Jude
International premiere
Traverser (After the Crossing)
France / Burkina Faso / Belgium
by Joël Richmond Mathieu Akafou
World premiere
The Twentieth Century
Canada
by Matthew Rankin
European premiere
The Two Sights
Canada / United Kingdom
by Joshua Bonnetta
World premiere
Victoria
Belgium
by Sofie Benoot, Liesbeth De Ceulaer, Isabelle Tollenaere
World premiere
The Viewing Booth
Israel / USA
by Ra’anan Alexandrowicz
International premiere
Vil, má (Divinely Evil)
Brazil
by Gustavo Vinagre
World premiere
Was bleibt I Šta ostaje I What remains I Re-visited
Germany / Austria / Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Clarissa Thieme
World premiere
Zeus Machine. L’invincibile (Zeus Machine. The Invincible)
Italy
by Nadia Ranocchi, David Zamagni
International premiere
Berlinale Forum Expanded
Film and exhibition program
Abstracted / Family
Japan
by Koki Tanaka
International premiere
Akiya
Finland / Japan / USA
by Jonna Kina
World premiere
Al-Houbut (The Landing)
Lebanon / United Arab Emirates
by Akram Zaatari
International premiere
Al-Maw’oud (The Promised)
Egypt
by Ahmed Elghoneimy
World premiere
Apiyemiyekî?
Brazil / France / Netherlands / Portugal
by Ana Vaz
International premiere
Born of the * * *
On Zarathustra’’s Going Under from Cairo to Oran
Palestine / USA
by Ayreen Anastas, Rene Gabri
World premiere
Citizens of the Cosmos
USA / Japan / Ukraine
by Anton Vidokle
European premiere
Doublewide
USA
by Jenny Perlin
World premiere
Equinox
USA
by Margaret Honda
World premiere
Expedition Content
USA
by Ernst Karel, Veronika Kusumaryati
World premiere
Her Name Was Europa
Germany
by Anja Dornieden, Juan David González Monroy
World premiere
Jiíbie
Colombia / France
by Laura Huertas Millán
European premiere
Jogos Dirigidos (Directed Games)
Brazil
by Jonathas de Andrade
International premiere
Letter to a Friend
Palestine / USA
by Emily Jacir
International premiere
Matata
Democratic Republic of the Congo / USA / Netherlands
by Petna Ndaliko Katondolo
International premiere
Moazzam ma yalla haqeqy (Most of What Follows Is True)
Egypt
by Maged Nader
World premiere
On vous parle de Paris: Maspero, les mots ont un sens
France 1970
by Chris Marker
(Outros) Fundamentos ((Other) Foundations)
Brazil
by Aline Motta
European premiere
The Phantom Menace
United Kingdom
by Graeme Arnfield
World premiere
Recovery
USA
by Kevin Jerome Everson
World premiere
Purple Sea
Germany
by Amel Alzakout, Khaled Abdulwahed
World premiere
Tatsuniya II
Nigeria
by Rahima Gambo
International premiere
Untitled Sequence of Gaps
Germany
by Vika Kirchenbauer
World premiere
Vaga Carne (Dazed Flesh)
Brazil
by Grace Passô, Ricardo Alves Jr.
European premiere
Télé Réalité
Belgium / Germany / Democratic Republic of the Congo
by Lucile Desamory, Gustave Fundi, Glodie Mubikay
World premiere
The Whole Shebang
USA
by Ken Jacobs
European premiere
Group exhibition
Betonhalle, silent green
Opening on Feb 02, 2020 at 7pm
A I O U
USA
by Anton Vidokle, Adam Khalil, Bayley Sweitzer
World premiere
Half Blue
USA / Lebanon
by Joe Namy
European premiere
Imaginary Explosions, episode 2, Chaitén
USA / Chile / Germany
by Caitlin Berrigan
International premiere
INFINITY minus Infinity
United Kingdom / United Arab Emirates / Belgium
by The Otolith Group
International premiere
Memory Also Die
Nigeria
by Didi Cheeka Anni
World premiere
Porosity Valley 2: Tricksters’ Plot
Republic of Korea
by Ayoung Kim
International premiere
Quantum Creole
Germany / France / Portugal / Spain
by Filipa César
International premiere
Secrets of a Digital Garden: 50 Villages – 50 Flowers
Palestine
by Riwaq
European premiere
Shipwreck at the Threshold of Europe, Lesvos, Aegean Sea: 28 October 2015
United Kingdom
by Forensic Architecture
World premiere
The Sun
Canada
by Kika Thorne
European premiere
Vu de l’extérieur
Belgium / Democratic Republic of the Congo / Luxembourg
by Lucile Desamory in collaboration with Glodie Mubikay and Gustave Fundi
International premiere
SAVVY Contemporary
Opening on Feb02, 2020 at 7pm
Letter from a Guarani Woman in Search of the Land Without Evil
Brazil
by Patricia Ferreira Pará Yxapy
European premiere
Marshall Mc Luahn Salon, Canadian Embassy
Opening on Feb 02, 2020 at 5.30pm
NDN Survival Trilogy
Canada
by Thirza Cuthand
World premiere