Filmprogramme at the Deutsche Kinemathek

60 Years of DFFB: For the anni­ver­sa­ry, a film series explo­res the con­nec­tions bet­ween the academy’s past and pre­sent. Three spot­lights – femi­nist, migrant, que­er – fall on per­spec­ti­ves that still have to fight for visi­bi­li­ty: women who cam­pai­gned for equa­li­ty, stu­dents with migrant and inter­na­tio­nal bio­gra­phies, and a que­er cine­ma that is ren­ego­tia­ting its own term.

Thu Nov 12, 8:00 pm — Queer Journeys

As part of the film series femi­nist migrant que­er | lega­ci­es pres­ents futures, the DFFB pres­ents a sel­ec­tion of que­er films from the film school’s past 60 years in three pro­grams at the Deut­sche Kine­ma­thek, Sine­ma Tran­sto­pia, and Kino Arse­nal.

Flat Desires

Direc­tor: Senem Göc­men · Ger­ma­ny 2017 · DCP · 4 min · silent

Senem Göc­men pulls images out of the end­less stream of the inter­net and the city and ren­ders them ambi­guous. She assem­bles them in an asso­cia­ti­ve and enter­tai­ning way — open to new mea­ning.

XX to XY: Fighting to be Jake

Direc­tor: Emi­ly Atef · Ger­ma­ny 2002 · DCP · 21 min · Eng­lish with Ger­man sub­tit­les

Emi­ly Atef’s first film at the DFFB is also her only docu­men­ta­ry: the award-win­ning direc­tor (“The Stran­ger in Me,” “3 Days in Qui­be­ron”) meets the young prot­ago­nist Jake in Eng­land and accom­pa­nies him through his tran­si­ti­on. The result is an inti­ma­te short por­trait shaped by a ten­der gaze and its protagonist’s open­ness.

Zärtlichkeiten

(Ten­der­nes­ses)
Direc­tor: Maria Lang · West Ger­ma­ny 1985 · DCP · 29 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

Bet­ween thea­ter rehear­sals and bar nights, Maria Lang takes us into the les­bi­an sub­cul­tu­re of West Ber­lin, with appearan­ces by DFFB col­le­agues such as Vere­na Rudolph and Ange­li­ka Levi (as Li Levy). A fic­tion film with a docu­men­ta­ry sen­si­bi­li­ty about love, lei­su­re, and being tog­e­ther — and a film wit­hout men.

Etage X

(Flo­or X)
Direc­tor: Fran­cy Fabritz · Ger­ma­ny 2016 · DCP · 14 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

Two women get stuck in a depart­ment store ele­va­tor. A sen­suous les­bi­an spe­cu­la­ti­on about what can hap­pen out of sight when two stran­gers make a vir­tue of neces­si­ty; careful­ly staged and super­b­ly acted.

For Those Who Love, Leave, and Love Again

Direc­tor: Pao­lo Lag­anà · Ger­ma­ny 2025 · DCP · 18 min · Ger­man, Eng­lish with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

A young man drifts bet­ween the big city and the pro­vin­ces. Amid sex, dates, and que­er com­mu­ni­ty, he sear­ches for his place and always seems to end up at the mar­gins. In aus­te­re images, Pao­lo Lag­anà sen­si­tively cap­tures a sta­te of sus­pen­si­on bet­ween loneli­ne­ss and belon­ging.

Preceded by:
Überwachungskamera

(Secu­ri­ty Came­ra)
Direc­tor: Chris­toph Hel­ler · Ger­ma­ny 2006 · 35mm · 1 min · no dia­lo­gue

Cura­ted by Toby Ashraf and Sophie Holz­ber­ger
Guests: Senem Göc­men, Jake Years­ley, Fran­cy Fabritz, Pao­lo Lag­anà, Ute Aurand, Lil­ly Gro­te, Ange­li­ka Levi, and others

Fri Nov 13, 6:00 pm — Spiralling

Stu­dy­ing film means grap­pling with expec­ta­ti­ons — your own and other people’s, real and ima­gi­ned — and in the end it is a pro­cess of eman­ci­pa­ti­on. The start­ing point for the pro­gram “Spi­ral­ling” was the ques­ti­on of how that recko­ning shows up in more recent DFFB films: how stu­dents’ films take an aes­the­tic posi­ti­on toward an edu­ca­ti­on in which the pro­mi­se of pro­fes­sio­na­liza­ti­on can beco­me an impe­di­ment for ori­gi­na­li­ty and expe­ri­ment. Films by Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di, Faraz Fesharaki/Moritz Frie­se, and Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka, made bet­ween 2017 and 2025 at dif­fe­rent stages of their stu­dies, are pre­ce­ded here by an ear­ly film by Raoul Peck, who finds the ful­crum of his cri­tique in lan­guage. The artis­tic ran­ge of the­se films is wide — a width that opens up as long as films are made with the cou­ra­ge to ques­ti­on for­mal or ideo­lo­gi­cal expec­ta­ti­ons.

Leugt

Direc­tor: Raoul Peck · Sound: Man­fred Stahl
West Ger­ma­ny 1983 · DCP · 13 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

“Vowels, con­so­nants, pau­ses, punc­tua­ti­on are mere­ly forming sequen­ces of sounds and non-sounds, from which we, the mas­ses, thanks to cen­tu­ries of sys­te­ma­tic poli­ti­cal edu­ca­ti­on are still able to distill into­na­ti­ons and stres­ses, so that despi­te ‘not having a clue what the guy has just said or what he’s tal­king about in the first place’ we are able to applaud when expec­ted.” (Raoul Peck — from a pro­ject expo­sé for Leugt, May 1983)

Reigen

(Round Dance)
Direc­tor: Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di · Screen­play: Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di & Felix Schus­ter · Cine­ma­to­gra­phy: Felix Schus­ter · Editing: Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di · Sound: Alex Feld­man · Cast: Rebec­ca Lin­dau­er, Tim Lanz­in­ger, Lau­ra Talen­ti, Vin­cent Brusdey­lins · Pro­duc­tion: Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di & Sebas­ti­an Lad­wig
Ger­ma­ny 2025 · DCP · 6 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

A bla­zing dra­ma of jea­lou­sy plays out in an under­ground par­king gara­ge, told in a sin­gle con­ti­nuous shot. Tro­pes of popu­lar nar­ra­ti­ve cine­ma that seem fami­li­ar at first are thrown off balan­ce by a nar­ra­ti­ve loop. A moving-image trom­pe l’oeil that keeps working on you after­ward.

It’s a criminal waste to give this film a postproduction

Direc­tion, screen­play, cine­ma­to­gra­phy, editing: Faraz Fesha­ra­ki, Moritz Frie­se · Sound: Josha Eickel, Jan Pase­mann · Music: Rahi Sina­ki · Cast: Mitra Kia, Hassan Fesha­ra­ki, Tina Kadkho­da­yan, Sad­af Jav­da­ni, Rahi Sina­ki, Sohr­ab Yaz­dan­mehr, Rooz­beh Taz­hi­bi, Sara Fae­zy­po­ur · Pro­duc­tion: Lui­se Hau­schild, Faraz Fesha­ra­ki, Moritz Frie­se
Germany/Iran 2017 · DCP · 20 min · Far­si, Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

On a film set: direc­tor Faraz wants to shoot a sce­ne in which he has a video call with his par­ents. The con­ver­sa­ti­on has bare­ly begun when his father starts ques­tio­ning the script­ed dia­lo­gue. The ordi­na­ry media set­ting of the Zoom call sabo­ta­ges the ambi­ti­ons of the fea­ture-film pro­duc­tion appa­ra­tus.

Ashes by name is man

Direc­tor: Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka · Sound mix: Jan Pase­mann · Cast: Jani­na Mokrzy­cka, Wła­dysław Mokrzy­cki · Pro­duc­tion: Rox­a­na Rich­ters, Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka
Ger­ma­ny 2023 · shot on 16mm, DCP · 20 min · no dia­lo­gue

Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka shot her gra­dua­ti­on film on a 16mm came­ra in the cul­tu­ral land­scapes around Kraków and Lviv, por­tray­ing her grand­par­ents’ ever­y­day life and, with it, a rural way of living shaped by Catho­li­cism. “In the wri­tin­gs of my favo­ri­te pain­ter I read that, for him, the Polish land­scape seems to draw the gaze con­stant­ly down­ward, lea­ding us to look not past the hori­zon but beneath our feet, at the bones buried under every step.” (Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka)

Cura­ted by Kari­na Grif­fith and Tobi­as Hering
Guests: Flor­in­da Fri­sar­di, Sebas­ti­an Lad­wig, Faraz Fesha­ra­ki [tbc], Moritz Frie­se, Ewe­li­na Rosińs­ka

Fri Nov 13, 8:30 pm — Health and Happiness

The films are con­nec­ted by ques­ti­ons of what role com­mu­ni­ty plays within a capi­ta­list-patri­ar­chal order, and how chan­ge, hap­pi­ness, or health are pos­si­ble at all. In Hel­fen kön­nen wir uns nur selbst (We Can Only Help Our­sel­ves, 1974), Gar­di Dep­pe accom­pa­nies eight young women in the West Ger­man Kur cli­nic Auen­tal (a resi­den­ti­al health-cure faci­li­ty). The direc­tor stages a role-play with them in which they express their expe­ri­en­ces of explo­ita­ti­on and iden­ti­fy them as the result of struc­tu­ral con­di­ti­ons. Con­ver­sa­ti­ons with doc­tors even­tual­ly reve­al that the cure is less inves­ted in heal­ing pati­ents than in reinte­gra­ting them into working life and the fami­ly. Gar­di Dep­pe was part of the Wochen­schau group at the DFFB. The film pre­mie­red at the Ober­hau­sen Short Film Fes­ti­val. In Die fünf­blätt­ri­ge Flie­der­blü­te (The Five-Peta­led Lil­ac Blos­som, 1993), Ying­li Ma visits her home­town of Bei­jing to meet four fri­ends from her school days. In con­ver­sa­ti­ons about their work and pri­va­te lives, the film draws a pic­tu­re of Chi­na after the crus­hed demo­cra­cy move­ment of 1989 and befo­re the eco­no­mic ope­ning to the West. The young adults descri­be moun­ting pres­su­re to per­form, while the lucky image of the blos­som beco­mes a sign of hope and a sym­bol of their fri­end­ship. Ying­li Ma took up her stu­dies at DFFB in 1988. Her work as a film­ma­ker, pro­du­cer, and screen­wri­ter enga­ges with pro­ces­ses of social trans­for­ma­ti­on and how they affect the indi­vi­du­al.

Helfen können wir uns nur selbst

(We Can Only Help Our­sel­ves)
Direc­tor: Gar­di Dep­pe · West Ger­ma­ny 1974 · DCP · 48 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

Die fünfblättrige Fliederblüte

(The Five-Peta­led Lil­ac Blos­som)
Direc­tor: Ying­li Ma · Ger­ma­ny 1993 · DCP · 30 min · Ger­man, Man­da­rin with Ger­man sub­tit­les

Cura­ted by Fio­na Berg, Sophie Holz­ber­ger and Ari­sa Purk­pong