German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

It’s the story of two worlds. The first is called cinema, where we find older people in matinee showings or kids in multiplexes. The second world is people in their living rooms with their 4K televisions, watching Netflix or streaming Game of Thrones from dubious web origins. In between these two worlds there is movement, for example when a new James Bond film is released.

But that’s about all the exchange there is between the two. The two worlds only come closer together again at festivals. It’s not just a perceived reality that there are more and more festivals, but it’s unknown how many film festivals take place around the world every year. In 2013, one journalist counted 2,954. Three-quarters of the festivals he counted at that time were launched between 2003 and 2013. Why is it that today every arty hipster seems to be curating their own film festival in their free time? And why is it that the number of festivals is increasing simultaneously with the great migratory wave of films from the cinema to small screens and smartphones – from the first to the second world?

I reach out to Lars Henrik Gass on Skype. He must know the answers to these questions: he just wrote the book on the subject. Continue reading "The Peculiar Boom in Film Festivals" »

Watching the mesmerizing, stunning, disturbing and touching punk poem A LOST AND FOUND BOX OF HUMAN SENSATION at our GOETHE FILMS series opening last night --and it worked so well before CRAZY--, I realized I was short-changing (pun intended) our two shorts in this 3-night program on the young, the old and intergenerational relations:

Continue reading "GOETHE FILMS: Young & Old Shorts" »

Laundry. Waiting. Movement. Music. These were some of the themes that came up during our two-night presentation of the best German and international shorts and the Q&A with filmmakers Oliver Husain, Jasmine Ellis, Phillip Barker and Chris Kennedy in our “Oberhausen on Tour” program at the TIFF Bell Lightbox. Continue reading "A short film about ..." »

Wonder why the short films we are about to show you in our next GOETHE FILMS program are so fantastic? Read the Oberhausen Film Festival jury statements to find out.

Winner of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen 2012:
SNOW TAPES by Mich’ael Zupraner
Israel/Palestinian Territories 2011
Jury statement:
In this work, with a strong sense of political urgency and complexity, the artist provided a camera to a Palestinian family in the highly charged city of Hebron. But instead of a one dimensional depiction of a political conflict, he complicates the viewer's life with a bifurcated screen in which we are confronted not only with the violent reality of the occupation, but also with the glee of the victim when he is able to be aggressive, with the ambivalence of throwing snow balls as both playful and violent, and with the Israeli director himself as someone who stand to gain from representing Palestinian suffering. The result, while raw and rough, is both subtle and evocative, and reconfigures cinema as an active agent beyond the subjective-objective division rather than settle for a passive political role.
Mich’ael Zupraner talks about the making-of SNOW TAPES.
Excerpts from SNOW TAPES.

Continue reading "GOETHE FILMS: Oberhausen jury praises winners" »

"I am looking forward to introducing this selection from the German competition of the Oberhausen Festival 2012. Although it is the German competition, the program includes two films by directors from Toronto: “Plan B” by Jasmine Ellis, and my film “Item Number”. And we’ll both be in attendance.

Continue reading "GOETHE FILMS: Oliver Husain on Oberhausen" »

Our second night of the Best of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen takes a documentary and experimental look at human (and animal) behaviour and includes the winner of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen 2012, "Snow Tapes":

Continue reading "GOETHE FILMS: Oberhausen on Tour - Int'l..." »

GOETHE FILMS presents the highlights of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen 2012 over two nights March 10+12, including the German and International competitions that stood out. Both programs reflect the world from Germany, India, Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt, Switzerland, France, Finland, the Netherlands and Canada. And we are happy to announce that we will have four of the filmmakers present. So if you missed the famous international market place in Oberhausen, join us at the TIFF Bell Lightbox.

SUNDAY, MARCH 10: THE GERMAN COMPETITION
It's all about dance, performance and show. Here is what you will see:

Continue reading "GOETHE FILMS: Oberhausen on Tour - German..." »