Crushed
Direction: Ella Rocca
Switzerland, 2022, 8 Min.
TEDDY nominated
22.02. / 16:30 Urania
23.02. / 15:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
24.02. / 10:00 Cineplex Titania
25.02. / 15:45 Cubix 8
26.02. / 16:00 International
Doesn’t crush also mean “to smash”? Dealing with their own obsessive crushes, Ella Rocca researches what to do about it. During the quest for a representation of their feelings, texts, images and sounds are layered on top of each other on the computer screen and become the expression of intense contemplation. Internet discoveries and a moment of intimate directness merge to provide a sense of the inner workings of infatuation.
Es gibt keine Angst (Afraid Doesn’t Exist)
Direction: Anna Zett
Germany, 2023, 31 Min.
17.02. / 20:00 Werkstattkino@silent green
19.02. / 11:00 Kino Arsenal 1
A German police state of the past is the setting for the pulsating short film thriller Es gibt keine Angst (Afraid Doesn’t Exist). In it, Anna Zett collages video and audio material from the Berlin Archive of the GDR Opposition, partially taking the perspective of a sensitive child. Based on her own intimate involvement, the artist traces a successful, yet mostly unknown act of resistance at the very end of the GDR, while at the same time opening up an associative space for connecting with experiences of violence that are otherwise difficult to access today. Vocally highly condensed voices from a 1986 East Berlin poetry reading support the voiceless narrator – “an adult child” – in the reconstruction of her own emotional world, as does the multi-layered musical score. From footage of the environmental library to private videos and journalistic material, the film leads to the second occupation of the Stasi headquarters in Berlin-Lichtenberg in September1990, where it settles into a very different mood.
Exhibition
Direction: Mary Helena Clark
USA, 2022, 19 Min.
TEDDY nominated
19.02. / 20:30 Kino Arsenal 1
20.02. / 20:00 Werkstattkino@silent green
A collection of images reproduced from films, museums, and archives, Exhibition weaves together multiple biographies and texts to construct a single imaginary subject. Eija-Riitta Eklöf-Berliner-Mauer marries the Berlin Wall and turns her home into a museum of architectural miniatures to abate her longing for those objects. Mary Richardson stabs Diego Velázquez’s “The Toilet of Venus” as an act of protest and dedication to an imprisoned suffragette. Shifting into first person point-of-view, the narration combines quotations from the painter Agnes Martin, early eye tracking studies, Sigmund Freud’s case history of “Rat Man,” and an account of a Klein bottle’s misuse as a candlestick holder. The film fragments, copies, and excerpts to create a portrait of desire and trespass, becoming a meditation on the assertion and refusal of subjecthood. “I’m not a woman. I’m a doorknob.”
Incroci
Direction: Francesca de Fusco
USA, Italy, 2023, 13 Min.
TEDDY nominated
21.02. / 12:30 Zoo Palast 1
22.02. / 09:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
24.02. / 15:30 Cineplex Titania
26.02. / 16:00 International
26.02. / 18:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
Bergamo, northern Italy. Fede’s days are spent between school and a home run by nuns. In a corridor of the Pensionato, Fede sees Valentina, a new tenant, for the first time. In the middle of a choreography of open, semi-open and closed doors, unknown feelings arise. As sudden as the luminosity of a flashlight entering a room at night. As odd as mixing new flavours. Another world is born inside the one Fede knew, with different questions and possibilities. What does it mean to desire?
It’s a Date
Direction: Nadia Parfan
Ukraine, 2023, 5 Min.
TEDDY nominated
21.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9
23.02. / 12:30 Cineplex Titania
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
24.02. / 14:15 Cubix 3
25.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9
26.02. / 16:00 International
Kyiv in 2022. A car races at breakneck speed through the city at dawn. Filmed from a subjective camera angle in a single unedited shot, this contemporary remake of Claude Lelouch’s film C’était un rendez-vous captures the emotions in a state of emergency caused by the war.
Mangosteen
Direction: Tulapop Saenjaroen
Thailand, 2022, 40 Min.
20.02. / 19:00 Kino Arsenal 1
21.02. / 14:00 Werkstattkino@silent green
During a casual meeting, Earth finds out that his definition of the term “future” is drastically different from his sister’s. The more he tries to involve himself in the fruit juice business, the less he feels needed there. Earth eventually decides to distance himself from the family operation and resumes his old hobby, writing a violent, psychic, irrational, abstract, gory, and unrealistic novel. Switching narrative directions as well as languages, Mangosteen weaves a meandering path through factory floors and orchards. The film was shot on outdated Digital8 video cameras and follows no clear narrative logic. It is a film as much about storytelling as it is about its protagonist’s erratic and surprising idiosyncrasies.
Marungka tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black)
Direction: Matthew Thorne, Derik Lynch
Australia, 2022, 25 Min.
TEDDY nominated
22.02. / 16:00 Cubix 9
23.02. / 11:00 Cubix 3
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
24.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9
25.02. / 12:30 Cineplex Titania
26.02. / 16:00 International
Marungka tjalatjunu (Dipped in Black) follows Yankunytjatjara man Derik Lynch’s road trip back to Country for spiritual healing, as memories from his childhood return. A journey from the oppression of white city life in Adelaide, back home to his remote Anangu Community (Aputula) to perform on sacred Inma ground. Inma is a traditional form of storytelling using the visual, verbal and physical. It is how Anangu Tjukurpa (story connected to country / dreaming / myth / lore) have been passed down for over 60,000 years from generation to generation.
Nuits blanches (Sleepless Nights)
Direction: Donatienne Berthereau
France, 2023, 25 Min.
TEDDY nominated
21.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9
23.02. / 12:30 Cineplex Titania
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
24.02. / 14:15 Cubix 3
25.02. / 21:30 Cubix 9
26.02. / 16:00 International
April 2022 in France. The presidential election is entering its final round and the atmosphere is tense. Solène, a waitress, drifts through the night. She takes drugs, hurts people’s feelings and increasingly loses her grip.
Sværddrage (The Shift)
Direction: Amalie Maria Nielsen
Denmark, 2023, 19 Min.
TEDDY nominated
20.02. / 09:30 Zoo Palast 1
21.02. / 10:00 Cineplex Titania
22.02. / 18:45 Cubix 8
23.02. / 10:00 Urania
25.02. / 12:30 Filmtheater am Friedrichshain
In a home for struggling girls, young Milo is secretly transitioning gender. Only care worker Nicki is aware of it and supports them. Whenever Milo feels angry, or like running away or just wants a change of scenery, it’s Nicki who brings a feeling of security and home. One day, through the thin walls of the institution, Milo hears something they wish they hadn’t. As hugs cannot solve every conflict, they push the emergency button.
To Write From Memory
Direction: Emory Chao Johnson
USA, 2023, 19 Min.
TEDDY nominated
20.02. / 15:30 Zoo Palast 1
21.02. / 09:45 Zoo Palast 2
23.02. / 20:00 Urania
23.02. / 21:30 Cubix 2
25.02. / 12:45 Cubix 8
26.02. / 16:00 International
Meticulously, they inspect their own body as the camera looks on, documenting every step of their transition. Yet what starts off as a young filmmaker’s audiovisual diary soon expands into a confrontation with their own past. It is not easy to break out of a cocoon spun from motherly demands and grievances – especially when your body gets treated as a family matter, and when your need for autonomy is met with incomprehension.