Stolpersteine
Stolpersteine, the cobblestone-sized brass plates for individual victims of the holocaust, embedded in the pavement in front of their former habitation, can be found in every German city. Over the time they have become a symbol for our historical amnesia: as small monuments they are forever fixed in the pavement but at the same time they often remain unrecognized. The past is history, all pictures are arranged and stored away and all questions seem to be answered. This three films take a closer look, they inquire and invesitgate and thus bring stories from Berlin, Paris and New York back to life. And thereby illustrate, that there is no closure for the history of the last century.
Keep Thinking About It
"Who do we live with, who do we laugh with?," the child asks. "Who was the child whose height was marked on our door-frame?" On a hot August day, mother and child are being haunted by an old story: the story of the Wellenstein family who had once lived in that same yellow house in Berlin-Charlottenburg and who were deported to death on an August day in 1943. Denis Cointe combines Marie Ndiaye's intriguing narration and voice with traveling shots taken from Berlin's suburban trains; window shots of a new and eerily peaceful city.
- Frankreich
- 00:30:02
- Director: Denis Cointe
- Production: Anne Luthaud
- Photography: Denis Cointe
- Editing: Yohann Costédoat - Descouzères
- Music: Sébastien Capazza & Frédérick Cazaux
- Sound: Mix by David Coutures
- Languages: fr
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2012
- World Premiere
Come Rain or Come Shine
On October 17, 1961, over 30,000 people took to the streets of Paris at the urging of the FLN (National Liberation Front of Algeria) to challenge the citywide curfew enforced on "Muslims and Algerians". The Paris police reacted with extreme force: many protestors were severely beaten and thrown into the Seine - some already dead, some to drown. Until this day official accounts of what happened on that traumatic day are grossly distorting the facts. By way of an original recording of the concert which Ray Charles gave that night in Paris, COME RAIN OR COME SHINE conjures a restless past.
- Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika
- 00:08:53
- Director: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Production: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Photography: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Editing: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Music: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Sound: Elleni Sclavenitis
- Languages: fr
- Subtitles: en
- Year: 2013
- Website
- A38-Production Grant
- World Premiere
A Letter to Mother
The camera wanders around a New York neighborhood, in search for the family history. The artist is trying to understand why her grandparents left Finland after the Second World War: In what kind of activities was her grandfather engaged during the McCarthy Era and the Cold War and what of this was known to her mother? A recollection of personal memories, unverified stories, rumors and anecdotes illustrates how tight personal and global history can be entangled.
- Finnland
- 00:27:42
- Director: Laura Horelli
- Languages: en
- Subtitles: de
- Year: 2013
- World Premiere