271 international short and long films, 16 installations as part of the exhibition Monitoring, which expands the cinematographic space of the festival and a variety of audiovisual performances in the DokfestLounge are presented during the six days of the festival and draw a diverse and differentiated picture of current documentary film making. Furthermore, around 250 filmmakers and artists who are part of the program will be there to personally present their works to the audience.

We particularly wish to highlight the following events of the first two festival days:


WEDNESDAY / NOVEMBER 11

Hip Hop-eration (10 a.m. / Gloria)

Who says that your grandma can't become a Hip Hop star? Kara, Maynie and Terri are all over 90 years of age, as their seniors dance group, from the Waiheke Island in New Zealand, is invited to the world championships in Hip Hop dancing in Las Vegas. Together with 27 other senior citizens, they set aside their crutches and probe their bodies and artificial joints. They are encouraged by young street-dancers, who spontaneously are enthused by these marvelous "Non-Agers". This film, told with lots of humor, provides a bunch of energy and high spirits - not only for the older audience.

Encountering Madagascar (1.15 p.m. / BALi)

Short film compilation of an exchange project between the Malagasy Film Festival RFC (Rencontres du Film Court de Madagascar) and the School of Art and Design Kassel. Two educating institutions - two encounters - two workshop films, that include some of the best current Malagasy shorts. This is a significant achievement as professional film production has only recently become possible again in Madagascar, a country still recovering from an autocratic governmental regime in which there is not one cinema and almost no cultural funding.

Democracy (5 p.m. / Gloria)

Digitalization has changed society. While data is becoming the "new oil", data protection is becoming the new "pollution control". Viviane Reding, Commissioner for Justice, is in charge to design the new data protection law and to maneuver it through the legislative bodies of the EU. Lobbyists get alarmed when the 30-year-old Jan Philipp Albrecht, specialized in net politics and civil rights, becomes the chief negotiator. An inside view into lawmaking on EU level. The story of how a group of politicians tries to protect today's society against the impact of Big Data and mass surveillance.

Opening: Monitoring (7 p.m. / Südflügel / KulturBahnhof)

Monitoring provides a space for film and video-based installations and other time-based media works of recent years that require presentation formats beyond the classic cinema screen. This year, the jury has selected sixteen works out of 266 international submissions: including works by artists from Germany, Russia, Switzerland, Turkey and the USA. The submissions followed an open call, without pre-set topics or restrictions concerning content or technical media. The works were chosen upon their ability to enfold in a spatial setting and the contemporary relevance of their topics.

Opening: Oh well, Baunatal, your Fields! (9 p.m. / Interim am Kulturbahnhof)

Installation of an audio piece by students of the School of Art and Design Kassel.

Janis: Little Girl Blue (10.15 p.m. / Gloria)

Follow the main stages of Janis Joplin's life, from her performance at Monterey Pop in 1967 to Woodstock in 1969 and Festival Express in 1970. Amy Berg's profound documentary includes interviews with relatives, friends and rock stars, complemented by Janis Joplin's hits. Berg shows the woman behind the myth, unveils a gentle, innocent yet strong woman. Well known as rock icon, the personal story of Janis Joplin is very complex. Narrated by Cat Power, Joplin tells her life through the letters she wrote to her friends, relatives and lovers, leading us in a journey that starts from her childhood.

Opening Party: DokfestLounge (from 10.30 p.m. / Weinkirche)

Line-Up:

Paper / Thadeusz Tischbein & Gregor Pfeffer (Performance / Kleine Weinkirche)

Gertrude Tuning (Visuals / Kleine Weinkirche)

Kiritan Flux (Visuals / Kleine Weinkirche)

DJ Joy (DJ-Set / Kleine Weinkirche)

Kool Mister DJ (DJ-Set / Kleine Weinkirche)


THURSDAY / NOVEMBER 12

Cloudy Times (12 a.m. / Gloria)
As long as Arami can remember, her mother has been suffering from epilepsy and Parkinson's. Even as a child in dictatorial Paraguay, she had to take care of her, who was separated from her father. At the age of 27, Arami managed to break away, became a director and moved to Europe with her boyfriend. The mother is looked after by an untrained nurse, until the illnesses increase and Arami "has to" go back. She finds herself in a dilemma, which results in a film. With South-American poetry she tells the story of her inner and exterior conflicts.

Drawing against Oblivion (2.30 p.m. / Gloria)

For several years the Austrian painter Manfred Bockelmann (born 1943) has been producing life-size charcoal drawings of children and adolescents, who were murdered in Auschwitz and other concentration camps. He mainly models them after Photos from official Nazi records. The shame and guilt of his parents' generation motivate the painter: His own father was a member of the Nazi party and Mayor of Kärnten. With his art project it is his aim is to "retrieve from being forgotten" these most innocent of victims and give them back their dignity.

State theatre #5 Beirut (4 p.m. / BALi)

Six citizens of the city - two architects, a theater director, an urban planner, an artist and a real estate advisor - are the personal and idiosynchratic tour guides through the downtown area around Martyr's Square. The square, which used to be the public center of the city, and, during the Libanese War between 1975 and 1990, was the line of demarcation between the opposing factions, is a barren, empty lot today. It is the focal point of the film. It is an empty center, which the stories of the six tour guides transformes into a potential stage - for both theater and national identity. The film is a walk through a zone of contradictions, in which abandoned theaters and cinemas are just as present as military checkpoints, empty lots, designer boutiques, bars, improvised memorials for martyrs, bullethole-ridden statues and places of religious worship.

DokfestForum / "Out of Control"(7 p.m. / Fridericianum)
Two film programs compiled by Wermke/Leinkauf & Lutz Henke

With lectures, artist talks and screenings, which thematically range in the intersection of film, documentary and art, the DokfestForum broades the spectre of the festival to include the fine arts. On two evenings the Fridericianum will present a film program compiled by teh artist duo Wermke/leinkauf and Lutz Henke, followed by moderated artist talks. A personal selection of artistic video works and documentations of interventions will be shown.

Reading: The Audiovisual Breakthrough / Cornelia Lund & Eva-Maria Offermann (9.30 p.m. / DokfestLounge / Weinkirche)
Visual music, expanded cinema, live cinema, VJing, live audiovisual performance - concepts enough to create some confusion in the wide realm of today's artistic audiovisual production. This is where The Audiovisual Breakthrough comes in: the book is the result of a collaborative project that brought together six international researchers with the view to untangle the reigning confusion regarding these terms. The event presents the book and its design; the discursive concepts are introduced by rich video examples.

By the way: With the tickets for Blacktape (10.15 p.m. / Gloria) and Oh Yeah. Berlin. Makers from the Berlin Subculture (9.45 p.m. / Filmladen) the entry for the DokfestLounge at the same evening is free.