DokfestEducation

The Hessian University Film Day, a non-public event for invited professionals and accredited festival guests. As part of the Hessian University Film Day (HHFT), four universities that have a film program present their best and newest feature, animation, experimental and documentary films to an audience of industry insiders and pitch their newest ideas.

The goal of the Hessian University Film Day is to build a connection between Hessian students and graduates and the film and TV industry, in order to promote future collaboration.

Every year, the HHFT specifically invites journalists, producers, heads of other festivals, distribution partners and members of various institutions of education. After the screenings, the professionals make a preselection for the HESSEN TALENTS, a hFMA project, which will be presented at the European Film Market within the Berlinale.

To further intensify the exchange for the HHFT, not only students are invited to present themselves and their projects, but industry professionals also get a chance to give some information about their work and themselves. In addition, all visitors will have the opportunity to provide students with vital feedback. The HHFT is supported by the Kassel Dokfest and the hessische Film- und Medienakademie (hFMA), and organized and implemented by students of the Kunsthochschule Kassel.

Starting in 2014, the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival expanded its profile by the presentation of a renowned European film and media distributor, addressing both structural aspects and the substance of their activities. This year, we are glad to present Collectif Jeune Cinéma, a collective distribution which is unique in its concept. The starting point was the claim of a non-commercial marketing concept to distribute (their own) films. Although structures were renewed and adapted in 1998, they continue to be guided by the collective idea of the original distribution model.

Collectif Jeune Cinéma, founded in 1971, promotes visual experimental practices including the distribution of experimental cinema, regular monthly screenings and the yearly Paris Festival for Different and Experimental Cinema. In the past, CJC also published two magazines dedicated to experimental cinema [Cinéma Diffrent (1976 to 1980) and étoilements (2007 to 2011)], and is still promoting written production on experimental practices through its Festival catalog.

CJC was founded on the model of the New York Filmmakers’ Coop by the filmmakers that were attending the Hyères festival in 1971. They decided, through this cooperative, that they would distribute their work together, in opposition to the usual commercial film distribution methods. Nowadays, CJC still follows that same idea. CJC’s catalog includes more than 1,300 films from more than 350 filmmakers, and is still counting.

An exhibition by students of École Média Art Fructidor (Chalon-sur-Saône, France) and the class of Film and Moving Image of the School of Art and Design, Kassel.

An exhibition by students of the École Média Art Fructidor Chalon-sur-Saône, France and the class of Film and Moving Image of the School of Art and Design Kassel. In 1826, countless experiments with the most varied substances were necessary before inventor Nicéphore Niépce achieved what would later be termed photography in rural France. He has to expose the asphalt-coated plates in his pinhole camera to the sun for up to eight hours, thereafter letting them absorb lavender oil for five days before the gable of the house on the other side of the road becomes permanently visible on them. Niépce dies in 1833 at his birth-place Chalon-sur-Saône without having profited economically from his invention at all.

130 years later, analog photography has become a mass phenomenon. Reacting to pressures from the world market Kodak, the global leader in photographic film, decides to open a new plant in Chalon-sur-Saône. The central location within Europe as well as the fact that it is deemed the birthplace of photography were said to be the deciding factors in choosing it. The branch expands steadily, and employs a maximum of 2,200 workers on a company site of 80 ha in 2002. But a mere three years later, due to the advance of digital photography (incidentally an invention by Kodak that was not taken seriously at first), the production of film material ceased and the plant was closed.

How does the place where analog photography was born and almost became forgotten again look nowadays? What role do photography and film play there today? These questions were posed by students of the class Film and Moving Image of the School of Art and Design Kassel in a coopera- tive project with students of the École Média Art Fructidor Chalon-sur-Saône under the guidance of professors Madeleine Aktypi, Volko Kamensky, Laurent Montaron, and Jan Peters.

Students from Chalon-sur-Saône visited Kassel in January 2018 to present first impressions of this collaboration. In May 2018, the project group travelled to Chalon-sur-Saône, where it presented further results at a joint exhibition at the Kodak plant. This cooperative project culminated in a concluding group exhibition BITUMEN & LAVENDER OIL within the Dokfest Kassel at the Interim, KulturBahnhof. It stands in a long line (now almost a tradition) of exhibition cooperation between the School of Art and Design Kassel and the Kassel Dokfest: COUNTER-HISTORIES/ COUNTER-STORIES (2014); ACH, BAUNATAL DEINE FELDER (2015); AREA OF INTEREST (2016) and, most recently, CKOLLISION (2017).

Learning from colleagues to create a career – after studying moving picture: This is again the issue of this year’s Profis Plaudern Praxis X / PraxisDokfest.

We invite Alumni and founders of three projects to outline the wide range of careers that are rendered accessible: From regional to international, from freely artistic to practically applied, from the independent art project to the commissioned work. The diversity of examples is supposed to inspire students to risk new approaches and develop an individual definition of success and professional pathways. Besides it should contribute to the student’s courage and their control of the tools they need to maintain and realize their visions and ideals throughout practical applications after university as well as the ability of making them financially supportable.

Short lectures will open up new perspectives. Subsequently, individual queries can be addressed in one-on-one conversations.