The US concept Ableism originates in Disability Studies and reacts to the discrimination of physically challenged, or neurologically diverse people. Inscribed in the collective subconscious is a validation system that demands a certain level of individual performance and any deviation from this is countersigned as an exception with negative consequences. The films in the program show different positions on the legitimacy of being / becoming different and reveal how the normative society often reacts to these individuals with medical corrections and exclusionary adaptation strategies. A plea for more individual and structural commitment to an understanding of inability not as personal deficiency, but as communal opportunity for more equity.
An unexpected ASMR respiratory exam. ASMR is a popular genre of videos on youtube, lead by soothing sounds believed by its creators to generate euphoria, a sound porn of sorts. DOTS is a part of Ann Oren's video journals, a short video series responding to media culture and Instagram specifically with the square format, often starring animals.… >>>
A former military game designer was spotted in a video game competition organized by the army. Before going to war, he made video game scenarios that prepared soldiers to cultural shocks and healed trauma. Once back from the war, his relationship with his identity, with life and with the video game changed.… >>>
FRENULUM dramatizes a controversial real-life operation, following eight children as they perform imaginary tongue surgery (a lingual frenectomy) on a member of their group, in order to help them speak phonetic sounds from the English language better. In some countries it is also used for helping children reach specific English sounds better. Widely disputed by health professionals and local authorities as a suitable procedure for such a goal, it is representative of the physical manifestation of a whole set of global socio-economic-cultural pressures for future career and life opportunities.… >>>
The film gives people who have been diagnosed as being on the autism spectrum, more specifically, with Asperger syndrome, the chance to speak. They offer profound reflections on what isolates them from the so-called world out there, how their social handicap and the difficulties in communicating with others lead them to experience the disturbance as a prison. The limitations as well as the compulsion are reflected and intensified at the visual level: wooden colored blocks are, constantly rearranged by hands covered by rubber gloves. It is a symbol of the inability to grasp the structure of a social situation (Anne Katrin Feßler)… >>>
Hedi is experiencing strange things. While her granddaughter is visiting, she suddenly embarks on a hiking journey, to the deepest parts of the Alps, revealing the reason for her devoted attachment to her hiking shoes. A story about Heidi's attempt to retain her identity and autonomy.… >>>
In a post-apocalyptic world not much unlike parts of the present, SUGAR, a humanoid robot that can feel, think and dance, is sent out to bring back a human touch to people. He encounters a HON (Human Organism Normal), a post-influencer who lives in an underground techno cell and poses in a sort of eternal commercial broadcast and tries to free help him. The tragicomic narrative of this encounter and its failure raises general questions about consciousness, ego-turbo-capitalisms and the dream of the collective.… >>>