Opening Ceremony Kassel Dokfest


(Gloria)

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Opening Short Film Compilation

Lake of Fire

LAKE OF FIRE deals with religious filter bubbles in the social network Youtube and focuses on the fear of death and the different interpretations of hell as a place of annihilation or eternal damnation. Old and new iconographies of religious principals are interwoven with pagan customs, and it becomes more and more clear how dualistic religions override nature and its laws and what fatal consequences anthropocentrism has for planet earth.… >>>

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  • Duration: 11 Min.
  • Premiere: German Premiere
    • Director: NEOZOON

    The Guardians of Refuse: A Short History of Rubbish

    The possibility of (re)constructing human history now no longer takes place in archives alone, it has instead moved into the realm of rubbish. But what if, under modern concepts of an efficient recycling system, there is no more waste? Then the past of our present will no longer be detectable in the future. In order to survive, rubbish must therefore seek alternative places of refuge. And it finds them within living organisms that inhabit the depth of the oceans...… >>>

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    • Duration: 11 Min.
    • Director: Susann Maria Hempel

    Haulout

    On a remote coast of the Siberian Arctic, a lone man in a windswept cabin waits, as he does every year, to witness an ancient gathering in which countless elective walruses leave the sea to mate. Warming seas and rising temperatures are bringing changes: more animals are arriving, space is becoming scarce, and fights are becoming more aggressive. The stunning and graceful images captured by the director duo of siblings stand in harsh contrast to the severity of reality.… >>>

    • Duration: 25 Min.
  • Nominated: Goldener Key
    • Director: Evgenia Arbugaeva, Maxim Arbugaev

    Ich sitze in der Wolke

    In his film, Daniel Franke drags us into the digital cloud, which concretizes enormous data sets for us with its micro-work. We board an abstract conglomerate of fibers, structures, colors and sounds that gives us the space to let our associations flow freely. The sponge-like structure we sink into allows our thoughts to wander, to semiconductors, bitcoins, electricity consumption, rare earths, crystals and other phenomena somewhere between environmental sin and digital evolution.… >>>

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    • Duration: 7 Min.
  • Premiere: World Premiere
    • Director: Daniel Franke

    The Path Is Never the Same

    This film focuses on two complex, self-organizing systems: a forest and an occupation. Long shots show the Hambacher Forest near Cologne, one of Germany’s last old-growth forests. The forest has become the scene of Europe’s longest tree-top occupation. Since 2012, about 200 people have been living in this forest to prevent its clearing by the energy company RWE, which wants to extract the lignite beneath the forest floor. In January 2020, after much of Hambacher Forest was already destroyed, pressure maintained for years by climate activists forced German politicians to order the preservation of what remained. The film reflects on the forest as a living space and on the need to confront the climate vandalism perpetrated in the name of “economic activity”.… >>>

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    • Duration: 27 Min.
  • Premiere: World Premiere
    • Director: Oliver Ressler