The promotion of young filmmakers is a special concern of the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, and the DokfestEducation section is an expression of this commitment. Imparting expert knowledge, taking in new developments and critically discussing them, establishing relationships and networking: These are the goals of DokfestEducation.
Part of the section DokfestEducation are presentations of international film cultural institutions. This year, an international distribution, a post-graduate university program and two film festivals will be presented: This will give interested viewers the opportunity to engage with the concepts of film production and, in addition to the structural aspects, also with the content related aspects of curatorial (film) work. Guests are argos centre for audiovisual arts with the program COMMENT FILMER?; DokuFest and Beldocs, two festivals joining for the “Balkan Focus” program complimented by an “Education Talk” and the Graduate School for Moving Image: Analog Realities, Digital Materialities at the Kunsthochschule Kassel, which was awarded the Honorary Award at the 39th Kassel Dokfest as an outstanding initiative from Kassel.
Profis Plaudern Praxis XV / PraxisDokfest is dedicated this year to the topics of placement, marketing and distribution of media and film productions. The event educated on access to film markets and festivals in order to discover their benefits and potential for one's own project.
The hFMA
The Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA) supports the HHFT, the Hessian University Film Day, significantly. As a teaching, research and production association of independent universities, the central aim of the hFMA network is to connect the broad spectrum of film and media study programs in Hesse and to create a synergetic added value. With new ideas and in various cooperations, the hFMA realizes this matter in different projects – such as the HHFT.
The Hessian University Film Day is an event for invited professionals and accredited festival guests only. As part of the Hessian University Film Day (HHFT), the four Hessian universities that offer study programs in the field of film present a selection of their current and best feature, animation, experimental and documentary film works. Students will
Additionally, students will have the opportunity to pitch their newest ideas to an audience of industry professionals.
The aim of the HHFT is to establish a connection between Hessian students and graduates and the film and television industry, in order to promote future cooperation.
For this purpose, the HHFT invites editors, producers, festival directors and distributors as well as members of various industry institutions every year. After viewing the program, the industry professionals and professors make a pre-selection for HESSEN TALENTS, a project of the hFMA, which is presented at the European Film Market of the Berlinale.
In order to intensify the exchange at the HHFT, students as well as industry professionals are invited to present themselves and their projects and thereby establish new contacts. In addition, all visitors will have the opportunity to give students specific feedback on their projects.
The HHFT is supported by the Kassel Dokfest and the Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA), and organized and carried out by students of the Kunsthochschule Kassel.
Further information: www.hhft.info
DokfestEducation 2023
How to Film?
Starting in 2014, the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival expanded its profile by the presentation of a European film and media distributor, addressing both structural aspects and the substance of their activities. This year we are pleased to present argos centre for audiovisual arts whose works have been part of our program since 1994.
Founded in 1989 in Brussels, argos centre for audiovisual arts is a resource for the advancement of critical audiovisual arts, with a wide variety of presentation, distribution, conservation, and restoration activities.
argos considers the audiovisual as a primary means of looking at and understanding the world in more open and integrated ways. Supporting a multiplicity of voices in society, it fosters dialogue with a broad range of institutional and non-institutional partners, both in Brussels and beyond, and seeks new ways to engage diverse audiences.
argos makes exhibitions and programs, distributes moving image works, and builds, preserves, and discloses a prominent collection of artist films and videos. Additionally, it develops original research projects relating to significant gaps in art history and its relationship to culture and society.
Through these various activities, argos aims to more fully understand the past and present of audiovisual arts, as well as provide tools to collectively imagine and shape its futures.
Since 2014, Kassel Dokfest has been presenting international film festivals, to extend its profile, and to document the festival’s connection with other, similarly-orientated organisations. Two programs, each curated by a festival from the Balkan region will be followed by a discussion on film education.
DokuFest, International Documentary and Short Film Festival in Prizren, is the largest film festival in Kosovo. What started in 2002 with a group of friends and cinema lovers, became one of the leading documentary film festivals in Southeast Europe. Through its year-round activities and the visionary DokuLab, it is promoting documentary film in classrooms, as well as in film training programs for aspiring filmmakers under the Future is Here and Schools and Documentary programs. Therefore, helping launch what is now being labeled a New Kosovo Wave in filmmaking. DokuFest is an EFA and BAFTA nominating festival for short films.
International Documentary Film Festival Beldocs was founded in 2008 in Belgrade and based on the idea that the documentary form has a special power to inspire people to think, create, and believe in change. The main goals of Beldocs are to develop, support, promote, network, and educate in the field of international documentary film and XR content. Beldocs is one of the main gathering places for creative documentaries and European film professionals in the Western Balkans. It is recognized as the place where best national and international documentaries, new voices and the industry of the region meet and support each other.
Education Talk
with Eroll Bilibani (DokuFest), Marion Czarny (Fipadoc), Marko Grba Singh (Beldocs), Afsun Moshiry
Student projects integrated within film festivals can draw on the resources of arts and critical multiliteracies as Educational Exchange flourishes the intersectional value within film festivals. The discussion elaborates on the line between exchange programs and collaborative artistic projects.
For more than 30 years now, the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival has been presenting a European film school. For this purpose, some of the students of the respective university, as well as their professors, are invited to Kassel to present a selection of their works. The discussions that follow the screenings give the audience the opportunity to talk to the lecturers, as well as to the young filmmakers to learn more about European film and teaching approaches at other film schools. In addition, this event offers the opportunity to establish important contacts for both sides.
On the occasion of 40 years of Dokfest, the university portrait returns to the city: The Graduate School for Moving Image: Analog Realities, Digital Materialities was awarded the Honorary Award at the 39th Kassel Dokfest for particularly innovative achievements; today we present it in the university portrait. The Graduate School for Moving Image (GBB) was established in 2020 as a pilot project to further develop the third phase (i.e. postgraduate, after an MA, Magister or equivalent artistic degree) at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. The Graduate School for Moving Image (GBB) was established in 2020 as a pilot project to further develop the third phase (i.e. postgraduate, after an MA, Magister or equivalent artistic degree) at the Kunsthochschule Kassel.
Anna Illin, Jan Peters and Herr v. Rehtanz present a selection of works by current participants as well as alumni of GBB.
Film markets are exclusive spaces during film festivals that young film and media professionals have little idea of at the beginning of their professional careers. Among other things, filmmakers, producers, distributors, and sponsors meet there, projects are presented, pitched, and traded. It is the place where the industrial side of the sector accumulates. Knowledge of film markets and festivals seems to be a blind spot that needs to be examined – in terms of relevance to one's own work. At the latest at the end of a film and media-related course of study, the question after how to earn money with one's own works or skills arises. Reflecting this in connection to the importance of film markets is the claim of Profis Plaudern Praxis XV. The event on November 17 aims to give access to the mystery that is film markets and film festivals and to classify its potential. Speakers from various fields will share their unique assessments of what is happening in a film market, how it works, for whom and when it is worthwhile to participate, and what forms of participation are possible.
Interviews in German with the speakers are available here.
Free registration until November 16, via Anna Bell: bell@kasselerdokfest.de