During the German presidency of the EU, the Goethe-Insitut Belgium is working with BOZAR Cinéma and Cinema Galeries to show a selection of films from the Berlinale Forum from 22 to 25 October 2020 as part of its German Film Festivals on Tour in Brussels series. This has been well established in Brussels for quite a number of years.
Works of art from both this year as well as from the year that the Berlinale Forum began in 1971 will be screened. Both programmes cast a critical look at the past and it is continuing to influence the present. Alongside films from Haiti, the Czech Republic and Austria, there will also be a Belgian film this year, entitled Victoria, by the trio of directors Sofie Benoot, Liesbeth De Ceulaer and Isabelle Tollenaere. There will also be a debate with the directors after the screening of the film.
1. Berlinale Forum turns 50: A look backwards and forwards
In 2020, it not only the Berlinale that is celebrating a round number anniversary but also the International Forum of Young Cinema. The Berlinale is turning 70 and the Forum is turning 50.
Since 1971, the Berlinale Forum has shown itself to be courageous and international: aesthetically ambitious, avantgarde, experimental and politically explicit. In retrospect, the question emerges as to what today still has impact from the cultural/social breakthroughs of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Here goes the theory: historical films hold tools to react to the current shifts and imbalances in our societies, i.e tools that are urgently needed for us today. Whether that hits the mark or not is something that the Brussels public can find out during the screenings and in the debates afterwards.
2. 2020: German Film Festivals on Tour in Brussels
For the 70th anniversary of the Berlinale, German Film Festivals on Tour in Brussels will therefore offer a special programme with a selection of films from the current Berlinale Forum 2020 as well as from the first Forum programme from 50 years ago. This year’s choice of films also casts a critical look at the issues of decolonisation, feminism, sustainability and climate change.
Cristina Nord, the Head of the Berlinale Forum, will lead two film debates with the directors: one after the Haitian opening film Ouvertures on 22 October and one on 24 October after the film screening of the feminist film essay Gli appunti di Anna Azzori.
For many people, the first year of films is particularly inspirational, aesthetic and formal right up to today. That is also a feature of the forum up until today. Since 1971, it has been known to show new trends in world cinema and to go beyond formal boundaries. Under the motto “FORUM 50 Jahre”, a double bill of the colonialism-critical film Monangambee by Sarah Maldoror and the racism-critical film The Murder of Fred Hampton by Howard Alk can be seen in Brussels on 24 October. On Sunday 25 October, from 1 p.m., three short films will be shown as a tribute to the pionneer of essay films, Chris Marker.
A further highlight is Frem by Viera Čákanyová from 2019, a poetic/documentary/artistic examination of image formation, imaging and presentation processes between fiction and vision.
3. German Filmfestivals on Tour in Brussels programme
Ouvertures
By The Living and the Dead Ensemble (UK / F 2020, Haitian, French, Subtitles: E, 132’) + Q&A Léonard Jean Baptiste, Louis Henderson, Olivier Marboeuf
22 October 2020, Cinema Galeries, 6.30 p.m.
Victoria
By Sofie Benoot, Liesbeth De Ceulaer, Isabelle Tollenaere
(Belgium 2020, English, 71’) + Q&A Sofie Benoot, Liesbeth De Ceulaer, Isabelle Tollenaere
23 October 2020, Bozar, 7 p.m.
Gli appunti di Anna Azzori / Uno specchio che viaggia nel tempo The Notes of Anna Azzori / A Mirror that Travels through Time
By Constanze Ruhm (AUS/D/F 2020; D, IT, Subtitles: E, 72’)
24 October 2020, Bozar, 6 p.m.
FORUM 50 Years
Monangambeee
By Sarah Maldoror (Algeria 1969, French, Subtitles: E, 16’)
The Murder of Fred Hampton
By Howard Alk (USA 1971, English, 88’)
24 October 2020, Bozar, 9 p.m.
FORUM 50 Years
Chris Marker Programme
On vous parle de Paris: Maspero, les mots ont un sens (Calling from Paris: Maspero. Words Have a Meaning)
By Chris Marker (France 1970, French, Subtitles: E, 20’)
Sochaux, 11 juin 68 (Sochaux, 11th of June 1968)
By Groupe Medvedkine Sochaux (France 1970, French, 20’)
Les trois-quarts de la vie (Three Quarters of a Life)
By Groupe Medvedkine Sochaux (France 1971, French, 18’)
Sunday, 25 October, Bozar, 1 p.m.
FORUM 50 Years
Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives)
By Rosa von Praunheim (D 1971, English, 67’)
Sunday 25 October, Bozar, 5 p.m.
FREM
By Viera Čákanyová with Martin Kovačík (Czech Republic / Slovak Republic 2019, English, Subtitles: English, 73’)
Sunday, 25 October, Bozar, 8 p.m.
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The German Film Festivals on Tour in Brussels series is an initiative of the Goethe-Institut Brüssel and BOZAR Cinéma in cooperation with the Berlinale Forum, Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst e.V. und Cinema Galeries. With the support of the senate administration for culture und Europe of the Berlin Region, Alliance Française Bruxelles-Europe and the Austrian Culture Forum.
