Portrait

Just the first few seconds of this film are enough to create an all-pervading sense of oppression that predominates for the next 15 minutes. “Berlin Metanoia” is a dark, almost (hellishly) dreamlike trip into the innermost realms of a city that loves to market itself as young and cool, but which has lost its soul somewhere between hipsterism, tourist onslaughts and hype. In his latest short fiction film, which celebrated its premiere at the 2016 Berlinale, Erik Schmitt approaches the latent psychotic Berliner identity with an intensity that continues to reverberate for a long time afterwards. Read More

Lukas Marxt wasn’t particularly surprised when Adam Hyman of the LA Film Forum told the audience at the Goethe Institute Los Angeles they need not worry about the narrative of… Read More

The films by Kyne Uhlig and Nikolaus Hillebrand are full of things that you would usually find in the kitchen or a closet. Gherkins march in step, spoons develop a dubious life of their own and lonely socks desperately search for their better halves. The filmmakers, who live and work together in Cologne and go by the name of “niky-Bilder”, prefer to use everyday as well as lost-and-found objects and breathe new life into them for their animated films – and that’s especially practical considering that they live right next door to their studio, making it easier to, whenever the need arises, place the contents of their domestic cupboards in the spotlight. Read More

The artist Vika Kirchenbauer engages in something that is probably rather akin to the idea of critical art – including all the obtrusiveness and potential inherent in such a concept…. Read More

In response to the question of how best to call the art made by Matthias Wermke and Mischa Leinkauf, after a lengthy discussion both reply: sculpture. (In German, the word for sculpture is Bildhauerei, which literally translates as “image-hewing”). While not meant entirely seriously, it sounds funny and nails it surprisingly well. Firstly, the description contains the kind of dry humour that is quintessential to the Berlin artist-duo’s work. Read More

When writing about the depiction of pain in the world, Susan Sontag once spoke about “regarding”. In “Regarding the Pain of Others”, she focused thematically on reactions to images, the responsibility when seeing, as well as on philosophical positions on a realpolitik geographical map. Read More

Ulu Braun is based in Berlin and his work is represented at both film festivals and in the art world. He perceives this double-track approach as a privilege, allowing him the freedom to experiment and broaden his own horizons by regularly traversing boundaries. Read More

Izabela Plucińska uses modelling clay to create detailed worlds that are as magical in appearance as they are down-to-earth. Worlds that come alive on the big screen in short animated… Read More

Ein kauziger alter Mann steht auf dem Balkon. Die Aussicht ist trist, der Rauch unzähliger Fabrikschlote verdunkelt den Himmel. Fürsorglich wässert der Mann eine einzelne Blume, die in einem rostigen Kasten den schlechten Bedingungen trotzt. Read More

Alltägliche Szenen des menschlichen Zusammenlebens surreal inszeniert, fast schon eine Art performative Installation zwischen Traum und Wirklichkeit – so wirken die aneinander gereihten bizarren Sequenzen in Susann Maria Hempels Film WIE IST DIE WELT SO STILLE (2012). Read More

Great art doesn’t need many words – Olaf Held and his short films What might a filmmaker have in mind when he chooses to call a three-minute work SHORT FILM?… Read More

Critical wanderer between artistic worlds She added it all up once. Reduced her artistic work to a simple sum of minutes of film produced. It came to just twenty minutes… Read More

The (Un-)Mistakable Marion Pfaus likes to play with different identities. On her website, the Berliner by choice coyly asserts that she is constantly being mistaken for someone else. Indeed, for… Read More

Short films for kids Children watch too much television. Ten-year-olds sit in front of the box for an average of over 100 minutes a day. Everyone agrees that escalating television… Read More

On the art of creative equilibrium There’s a simple rule in the animated film business: if you want to live from animated film, you have to master the balancing act… Read More

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS – Bjørn Melhus doesn’t want to be forced to decide between Black Box and White Cube Bjørn Melhus is one of Germany’s best-known short-film makers… Read More

The Grass Is Always Greener on the Other Side Elke and Iris are old friends who have lost track of each other somewhat over the years. Both are fast approaching… Read More

Films from the depths of the subconscious Pale green water washes over the camera lens, forming bubbles as it subsides. The lens seems to gasp for air several times before… Read More

Kathrin Albers and Jim Lacy The company Kathrin Albers and Jim Lacy founded in 2001 in Hamburg as platform for making animated films is named after the technology they use:… Read More

Pursuing the Accidental Storyline Jan Peters is a central figure on the German Super 8 film scene – even though, unlike many other cine-film enthusiasts, he is no purist when… Read More

Daniel Nocke is something of a rare bird on the German short film scene. Born in Hamburg, Nocke has made a name for himself in the last ten years both… Read More

Life and films in the Super 8 parallel universe Super 8 filmmaker Dagie Brundert was born in 1962 in Ostwestfalen, studied visual communication and experimental filmmaking in Krefeld and Berlin… Read More

Veit Helmer is one of the few German filmmakers who, as a wanderer between the genres, is able to cross what are regarded as the hermetically sealed boundaries between the… Read More

After focusing in past editions of our Filmmaker Portrait primarily on artistic achievements, today we would like to introduce Germany’s most commercially successful short-film maker, Jörg Wagner. With STAPLERFAHRER KLAUS… Read More

In choosing the film BENIDORM as winner of the German Short Film Award 2006, the jury recognized the work of a filmmaker who has managed to make an impression with… Read More

Films to chase away boredom: Stephan-Flint Müller «Fliegenpflicht f«r Quadratk«pfe« («Bow Tie Duty for Squareheads«) was without question one of the most popular and successful German short films of recent… Read More

If one were to list filmmakers whose short films have been much in evidence at festivals during the last few years, there is one name that would fall frequently: Matthias… Read More

If one can speak of Germany as having its own “short film establishment”, then Jochen Kuhn is by all means a charter member. He has been active as a film… Read More