8th CIDSFF 2020 : Contemporary German Documentary and Short Films

8th Chennai International Documentary and Short Film Festival 2020

A still from 'The Kick' by Andres Veiel

Contemporary German Documentaries:

IN MY SKIN
Dir: Anna-Sophia Richard | 2018 | 72min. | German with English subtitles
Why do women stay in violent relationships even when they have beenabused for a long time?

We experience the daily lives of three women with different backgrounds asthe camera takes on their point of view. We hear their thoughts and sufferwith them as they struggle to become more independent and break free.Based on true events, all voice-over texts were taken from interviews withthe portrayed women.


MISSION LIFELINE
Dir: Markus Weinberg | 2019 | 67min. | German, English

Their purpose: to save refugees from drowning. For this, Axel Steier and his team from the Dresden sea-rescue NGO "Mission Lifeline" have worked tirelessly for years to collect donations. Together with two Spanish NGO's, they finally manage to buy their own ship and set off to the Mediterranean. In his hometown Dresden, Axel's idea finds many friends but just as many enemies. And then, the truth at sea – oil leakage, refugee boats sinking before their eyes, even gunfire by Libyan militia. For two years, we accompanied Axel and his team with our camera – even onto the ship just off the Libyan coast, where the struggle to save people from certain death ultimately also turns into a fight for the European idea.

WAR IN ME
Dir: von Sebastian Heinzel | 2019 | 83min. | German, Russian

"How much soldier is still alive in me?", Sebastian Heinzel asks himself when he learns from theWehrmacht archives that his grandfather fought in Russia during the Second World War. GrandpaHans didn't mention this mission in his family until his death. Inspired by the discoveries thefilmmaker travels to the places where his grandfather was stationed as a soldier. He encountersunexpected connections to his own life and to his war dreams, which have been haunting him fordecades. Sebastian involves his father in his confrontation, which brings the two closer togetherand breaks the silence that also shaped his father. The film shows how knots in one's own familyhistory can be loosened and how changes can be made.

With the help of scientists, therapists and authors, the director explores how far-reaching collectiveevents such as flight, expulsion and genocide reach into the second and third generations. Newresearch from epigenetics indicates that enormous stress experiences change the genetic makeup.These are groundbreaking insights that make it clear what inheritance the descendants carryon their shoulders - often without being aware of it.

Against the background of the global refugee crisis and international tensions, the film tells of thelong-term consequences of the war and our task to deal with it in order to make healing andreconciliation possible.

Contemporary German Short Films:

SHORT EXPORT 2019 - EDITION 14

Already in its fourteenth edition SHORT EXPORT 2019 – MADE IN GERMANY travels the world with a selection of current German short films. The cooperation between AG Kurzfilm, German Films, Goethe-Institut Lyon, Kurz Film Agentur Hamburg and the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand resulted in yet another wonderfully colorful short film programme.

SHORT EXPORT 2019 – MADE IN GERMANY presents seven entertaining films that illustrate the German short film scene's vast artistic and stylistic variety. The films selected for this edition wittily tell about identity, searching and finding.

Total Duration: 95 min

FILM DETAILS

BIOTOPE
Paul Scholten | documentary | 12'

Life in Neuperlach, a Munich suburb, is tranquil. It is a safe neighbourhood where people know and greet each other. Everybody has their own backyard; single car garages line the narrow footpaths and everything is nicely groomed. However, this peaceful existence has been troubled for some time now: refugees are set to move in next door. Some of the residents are worried that their peace will be disturbed, so they are putting up a noise protection wall.

NEKO NO HI (CAT DAYS)
Jon Frickey | animation | 11'
Little Jiro feels sick. His father takes him to see the doctor. She diagnoses a harmless condition, but it shakes the boy's identity to its core.

TRACING ADDAI
Esther Niemeier | animated documentary | 30'
A true story about a war and the tragic impact it has on the lives of three people.

The story of a young man who leaves his life behind in Germany and sets off to help people. In 2013, Addai joins a Salafist group in Syria. A few years later his mother meets Ilias, a returnee from Syria. Their personal stories paint a clearer picture of Addai’s story.

AM CU CE - MEIN GANZER STOLZ
Hannah Weissenborn | fiction | 19'
Romanian trucker Stancu has given his nephew Dragan a second driver card which enables him to stretch his legal driving time. But when Dragan falls into microsleep at the wheel and almost causes an accident, Stancu suddenly feels responsible.

HALMASPIEL (CHINESE CHECKERS)
BetinaKuntzsch | animated documentary | 15'
The film uses animated objects discovered in the family archives to recount the life of my mother. It is a 20th century biography: growing up in the Nazi era, teenage years in post-war Germany, the building of the Wall and life in the GDR and then reunified Germany. It is a story of escaping and adapting, challenging and conforming.

FEST
Nikita Diakur | experimental animation | 3'
Footage from a suburban block party. Rave, drone, BBQ and ice cream. Then a stunt. Youtube inspired and simulated.

CARLOTTA'S FACE
FrédéricSchuld, Valentin Riedl | animated documentary | 5'
As a child, Carlotta didn’t expect the people around her to have faces. She doesn’t even recognize her own face. Years later, she learns about a rare, untreatable deficiency in her brain. In the end, it is art that gives her the chance to finally recognize herself.