DokfestEducation

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.

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 mainly organized and carried out by students of the Film and Moving Image class at the Kunsthochschule Kassel (Prof. Jan Peters and Anna Berger) and takes place in cooperation with the Hessian Film and Media Academy (hFMA) this year at UK14.

Further information: www.hhft.info

Spot on workers’ struggles

In 2014, the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Fest expanded its profile by showcasing a European film and media distributor. Structural as well as content aspects of curatory work find room for discussion here. We are excited to divert from the presentation of a classic rental this year and present labournet.tv at the 41. Kassel Dokfest: labournet.tv represents video-archive, activism and academy altogether.

labournet.tv is a unique online-film-archive dedicated since 2011 to the documentation and distribution of labor struggles and social movements. Amongst the approx. 1,000 entries from 56 countries are various formats freely accessible through the film catalog: Besides classics such as the fabric films by the french Medvedkine group, there are videos of pickets and rallies, which we ourselves often film and distribute to further circulate labor struggles – as we put it in our claim. Above that, labournet.tv organizes film events dedicated to topics such as the collaboration between climate activism and unions, the ecological transition as well as strategies against right-wing tendencies in companies. We want to share the practical experiences, which we have made through our work with labournet.tv: In September 2024, the labournet.tv academy was founded, a new offer that features free strike-video-workshops. These workshops aim to provide participants with the skills to shoot their own strike videos and thus actively contribute to making labor struggles visible.

The work of labournet.tv is made possible by 140 supporting members and the Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt.

Since 2014, Kassel Dokfest has been portraying an international film festival every year to connect with other similarly orientated festivals that put together their programs with the same passion.

FIDMarseille is an international film festival which takes place every year at the beginning of July in Marseille. It offers a program of more than a hundred films, including fiction and documentary, short and feature films. FIDMarseille is a reference festival for the independent cinema of today and tomorrow, recognized internationally for the importance of its talent scouting work and its strong focus on unique aesthetics and emerging forms. It offers a challenging selection to a wide local, national and international audience, attracting professionals worldwide.

The program is divided into several competitive categories, presenting World or International Premieres. On top of this, each year retrospectives are dedicated to filmmakers, who attend the festival and share their films and experience with the audience, an out-of-competition selection and outdoor screenings. All located in the center of Marseille, a cosmopolitan city with a rare vitality. Debates, meetings and exchanges start in the morning in front of the cinemas, ending late at night, in socializing spaces for festivalgoers and open to the city.

Two events are presented additionally during the festival: FIDLab, an international co-production platform, and FIDCampus, a training residency for international students. Throughout the year, FIDMarseille organizes numerous screenings with various partners to showcase the films supported during the festival and develops training activities and educational workshops for a broad audiences. FID+ is the name of this extensive educational program to train viewers, support films and promote an independent and creative cinema. It takes place in Marseille, throughout France, Europe and worldwide.

(u)topia

How can the place where we live become a reflection of a way of life, or a space for questioning loss, memory and oblivion? The two films converse in the simplest terms with literature and imagination and offer an invitation to look around us, investigate and consider our relationship to what we call home.

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 following the screenings allows for the audience to engage in a conversation with the lecturers as well as the filmic juniors. Since 2006, the Kassel Dokfest has looked beyond national borders to universities in Europe, starting with the ZeLIG – School for Documentary, Television and New Media in Bolzano, Italy.

After last year’s focus on activities in Kassel – the Kassel Dokfest presented the graduate school for moving pictures: analogue realities, digital material perpetrator (GBB) – we cast our view beyond the refines of Kassel and Germany again: This year, the focus is on the KIMO National Film School, which is part of LMTA (Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre) and we welcome a student and a lecturer presenting the school.

Elena Kairytė und Sotera Kupinaitė present a selection of works by current students as well as alumni of KIMO National film School. Five short films will be shown in a compilation.

An excerpt of reality can be found in every fictional or non-fictional work, and an intensive examination of the subject, which includes both thematic and formal exploration, is a fundamental part of any artistic development. The processing of material in a documentary is different from that in a fiction film, an installation, or a podcast. The approaches differ depending on the medium, the subject, and their respective combinations. What they all have in common is a well-founded preoccupation with the relationship between expressive possibilities and content. What is to be depicted or shown is always linked to the way it is shown. Strategies are used to form artistic truth.

With this year’s topic of Profis Plaudern Praxis XVI, we would like to take a closer look at the relationship between the creative process and finding truth and shed light on investigative strategies in film and media production. Established professionals from the fields of production, research, consulting and directing assist you in finding the right approach to your artistic project and in assessing what is necessary to produce credible work.

Four short lectures open up different perspectives on the topic. Afterwards, individual queries can be addressed in the moderated panel discussion and one-on-one conversations - taking place at the media project center Offener Kanal in Kassel or via Zoom.

Interviews in German with the speakers are available here.

Free registration until November 14, via Anna Bell: bell@kasselerdokfest.de