Filmmaking is a constant renegotiation of visibility, which produces the new and replaces and overlaps with the old. The six members of the selection committee had the task of identifying the trends in current film production from the almost 2,000 short films submitted. The result is a program of 110 films from 38 countries, with many young filmmakers as well as well-known ones. With 25 programs, the section will occupy the BALi cinema in the KulturBahnhof for five days.
Selection committee 2024: Theresa
George, Boris Hadžija, Linn Löffler, Jessica Manstetten, Afsun Moshiry, Matti
Ullrich
Assistance: Zeinah Kamel
Short Film – 2024:
The cinema offers refuge from everyday life and shelter from all the problems, which tirelessly draw their circles. Whoever is overwhelmed finds peace, and those who are lonely company amidst the flickering of the images. Kassel Dokfest also offers shelter, but in a different way, too. It’s a “safe room”, in which hard to bear facts and discussions are best stored. Therein, it is precisely not the flight from everyday life that is on program, but the confrontation of everyday life itself – one’s own and that of others’ – in all its facets. Short films and short film compilations have an especially fine and nuanced ability to grasp and produce the frequencies of our world. Nevertheless: Us, too, the sifting group, desire warmth and comfort amongst lasting states of exception, for cinema experiences that give us a feeling of security, strength and confidence or simply joy. Our desire is mirrored by this year’s film selection and programs. They guide us to unforeseen journeys in depths and heights, where nuances that are usually absent shine. And their absence not only tightens our access to the world, but distorts it.
What the filmmakers achieve, share and inspire in that sense, moved us profoundly. Their empathy and their curiosity in the documentary and experimental work oozes life. Herein, their inclination towards the elementary and the planetary powers catches the eye: They dig into deep caves, surround themselves with rocky terrain, seek the darkness of the night. Perhaps here, one simply reflects better, unfaded, unbothered? Others glare up into the stars deep into the universe. Where hides the answer, where is our desire satisfied? Darkness and light, they have forever formed the duality cinema calls upon.
And whether on lonesome expeditions through the darkness, through the archive and through vast landscapes or while being together, loving and fighting – everyone finds their place in the grand cinema hall.
With 110 films from 38 countries, many young filmmakers, but also well-known ones, Edition 2024 is making itself heard with diverse voices. It is remarkable that they are predominantly female or non-binary. This also offers hope.
With 25 programs, we occupy the beautiful BALi cinema in the KulturBahnhof for five days. Whether early in the morning or at midnight, for all larks, owls and doves in between: There are short films galore. Two programs with the university's literature and political science courses, as well as a cooperation with the FIDMarseille Festival and the Queerfilmfest Kassel. For the second year in a row, we want to re-polish the understanding of short film compilations and rethink cinema – with a performance surrounded by video works on Friday at 8 pm. And if you still haven't had enough, you can take a trip to the oldest video library in the world, which happens to be just around the corner. Because we will also be showing a program there on Friday evening.
We find warmth and comfort sometimes less and sometimes more. In some programs, such as the playful Short and Sweet, it is omnipresent. It makes you snuggle up in your movie seat and forget, at least for a moment, the wet, uncomfortable November rain drumming against the window from outside, which may soon have turned to snow.