Kunsthochschule für Medien Köln | KHM

Germany 2023, 95 min
by Martin Paret

Can books start a revolution? 1976, my uncle Hans boards an old fishing boat as a member of the left-wing activist group Operation Namibia. Their goal, to fight apartheid with 6000 banned books on board. But what was planned as a five-month journey, turns into a tragic odyssey. OPERATION NAMIBIA, a post-colonial experimental film that oscillates between written correspondence and original photographs.with: Hans Paret, Barry Considine, Jude Smith, Peter Ellis, Roy Purvis, Kenneth K. Martin, Monika Brandmair

2023, 66 min
by Sophie Dettmar

Anka and Lauryn, 2 aspiring midwives, deal with the difficulties and obstacles of the "birth" system in their final year of training. The film accompanies them in their everyday life as midwives and follows their thoughts. Why is there violence during births? What is the task of midwives? And what does a feminist attitude look like in the profession? The film shows with how much courage, caution and empathy the two deal with the topic.

2023, 102 min
by Luisa Bäde

As we immerse ourselves in the web of five Colombian mother-son relationships, we experience the phenomenon of the long-lasting emotional and physical closeness of adolescent males between the ages of 20 and 30 to their own mothers. We discover the ambivalence between traditional gender roles in the machismo culture and new masculinities in a country shaped by decades of armed conflict. The filmmaker's observational view is expanded by exercises that the protagonists complete with their own cameras to have access to the power of images by themselves.

Germany 2023, 21 min
by Gianna Scholten

Two giants that exist here - a german fairytale confronts us with the right-wing spiritual movement in Germany, which gained a strong following during the Corona pandemic. In symbolic encounters, such as a train ride passing by the Lorelei, underscored by Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries, original audio recordings from the right-wing extremist conspiracy scene are juxtaposed with the visually aesthetics of German fairy tales.

2023, 39 min
by Maximilian Karakatsanis

A cinematic journey between times and places. About a so-called guest worker from Greece who went to Germany. About life in a small Greek mountain village, family and personal loss. [21 doclisboa]

Germany 2023, 9 min
by Amelie Vierbuchen, Lea Sprenger, Franca Pape

Three female directors prepare a film about the chemical factory in the Cologne district of Kalk, on whose former grounds a shopping mall has been built. With some self-mockery they talk about their investigation and search for sources, their capitulation to the resistance of the material. Meanwhile, an archivist struggles with a mis-spooled 16mm film. Historical images splutter across the monitor of his analogue editing table. The silhouette of the factory with its towering chimneys is discernible. Site plans are shown, chemicals are blithely mixed. In an album, the filmmakers discover faded photos of female forced labourers. Suddenly, questions arise: Which stories are kept, which forgotten? Throwing away is part of his job, after all, the archivist explains in the finest Rhenish accent. What does this statement mean for the directing trio? [66 DOK Leipzig, Anke Leweke]

2022, 67 min
by Jelena Ilic

Two filmmakers travel to a rural region in Poland to make a film about dreams. Instead they learn something about reality: What starts with a question about dreams leads to an exchange about social conditions, fears, relationships and wishes. NIGHT LIKE DAY does not only portray eleven people, but also draws a socio-political picture of a landscape and its dreamers.

Germany 2022, 54 min
by Svenja Wichmann

The experimental documentary shows calm shots of Sunset Boulevard while various voices of people living in Los Angeles can be heard talking about aspects and experiences of their lives. Their narratives are interrupted by poetic reflections on absence and presence, accompanied by linear slow-motion shots along Sunset Boulevard. Other times they are contrasted by music and subjective close-ups of the sidewalk. The film explores the contrast between glamorous expectations, everyday experiences, and the various conditions and images that shape our reality.

Germany 2021, 46 min
by Naama Heiman

May 2020. I borrow my roommate’s camera and decide to make a film about him. It's supposed to be a really great documentary. The only problem is, I have feelings for him which he doesn’t feel back, there is a new world pandemic and a lockdown, we are stuck together in the same house and he doesn’t want to be filmed. A journey of falling out of love begins- between the present and the memories, Cologne and Tel Aviv- as far as I go and as hard as I try, I can't get him out of my mind.

Germany, India 2021, 79 min
by Rebana Liz John

"What makes you angry?" asks the filmmaker. A small film crew enters the ladies compartments of the local trains in Mumbai. Chance encounters and acquaintances are invited to reveal their opinions, their confessions and their stories in a 'public' space. Their diverse answers thread themselves into an unfolding tapestry of details and observations. The light on the faces, the figures in the background, the driving noises of the train and the interactions between the travelers bring the space alive. Black and white images distill the essence of the space. A poetic rhythm takes us across Mumbai and its mix of cultures, languages and faces, providing insight into how urban Indian women see and shape their lives.Poems: Kamla BhasinMusic: Jin Jim, Johann May, Daniel Manrique Smith, Nico Stallman, Neu Klang, Act Music, Lucas Pizzini72 BERLINALE Jury:"The Compass-Perspektive-Award goes to Ladies Only, a raw, honest film that concentrates on the essentials, truly standing out with its decisiveness and clarity of form. A crowd of people push their way through the narrow door of a train compartment, and for 80 minutes a transitional location becomes intimate theatre, in which we get to know various women. Filmmaker Rebana Liz John asks questions about existential issues such as freedom, family and career, and we obtain personal insights into the lives of the protagonists. She has different generations read a poem out loud and comment on it, interrelating their differing points of view. Interview moments alternate with quietly observed situations. The montage creates visible emphasis and contrasts, and takes a firm standpoint. As a result, the public space of the train compartment becomes an intimate space. Numerous situations and times of day are interwoven, and the finely crafted sound design generates continuity and tension. It takes courage to tell such a reduced story, to take a close look and to produce a socially relevant film from everyday life".

2021, 86 min
by Schahab Kermani

The Syrian-catholic community of Al-Khalil is renowned for its work of dialogue and close relationship to Islam. During the Syrian civil war, several members of the community were kidnapped by the terrorist group ISIS. Fleeing the persecution, some of the monks and nuns found a new home in the city of Sulaymaniyah, Iraq. With the expanding conflict they took in many displaced families in the monastery. As one of the different programs hosted by the community, a theatre workshop took place. The participants built a play based on the book Conference of the Birds by the islamic mystic Fariduddin Attar, intertwining the Sufi allegories with their own personal experiences.

Germany 2020, 76 min
by Luka Lara Steffen

Every year on February 13th, Dresden is reminding the public about the Allied bombing of 1945. While some reach out their hands in reconciliation, others march with torches through the city center. Since the 1990s, right groups have been mobilizing for demonstrations and marches. For many years, the march on February 13th was known as the largest in Europe. After a short success against those marches through blockades and preventions in 2010, they have since regained importance in recent years. As the world's understanding of the political right shifts further into the general norm, right wing actions around February 13th have increased in popularity again. An annual battle of Dresden's culture of commemoration and the question of authority to interpret history breaks out.

Germany 2020, 26 min
by Anna Verena Müller

What is the link between the end of a chemical reaction and the end of a career? And to what extent are there endings in the universe and in literature? A documentary film exploring the perspectives of eight protagonists and their understanding of endings.

Germany 2019, 20 min
by Johannes Krell, Florian Fischer

A shimmering light, the rusle of the leaves, the round spots of light in the shade of a tree. The sun reflects on the water. It is an element and counterpart. Can nature observe itself? A cinematic reflection on the presence and absence of things.

Germany 2019, 93 min
by Luisa Bäde

A studio room. Puppets. Frank Karbstein.Reminiscent, reflective, playful, narrating. The 1980s of the GDR - the group around the puppeteer Frank is arrested for distributing pacifistic leaflets. After being sentenced to imprisonment, the defendants are offered the opportunity to go to the West through a secret buy out of political prisoners. Frank stays. But the question remains: Who betrayed them?Different truths and memories stand side by side. In the centre of this is a person who never tries to act from the mindset of a victim and who shows his very own personal way of dealing with the GDR dictatorship. The 1980s of the GDR – Frank’s puppeteer group is arrested for distributing pacifist leaflets. After being sentenced to imprisonment, the defendants are offered the opportunity to go to the West through a secret buy-out of political prisoners. Frank remains. The same goes for the question of who betrayed them? Different truths and memories stand side by side. The focus is on a person who never tries to act from an attitude of victimization and who depicts his very personal way of dealing with the GDR dictatorship. (53 IFF Hof)

2019, 86 min
by Dandan Liu

HALF DREAM is a personal documentary film about three Chinese former art students and their dream of creating art. Ten years after their graduation from the Beijing Art Academy, the filmmaker goes to find three of her former classmates in order to confront them with their common past, their creative urges to make art, and their current lives. The film portrays the one-child policy generation of the 1980s and their attempt to make their way through life amidst a society shaken from economic and social upheaval. A film about dealing with social realities and the profound need for individual expression and creativity in a lifefrom which art is slowly disappearing.