THE SCENT OF BEETROOT AND THE PEOPLE WHO LIVE FOREVER | Germany 2023 | Animation | Length: 12:29 Min | Director: Petra Stipetić & Maren Wiese

A scientist discovers the key to immortality: the scent of beetroot. Through its excessive use, the entire planet is soon enveloped in an impenetrable magenta-coloured atmosphere. Immortality spreads like a virus: death is not only avoidable but impossible. In real interviews, the inhabitants talk about their lives in this dystopian utopia.

Petra Stipetić and Maren Wiese both studied at the Kunsthochschule Kassel and have already realised several projects together. Vom Duft der Roten Beete und den Menschen, die ewig leben was nominated for the Hessian Film Award 2023 and was honoured with the Golden Hercules of the Dokfest Kassel in November.

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HEY EHM | Germany 2023 | Feature film | Rhein-Main-Premiere | Length: 02:30 Min | Director: Benjamin Kessler

Who still writes today when you can send voice messages? It's not that simple. With delicate nervousness about the what and how, Hey Ehm shows how quickly words can sometimes fail you. Starting, cancelling, starting, cancelling, starting, apologising - a vicious circle in modern digital friendship.

The film was made in Benjamin Kessler's shared flat in Wiesbaden, where he has been living for three years and where he took his first steps in narrative filmmaking.

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GAZE IN BATTLE | Germany 2023 | Documentation | Rhein-Main-Premiere | Length: 20:06 Min | Director: Ayla Pierrot Arendt

Gaze in Battle follows director Ayla Pierrot Arendt's transition from mere observation to a searing experience in Israel/Palestine in the summer of 2023. As protests unfold in Tel Aviv and violence intensifies in the West Bank, Arendt grapples with threats and contradictions. Using a blue screen, diaristic voiceover, and experimental performance, Arendt illustrates personal involvement, until reality compels her unwilling participation. Amongst a people divided under the same striking blue sky, her gaze is creating an urgent record of life on the brink of terror and war, rather than weighing sides. Emphasising her limited perspective, Arendt cropped the 4k 16:9 footage to a square format.

Ayla Pierrot Arendt studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and choreography & performance at the Institute for Applied Theatre Studies in Gießen. Arendt's hand-drawn animation and performance art films have been shown at renowned festivals worldwide since 2007. Arendt is currently working on the walk-in 4-channel video installation DEATH IN PEACE (2024), as the 2nd part of her trilogy WAR AND PEACE, funded by HessenFilm und Medien.

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POINT. LINE. WAVE. ANGLE. GRADIENT. | Germany 2023 | Experimental | World premiere | Length: 01:44 Min | Director: Gleb Bondarev

The dancer Gleb Bondarev is fascinated by the beauty of forms, the precision and expression of movements. Dancing, he needs no words to convey his story to us.

Gleb Bondarev lives in Dieburg and studies Motion Pictures at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. He is also a dancer with experience in various fields.

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BANNKORB | Germany 2024 | Feature film | Rhein-Main-Premiere | Length: 19:12 Min | Director: Vincent Ercolani, Julius Schulze Farwick & Nicholas Dues

Josef lives a seemingly peaceful life in a remote hut in the forest. He keeps bees and lives self-sufficiently. But behind the idyllic façade lurks his dark past. Josef, once an SS colonel during the Second World War, is haunted by the horrors he committed.

Filmmakers Vincent Ercolani and Nicholas Dues studied directing at Mainz University of Applied Sciences. Together with Julius Schulze Farwick, they wrote the screenplay and directed the film.

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WHAT IS ACTUALLY HAPPENING IN COBURG? | Germany 2023 | Documentation | World premiere | Length: 10:42 Min | Director: Leonie Kunkel

Around 100 student fraternities that are members of the Coburg Convent meet regularly in the town that gives Coburg its name. But what are their aims? The slogan "Honour, Freedom, Friendship, Fatherland" already suggests that the answers are scary. What's actually happening in Coburg? interviews members and experts against the backdrop of the convention meeting.

Leonie Kunkel studies at the HfG Offenbach. Was passiert eigentlich in Coburg? is her debut film, which is celebrating its premiere at LICHTER.

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ADAMS RIPPE | Germany 2024 | Animation | World premiere | Length: 02:30 Min | Director: Svenja Döbert

What do car design, medical research and space suits have in common? Like many things in our society, they are mostly focused on men. Adams Rippe explains how ignorance in medical research has been to the detriment of women.

Svenja Döbert grew up in the Rhine-Main region and studied at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, where she also discovered her enthusiasm for 2D animation. The short film Adams Rippe is her bachelor's degree project.

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DIE NACKTE WAHRHEIT | Germany/Belgium 2023 | Documentation | Length: 10:14 Min | Director: Lena Grobusch

"I don't want to be looked at, I want to be seen." A naked woman sits on a sofa and is painted by an artist: Lena Grobusch's film questions the objectification of women. She provokes a re-evaluation of the female body, towards self-determination and authenticity.

Lena Grobusch is currently studying for a Bachelor's degree in Motion Pictures at Darmstadt University of Applied Sciences. During her semester abroad in Belgium, she made her first short film "The Naked Truth" in collaboration with the artist Katharina Hamp, which led her to the medium of film. Since then she has experimented mainly with analogue film and Super 8.

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ASTRO_PLANTBOY_69 | Germany 2024 | Animation | World premiere | Length: 07:58 Min | Director: Theo Lucas

Dating in space seems to follow the same laws as dating on Earth. Apps are supposed to make it easier to find and get to know people, but in the end, a personal, chance encounter is perhaps the nicer way to make a connection.

Theo Lucas lives and works in Hesse. He completed his studies at the Kunsthochschule Kassel with his short film astro_plantboy_69.