Vernissage: Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Bis ans Ende der Nacht

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Riceboy Sleeps

Incredibly sensitive and hauntingly filmed, Riceboy Sleeps tells the story of single mother So-Young and her son. After emigrating to Canada, life certainly is not easy: Dong-Hyun must quickly become David, lest he be the strange boy with the unpronounceable name at his new school. Meanwhile So-Young is hard at work trying to feed them with her factory job.

49 Problems (and my future is one)

How far should protest go if one’s way of life is threatened? 49 Problems (and my future is one) accompanies the protests against the construction of Highway 49 through the Dannenröder Forest and the trial against “Ella”. She has been accused of endangering a police officer’s life during the eviction.

Regional short films I

PLOPP (2022, Director: Carolin Glomp, Length: 5 Min.) // DIE SCHULE BRENNT UND WIR WISSEN WARUM (2023, Director: Janina Lutter, Length: 25 Min.) // 밥을 하는 여자들 (FRAUEN, DIE REIS KOCHEN) (2022, Director: Hansol Kim, Length: 6 Min.) // DIE MACHT DER ENTSCHEIDUNG (2022, Director: Anton Algrang, Length: 25 Min.) // ON POINT (2022, Director: Anouschka Fritz, Length: 3 Min.) // PACIFIC CLUB (2023, Director: Valentin Noujaïm, Dauer: 16 Min.) // SO SOON - YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND (2022, Director: Daniel Knußmann & Daniel Sax, Length: 5 Min.) // WENN DIE ERDE STEHEN BLEIBT (2022, Director: Benjamin Fiedler, Length: 7 Min.)

Vamos a la Playa

Vacation time! Soaking up the sun in Cuba. Technically, the students Benjamin, Katharina and Judith are trying to find Katharina‘s brother Wanja. But this plan quickly becomes irrelevant. Katharina is looking for sexual adventures, Benjamin for true love and Judith definitely not for a relationship. When they meet the dance instructor Ignacio, their triple constellation is shaken up.

Talking To You - Christof Lauer (sax)

He is one of the best jazz saxophonists in Europe, has played with the great stars of the international jazz scene, was a member of the NDR Big Band in Hamburg for 25 years, and was also a frequent guest at the hr Jazz Festival in Frankfurt. And he has remained true to his Hessian homeland: Christof Lauer. "I tell something about myself by playing and putting sounds together. That's my story," he says. Talking To You enters the musical cosmos of an idiosyncratic saxophonist who rejects any routine and persistently works on new forms. Most importantly: "it has to be intense!".

Das Lehrerzimmer

Elaha

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Mina – Der Preis der Freiheit

All The Beauty and the Bloodshed

In this moving portrait and documentary of U.S. American contemporary history, Laura Poitras lets the artist and activist Nan Goldin and her friends and companions tell their life stories. Apart from Goldin’s intimate and impressive photographs and slideshows, the protest of P.A.I.N., a group founded by Goldin, against Perdue Pharma, the Sackler family, and the state handling of the effects of the opioid crisis is the centre of attention.

Amanda

Regional short films II

ENJOY THE SHOW (2022, Director: Michael Schwarz, Length: 1 Min.) // STAUDAMM (2023, Director: Noreen Erkardas, Length: 27 Min.) // Поки тут тихо. (IT IS QUIET HERE.) (2022, Director: Olena Podolianko & Novruz Hikmet, Length: 12 Min.) // MORTIMER UND DIE VERSCHWUNDENEN DINGE (2022, Director: Robert Scheffner, Length: 14 Min.) // MAUER DES SCHWEIGENS (2022, Director: Leonard Mink, Length: 19 Min.) // ZWISCHEN UNS BEIDEN (2022, Director: Benjamin Kessler, Length: 14 Min.) // WE MAKE HOME MOVIES THEREFORE WE ARE (2022, Director: Clara Jäschke, Length: 10 Min.)

The Ordinaries

Eigentlich eigentlich Januar

Burning Days (Kurak Günler)

The questions this film leaves its audience with are as burning as the eponymous heat of the title. As the new prosecutor in the small Turkish town of Balkaya, which has to contend with heavy landslides, Emre soon finds himself caught in a web of political intrigue. When a young woman is raped, he has to wonder if he is only a victim and saviour but actually a perpetrator as well. For political reasons, the film’s funding in Turkey was withdrawn.

The Worst Ones (Les Pires)

A casting call at a French school. Four troubled teens suddenly become parts of a filming community – where nothing is as expected. While things can get messy here, there are also no teachers and parents. Only adults who want to make a film and have yet to forget about their childhood. Les Pires thoughtfully depicts first love, how difficult it is to build trust, and how easily friendships can form.

Knochen und Namen

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Das Kino sind wir

"Everyone was animated by the idea of making a political film," recalls (not only) documentary film director Thomas Frickel of the cultural awakening of the 1980s in Kassel. A sworn group of film enthusiasts founds the Filmladen Kassel and thus defines a film-oriented countermedia under the motto "Das Kino sind wir". What came from this, what role did the documenta and Joseph Beuys play, and how did the Kassel Dokfest emerge from this movement? This documentary is a must-see for all film fans and cineastes!

Morgen irgendwo am Meer

Despite their strained friendship, Konrad manages to convince Romy to go on a shared trip to the ocean during their summer holidays. When Romy’s friend Julian and the stranger Nele join them during their road trip, Konrad begins to fear the trip was a bad idea. Meanwhile, the others ask themselves one thing: Why does Konrad actually want to go to Lisbon?

I Like Movies

The Innocent (L'Innocent)

Where can you find love? For Sylvie, prison seems to be the answer. But her son definitely does not agree, and his late friend’s girlfriend will help him get things straight. In Louis Garrel’s romantic comedy, people are constantly pretending to be others, trying to deceive people, luring them into making questionable choices, and juggling with their feelings. Whoever shows signs of naivete will get devoured by the harshness of life. How hard can it be to hide true love?

Sieben Winter in Teheran

Alis

Disco Boy

How far are you willing to go to defend your territory? Love can take many forms, and it can lead to aggression if that which you love is under attack. In Disco Boy, a Belarusian fighter travels to go to war for France in Nigeria in exchange for the promise of a French passport; but guerrilla fighters in the African country will go to great lengths to defend their sovereignty. A stylish, entrancing and surprising film with a plot driven by obscure forces that will not be easy to forget.

A Film About Couples (Una Película Sobre Parejas)

A film about a film about couples: Natalia and Oriol have not only been a couple for 13 years, they also make films together. At least when they are not currently discussing who is directing, whether a cactus is worth filming or if parents always have to do everything perfectly. In this mockumentary, the filmmakers curtly act as themselves and show how similar film and love can actually be.

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Jeder schreibt für sich allein

VR Storytelling Short Films

Einzeltäter Teil 3 – Hanau

VR Storytelling Short Films

Fitness California – Wie man die Extra Meile geht

True to the motto “Move until your very end” one trains in the Freiburg gym “Fitness California”. Among those always to be found are Bernd Fleisig, Mario Sabatini, and Adolf Seger, all of them stars of the Wrestling scene of the 1960s and ‘70s, who, regardless of their age, ripple their muscles.

Lan Yu (Restored)

Desperate for money, young student Lan Yu spends a night with businessman Handong. At first, Handong tries to minimise their interaction to a mere exchange of sex and favours, however, it soon becomes clear that they both harbour deeper feelings for each other. Despite their age and class differences, the two men develop a complex relationship with one another. Director Stanley Kwan tells the story of a clandestine love affair that took place in China at the end of the 1980s – the period between the economic crisis and the Tian'anmen Square protests. - This film is hailed as one of the most important queer films in Asian cinema.

The Beasts (As Bestas)

The title already gives it away: the Galician village Olga and her husband Antoine have moved to is not as idyllic as one might assume. The couple has made their dream of owning a farm reality; a dream which is more and more being threatened. The local farmers, who are sceptical or even openly hostile towards the whimsical neighbours anyways, vehemently demand their support for an investment project. Two ways of life clash – and never has a tomato harvest been this thrilling or buying sheep been this nerve-wracking. Nothing but love for this thriller!

Living Bad (Viver Mal)

Tensions simmer among the guests of an old hotel in Portugal. We follow one couple whose rocky relationship is hurt by obsession with social media. Our eyes drift towards another couple shaken by the towering presence of one of their mothers. We eavesdrop on another couple starting out and threatened by jealousy. João Canijo constructs a tale of lust and disappointment in LIVING BAD, proving that loving is a path full of thorns.

VR Storytelling Short Films

No Bears (Khers Nist)

After being denied permission to leave Iran, director Panahi takes up residence in a village near the Turkish border to remotely oversee the shooting of his new film. Despite being initially welcomed by the village community, he soon finds himself garnering anger after becoming a supposed witness to a forbidden love affair. - In 2010, Panahi was sentenced to six years in prison and was banned from working for 20 years due to the making of his film.

Kokomo City

Self-love overcomes all odds: four Black trans* sex workers invite director D.Smith into their world through openhearted accounts of their life. The focus lies on the daily discrimination that the four of them face in a racist, patriarchal, and transphobic society that also shapes their experiences with the local Black community. Filmed in black and white and sporting a powerful soundtrack and music-video aesthetic, Kokomo City is an eye-opening experience.

International Shorts - Love

“LOVE is a losing game” is a good song and may contain some truth. In our LICHTER INTERNATIONAL SHORTS LOVE/LIEBE we will present short films that deal with the reality and fantasy of love in romantic, familial and social relationships which can have both happy and painful consequences for the people involved. Curated by Saul Judd

Mars One (Marte Um)

A family film through and through! But not one filled with overused clichés: We are in Brazil right after the election of Bolsonaro, and the mood in the country is tense. The film catapults us head-first into the political as well as the very personal chaos of the Martins family. The road ahead is a tumultuous one, and each person must find ways to overcome it, either alone or as a family. All we have to say is: Alcoholics Anonymous, great love, money shortage, dream soccer careers, disastrous pranks, first apartments, rage-inducing card games, insomnia, stargazing, cat-sitting, and trips to Mars!

Exhibition Lichter Art Award

The LICHTER Art Award reaches video artists and filmmakers. The award and the corresponding exhibition have been a platform for contemporary video art since 2011. The five nominated artists' works will be exhibited in a curated exhibition on the premises of the LICHTER festival center.

Zwickel auf Bizyckel

VR Storytelling Short Films

Einzeltäter Teil 3 – Hanau

VR Storytelling Short Films

Opponent (Motståndaren)

War Pony

When do we feel we belong somewhere? What place do we call home? For two young Native American men living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in the United States, these questions circle their hearts as they try to find their place in the middle of a tug-of-war between modernity and tradition, community and individuality, belonging and breaking away. Finding love in harshness may be difficult but they will soon find it essential for finding their path.

Motherhood (La Maternal)

Carla is a rebel. She doesn’t let anyone tell her anything, least of all her single mother - until she gets pregnant at fourteen. She comes into the care of the “La Maternal” centre, where, together with the other girls, she learns about what motherhood is like. A vivid portrait of becoming an adult with outstanding young actress Carla Quílez.

SPECIAL „Toi jamais“ – Short Films About Love

TOI JAMAIS - a program of short films curated by Gunter Deller, Karola Gramann, Heide Schlüpmann Love cannot be grasped - despite all attempts: reporting, telling, singing about love. Showing it as in film. A short film program gathers slipping endings, fleeting fascinosa, moments and lets them pass before our eyes. Among others, there will be shown films by Gunter Deller, Peggy Awesh, Bruce Baillie, Angelika Levi, Vlatko Gilić. (possible changes.) In cooperation with Kinothek Asta Nielsen.

20.000 Species of Bees (20.000 Especies de Abejas)

8 year old Coco is currently on a path of self-discovery, which is not made easy for her: Her family in their Basque hometown still calls her by her birth name Aitor, which she does not identify with anymore. The film skillfully recounts peer pressure and familial tensions that touch us deeply. The 9 year old Sofia Otero won the award for Best Leading Performance at the Berlinale as the youngest winner in its history.

International Short Film Program

International Short Film Program A great accomplishment of cinema is to let us take a second, different look at things and stories. It quite literally immerses things in a different light. The four films in the international short film program show this in very different ways. They explore spaces, history, feelings and time beyond the fleeting first glance. Included are again films of our partner festival from Contis and award winners of the festivals from Berlin and Rotterdam.