Parallel Programmes
46th Drama International Short Film Festival
FOCUS ON GERMANY – EMERGING ARTISTS
Emerging Artists – Contemporary Experimental Films and Video Art from Germany
Since 2013, AG Kurzfilm – German Short Film Association and German Films have published a biennial programme dedicated to young German experimental film. The organizers aim to use the programme to promote strongly artistic film and video art works that can be exploited not only at festivals, but also via the art market in museums or galleries.
Artist Marian Mayland says in her prelude to the 6th edition of the programme:
“In seven short film works, a variety of forms of film emerge: Film as body, as interconnection, as a space of memory.
Saft (Juice) by Mona Keil uses images that evoke corporeality and a narrative that claims and demands symbiosis. In Hoamweh Lung, the ground erupts. A horse perishes, as does the farm around it. In Digital Layerings, Felix Klee traces a site of childhood memories. Digital Ashes by Bruno Christofoletti Barrenha reveals film as a frail body within the process of history and indicts the Bolsonaro regime for its erasure of cultural memories.
Keren Shemesh interweaves 16mm and Super 8 material with found footage to form a chant spanning generations in Gruss An Die Mutter: Weh Übungen. In We Are What We Eat, Natalia Ehret lists ingested concepts, revealing national narratives in nursery rhymes and food clips. Connection by Serafima Orlova makes a bond cinematically tangible, transcending the sea, network coverages, time. The Sunset Special by Nicolas Gebbe mirrors the entanglement of social media and tourism economies, somewhere in between glitch and gloss.”
Of the seven filmmakers represented in the current edition, four have their roots in other countries – Israel, Brazil, Russia and Kazakhstan. They contribute their personal experiences in a way that environments of different countries complement and mix, thereby becoming visible in the films.
The jury for the 6th edition consisted of Anne Gaschütz (selection committee for short films Locarno Film Festival, Co-Director FILMFEST DRESDEN), Hanna Schneider (Kurzfilm Festival Hamburg), Giovanna Thiery (Stuttgarter Filmwinter), Björn Schmitt (DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, freelance curator) and Anne Turek (AG Kurzfilm).
Emerging Artists presents:
- Saft (Juice), Mona Keil
- Hoamweh Lung (Homesick Lungs), Felix Klee
- Digital Ashes, Bruno Christofoletti Barrenha
- We Are What We Eat, Natalia Ehret
- Gruss An Die Mutter: Weh Übungen (Pain Excercises), Keren Shemesh
- Связь (Connection), Serafima Orlova
- The Sunset Special, Nicolas Gebbe
SHORT EXPORT 2023 – Made in Germany, Edition 18
With SHORT EXPORT – MADE IN GERMANY 2023 once again and for the 18th time, outstanding German short films travel the world. The programme is a powerful exploration of what it means to be searching for something: searching for the right words, searching for direction, searching for beginnings, searching for what is left of us. The programme takes us on a journey that includes stopping points such as the Platz der Kulturen in Cologne and the Polish-Belorussian border, the oceans of our planet and outer space. In this 18th edition, the programme is contemplative and lighthearted, frustrating and surprising.
Selected from more than 470 entries to the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, the six German short films in this unconventional programme give us an insight into the broad artistic, esthetic and thematic variety of contemporary German short film.
The following shorts will be screened:
Die Hüter Des Unrats. Eine Kurze Geschichte Des Abfalls (The Guardians of Refuse: A Short History of Garbage)
11’, πειραματικό ντοκιμαντέρ / experimental documentary
Susann Maria Hempel
I Was Never Really Here
23’, μυθοπλασία / fiction
Gabriel Bihina Arrahnio
Muss Ja Nicht Sein, Dass Es Heute Ist (It Doesn’t Have To Be Today)
8’, μυθοπλασία / fiction
Sophia Groening
Border Conversations
30’, ντοκιμαντέρ / documentary
Jonathan Brunner
Wunschkind (Planned Child)
17’, μυθοπλασία / fiction
Laura Solbach
Hello Stranger
6’, animation
Julia Ocker
The project is a Franco-German cooperation between AG Kurzfilm – German Short Film Association, German Films, Goethe-Institut Lyon, Festival International du Court Métrage Clermont-Ferrand and Kurzfilm Agentur Hamburg.
PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE – Ukrainian Queer Shorts
Ukraine’s first SUNNY BUNNY LGBTQIA+ Film Festival (22-28 June 2023) presents a collection of new Ukrainian queer shorts from 2022-2023. Growing out of the eponymous programme of the Kyiv IFF Molodist and after more than 20 years within the big festival, it now grows out into an event of its own to represent queer voices, including from Ukraine, on a greater scale, to uncover and reclaim the obscured and banned Ukrainian queer stories from the past and to support and promote the country’s contemporary filmmakers in this challenging time.
Ukrainian Queer Shorts is a mix of stories from before and after Russian full-scale invasion. Simeiz by artist Anton Shebetko is a fascinating portrait of a gay resort town in Crimea and its flourishing queer life before Russia’s occupation of the peninsula in 2014. I Am Michele by Olena Siyatovska tells the story of a young trans girl finding her way in a big city life, and acceptance of her family and loved ones – in a stereotypically conservative area in Western Ukraine. The Roommate by Eugen Slupchuk deals with the protagonist’s yearning for acceptance from his best friend – whom he is secretly in love with. Finally, Before Curfew by Anzhelika Ustymenko, the freshest title in the selection, queers the familiar narrative of the Before Sunrise and other romance films – in the context of current life in Ukraine, under sirens, bombings, and martial law restrictions.
It is a rough model of the life of queer Ukrainians in this defining time for the nation and the whole planet. It shows stories of acceptance in its variety of manifestations.
The tribute will present the following films:
Simeiz, 18’, 2022
Anton Shebetko
The Roommate, 10’, 2023
Eugene Slupchuk
I Am Michele, 20’, 2022
Olena Siyatovska
Before Curfew, 23’, 2023
Anzhelika Ustymenko
This wondrous sea, 18’, 2023
Kalliopi Legaki
ANIMASYROS – La Animaciόn Iberoamericana
Animasyros International Animation Festival 2023, recognising the blossoming animation industry of the Iberian and Latin American countries these past years, presents a showcase of animated films from these countries under the title La Animaciόn Iberoamericana. The showcase places contemporary audiovisual animation in the spotlight whilst also hosting a programme curated by its partner festivals Animac Lleida from Spain and Cinanima from Portugal. Animasyros will take place between 26th September – 2nd October 2023.
Animac Lleida Festival (Spain) presents:
Stories of humour and carnage
- Decorado (2016), Alberto Vázquez
- Simbiosis carnal (2017), Rocío Álvarez
- Tío (2021), Juan José Medina
- Carne (2019), Camila Káter
- Bestia (2021), Hugo Covarrubias
- Proceso de selección (2020), Carla Pereira
- Loop (2021), Pablo Polledri
Cinanima Festival (Portugal) presents:
- The Peculiar Crime of Oddball Mr. Jay, Bruno Caetano (Bruno Caetano)
- The Girl Who Stood Still, Joana Toste (Agência da Curta)
- Otopus, Catarina Sobral (Animanostra)
- Nestor, João Gonzalez (Agência da Curta)
- The Pink Jacket, Mónica Santos (Agência da Curta)
- Garrano, Vasco Sá, David Doutel (Square Eyes)
A Hands-on Filmmaking Workshop
Drama International Short Film Festival has designed and implemented a free hands-on filmmaking workshop aiming at the creation of six fiction or hybrid short films. Conceived and implemented by the Festival’s artistic team, this hands-on filmmaking workshop was based on a successful methodology, and was held over the course of five months (with two monthly sessions) in the city of Drama.
Twenty-five participants were invited and attended the workshop, which took place in December and will continue next year too.
Held for the first time in Drama, it provides participants with fundamental knowledge and essential tools on writing a screenplay and directing a short film. Moreover, it offers knowhow and expertise on storytelling, while introducing participants to the principles of film production.
The workshop is open to all aspiring directors and/or screenwriters based in the region of Drama, while it also accepts applications from candidates with previous film and/or artistic experience.
We are truly pleased to be presenting the six short films made during the workshop. We would like to express our gratitude to RAYCAP for supporting this initiative, as well as to all filmmakers for their enthusiasm and creativity.
Yannis Sakaridis
Director & DISFF Artistic Director
- Kafes Karavisios, 20’
Written by: Anthi Samartzidou
Directed by: Anthi Samartzidou, Nina Dremetsika, Maria Papadopoulou, Niki Dislia, Iakovos Papadopoulos - Flux, 7’
Written by: Mara Konstantinidi
Directed by: Mara Konstantinidi, Iordanis Kasapidis - #tiramisu, 10’
Written by: Efi Provopoulou
Directed by: Themistoklis Kasimidis - Lost Case, 16’
Written by: Anastasia Agathangelou
Directed by: Chrysa Tsoumani - The last judgement, 9’
Written by: based on the novel by Karel Capek, Iraklis Hadzioannidis
Directed by: Iraklis Hadjioannidis - 5, 13’
Written by: Xenia Petmeza, Mary Kousta, Anastasia Dinaki
Directed by: Anastasia Dinaki, Mary Kousta
Los Angeles Greek Film Festival
Following a successful Drama Τravels to Los Angeles Greek Film Festival, the partnership between DISFF and LAGFF is further empowered with LAGFF Τravels to Drama. Short film directors of the Greek Diaspora who had been selected to present their films at LAGFF are now given a unique opportunity to showcase their shorts at DISFF’s LAGFF Τravels to Drama initiative.
LAGFF Travels to Drama presents:
- George (29’), ντοκιμαντέρ / documentary, Matt Richmond
- Share For Me (13’), μυθοπλασία / fiction, Alexander Georges
- Pebble (13’), μυθοπλασία / fiction, Karina Logothetis
- Fire Born (13’), μυθοπλασία / fiction, Daniel Carsenty
- Niko Newark (19’), μυθοπλασία / fiction, Tracey Washington-Bagley
FAIR LITERATURE AFTERNOONS
FRIDAY
08/09/2023, 18.00 – 19.30
“Alexandros” Open Air Cinema
Organised, curated and presented by:
Polyna G. Bana, poet and writer
In lieu of a preamble
Literature and Cinema, both having their roots in the art of storytelling, take the form of artistic “communicating vessels”, while maintaining a constant interactive and reciprocal relation. The latter fact is being recognised and honoured by Drama International Short Film Festival, through the uninterrupted presence of literature, —and its representatives— at the Fair Literature Afternoons, running for a decade now. The same applies for this year’s edition of the Fair Literature Afternoons, beating “in the heart” of the festival week.
1. Presentation of the novella Her metamorphosis written by Amanda Michalopoulou (Kastaniotis Publications, Athens 2022)
A novella drawing upon the universal subject of the social construction of gender, of predetermined social roles and of gender identity, in combination with the global issue of climate change. A story set against a post-destruction space-time backdrop and, more specifically, in an aquatic landscape set “after the Deluge”.
2. Presentation of the noir novel Sun with Bayonets written by Giorgos Skabardonis (Patakis Publications, Athens, 2023)
Noir fiction based on a series of dramatic events that left an indelible mark on the city of Thessaloniki during the interwar period. Set in early 1931, the story revolves around the investigation of two unexplained killings, reviving the conditions of the then multicultural city of Thessaloniki amidst social change and political fermentation, amidst rearrangements and conflicts.