2023-10-26

Looking Back to the Future – Anniversary Program for the 40th Kassel Dokfest


kleines BALi | Thursday 16.11. | 1:00 p.m.
40 Years Kassel Dokfest – Replay: It flickers

It flickers – or rather it has flickered. Here in the program we travel back to the last phase of the former leading medium: the television. Between news, entertainment, talk show and soap, the remote control became the scepter and its guardian determined the channel in a power-conscious manner – but not its content. This, in turn, was the passionate practice of those who used television images in their artistic work or understood them as a possibility of active, social participation. Equipped with modern video technology, they created content themselves, commenting on or questioning the medium of the masses. This will be followed by a discussion with invited guests.

kleines BALi | Friday 17.11. | 3.30 p.m.
40 Years Kassel Dokfest – Replay: Neustadt (Traffic Jam – The State of Affairs)

In the year 2000 Thomas Heise shot "Neustadt (Traffic Jam – The State of Affairs)" as the sequel to "Traffic Jam – Now It's Starting" (1993), in which the initial theme of "drifting" to the political right already seems outdated. For the re-screening, he will be a guest to talk about a cinematic work that patiently documented a social failure that continues to reverberate today.

kleines BALi | Saturday 18.11. | 1:00 p.m.
40 Years Kassel Dokfest – Replay: Images. Wars.

Looking at the programs of the Kassel Dokfest in the 1990s, red threads become visible that shaped the decade thematically and are still relevant in the present. For example, one becomes aware of how much the 1990s were a decade of wars, the aftermath of which can still be felt today. The program brings to mind four works that reflect the spectrum of ethical and aesthetic questions that were at stake in the process and that, 30 years later and in the face of new wars, are of undiminished relevance. The program is framed by a conversation with Ala Younis, artistic director of the Academy of the Arts of the World (Cologne), moderated by curator Tobias Hering.

Monitoring: LETZTER TRANSFER | KulturBahnhof | Südflügel
LETZTER TRANSFER is a media installation in the form of a walk-in archive in which 96 audiovisual works can be viewed. Amidst a mass of data carriers, technology and cardboard boxes, individual storage media in various formats can be found. These can be taken out of archive boxes and played on the corresponding recorders. On them are works from the first 20 years of the Kassel Dokfest’s short film program. They bear witness to the time when the term "Video Festival” was programmatically added to the festival name.

We would like to thank the Kulturstiftung der Sparkassen-Kulturstiftung Hessen-Thüringen and the Kasseler Sparkassenstiftung Stadt Kassel as well as the Kulturamt der Stadt Kassel and Hessen Film & Medien GmbH for their generous support in realizing the anniversary program. The honorary prize of the Kassel Dokfest, endowed with 3,000 euros, has – in agreement with the prize donor – been rededicated: HÜBNER GmbH & Co. KG will sponsor the special programs in 2023 on the occasion of the 40th edition.