• Fri 07 02 2025 / 6 – 9 pm •
Day 1: (DIS)LOCATION WITHIN

Curated by JULIA JESIONEK and POLINA RESNIANSKA

Over the course of three days, a carefully curated film program, born from interdisciplinary collaboration - takes shape.

Weaving together the intersection of memory, dislocation, and radical solidarity, the program uses film to confront, as well as imagine beyond colonial violence and the ways it warps our sense of self, community, time and space. Complimenting the film program with alternative media forms such as food, music, an interactive drawing corner & a healing conversation circle, the cinema is transformed into a space for nurturing ancestral forms of belonging. It reflects on the essence of home—its presence, what it carries, and the void left in its absence. The showcased works examine the act of remembering, transforming archives into dynamic spaces for resistance, reclamation, and processes of un-learning.

Here you can find more information about day 2 and day 3.

DAY 1: (dis)location within

What does home look like? What do the spaces we inhabit carry? What myths fuel the walls that grow around us? The light that falls through the camera lens may not be able to capture the nuanced lived collective and individual experiences, which encourages experimentation with other media. The ‘caméra-stylo’ manifests itself in drawing, embroidery, collage, found footage; all these techniques form constellations of visual exposure that defy the canonical categorisation of art, articulating the subtleties of memory, evoking recollections from hidden intimate spaces and discovering transcultural commonalities.

Program #1: (DIS)LOCATION

Documentary filmmaking is far from a neutral observation; everyone participating occupies a certain position, assumes power and responsibility. The agency of the subjects is filtered through the constraints the directors impose. What qualifies a narrator as reliable? What does it mean to involve the imagination of Romani children? How does feminism foster solidarities between racialized and white women? Which parts of testimonies are left out? The sacraments lurking behind the fabric of everyday preoccupations accentuate the violent structures ordering societies in the era of coloniality. When we leave homes, when home leaves the spaces we are in, is home even there?

Films:

I Like Life a Lot (D: Kati Macskássy, Hungary 1977, 9’; Hungarian, English subtitles) The Komló settlement showcased the exploitation of unskilled Roma labor in the 1970s. Roma pupils and their art teachers collaborated, using audio interviews and drawings to turn harsh realities into fairytales.

The Stitches Speak (D: Nina Sabnani; India 2009; 12’; Gujarati, English, English subtitles) Tanko Bole Chhe is a 12-minute animated documentary celebrating Kutch artisans of Kala Raksha, their journey, and life through their appliqué and embroidery art.

Drop by Drop (D: Alexandra Ramires (Xá), Laura Gonçalves; Portugal 2017; 10’; Portuguese, English subtitles) The last villagers refuse to be forgotten. In a world driven by progress, this house endures.

Oro Rojo (D: Carme Gomila; Spain 2021; 12’; Spanish, Arabic, English subtitles) Red Gold is an animated short documentary on Moroccan women's strawberry-picking protests in Huelva, exploring migration policies, global extractivism, and racial capitalism.

Fr 07 02 2025 | 6 pm – 8 pm
Filmhaus
Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Köln
In english language
Tickets available here

Program #2: WITHIN

When the family tree has been uprooted, the personal mythology might stay in the land. As day turns into night, and night turns into day, dreams become enmeshed in the habitual nightmares of the mundane. Unable to distinguish between realities, one turns to introspection, seeking to picture what lies behind the faint lines of nostalgia. Distress morphs into homesickness for an unknown place. As the ambivalence of memory amalgamates with the rich tapestry of animation’s visual abundance, what is achieved in the personal documentary goes beyond mere representation but into the translation of the act of remembering itself. Defying the principles of high art through the material interrogation of film, once forgotten images from the past are re-animated and bloom anew in surreal sceneries. Do you recognize that place? The place you cannot visit, the place that is merely a memory, an image etched into your mind, a distant rustle of disjointed shards, a recurrent flash of dark.

Films:

Girl from Moush (D: Gariné Torossian; Canada 1993; 5’; no dialogue) In her memoir, Gariné depicts a yearning shaped by fleeting Armenian icons that stir fascination and uncertainty. Viewers explore the artist's uncharted mind, facing and embracing grand projections.

Poppy Flowers (D: Evridiki Papaiakovou; Estonia 2024; 4’; English, English subtitles) Memories flow as a daughter reflects on shared rituals with her mother, exploring their complex bond. Maturing, she questions divinity while 35mm frames become cherished memorabilia of her past.

Wild Flowers (D: Karla Crnčević: Wild Flowers; Croatia/Spain 2022; 11’; Croatian, English subtitles) Born from a desire to revisit personal archives, the film delves into memory, documentation, and non-institutional archives. It links politics with intimate spaces, examining war's impact on private archives and gardens as symbols of renewal.

Bye, Little Block! (D: Éva Darabos; Hungary 2020; 8’; Hungarian, English subtitles) A young woman learns that soon she will have to move from the blockhouse flat she lives in. After receiving the upsetting news from the owner of the flat she is overwhelmed with emotions. Her teardrop of farewell grows into a concrete monolith. When the drop hits the ground a surreal panorama of the blockhouse area - she used to call home - unfolds…

The Fifth Floor (D: Tereza Burianova; Czechia 2023; 4’; Czech, English subtitles) The film portrays a repetitive nightmare linked to a specific location, an apartment where the author spent the first twelve years of her life. The film works with elements of sleep paralysis and anxiety. By combining rotoscopy with old family photos and videos, the viewer has the opportunity to immerse himself into this dream.

Comma (D: Sonia Leliukh; Germany/Ukraine 2023; 4’; no dialogue) A man with an exploding head is waiting at the train station. He tries to piece together a coherent story out of newspaper headlines, asking the question as to whether it is possible to live through catastrophes while walking the dog.

Night (D: Ahmad Saleh; Qatar/Jordan/Germany/Palestine 2021; 16’; Arabic, English subtitles) The dust of war keeps the eyes sleepless. Night brings peace and sleep to all the people in the broken town. Only the eyes of the mother of the missing child stay resilient. Night has to trick her into sleeping to save her soul.

Fr 07 02 2025 | 8 pm – 9 pm
Filmhaus
Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Köln
In english language
Tickets available here

The film festival is part of NEW CURATORS, a project by Filmhaus Köln and ADKDW. Funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science NRW and the Cultural Office of Cologne.