• Sun 09 02 2025 / 3 – 8 pm •
DAY 3: Radical Kinship: Reimagining Communities Through Solidarity

Curated by SCHABO BALBAS, IDIL YAASHI HASSAN, LAN MI LE and SAFIYA YON

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 1 and DAY 3.

DAY 3: Radical Kinship: Reimagining Communities Through Solidarity

The films in this program invite us to traverse the labyrinths of colonial violence, resistance, and radical imagination. They explore how communities, beyond oppression and alienation, can forge connections with one another. By examining the shared experiences of groups affected by colonialism across different geographic contexts, the program fosters solidarity between communities suffering from colonial violence and its aftermath.

Starting from the Vietnamese diaspora, the films delve into forced migration and cultural survival, exploring how living archives are constructed through personal histories. These intimate insights challenge dominant narratives shaped by power structures, which are perpetuated by selective forgetting. These works examine the complex process of negotiating identity "in the belly of the beast". This confrontation with identity under colonial legacies is not only an act of survival, but also reclaiming of self in spaces shaped by systemic forces of control.

The second part of the program shifts focus to film as an archive of resilience, one that documents testimonies of colonial violence. These works disrupt established historical narratives and open new pathways to present collective suffering and resistance. The films urge questioning the systemic conditions that distort or erase the testimonies of marginalized subjects, encouraging new ways of listening and understanding. The screen becomes a space for deconstructing past and present traumas, enabling the creation of alternative methods and perspectives of documenting vulnerability.

The concluding section shifts towards radical imaginations from black and Kurdish resistance movements: What could a world beyond colonial legacies look like? These films imagine ways of living, creating, and being together outside the structures of imperial control. Through documentation of revolutionary practice, they break inherited hierarchies and propose alternative visions grounded in justice, reciprocity, and liberation.

In presenting these perspectives, the films invite the audience to view solidarity as a tool for healing and transformation.

Program #1: Living Archives

Short film program:

Roan (D: Thùy Trang Nguyễn; Germany 2019; 12'; Vietnamese; English subtitles) An elderly Vietnamese grandmother and her German-born grandchild spend a quiet day together in her apartment, bridging cultures and generations through tender moments, small discoveries, and profound reflections on life.

What If (D: Ngọc Anh Phan; Germany 2021; Vietnamese, English, German subtitles) Exploring the 'what-ifs' of her parents' meeting, director Ngọc Anh Phan pieces together fragments of memory, weaving through time and space to uncover hidden layers of her family's history.

What The Soil Remembers (D: José Cardoso; 29'; English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, English subtitles) «What the Soil Remembers» examines the trauma of a community uprooted during the Apartheid regime, making way for an educational institution that would become synonymous with the foundation of white supremacist ideologies. The film follows a group of elders who illuminate the screen with their approach to the problem. The collective wisdom and patience embedded in their actions is what a nationalist regime tried to violently take away from them years earlier.

Sun 09 02 2025 | 3 pm – 4 pm
Filmhaus
Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Köln
In english language
Tickets available here

Program #2: Radical Solidarity

Short film program:

Letter To Obama (D: Mohanad Salahat; 2014; 6'; Arabic, English subtitles) In a Gaza Strip refugee camp, two boys sent a Facebook message to President Obama, urging him to end the siege and visit the area with his wife to see the hardships. Receiving no reply, they recorded an angry video message to him on behalf of the camp's people.

The tank of my sketchbook (D: Sherko Abbas; 2021; 6'; Kurdish, English subtitles) The film blends found imagery and animation to depict 1980s Iraq, where reality and propaganda intertwined. It contrasts state-sanctioned cartoons glorifying war with the harsh realities faced by Iraqi families, exposing the lasting trauma of a generation shaped by violence and manipulation.

Buurman Abdi (D: Douwe Dijkstra; 2022; 29’, Dutch/Somali/English, English subtitles) How can you understand a violent past? Somali-born Abdi is furniture designer and support worker. He reenacts his life, marked by war and criminality, with the help of his neighbour and filmmaker Douwe. By means of playful reconstructions in a special effects studio, Abdi and Douwe embark on a candid and investigative journey through a painful history, focusing on the creative process throughout.

Graffiti (D: Paria Mohammadi/Rasoul Mohammadi; 2024; 5'; Farsi/English, English subtitles) Two film students living in two different countries - Iran and Germany - are interested in the walls and graffiti of city life. That's why they start filming the graffiti in their cities at the same time. The result is the experimental short film Graffiti.

Paper Puppet Testimony (D: Sherko Abbas; 2019; 8'; Kurdish, English Subtitles) The 1991 Kurdish uprising against Saddam Hussein, symbolized by Amna Suraka—The Red Prison—was pivotal. 11-year-old Sherko witnessed a haunting scene that stayed with him. Now, he uncovers the silenced stories of female inmates, aiming to reveal hidden histories and confront denial through memory, trauma, and justice.

Nebsei (D: Gabrielle Tesfaye; 2023; ; Tigrigna, English subtitles) Nebsey, meaning ‘my body/soul’ in Tigrigna, is a short animated film revealing the story of women who faced sexual and gender based violence during the war in Tigray. The film responds to research surrounding the themes of gender-based violence during the ‘Tigray War’, its psychological effects on society, and hopes of reconciliation, justice and healing.

• Screening at the Foyer Voices of Bakur (D: Two Rivers and a Valley; 2019; 32'; Kurdish, English Subtitles) Voices of Bakur delves into the 2015-2016 Kurdish movement in Northern Kurdistan, where southeastern Turkish towns declared autonomy. Featuring interviews and banned footage, it highlights the fight for democratic autonomy, women’s liberation, and self-defense during a brutal conflict that claimed 1,552 lives.

Sun 09 02 2025 | 4 pm – 5.50 pm
Filmhaus
Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Köln
In english language
Tickets available here

Program #3: Radical Imagination

5.50 pm short film program:

Bread of my life (D: Adel Abidin; 2008; 6'; no dialogue) In Egypt, bread is revered as the source of life, almost treated as a sacred object. It comes in various forms, and I once encountered bread so hard that it seemed more suited for drumming than eating. The sound it produced was surprisingly pleasant, resembling that of a musical instrument. In the video, four percussionists, who make a living by playing rhythms for belly dancers in low-key nightclubs (kabarate), experiment with drumming on the bread to create a rhythmic experience.

Cultural Nationalism (D: Skip Norman; 1966; 10’; English, no subtitles) A quiet scene in the snow, a black child in an anorak runs mumbling towards the camera. The pictures of Skip Norman’s Cultural Nationalism are underpinned with a powerful monologue by the co-founder of the Black Panther Party Bobby Seale.

6 pm conversation circle:

Rebirthing the Future of Cross Community Solidarity Through Ancestral Remembrance and Radical Imagination - Conversation circle with Amdrita Jakupi & Dr. Cucuteni: Cross Community Solidarity Through Ancestral Remembrance and Radical Imagination

6.50 pm short film program:

HERE IS THE IMAGINATION OF THE BLACK RADICAL (D: Rhea Storr; 2020; 10'; English, English subtitles) Afrofuturism is communicated via the Bahamian people through Junkanoo, a form of carnival in the Bahamas. Originally celebrated by slaves who were given Christmas Day and Boxing Day off only, Junkanoo can be viewed as a form of resistance.

(short break, intervention)

Song Con Song (D: Vi Tường Bùi; 2024; 3'; silent) Sóng (Còn Sống) is a poetic reflection on Vietnamese and queer identity, where water symbolizes renewal and connection. Through textures, light, and the áo dài, the film bridges past and future, celebrating the intersection of being Vietnamese-American and queer.

Zuhause ist dort wo die sternfrüchte sauer sind (D: Huy Nguyễn; 2023; 24'; Vietnamese, German, English subtitles) In Home Is Where the Starfruit Is Sour, director Huy Nguyễn explores the emotional distance and closeness in his transcontinental relationship with his grandparents, breaking cultural silence to uncover the meaning of love and connection across generations.

Frequencies (D: Rebecca Racine Ramershoven; 2024; 6'; English, no subtitles) The short film tells of frequencies of Black culture in the form of pop-cultural scenes, formative personalities, a sermon, singing and private archive material refer to aspects of Black culture, reflect memories and reveal a community far removed from the white gaze.

Sun 09 02 2025 | 5.50 pm – 8 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.