There will be six Special Programmes at the Festival

In What are the Other Ones up To?, a programme with ethnographic films from the last 100 years, we take a look at what the other ones used to do or what they are up to now. We present fragments from both everyday life and high holidays of “alien” people from all over the world. The pioneers of filmmaking had to rely on mere display, but with the development of the talkie the all-explaining voice-over conquered the genre. The ways of presenting “the other one” range from filmed catalogues of crafts of colonized natives to self-portraits of the natives and experimental forms of uncommented presentation. Also showing: Selected films from the vaults of Denmark-based American film collector and b-movie-archeologist Jack Stevenson- stories of school cellars, dumps, retailers specializing in garbage, a dubious network of “personal contacts” of hermits, that should by definition not be having any personal contacts at all.

Touring Lebanon: Beirut's nickname had been “Paris of the Orient” up until the 1970s. Countless beliefs, ideologies and ancestries had formed a unique cultural landscape. And in spite of 30 years of smouldering conflicts, this tradition is still very much alive. Three programmes will present Lebanese realities, which often have little in common with the dominant stereotypes.

In the programme Tracking the Sound, we are tracing and tracking the use of sound in short films. Turning our archive upside-down, we have unearthed several outstanding examples in which music and noise are much more than just by-products. Come and hear!

In spite of their vast influence on our daily lives, scientific films have remained rather obscure as a short-film-genre. In the special programme MICROTON – science and sound, we have gathered composers and sound-researchers from the various fields of new and electronic music in order to let processes from scientific films resonate.

Karl Marx once wrote that ”work is the fire of creation”. As a tribute to working men and women everywhere, we have dedicated three programmes of the special programm Work in Progressto the subject of work. “Work:Place:Port” is all about harbour-related work throughout the times, disintegrating work-structures are the subject of “Professional Pictures” and in Do whatever you like we take a look at the future of work.

Three minutes are enough to cover topics like “Revolution”, “My favourite song” or “Fish” - proven in the course of 20 years of extremely short shorts. We will be celebrating the anniversary by presenting a selection of winners and other favorites from previous years in the 20 years of Three-Minute Quickie.