Are you absolutely sure?
A programme from submissions of this year’s festival g-niale

01 Eine Sache der Natur (A Natural Thing)
Stephan Winkler Beta/DV 20 min Germany 2001/02
A film about getting old and being old. Vision and reality, thoughts and perspectives. A discussion between the different age groups.

02 Floating Memory
Lin Wie DV 10 min China 2001
1989 – the year of the snake. 2001 – a new year of the snake. 12 years of Chinese history and floating memories between reality and idealism

03 I Focus on a Project 1/2
Frank Henne DV 20 min/10 min Germany 2002
»I have just finished university. I am out of work. Could you tell me anything motivating?« The destiny of a filmmaker in the world of business.


followed by - speicher 9
competition programme of the 5th short film festival g-niale »trial & error«
Students of film and art schools and professional filmmakers of all genres were invited to send their newly produced short films (max. 20 minutes) to the festival. The preselected films - a selection from over 300 submissions - will be presented to an audience which, at the end of the festival, will choose the audience prize. Additionally, an invited jury Nicole Gingras, curator and film expert from Montréal, Mike-Thomas Römisch, camera man from Dresden and Heinz Hermanns, director of interfilm festival Berlin) will award the prizes in all other categories.
The film submissions came from following countries: Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Denmark, Germany, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Israel, Canada, New Zealand, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal, Rumania, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Turkey, UK, Ukraine, Hungary and USA.


Block 1

01 Karlchens Parade
Michael Ester 16mm 7:39 min Germany 2003
Karlchen is excited about the brass band that comes regularly through his quarter. His enthusiasm goes so far he even cleans the street for the band and chases away parking offenders. One day he puts himself in front of the band – and it’s coming as it has to come.

02 21.04.02
Jean-Gabriel Periot DV 9:40 min France 2002
The 21st of April 2002 was the day of the first round of the presidential elections. The two candidates chosen by French people for the 2nd round were right wing Jacques Chirac, and fascist, homophobe and racist Jean-Marie Le Pen. When the results were announced, I was overwhelmed by so many emotions; where I had lived, what I had done, and above all, what I had not done, and how I too was responsible for this outcome - an irretrievable turning point. One of those very few moments when one feels that one is really living history.

03 Acapulco
Bastian Günther 35mm 15 min Germany 2003
Eric and Anja are a couple and spend the night together with a common friend and Eric’s colleague Jan in a hotel, where they are invited to a party. Eric doesn’t know that his girlfriend has an affair with Jan. But in this night something will happen that changes the situation for all involved.

04 Collective Individualism
Nina Canell DV 2:53 min Sweden 2003
And Ikea does make tests on animals...

05 Quitt (to be quits)
Gudrun Winter 35mm 3:08 min Germany 2003
A commercial for a very special product for the left and hurt woman of today: revenge.

06 Druckbolzen (pressure bolt)
Benni Diez Beta 8:20 min Germany 2003
In a huge industrial building people work in a continuous working cycle for their own destruction. Together with the protagonist of the film we become witness of this merciless system in which losers are eliminated and men become part of a giant machinery.

07 Warum läuft Herr V. Amok? (Why Does Mr V Run Amok?)
Dietrich Brüggemann 35mm 13 min Germany 2003
A man sits in a cinema and refuses to take off his hat. The reasons he gives are as groundless as the film that is shown on the screen. What begins like the oldest joke in film industry grows to a surreal catastrophe, in which not only Fassbinder’s “Angst essen Seele auf”, but also “Alien V” play a decisive role.

08 Spaghetti 8
Terra Poeirer VHS 2:30 min Canada
A duel in/with super8


Block 2

09 M
David Muños / Matthias Fritsch DV 4 min Germany 2002
For most of us, it will present no problem to cope with the most different technical aids day by day. However, this film proves: It can be a real challenge to use an ordinary escalator. And it is certainly not an easy task either to shoot a 4-minute-film about it.

10 Giaccomo e Pepe
Michael Kupczyk / Daniel Schreiber / Roman Podeszwa 35mm 15 min Germany 2003
For years the hermits Giaccomo and Pepe have been ruining their once grand hotel. But something is changing, brings those two out of their morbid lethargy: a guest. The voyager. The diabolic envoy of the new world, searching for the “mother of all apples”.

11 Momentum
Claus Winter Beta 6 min Germany 2002
Eight abstract words, motives of life are each confronted with visual moments. The scenes show static situations in commonly known or everyday environments. The works describe positive human skills of life. There is no development, no change and no motion, the situations are enclosed in a micro cosmos.

12 The Right One / Always Sergej
Stefan Weinert 35mm 1 min / 2:50 min Germany 2002
Sabine tries to persuade Irina, that she has finally found the right boyfriend. But at the launderette one glance is enough to change her mind.
Is Sergej’s gaze really so “fiery”?! In any case, he seems to have lit a fire for Sabine and Irina.

13 Der seltsame Klang der Stille (strange sound of silence)
Marcel Bäßler / Trutz Keller Beta 15 min Germany 2002
The film tells the story of a man who suddenly is without any human contact. He starts a dialogue with himself. An exciting, sad and humorous discussion begins – also for the spectator who, irritated by the strange sound of silence, perceives an echo in himself.

14 Transit
Rebecca Faerstein 16mm 10 min USA 2002
A disconnected NYC subway token booth clerk escapes his reality by fantasizing about his customers and facing-off in a psychological battle with a campaign poster.

15 Made in Germany
Alex Kröpfl / Matthias Fritsch DV Germany 2002
Two nationalists are victims of a curse they have pronounced themselves…


Block 3

16 Nassrasur (wet shaving)
Boris Schaarschmidt Beta/DVD 10 min Germany 2002/03
A hairdresser who wants to close, a late guest and a curious customer. All three are not what they seem to be. But one thin is clear: it will be a decisive experience for them.

17 Der ewige Tag (the everlasting day)
Toke Constantin Hebbeln 35mm 9:36 min Germany 2002
The old man and the factory. Every day the same useless work. A never changing – an everlasting day. A dark parable about hope and transience.

18 The Typewriter of the Illiterate
János Sugár DV 8 min Hungary 2001
Short video piece about the popular technology of the Kalashnikov machinegun

19 The D.I.Y. PRE$$ Company
Alex Heim DV 1:30 min Germany 2003
Didn’t you always want to know how to make money yourself?

20 Emblem / C
Cecilia Lundqvist DV 2:27 min / 2:37 min Sweden 2001
Cecilia Lundqvist’s animations are colourful, seductive and deliberately ambiguous. Bright, bold graphics contrast with unsettling subject matter examining the darker impulses of human nature.

21 Calls
Sören Voigt / Christian Schidlowski 35mm 9 min Germany 2002
A telephone booth in NYC. Ramon is expecting a call for a job. Marianne is waiting for a phone call from her lover. The phone is ringing...