Lübeck, Oct. 18, 2016. - Many of the films in the Film Forum section of this year’s 58th Nordic Film Days Lübeck (Nov. 2-6, 2016) centre on turning points – personal and societal changes.
That includes three impressive narrative feature debuts – “Dust Cloth” by Turkish director Ahu Özturk, made with the support of the Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein subsidy organisation FFHSH, “We are the Tide”, a sci-fi drama with Max Mauff, partially shot on Pellworm and “Fado”, a passionate love story, directed by Lübeck-born Jonas Rothlaender. People at a crossroads are also the hallmark of “Hands of a Mother”, the last of a trilogy about domestic violence by Florian Eichinger and the thriller “Murderous Silence”, starring Jan Josef Liefers as a detective investigating a murder that turns out to be linked to a war crime that went unpunished.
The documentary films in the Film Forum take a complex look at the subject of migration from a variety of standpoints. “I’m Okay” is a one-year study of refugee children and the people taking care of them. “Deportation Class” makes clear the horror that can lurk behind the term “secure country of origin”. On the other side of the coin, “Luise & Mohamed – Leaving for Algiers” illustrates what it means for a German to immigrate to a Muslim country. In “From Us to Me”, a film collective from Newcastle reflects on the social upheaval triggered by German re-unification and the investigative documentary “The Luther Matrix” uses a clever trick to show how topical the Theses of the titular reformer still are today. A very different kind of upheaval is afoot in Antje Hubert’s “Dreaming of Banana Plants”, about a village that is trying out innovative ideas to combat creeping rural depopulation.
Grand passion, discordant notes and a delusional self-image are the cornerstones of the documentary “The Florence Foster Jenkins Story”, about the worst and, at the same time, most amusing singer of all time, who caused a furore in 1920s New York. For its Lübeck premiere, the NFL will welcome as guests the film’s producer, crime novelist Donna Leon, Joyce DiDonato, the American opera star who plays the title character, and director Ralf Pleger.
The Film Forum will also show a selection of short films in three popular programmes “Dramatically Short”, “Freestyle Docs” and “Best of Filmschools”. This year for the first time, Lübeck’s University of Applied Sciences is also represented at the NFL, with the short “The Bigger Picture” by Thorben Wolkowski. The shorts are in the running for the CineStar Prize, endowed with 3,000 euros, awarded by the CineStar Group since 2012.
And as if that weren’t enough, the Film Forum is celebrating an anniversary this year: 10 years of audible films at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck! The images are made “audible”, giving the blind and visually impaired a chance to enjoy a visit to the cinema. That is made possible with the efforts of audio film authors, who describe the images, including the moods they evoke, providing an overall picture. For the last ten years, on the Saturday morning during the festival, the Film Forum has presented two NDR productions with audio descriptions to sold-out audiences. This year, it will be a preview of a brand-new “Alarm 110 – Fear Justifies the Means” set in Rostock, and the political thriller “The Fourth Estate” starring Benno Fürmann and Franziska Weisz. This very special event has been made possible in this form since 2012 by the support and close cooperation with the non-profit Andersicht, in particular chairman Jürgen Trinkus and film narrator Hela Michalski, with broadcaster NDR and Karen Matthiesen who supervises the films for NDR and, since 2014, with the Sennheiser: CinemaConnect company, which provides the equipment.
Once again this year, the Nordic Film Days Lübeck is presenting a master class in documentary film, which will be held on Friday, Nov. 4, 2016 at 11:30 am in the DGB Haus union headquarters in Lübeck. Titled “Change of Perspective”, the directors of the prize-winning film “Those Who Jump” with talk about the unique approach they took in making the film. When directors Moritz Siebert and Estephan Wagner began work on the film about refugees at the border fence in the Spanish exclave of Melilla in North Africa, they felt it essential that the film unconditionally take the perspective of its protagonists and not be just a report “about” them. They initially worked with Malian Abou Bakar Sidibé as a cameraman; soon he became the protagonist and, finally, a co-director of the film. The three filmmakers will personally introduce the origins of their unusual cooperative venture.
The master class is held in cooperation with the Filmwerkstatt Kiel subsidy fund and the DGB German Trade Union Confederation (regional chapter southeast Schleswig-Holstein). For 35 years, the trade unions based in Lübeck have awarded the documentary film prize at the Nordic Film Days Lübeck. “Those Who Jump” will screen at the festival on November 3 and 4, 2016.
Master Class “Change of Perspective”
Friday, Nov. 4 at 11:30 am, DGB Haus, Holstentorplatz 1, Lübeck
Documentary filmmakers and film students can attend the master class by registering before Oct. 24, 2016 via e-mail to masterclass@filmtage.luebeck.de.
Additional information on the Nordic Film Days Lübeck can be found at www.filmtage.luebeck.de,Facebook/Twitter/Instagram: nordicfilmdays
Contact Film Forum / Master Class
Doris Bandhold
Filmforum curator, Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Tel: +49 451 122 7571
Mobile: 0179 / 652 15 76
doris.bandhold@filmtage.luebeck.de
Press contact:
Silke Lehmann
Press and publicity department
Nordic Film Days Lübeck
Schildstr. 12, 23539 Lübeck
Tel: +49 451 122 1454
presse@filmtage.luebeck.de
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