2nd Verstärker Art-Film-Festival

Under the title “Verstärker” the GEH8 presents projects and exhibitions of students of the
HfBK Dresden and other art colleges of the new federal states. Besides its own exhibitions and projects, the GEH8 repeatedly opens its space to young artists and artists and thus provides better artistic production and presentation conditions in Dresden. With “Verstärker”, a format of its own has now been created for the first time, which supports and honors up-and-coming artistic positions and rewards them.

As part of the Verstärker program to support up-and-coming artists, GEH8 is organizing the 2nd Art Film Festival, presenting the Verstärker Award designed by Dresden artist Heinz Schmöller. On Friday, October 16, the festival will present short film contributions by students from selected art colleges in the new German states. Here the audience decides: Come to the screening and vote for your favorite! The winners will be awarded during a gala show with live music and after party on Saturday, October 17.

Friday, 16. Oktober 2020
Opening + Screening
Entrance 18 Uhr | Start 19 Uhr

Saturday, 17. Oktober 2020
Awarding
Show with Livemusic + After Party
Entrance 18 Uhr | Start 19 Uhr

The audience has decided! Here you can find the shortlist & award winners of the 2nd Amplifier Art Film Festival:

1. Placce (Verstärker-Award + 300 Euro)

KONRAD LEUE with “Draußen vor der Tür”

2. Place (200 Euro)

INKA HILSENBEK with “Bückeberg bei Hameln”

3. Place (100 Euro)

CHARLOTTE JACOBY with “Spinne der Film”

Special Mention: 

MIRKO MUHSHOFF with “Das Bauhaus in Wiblingswerde” and NINA HOPF with “eademcutis – Diesselbe Haut”

We would like to thank all applicants, guests and the team once again. It was a wonderful film festival! We are now looking forward to next year …

 

Participants:

 

Bauhaus-Universität / Weimar:

MALLAK HAWARY with Old Kingdom

The protagonist of the short animated film ”Old Kingdom” goes through a journey of self-discovery and realizes that her current life situation does not define who she is. The animated film is inspired by the ancient Egyptian mythology ”Osiris and Isis”.

NINA HOPF with EADEMCUTIS – DIESSELBE HAUT

“I just want to be seen as who I am now!” – In this experimental documentary, John, the filmmaker’s twin brother, speaks and shares his thoughts on identity, body and gender. In the process, he gives the viewer a very intimate look into his life – and an immediate closeness to his body.

ALICIA KREMSER with EXPOSURE

Exposure represents the diversity of female bodies, the beauty of each individual and the unifying feelings of women who feel oppressed, superficially treated or blanketed. A poetic representation of the female body in its attraction and vulnerability. Different voices formulate personal statements about vulnerability and desire. Aspects of temptation and desire as well as fear of abuse are addressed. The work creates an openness that offers space to project one’s own experiences. Exposure gives women a voice to externalize a sensitive message about female sexuality and body perception in a universal statement.

MIRKO MUHSHOFF with BAUHAUS IN WIBLINGWERDE

On the centenary of the Bauhaus, everyone is talking about Weimar, Dessau and Berlin. But hardly anyone knows about the fourth station of the Gestalterschule: Wiblingwerde in North Rhine-Westphalia. Bauhaus enthusiast Thomas “Tommy” Neureuther takes us on a tour of his hometown, presents the highlights of modernism and explains the significance of the occa-colored parallelogram.

SCARLETT NIMZ with WENN DIE ANGST DIE ARME VOR DEINEM VERSTAND VERSCHLÄGT

Overrun by the fear of blushing, Rosa forms a social phobia that distorts her entire perception. More and more situations, places and people are stored in her emotional system as potentially precarious, causing her personal freedom to shrink ever further.

PAUL POLZE with TIMELESS ORIGIN

This film consists of abstract and intuitively designed objects that react to the frequencies of different sound tracks. In addition, this film used the design possibilities that are not based on real existing objects. An experimental sound collage formed the basis of a visual interpretation.

CLÀUDIA VILLAGRASSA with DIFFERENCES OF OPINION

A married couple argues about their personal vision of the world. Will they agree on a common view?

 

Burg Giebichtenstein / Halle (Saale):

REALITER with Z

Two anonymous bodies in an empty, endless, red room. They approach each other and help each other become visible until the encounter finally leads to a confrontation. It confronts them with the decision whether to continue their journey together or to withdraw from the familiar.

 

HfBK / Dresden:

ELISE BEUTNER with THE NAME OF ALL THINGS

“The Name of All Things” is a montage of different bodies of water and landscapes that the artist filmed over years in Ireland. Water appears omnipresent on the island. Various voices can be heard speaking Irish first names. The pronunciation of the names differs according to dialects. The history of the Irish language is changeable and closely linked to the political independence of Ireland – if Irish was a social stigma under English rule, it later became an important instrument on the way to a national identity. A forbidden language became a compulsory subject in school. Although almost no one speaks Irish in everyday life, Irish first names are more popular than ever among Generation Y, forging a bond between Celtic Tiger and the legendary figures of Irish mythology.

HANNAH DOEPKE with FARMYARD

describes a special encounter with people who open up in an intimate and sincere way. One is invited to follow them on a curious journey and be seized by an infectious calm. It is experimentation that explores how sound stimulates the imagination of the individual. No matter what relation one may have to it, no one can escape its effect on body, mind and soul.

JOHANNA FAILER with TARIFA

In “Tarifa” we follow the walk of a group with dog, exploring the secret magic of the peninsula “Isla de las Palomas”, the southernmost point on the European mainland. Seagulls, the scent of flowers, the lighthouse, the sunset – nothing is missing for perfect happiness. Those who are allowed to taste the beauty of the place and those others who have no papers and no rights know nothing about each other.

HANNA GRIEPENTROG with CARTOGRAPHY OF RESONANCE

Some places speak to us, they evoke images in us and whisper stories to us. We call such places places of resonance.⁴⁹ This is a map of resonance.

KARLA KREY with UNSER SONNENSYSTEM

Our solar system with its eight planets is only a tiny part of the universe. In search of both origin and future, mankind has been looking to the stars since ancient times. In recent years, telescopes on satellites in space have delivered impressive images of the planetary stars. So we are possibly already closer to the realization.

KONRAD LEUE with UNIVERSUM – DRAUSSEN VOR DER TÜR

Heavy Metal. Night. Hearse. A church and a lonely man. Vampirism. Death. The ride on the spine. Through the glass. Into the coffin. Down the street. Faster. Even faster. She loves to play with death. Her smile makes hearts stop. Her blood melts brains. The awakening. Was it a dream? Four minutes of pure dynamite.

NORA MESAROS with GARDEN

“Garden” is a multi-layered narrative that combines several types of home and childhood memories. Nora Mesaros has picked out individual image excerpts from her former children’s books to recombine them with photographs of the interiors and surroundings of her childhood home. By bringing together the photo and the children’s book, the space and time of the action is undefined. The protagonist is sent on a lonely journey into a world that is visually alienated. The animation plays in a loop.

HGB / Leipzig:

PAULA ÁBALOS with DIARIOS DE TRABAJOS (WORK DIARIES)

Work Diaries consists of a compilation of video diaries that Ábalos has created during the last years in which she documents her work time in different jobs she has performed parallel to her artistic work to cover her costs of living.
These diaries are a way of recovering the lost time in which the author rents her body to companies, trying to reappropriate those hours.

JULIE HART with KREISLÄUFE

The film “Circuits” links broadband expansion and water as two infrastructural ways in which Thallwitz is connected to the world.
ways in which Thallwitz is connected to the world. Fiber optic expansion as a new, innovative and
forward-looking connection. Water as a centuries-old one.
In addition to the subject matter addressed, “Kreisläufe” reflects various constructs of temporality; on the one hand.
cyclical ( ∞ ) always repeating, on the other hand the linear tracing of a route ( A – B ).

INKA HILSENBEK with BÜCKEBERG BEI HAMELN (HYMNE RÜCKWÄRTS)

In this performative work, past and present merge into an irritating, tenacious and almost comical symbiosis in a place pregnant with symbolism: the old Pied Piper legend is projected onto current political actors and their twisted melodies. And it seems fateful that just at the place of the macabre legend also the memory of one of the biggest ideological mass manipulations in German history is rotting: the Reichserntedankfest.

SUSANNE KONTNY with DER LEIERMANN

Since 2017, I have been accompanying Pegida (“Patriotic Europeans against the Islamization of the Occident”) in
Dresden. The Islamophobic, xenophobic, ethnic, racist, and in some cases radical right-wing movement
movement continues to draw about 2,000 people to the streets every Monday. Without encountering
resistance. The reproduction of a sworn community.

 

Kunsthochschule Weißensee / Berlin:

 

CHARLOTTE JACOBY with SPINNE DER FILM

A spider reflects on the origins of her panic attacks.

BELEN RESNIKOWSKI with BECOMING

The film is an exploration of feminist histories and futures. It explores his knowledge and struggle; the identity in constant evolution and movement, to be water, to be air, to be animal, to be woman.

Universität Greifswald:

ANNE GERDA BÖGELSACK with IN ECSTASY

The short Artfilm was developed in the context of the seminar “Verwandlungskünstler” and shows a progression of colors. The first half of the video is dominated by rather darker hues, which, however, become increasingly brighter and later even neon-colored. Various rhythms, hard cuts and variations in image details are meant to captivate the viewer and represent a form of transformation. Regarding the latter, the theme of ecstasy and intoxication served as a source of inspiration …

CAROLIN JÜR, FRIEDERIKE REINHARDT, ALINA SANDER with #PRÄSENZ

As part of the seminar “Incognito – between cyberbullying and the great love from the Internet”, the three students developed a video production that deals with the topic of cyberbullying. The film was originally presented on a monitor in the course of an exhibition. A motionless female person standing with her back against a wall is shown. Chats projected onto the body irritate. Initial familiarity turns into numbness. Hate and abusive comments hurt. Helplessness turns into resistance. Supported by the furious excitement of an instrumental Jimi Hendrix song.

ALINA SANDER, FRIEDERIKE REINHARDT with [ˈknakņ]

ˈknakn̩
ˈkna-n̩
ˈ–akn̩
ˈk—n̩
ˈ—k-
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Some pictures of the last year:

 Pictures: © pidelta.de

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