Programs of the 48th Oberhausen Festival - A First Look

[Kurzfilmtage]

Expect the Unexpected: A first look at the programs of the
48th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 2-7 May 2002

SPECIAL PROGRAM "CATASTROPHE"
The special program in 2002, "CATASTROPHE," for which planning began in May 
2001, is based on the hypothesis that catastrophe is the unsettling shadow 
of progress. Ever since the end of the world became a technical 
possibility, the medial presentation of horror has known no bounds: in the 
catastrophe, society envisages the fascinating picture of its own 
extinction. Events such as those of September 11, 2001 can today no longer 
be seen outside of their symbolic power and multiplication through 
cinematic and television images.
"CATASTROPHE" focuses on the real and imagined threats to natural basic 
needs of existence, physical health, social order, and political balances 
of power world-wide. It examines war, apocalypse and the terror of the 
spectacle. Pure survival strategies meet unconventional methods of 
overcoming crises and the desire to deliberately expose oneself to dangers. 
"CATASTROPHE" shows how images regulate the ambivalence between attraction 
and fear  in documentations, experimental films, television images, 
advertising and educational films, music videos, short movies, etc.
With works by Harun Farocki (GER), MVRDV (NET), Sandra Lahire (UK), Olivier 
Zabat (FRA), Kristin Lucas (USA), Adbusters (CAN), Tony Oursler/Sonic Youth 
(USA), and many others.


SPECIALS
JOHN MAYBURY belongs to the first generation of modern avant-garde artists 
who were influenced by early music videos and themselves contributed 
substantially to defining the genre. In the Spartan days of Thatcherism, 
Maybury cultivated a subversive, utopian, angry form of cinema. In 
Oberhausen, he will also present largely unknown Super-8 works and music 
videos.

The widely varied works of the Canadian artist and filmmaker JOYCE WIELAND 
(1931-1998) are full of vital intensity and good-humored dialectics. 
Parodistic elements even occur in her mock agitprop films. The Festival 
will be showing a comprehensive retrospective of this filmmaker.

JOHN SMITH'S love of storytelling is matched in its brilliance by 
conceptual rigour, with an irreverence that belies profound humanitarian, 
political and social concerns. Disregarding the boundaries between fact and 
fiction, representation and abstraction, these works are hysterically 
funny, vital, and continuously astonishing.

KARPO GODINA and ZELIMIR ZILNIK show outcasts and the billeted: drinkers 
and whores, unemployed and ethnic minorities. And, at the same time, they 
settle the score with the misery of abstract humanism, false avant-gardism, 
empty left-wing phrases, and social demagogy.



COMPETITIONS
NEW: The GERMAN COMPETITION will for the first time take place concentrated 
over two days. This gives Festival visitors a better chance to focus in on 
what is the largest showcase for German short film world-wide, and to use 
it as a contact forum.
(1st prize 2001: Mexico City, Christiane Lilge, 2000)

INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION
(Grand prize 2001: Teekond nirvaanasse/The Way to Nirvana, Mait Laas, 
Estonia 2000)

CHILDREN'S AND YOUTH FILM COMPETITION, which is celebrating its 25th 
birthday in 2002
(Prizewinners 2001: Tro, håb og Batman/Faith, Hope and Batman, Linda K. 
Holmberg, Denmark 2000, and Cappy Leit, Marie Kreutzer, Austria 2000)

MUVI AWARD for the best German music video
(1st prize 2001: Why, G. Graw/U. Böckler; Music: Donna Regina, 2000).

In 2002 the Festival will again buy prizewinning and other selected films 
from the competitions for its non-commercial distribution program. 
Distribution contact: Melanie Piguel, info at kurzfilmtage.de


FILM MARKET, 1-7 May 2002
- an expected number of around 3,500 titles available for viewing (all 
films and videos entered in the competitions; in 2001 there were over 3,600 
titles from some 85 countries
- 15 video booths
- a printed catalog (German/English) with various indexes, contact 
addresses and synopses
- about 200 confirmed sales a year, mainly to TV stations abroad, from the 
USA to Australia.

FILM MARKET CATALOGUE ONLINE
For the second time, the catalog will be online from mid-April, accessible 
only with password. You can find out about all Market activities under 
www.kurzfilmtage.de in the Short Film Exchange.
Film Market contact: Hilke Doering, doering at kurzfilmtage.de


MEDIA PARTNERS
ARTE: ARTE, one of the biggest patrons of European short film, will be 
continuing its cooperation with the Festival for the fourth year. It will 
be awarding the ARTE Prize for the best European short film in the 
International Competition, worth 2,500 euros, for the second time, and 
showing European works from Oberhausen in a special edition of the TV 
magazine "KurzSchluss."

3sat: No other German TV station gives short film better time slots than 
3sat. 3sat has been a partner of the Short Film Festival for four years. 
The 3sat Promotional Award, which has been presented at the German 
Competition since 1999, will be worth 2,500 euros for a second time. 3sat 
will also be broadcasting a special program with German entries from 
Oberhausen as part of its schedule.

KINDERKANAL: For the third time, the Children's Channel of ARD and ZDF 
(KI.KA) will be sponsoring the two prizes for the Children's and Youth 
Cinema, each worth 1,000 euros.


AND MORE::
+++ In the International Competition, the "Werkleitz Award" for 
"outstanding artistic usage of digital media," worth 5,000 euros, will be 
presented in 2002 for the first and only time +++ From March 15, 2002, a 
list of all works selected for the competitions will be online under 
www.kurzfilmtage.de +++ Additional programs: Student films from NRW, 
prize-winners from other festivals, the best international music videos, 
music videos for young people, and films for three to five year olds in the 
Children's and Youth Cinema +++


In 2001, around 1,000 accredited visitors, including about 200 
representatives of the press, came to Oberhausen to take part in 
discussions, celebrate, and, of course, see some 450 films in often 
booked-out cinemas. Festival guests praise the relaxed atmosphere in 
Oberhausen which makes getting into conversation easy. The Festival 
organizes discussions after all the competition programs and many of the 
Specials; the cafés and Festival Lounge situated right next to the Festival 
cinema provide plenty of opportunities to establish and cultivate contacts.


CLOSING DATE FOR ACCREDITATION: 7 April 2002. Accreditation forms available 
at info at kurzfilmtage.de
PRESS CONTACT AND PRESS ACCREDITATION: Sabine Niewalda, 
niewalda at kurzfilmtage.de


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www.kurzfilmtage.de
International Short Film Festival Oberhausen