The Panorama Dokumente section of the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival will present 16 films, including ten world premieres. Panorama Dokumente will open on February 7 with the world premiere of the Dutch co-production LAST HIJACK by Tommy Pallotta and Femke Wolting. The film depicts what motivates piracy in Somalia.
Other films on the lineup with an African focus include the Ethiopian fictional feature DIFRET, and Swedish filmmaker Göran Hugo Olsson CONCERNING VIOLENCE which World Premiered earlier this year at the Sundance Film Festival. CONCERNING VIOLENCE is described by the festival as a strong commentary on Africa’s decolonization, cites Frantz Fanon’s “The Wretched of the Earth” – and with narration by singer Lauryn Hill. Olsson presented THE BLACK POWER MIXTAPE 1967-1975 about the Afro-American civil rights movement in Panorama in 2011. In Thomas Allen Harris’ THROUGH A LENS DARKLY: BLACK PHOTOGRAPHERS AND THE EMERGENCE OF A PEOPLE, the history of photography is shown from an Afro-American perspective.
In IS THE MAN WHO IS TALL HAPPY?, Michel Gondry conveys what the festival describes as terrific ingenuity and loving humor his impressions from a series of talks with American linguist Noam Chomsky.
Panorama also has a tradition of music films, and continues with the British entry 20,000 DAYS ON EARTH by Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard, a densely poetic portrait of Australian musician, author and actor Nick Cave, whose more than 30-year career still displays a fascinating degree of artistic integrity and authenticity.
Besides Tamara Trampe and Johann Feindt’s MEINE MUTTER, EIN KRIEG UND ICH (MY MOTHER, A WAR AND ME), which traces the Second World War in the Ukraine, Annekatrin Hendel’s ANDERSON takes a look at Germany’s past by focusing on one of the most dubious figures of not-too-distant history. Sascha Anderson, charismatic pop star of the alternative literature scene in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg during the 1980s, was a zealous informant for the Stasi: even after more than twenty years, the wounds he inflicted on his former friends and colleagues run deep.
“Unfuck the world!” the slogan from ANOTHER WORLD by US-American filmmakers Rebecca Chaiklin and Fisher Stevens resonates in a number of Panorama fictional features, and captures an attitude towards life related to the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011. This documentary gives an overview of events and how they led to many new initiatives.
With NATURAL RESISTANCE, Jonathan Nossiter takes a different approach to the same purpose: ten years after Mondovino, he provides insights into ecological vineyards, as well as developments in the other direction, the destruction of land caused by industrial wineries in Italy. Nossiter unites film history and wine production into an intelligent analysis.
Several works revolve around emancipation: for instance, Gianni Amelio’s FELICE CHI È DIVERSO (HAPPY TO BE DIFFERENT) delivers a detailed account of queer history in Italy; or Claudia Richarz and Ulrike Zimmermann’s VULVA 3.0 gives a calm analysis and assessment of the current perception of the vulva – from education and censorship, to genital mutilation and intimate surgery.
Panorama Dokumente
20,000 Days on Earth – Great Britain
By Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
With Nick Cave
EP
Anderson – Germany
By Annekatrin Hendel
WP
Another World – USA
By Rebecca Chaiklin, Fisher Stevens
WP
Concerning Violence – Sweden / USA / Denmark
By Göran Hugo Olsson
EP
Der Anständige (The Decent One) – Israel / Austria / Germany
By Vanessa Lapa
WP
Der Kreis (The Circle) – Switzerland
By Stefan Haupt
With Marianne Sägebrecht, Anatole Taubman, Matthias Hungerbühler, Sven Schelker
WP
Felice chi è diverso (Happy to Be Different) – Italy
By Gianni Amelio
WP
Finding Vivian Maier – USA
By John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
EP
Fucking different XXY – Germany
By Mor Vital, KAy Garnellen, Felix Endara & Sasha Wortzel, J.Jackie Baier, Buck Angel, Jasco Viefhues, Gwen Haworth
WP
Last Hijack – Netherlands / Germany / Ireland / Belgium
By Tommy Pallotta, Femke Wolting
WP
Meine Mutter, ein Krieg und ich (My Mother, a War and Me) – Germany
By Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt
WP
Natural Resistance – Italy
By Jonathan Nossiter
WP
The Dog – USA
By Frank Keraudren, Allison Berg
EP
Through A Lens Darkly: Black Photographers and the Emergence of a People – USA
By Thomas Allen Harris
IP
Vulva 3.0 – Germany
By Claudia Richarz, Ulrike Zimmermann
WP
Panorama supporting films
Mario Wirz – Germany
By Rosa von Praunheim
WP
Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy? – France
By Michel Gondry
EP
(WP = World Premiere, IP = International Premiere, EP = European Premiere)
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