Matthias Wermke, Lutz Henke, Mischa Leinkauf
Germany
2015 | 0:17500

Poetry or threat? An act of surrender or perhaps art? These were the theories that New York puzzled over last summer. How can one incident be interpreted in so many ways? By means of press reports, Symbolic Threats allows the public at large to express their extreme disparity of interpretation. Inspired by the heated debate over the two „White American Flags“ that suddenly appeared on the towers of New York City’s iconic Brooklyn Bridge, the film asks what kind of societal scope art has in the present day. What happens when threatened freedom reinstates art with the element of danger? Who or what makes it into a threat? Are we safe in the city? What is next?

Anonym
France
2015 | 0:49:00

Téhéran, juin 2013. Les Iraniens s’apprêtent à élire le nouveau président de la République islamique. Massés devant leur télévision, ils commentent la campagne présidentielle diffusée par les chaînes nationales : les plaisanteries qui accompagnent le défilé des candidats trahissent la désillusion des spectateurs. Après les révoltes de 2009, l’élan démocratique réprimé dans le sang par le Régime, le peuple iranien croient-il encore à la politique ? Dans l’intimité de leur foyer, face au flux d’images relayé par satellite, propagande d’État, images de l’Occident, de l’Égypte ou de la Syrie, hommes et femmes témoignent librement de leurs espoirs, de leurs colères et de leurs craintes.

Natasha De Betak
Inde
2015 | 0:23:15

Natasha De Betak has been filming a Holy man Nagnath Baba since last five years who has been on a hunger strike to save the sacred river Ganga. Year after year, his body crumbles. He is haunted by both dreams and nightmares. His sacred existence takes surreal shape. Life continues to flow around his body; temple, prayers, rituals… Then one day his hunger strike reaches climax and he dies. Expressionism and poetry meet to create a sublime journey of an unusual soul.

Annelie Boros, Vera Brueckner
Germany
2015 | 0:16:00

In 2024 a private organisation plans to send humans to Mars. Paul Leeming and Pauls Irbins are shortlisted candidates for the first human settlement on Mars. Theirs is a one-way trip. They will leave behind everything they have known. “We have made our peace with the fact that we are not coming back. We are real, true pioneers. The first ever people on another planet. We are now interplanetary”.