DATE: DeCeMber 9th, 8 pm.
“To know love, men must be able to let go the will to dominate.They must be able to choose life over death. They must be willing to change.”-bell hooks (“The will to change”)
Short film programme and talk with fimmakers Valentin Merz and Nikolai Meierjohann
The programme shows five films that address the complex effects of various images of masculinity and their crises. In particular, the intimate sphere of the family and the patriarchal mechanisms of the working environment are critically examined through queer, trans and cis-male perspectives. The filmic struggle with fathers, brothers and oneself paints an emotional and multidimensional picture of male identities. Can there be a happy ending?
MANUAL – Christoph Girardet, Matthias Müller, D 2002, 10′, English without subtitles
Combining close-ups of redundant technology gleaned from 60s US sci-fi television series with a female voice of a 1951 Hollywood melodrama, Manual makes absolute detachment clash with magnified emotion. With its record of the minutiae of endless buttons, switches and control panels, Manual reduces the notion of any manageability of life to sheer absurdity.
FAIRPLAY – Zoel Aschenbacher, F/CH 2022, 17′, French with english subtitles
A teenager in search of recognition, a worker ready to do anything to hit the jackpot, a senior executive at the end of his career who wants to prove to himself that he is still alive. Three characters who are losing their way on the competition highway.
FILMING DAD’S ASS WHILE HE’S CHOPPING LOGS WITH A CHAINSAW – Max Göran, S 2018, 23′, Swedish with english subtitles
Max Göran visits his father in a rural Swedish region where he works as a lumberjack. He approaches their relationship marked by political disagreement and different life circumstances. Under his son’s camera gaze the father plays with prefabricated images of the working class.
BRÜDER. EIN FAMILIENFILM – Valentin Merz, D 2020, 18′, German with english subtitles
After twenty years of separation, brothers Adi and Valentin spend a week together. Adi is 32 years old, doesn’t work and lives with his parents. Valentin, barely older, is a filmmaker and seems to have found his autonomy. The film delves into a relationship where violence and tenderness seem one and the same.
EIN BRIEF AN MEINEN VATER – Nikolai Meierjohann, D 2014, 7′, German
A movie about the divorce of one’s own parents. The children are left behind with their injuries and pain. Years after the father’s departure, filmmaker Nikolai Meierjohann seeks to confront and deal with him and ultimately with his own story.
Program length: 90 min
Laguage: The moderation and talk will be held in german spoken language.
Content note: Homophobia, transphobia, violent language
