Special | Film is the articulation of light
PREFILM
CZ 2016, D: Jan Kulka, 25’, no film, masks, filters, flicker
PATTERNS
CZ 2022, D: Jan Kulka, 42’, 60mm
Jan Kulka is coming from Prague, bringing his Archeoscope with him. The Archeoscope is an analogue, hand-operated live projection machine that he designed and built to explore and redefine what it means to experience films. The machine can project all common film formats – 8, 16, 35, 70 mm – as well as special formats and all kinds of materials such as transparent tape, bandages, shoelaces, fabrics, packaging tape, bubble wrap and barrier tape.
The Archeoscope has four independent light sources arranged side by side. The film does not run through the projector from top to bottom as is usually the case, but rather across it. The four light sources make it possible to project four different areas of an image or film strip simultaneously. This allows for countless combinations, rhythms and polyrhythms in which the four lamps can be switched together. The frame rate is no longer fixed to a regular, monotonous pattern, as is normally the case, but can be composed “musically” – in shorter, cyclical structures or larger, linear intervals. In the end, no two projections are alike, so what you see is a truly unique experience. The Archeoscope can fundamentally change the way we think about cinema.
Jan Kulka is showing and performing two of his works at GEGENkino: PREFILM and PATTERNS. PREFILM works with light. Broken down to a most basic level, film is a temporal sequence of light and dark intervals. When the cycle is fast, flickering occurs, a visual phenomenon with transcendent potential. In PREFILM, no film material is projected; instead, materials, stencils, filters and nuanced lighting are used. This tickles specific points of perception, resulting in a stimulating massage for the eyes. PATTERNS, on the other hand, is an experimental, handmade film created using a printing process on a 60 mm film base. It explores the cinematic potential of patterns – what regular, repetitive structures on film can do when projected in different ways. It thus offers a unique opportunity to experience the essence of patterns directly in live action. PATTERNS is an audiovisual struggle between chaos and order, a logos brought to life, embedded in an intense light spectacle. The film is an immersive play on the senses, in which the eye is constantly busy taking everything in, while the brain simultaneously tries to make sense of it all. The visual creations, variations and modulations of the patterns on the screen and subsequently in the minds of the audience give rise to something new that cannot be seen anywhere else. The live projection of this film is technically irreproducible and can only be experienced with the naked eye. Following the performance, Jan Kulka will give a shortlecture about his work and make the special features of the Archeoscope accessible to the audience.
| Wed 17 Sept | UT Connewitz |
| 8 PM | € 7,50 (6,50 reduced) Following the performance, Jan Kulka will give a short lecture about his work and make the special features of the Archeoscope accessible to the audience. |
TN/FR/BE/PO/SA/QA 2024, D: Lotfi Achour, A: Ali Helali, Yassine Samouni, Wided Dabebi, 97’, OV with english subtitles, DCP
In the remote mountain regions of western Tunisia, 13-year-old shepherd Achraf and his cousin Nizar experience the reality of a brutal regime of violence: Nizar is treacherously murdered by jihadist militias – a true story that director Lotfi Achour tells with great sensitivity. Achraf must bear the unimaginable burden of bringing his cousin’s head back to the village.
From the perspective of an adolescent, RED PATH deals with the conflict between political control and violence, structural disadvantage in the region and cohesion in the village community. A restrained but politically powerful drama.
| Thu 16 Sept | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 9 PM | € 7,50 (6,50 reduced) |
Trailer
Special | Cinema as protest – poetry as resistance
COYOTE
MX 2013, silent, 16’, DCP
DANZA SOLAR
MX 2021, silent, 4’, DCP
GUERRAS FLORIDAS
MX 2021, silent, 4’, DCP
EL NIDO DEL SOL
MX 2021, silent, 5’, DCP
SENSEMAYÁ
MX 2021, silent, 7’, DCP
TLÁLOC
MX 2015, silent, 11’, DCP
VISIÓN DE ANÁHUAC
MX 2018, silent, 1’, DCP
Colectivo Los Ingr.vidos from Tehuac.n, Mexico, is an association of artists founded in 2012 that addresses issues deeply rooted in Mexican society with aesthetic references to avant-garde film movements. The collective arose out of a need to counteract the commercialised and ideologised audiovisual grammar of television and cinema. Politically charged to such an extent and consciously continuing the manifestos of Brazilian Third Cinema filmmaker Glauber Rocha, “The Aesthetics of Hunger” and “The Aesthetics of Dreaming”, they articulate anger and resistance while also creating.
Whether as a digital, activist short clip for social media or as a cinematic poem shot on 16mm and presented at major international film festivals, the collective has now produced around 300 works dealing with complex phenomena such as social protest movements, land grabbing, violence by the state and drug cartels, film history, agitprop or mythological narratives. Analogue and digital materials and aesthetics are interwoven, edited, altered and constantly re-examined. This often gives the films a colourful, ecstatic and delirious character.
We are showing a total of 17 works in two programmes, compiled by artist and filmmaker Daniela Zahlner and Dietmar Schw.rzler, curator and managing director of the Austrian experimental film distributor sixpackfilm. Presented for the first time at the Viennale 2024.
| Tue 16 Sept 2025 | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 7 PM | € 7,5 (6,5 reduced) |
Special | Cinema as protest – poetry as resistance
AFTER AMÉRICA
MX 2021, engl. OV, 7’, DCP
BATALLA
MX 2019, silent, 5’, DCP
BRUSSELS
MX 2024, silent, 3’, DCP
COLONIAL TRANSFER
MX 2021, silent, 7’, DCP
COYOLXAUHQUI
MX 2016, silent, 10’, DCP
EXTRACTIVISTAS
MX 2016, OmeU, 1’, DCP
IMPRESSIONS FOR A LIGHT AND SOUND MACHINE
MX 2017, OmeU, 7’, DCP
OLYMPIA
MX 2018, silent, 7’, DCP
TRANSMISSION / MISFRAMING
MX 2014, OmeU, 5’, DCP
¿HAS VISTO?
MX 2017, silent, 7’, DCP
COYOTE
MX 2013, silent, 16’, DCP
DANZA SOLAR
MX 2021, silent, 4’, DCP
GUERRAS FLORIDAS
MX 2021, silent, 4’, DCP
EL NIDO DEL SOL
MX 2021, silent, 5’, DCP
SENSEMAYÁ
MX 2021, silent, 7’, DCP
TLÁLOC
MX 2015, silent, 11’, DCP
VISIÓN DE ANÁHUAC
MX 2018, silent, 1’, DCP
Colectivo Los Ingrávidos from Tehuacán, Mexico, is an association of artists founded in 2012 that addresses issues deeply rooted in Mexican society with aesthetic references to avant-garde film movements. The collective arose out of a need to counteract the commercialised and ideologised audiovisual grammar of television and cinema. Politically charged to such an extent and consciously continuing the manifestos of Brazilian Third Cinema filmmaker Glauber Rocha, “The Aesthetics of Hunger” and “The Aesthetics of Dreaming”, they articulate anger and resistance while also creating space for beauty, magic and trance.
Whether as a digital, activist short clip for social media or as a cinematic poem shot on 16mm and presented at major international film festivals, the collective has now produced around 300 works dealing with complex phenomena such as social protest movements, land grabbing, violence by the state and drug cartels, film history, agitprop or mythological narratives. Analogue and digital materials and aesthetics are interwoven, edited, altered and constantly re-examined. This often gives the films a colourful, ecstatic and delirious character.
We are showing a total of 17 works in two programmes, compiled by artist and filmmaker Daniela Zahlner and Dietmar Schwärzler, curator and managing director of the Austrian experimental film distributor sixpackfilm. Presented for the first time at the Viennale 2024.
| Mon 15 Sept 2025 | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 9 PM | € 7,5 (6,5 reduced) |
HER FIVE LIVES
UZ 2022, D: Saodat Ismailova, 13’, no dialogue, DCP
FARANGIS
TJ 2022, D: Lolisanam Ulugova, 22’, Russian OV with English subtitles, DCP
AUTONOMY
UZ 2022, D: Zumrad Mirzalieva, 7’, no dialogue, DCP
THE LATE WIND
KZ 2023, D: Shugyla Serzhan, 23’, Kazakh OV with English subtitles, DCP
MOSCOW TIME
KG 2020, D: Gulzat Egemberdieva, 12’, Kyrgyz OV with English subtitles, DCP
More than three decades after the collapse of the USSR, the geopolitical challenges for the independent and young nations of Central Asia remain – Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan navigate complex dependencies between the West, Russia and China. Amidst these socio-political tensions, film has become an important mouthpiece for a post-Soviet generation. Female filmmakers in particular are taking a critical look at their social role, which is shaped by both the Soviet legacy and Islam.
Apart from a few independent initiatives such as the Tashkent Film School, however, the region still lacks local infrastructure for film education. Only a few have been able to attend film schools in Europe, the USA or Moscow. Women in particular are disadvantaged both financially and socially when it comes to studying abroad, as in countries shaped by Muslim-conservativism, patriarchal structures mean that women remain subordinate to men. Yet, “women’s emancipation” was once a central political instrument of the Bolsheviks: in 1918, they enshrined gender equality in the constitution and became the first country in the world to legalise abortion. Staged by men, the “liberation” of Muslim women from Central Asia became a popular subject in socialist-influenced films. However, unlike actresses, there were few female directors in the Soviet era (let alone any from Central Asia) – their propagated emancipation ultimately remained limited to a passive and representative role in front of the camera.
Thanks to technological advances and the knowledge brought back by filmmakers from the diaspora, a growing Central Asian film scene has developed over the past two decades, producing remarkable female voices. Borrowing the title of the first short film, HER FIVE LIVES presents five stories by and about women. Probably the best-known filmmaker from the region is Saodat Ismailova, who hails from Uzbekistan and is also internationally renowned as an artist. Her works take a critical and feminist look at the history of her country, as in the short film HER FIVE LIVES, which is entirely composed of archive material. Focusing on Uzbek actresses, she reinterprets the history of women against the backdrop of changing political ideologies in her homeland.
In 2022, Ismailova founded the DAVRA collective with female artists from Central Asia. Among them is Zumrad Mirzalieva, who raises a central question in AUTONOMY: Are there other female role models in Uzbekistan besides motherhood and marriage? Lolisanam Ulugova from Tajikistan examines similar challenges in FARANGIS: her protagonist is a 25-year-old prima ballerina who, under increasing social pressure, must choose between marriage and her dancing career. In THE LATE WIND, Kazakh director Shugyla Serzhan tells the story of a woman whose partner disappears without a trace after she announces her pregnancy, leaving her to face social stigma. In the background, protests against President Tokayev’s energy policy rage in the streets of Almaty, which were violently suppressed by the Kazakh government in early 2022. In MOSCOW TIME, Gulzat Egemberdieva takes a sensitive look at a young girl in a Kyrgyz “ghost village” that flourished during the Soviet era thanks to mining. Her mother lives as a migrant worker in distant Russia – will she follow her when she grows up?
The programme was curated by Azem Bekturova and highlights five voices from a region that has received little attention to date, in which women take a critical look at the past and ask essential questions about their future, while the processes of identity formation and development continue in Central Asia.
| Mo 15 Sept 2025 | Schaubühne Lindenfels |
| 6:30 PM | € 7,5 (6,5 reduced) In the presence of Gulzat Egemberdieva (director) and Tolganay Talgat (director, actress in THE LATE WIND) – in conversation with curator Azem Bekturova |
