07.05.2024
Humboldt Forum
On 13 May, from 11 am to 10 pm, the Ethnologisches Museum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss and the German International Film Festival (GIEFF) are hosting a film day dedicated entirely to ethnographic films. Eight cinematic works from four continents are being screened under the title Slices of Life. Themes such as collective, generational and communal memories in various cultural contexts provide a common thread among the otherwise quite diverse productions.
The films presented during the Slices of Life Film Day at the Humboldt Forum have been produced in Puerto Rico, Papua New Guinea, Mexico/Columbia, Germany, Cameroon and other countries. What the films have in common is a collaborative creative process involving both the people in front of and behind the camera – an approach systematically breaking down the strict distinction between filmmakers and those being filmed. All of the screened film projects view having transparent decision-making structures and goals shared by their participants as essential.
The festival’s special highlights are the world premieres of Amen, by Cameroonian director Augustine Moukodi, and of Seven Ridges, by Antonio Cooelle and Valentina Torres, the first feature-length film in the Cmiique Iitom (Seri) language.
The film programme for the Slices of Life Film Day is available on the Humboldt Forum website.
Each of the six blocks of films is followed by a discussion with the films’ attending participants on the complexity of the relationships between the filmmakers and those they have chosen to film. In addition, the virtual reality productions Affiorare (Surfacing) by Rossella Schillaci and La Piragua (The Canoe) by Germán Villalobos and Andrew Simon Tucker will be repeatedly shown throughout the day from 11 am to 10 pm.
The Film Day event is moderated by freelance filmmaker, curator and journalist Dorothee Wenner. She has served on the International Forum of New Cinema selection committee and as the Berlinale special representative for India/Sub-Saharan Africa.
All films are screened in their original languages with English subtitles.
The Slices of Life Film Day is organised by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in collaboration with the Stiftung Humboldt Forum and the German International Film Festival.