The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein maintained that the limits of one's language are the limits of one's world. But is it possible that by expanding and broadening the definition of language, the world itself can become, wider, deeper, bigger? In HOLY F#&% we see people who liberate themselves when they bend and break the rules of language, foregrounding its materiality and unconscious dimension, producing sounds which give access to realms of the mind that words cannot reveal and express. With this uninhibited flouting of conventions and the hegemony of the functional, they challenge us to expand our definitions of language and speech in different directions.
Sobota is a man without morals, without remorse. In the 1960's, he was known as the most notorious pimp and merciless thug in Vienna’s red-light-district. Later he became the author of one of the most demonized and top-selling Austrian autobiographies. His provocative reports have been a golden opportunity for the media, who mystified him and created an image of the ultimate "bad boy". But where does the fascination for the dark side of life come from? What is left of him today, over thirty years after the publishing of his memoirs? The film does not search for Sobota's supposed motives, but for the abysmal human character in each of us.
Festivals: Visions Du Réel International Film Festival 2013, International Documentary Film Festival Munich 2013, Cannes International Film Festival / Germany Shorts 2013.
inkedKenny is a photographer who has a special relationship to his models, who dares to look behind the facades, who produces and opposes them. He shapes the universe of the homosexual Bear Community of Montreal by taking pictures of muscular men who embody a certain ideal of beauty. What appears at first glance to be a pure body cult is a source of strength in an extraordinary fate.
Festivals: DOK.Forum / International Documentary Film Festival Munich 2012, Film Leben Festival Ilmenau 2012, Munich Art Film Weeks 2012, German-Russian-Student Film Festival Moscow 2012, Long Nights of the Museums Munich 2012, Festival Nacional 5 Minutos Bahia 2012, Wildbear Weekend Art Show Vancouver 2012, Indianapolis LGBT Film Festival 2012, International Queer Film Festival Merlinka Belgrade 2012, Lesbian & Gay Film Festival Ljubljana 2012, Munich International Festival of Film Schools 2012, Romanian Gay Film Nights International Film Festival Cluj-Napoca 2012, Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois Montréal 2013, HONORABLE MENTION at Regensburger Kurzfilmwoche 2013, Festival du Court-Métrage de Clermont-Ferrand 2013, Berlinale International Film Festival 2013, Sehsüchte International Student Film Festival 2013, International Short Film Festival Winterthur 2013, Media festival plattform#11 Tuebingen.
Matthias has spent five months in solitary confinement, sentenced by the GDR authorities for illegal border crossing. Deprived of sleep and social contact, cut off from the outside world, he lived on his mere daydreams, yearning to catch a glimpse of the sky or to smell the scent of the ocean... Even after 23 years, Matthias can`t escape from his former cell.
Festivals: "Coup de coeur - Le court metrage allemand" at the International Short Film Festival Clermont-Ferrand 2012 / Audi Festival of German Films Sydney 2012 / Brussels Short Film Festival 2012 / Outbox International Film Festival Beirut 2012/ In the Palace International Short Film Festival Bulgaria 2012 / La Maison de l'Image Strasbourg 2012 / Quantum Café German Film Festival Makati (Philippines) 2012 / 21st European Film Festival for Documentaries dokumentART Szczecin 2012, One World International Human Rights Documentary Film Festival Prague 2012, Kurzfilmnacht Memmingen 2012, International Film Festival "Colors of the World" Moscow 2012, Alcine Festival Internacional de Cine 2012, Goethe Institute Hyderabad (India) 2012, Univerciné - Cinéma Allemand Film Festival Nantes 2012, the RIFIC Film Festival Yaounde (Cameroun) 2012, International Short Film Festival Istanbul 2012, PankulturA Film Festival Lille 2013, goEAST Film Festival Wiesbaden 2013, Brussels International Film Festival 2013.
It happens 795.000 times each year: Countless dreams of countless people are ripped apart. Being struck down by a stroke signifies a major burden for a human being, but also shakes the life of his or her loved ones to the core. In times of jet lag and burn out syndrome, the risk increases with every blink of an eye. About 6,500,000 stroke survivors are alive today. I LOVE YOU, I LOVE YOU NOT fuses documentary and fiction into a kaleidoscope of memory and status quo. It sheds a light on this crucial stroke of fate for a love relationship. How can you lead an active life when your significant other is trapped in his or her body? What if recovery stagnates? Will anything ever be the same again? A documentation of a state of mind, a tale of a goodbye in stages, a farewell to yesterday.
Festivals: Ca'Foscari Short Film Festival Venice 2011 (AWARD WINNER OF THE 1ST PRIZE), Un Mare Di Cinema Film Festival Lipari 2011, Festival International du Court Metrage Lille 2011, International Documentary Film Festival Munich 2012.
I'm going on a trip. By means of an old children's game the film is searching for the value of memories: Five completely different personalities disclose splinters of thought, report on crucial moments of their lives. But where is their connection? The own memory is replaced by evidence of previous generations, whereas the life behind the pictures remains concealed. We all carry our lives in a widely travelled suitcase: a suitcase full of memories, which are passed on to us but are never really our own.
Festivals: DOK Leipzig 2009, HONORABLE MENTION at kurz.film.spiele Konstanz 2009, Bunter Hund Munich 2009, Filmgipfel Oberstdorf 2009, Kurzfilmnacht Memmingen 2010, Festival de Curtmetratges de Manlleu 2010, OpenEyes Filmfest Marburg 2010, Le Master International du Film Documentaire / Docencourts Lyon 2010, AWARD WINNER at the Alternative Film/Video Festival Belgrade 2010, Independent Days Karlsruhe 2011, KratkofilPlus International Film Festival Banja Luka / Bosnia Herzegovina 2011, Open Cinema Art Festival St. Petersburg 2011.
Callgirls, high class escorts and whores – time and time again prostitutes have to serve as an example for the favourite toy of patriarchal structures. But prostitution per se doesn’t exist. The post-feminist victimization doesn’t do justice to the many faces of sex work. However the truth is neither black nor white, but multi-layered: every woman lives her own interpretation of the milieu’s reality: be it a self-experiment, a downward spiral or even a sexual revolution. Three voices rise, step out of the crowd and merge into a mosaic, an up-to-date inventory of Berlin’s red light scene.
Festivals: Shortmoves Halle/Saale 2008.