The Oberhausen International Short Film Festival is dedicating this year’s Theme programme to “Solidarity as Disruption”: an investigation into how solidarity, a concept that has come into focus with the recent migrations, can be re/defined as a political project and how its methods can be re/activated through the cinema. Focusing on films from the former Yugoslavia since the 1960s, the curators Branka Benčić (Croatia) and Aleksandra Sekulić (Serbia) examine the concept and its history in a wider context, from collective film movements to the aesthetics of the working classes as political subjects, from kinepolitics to performative gestures.

Solidarity disrupts the systems of inequality. Calls for solidarity reach us daily, especially with regard to refugees and the recent global migration movements. In the light of these migrations, the very meaning and possibility of solidarity have come to be re-examined. Oberhausen is now investigating the concept through the prism of films from former Yugoslavia in its Theme programme “Solidarity as Disruption”.

Individual programmes will examine the “Geography of Solidarity”, the “Collective”, as represented by film groups, clubs, communities and movements, “Film Fronts” of interventionist and participative filmmaking, the aesthetic treatment of “Workers” as political subjects, “Kinepolitics”, the politics of subjects based on their movements, and “Performative Gestures”. In eight film programmes, the programme will highlight historic approaches as well as current participative models and infrastructures of cinematic solidarity and intervention. A Podium discussion under the title of “Cooperation, Disensus and Solidarity” will explore how the cinema experience was and is shaped by dissenting, emancipatory and activist groups.

Covering a period of more than 60 years, from 1950 to 2015, the programme includes films by Nika Autor, the Chto Delat collective, Vlatko Gilić, William E. Jones, Vlado Kristl, Low Fi Video, Dušan Makavejev, Chris Marker, Krsto Papić, Katarina Zdjelar, Joyce Wieland, Želimir Žilnik, and many others.

Dates:

Thursday, 14 May, 12.30 pm Introduction to “Solidarity as Disruption”Branka Benčić and Aleksandra Sekulić

Thursday, 14 May, 5 pmThe Geography of SolidarityFilm programme

Friday, 15 May, 5 pmWorkers – the Aesthetic Form of Political Subjects Film programme

Saturday, 16 May, 5 pmMuseum Songspiel: The Netherlands 20XXScreening and lecture by the Chto Delat collective

Sunday, 17 May, 10.30 am Performative Gestures – (Un)learning From…Film programme

Sunday, 17 May, 5 pmKinepoliticsFilm programme Guests: Nika Autor, Doplgenger (Isidora Ilić and Boško Prostran), Mate Ugrin and Želimir Žilnik

Sunday, 17 May, 10 pm Performative Gestures – Common SpaceFilm programme Guests: Igor Grubić, Dejan Vasić

Monday, 18 May, 10 amCooperation, Disensus, and SolidarityPodium discussionPanel: Igor Đorđević (Kosmoplovci collective, Belgrade), Sunčica Fradelić (Cine Club Split), Marko Milićević (Kino pleme, Belgrade), and Diana Nenadić (Croatian Film Clubs’ Association)

Monday, 18 May, 12.30 pm Collective: Group, Community, Club, MovementFilm programmeGuests: Igor Đorđević, Diana Nenadić

Monday, 18 May, 5 pm Film FrontsFilm programmeGuest: Tanja Vrvilo

(subject to change)