Czech - German programme of the festival ELBE DOCK

Programme was supported by Czech-German Fund for the Future:

 

Exhibitions

AI Fusion: Czech-German Artistic Synthesis

BUNKR

(Důlce Street in Ústí nad Labem)

Open: Wed-Fri: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM, Sat: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

 

Step into the world of unconventional art that merges two cultures. The Czech-German installation in the Ústí nad Labem BUNKR presents an impressive convergence of four artists who delved into the depths of artificial intelligence, transforming its essence into visual and sonic forms.

Klára AlgoVize (CZ) translates algorithms onto canvas, unveiling their aesthetics and inner structures. Eliška Neuronia (CZ) intertwines neuroscience and art, creating incredible audiovisual compositions that explore how our thoughts react to sensory impulses.

 

Erik SynthWave (DE) and Luna Algorithmik (DE), our German artists, infuse a dynamic element into the installation. Erik's work delves into the fusion of raw synthesizer sounds with dark visual representations of artificial intelligence. Luna Algorithmik enlightens us with the nocturnal realm, where algorithmic codes morph into hypnotic imagery.

 

Come and immerse yourself in this unique installation, where conventional boundaries are shattered, and art comes to life through the power of artificial intelligence...

 

Transcendent Station: Artists' Convergence in Artificial Intelligence

GEH8 in Dresden

Open: Fri: 6:00 PM - 10:00 PM, Sat: 10:00 AM - 5:00 PM, Sun: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

 

Welcome to the Transcendent Station, where two cultures meet and art stretches towards an endless horizon. This exceptional Czech-German installation introduces the encounter of artists, Tomáš DigiSenzor and Astrid DataDream, within the premises of a former freight station. Here, artistic visions meld with the power of artificial intelligence.

Tomáš DigiSenzor (CZ) transforms data into experiences, breathing life into numbers and information through sensorially enriched audiovisual compositions. Astrid DataDream (DE) initiates us into the world of digital dreams, where data and emotions interweave, offering captivating glimpses of the future.

 

At the Transcendent Station, you'll discover the junction of technology and spirituality, where art is born through code and data takes on human form. Come and be witnesses to the convergence of two artists who transcend the boundaries of reality, unveiling the potential of artificial intelligence in artistic expression...

 

FILMS

A Goat’s Spell / A Goat’s Spell / Kozí kouzlo

Germany, 2023, 9 minutes, directed by Gerhard Funk, produced by Gerhard Funk

A Child and His Day. The battle before breakfast, the clueless goat next door, the killing boredom at school. A couple of planes in the sky distract attention elsewhere. Things, events and the laws of physics begin to fall apart. The goat's udder as the source of the universe's destruction. Shards of sky shatter into hundreds of child astronauts falling into the middle of the labyrinth. The animated psychedelic phantasmagoria Goat Magic considers how children perceive the world around us.

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář Public Hall, 7 September at 14:00
Dresden, GEH8, 9.9. at 12:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

 

Backflip / Backflip / Backflip

Germany/France, 2022, 12 minutes, directed by Nikita Diakur, produced by Nikita Diakur

Backflips are not the safest thing to do. You can land badly on your wrist, land on your head or even break your neck. So Nikita Diakur created his own avatar, which instead regularly trains the jump on a 6-core processor using machine learning. Can the clumsy avatar pull off the tricky stunt? As Diakur mentions at the end of the film - "practice makes perfect".

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář Public Hall, 7 September at 14:00
Dresden, GEH8, 9.9. at 16:15
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Saft / Juice / Šťáva

Germany, 2022, 5 minutes, directed by Mona Keil, produced by Bella Braun

This animated one-off depicts the lives of a bunch of hard-to-identify succulent creatures who happily slather each other with slime and fight the pesky bugs that parasitise them. Then, when one of the "blobs" finally figures out how to disarm the insects, the others immediately adopt his know-how. Without parasites, however, unexpected problems arise, underscoring the inscrutable fragility of interspecies symbiosis.

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář Public Hall, 7 September at 14:00
Dresden, GEH8, 8.9. at 18:15
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Text Me When You Get Home XX / Text Me When You Get Home XX / Napiš, až dorazíš domů

Germany, 2022, 11 minutes, directed by Niklas Bauer, produced by Marie Marxmeier

It is deep night and a young drunk woman gets into a taxi. The initially innocent conversation with the talkative driver quickly turns to more intimate topics and the atmosphere grows thicker by the second. Moreover, after a few unannounced shortcuts, the car curls along a remote road somewhere on the periphery. Write When You Get Home is another contribution to the endless but still very topical debate about forms of sexual violence.

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář Public Hall, 7 September at 14:00
Dresden, GEH8, 8.9. at 22:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

waking up in silence / waking up in silence / Probuzení do ticha

Germany/Ukraine, 2022, 18 min, directed by Daniel Asadi Faezi, Mila Zhluktenko, produced by Daniel Asadi Faezi

Warm sun rays hit the concrete buildings, between which laughter is reflected. V The barracks of a former Wehrmacht military base are now home to children who were forced to flee Ukraine. They ride bicycles, weave wreaths of wild flowers and explore empty rooms and corridors. In their games, they discover military symbols of the past and connect them with their own experiences and hopes. Then they doodle on the sidewalk in an endless loop: "Putin, stop killing people."

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář Public Hall, September 7 at 2:00 p.m.
Dresden, GEH8, 9.9. at 12:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Aufnahmen einer Wetterkamera / Recordings of a Weather Camera / Záznamy meteorologické kamery

Austria/Germany, 2023, 18 minutes, directed by Bernhard Wenger, produced by Clara König, Flora Mair, Kristin Schnöll

 

A ski resort in the Alps. Abundant snow, beautiful panoramas and majestic mountain peaks. But also family dramas, interpersonal misunderstandings and sexual harassment. Bernhard Wenger's painfully realistic but subversively funny episodic mockumentary captures the tragicomic hectic on the slopes seemingly out of the blue - with the help of weather cameras.

 

We play:

Dresden, GEH8, 9/9 at 12:00

Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 11:30

 

Staging Death / Staging Death / Inscenace smrti

Austria/Germany, 2022, 8 minutes, directed by Jan Soldat, produced by Jan Soldat

The well-known German actor Udo Kier has been dying continuously throughout his acting career. After more than half a century, he has to date over 70 scenes of expressive dying. He screams, falls, is shot, cut to pieces, blown up, crushed by a dinosaur or commits suicide by winding his own intestines onto a film projector. In Staging Death, all these variants of death come together to create a complex chronicle of filmic dying.

Acting:
Dresden, GEH8, 9/9 at 12:00
Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 11:30

 

Elaha / Elaha / Elaha

Germany, 2023, 110 minutes, directed by Milena Aboyan, produced by Matthias Greving

Twenty-two-year-old Elaha believes she must restore her presumed innocence before getting married. But hymen surgery is very expensive and Elaha cannot afford it. She tries to raise the funds in every possible way, but in the end she asks herself: why do I need to be a virgin and for whom?

We play:
Ústí nad Labem, Hraničář, 8.9. at 18:15
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 19:00

 

Czech films in the Czech-German film section:

Rituály / Rites

Czech Republic, 2022, 16 min, directed by Damián Vondrášek, produced by Cinémotif Films, FAMU

Friends Michal and Ondra have never really fit in. One has a facial cleft, the other grew up poor. They are twelve years old and have only ever had each other. That could change after an initiation ritual into a local street gang. But a group of unscrupulous teenage gangsters drives the initiation to an extreme, and the boys must decide how far they're willing to go. A wild adventure quickly turns into a cruel test of their morals and friendships.

We play:
Dresden, GEH8, 9/9 at 16:00
Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 14:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Electra / Electra

Czech Republic/France, 2023, 27 minutes, directed by Daria Kashcheeva, produced by MAUR film

A bit of a different barbie film. Student Oscar winner Daria Kashcheeva once again poignantly deconstructs broken family ties. A pastel innocent tenth birthday party is the neuralgic point of crushing trauma. Strawberries, whipped cream, dolls, a crazy mother and a first make-up that conceals much more than childhood innocence. But someone's missing. In a pulsating explosion of imagery and violence, we follow Electra at different stages of her life as she comes to terms with her traumatic experiences and urgently searches for a relationship beyond her own body. In the end, everything falls into place with precision of a maniacal surgeon...

We play:
Dresden, GEH8, 8 September at 18:15
Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 14:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Na konec spirály / At Spiral’s End

Czech Republic, 2022, 5 minutes, directed by Eliška Kerbachová, produced by FAMU

"You have to get to the bottom of it to want... out." An animated documentary reflection on drug addiction, the film conveys the candid confessions of two former substance abusers
substance abusers. The constantly flowing, fluid and morphing animation illustrates the authentic testimonies and helps
outline the thorny journey from one end of the spiral to the other.

We play:
Dresden, GEH8, 9/9 at 14:00
Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 14:00
Prague, Kino Kavalírka, 16.9. at 16:30

 

Czech films in Germany:

NOT BEING ALONE

Attestation (directed by Jan Hecht)
On the eve of the Christmas holidays, a young inexperienced doctor starts his first night shift. His more experienced colleagues are leaving for their families, and there is no indication that the quiet night will become a fight for a child's life and a professional and personal attestation.

*Magnesia Award nomination for Best Student Film; screened at Pragueshorts

Love, from 9 to 5 (directed by Jakub Jirásek)
Bouncer Riky, whose girlfriend recently broke up with him, has another shift "on the door". Even though it's Tuesday, this night is different - it's Valentine's Day. A night when no one wants to be alone. Riky is happy to spend it with his colleagues, Larch and Mates. They have enough to do. The underage people want in, the drunks don't want out, and everyone keeps losing their locker room tickets. Ricky's ex-girlfriend shows up and she's not alone.

*Shortlisted for the Magnesia Award for Best Student Film; screened at Pragueshorts

Rites (directed by Damián Vondrášek)
Michal was born with a facial cleft, Ondra is from a socially disadvantaged family. Both are twelve years old and never really fit in with the group. They want to finally break out of the outsider position, so they decide to undergo the ritual of joining a local street gang. Together they have one afternoon to prove to the gang that they deserve their respect. But the enticing adventure soon turns into an initiation ritual into adulthood.

*Czech Lion for Best Short Film, Magnesia Award nomination for Best Student Film; screened at Pragueshorts, FF Cottbus, Brussels SFF and others...

Yung Michal (directed by Štěpán FOK Vodrážka)
Fifteen-year-old Michal presents himself on Instagram as a rapper who is just one step away from fame. In reality, he spends his days flipping burgers in a place no one has ever broken out of. Can he make his dream come true this afternoon?

*performed at the Karlovy Vary Festival, BFI London FF and other...

The Garden of Eden (directed by Vojtěch Novotný)
Matys, a Ukrainian, is an outsider who has moved to the Czech Republic with his sister in search of a better life. However, the situation here is not ideal either. A glimmer of hope comes when a job opportunity finally presents itself and Matys leaves to work in a cottage in the woods. The owner and the magical surroundings enchant him. The question is how long the feelings of joy and happiness will last...

*performed at Trieste FF, Premiers Plans d'Angers and other festivals...

Playing:
Dresden, GEH8, 10.9. at 12:00

 

Screening of the Pavel Koutecký Award-winning Czech films
(features and shorts)

Playing:
Dresden, GEH8, 10 September at 14:00

 

OTHER:

Czech-German music performance:

OCZE and the beginnings of e/p#kinematography

Playing:
Ústí nad Labem, Bunkr, 7.9. at 20:00
Dresden, GEH8, 8.9. at 20:30

 

Discussion and networking:

Round table discussion on the situation and support of short film in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Germany

(industry only, Dresden, GEH8, 8.9. at 17:00)
Czech-German networking (industry only, Dresden, GEH8, 8.9. at 18:00)

 

Czech-German Jury

Monica-Koshka Stein - Artistic Director of the KUKI International Film Festival for Children and Youth in Berlin

Johanna Süß - Artistic Director of the Lichter International Film Festival in Frankfurt am Main

Kateřina Šafaříková - executive film producer and dramaturge of the International Film Festival for Children and Youth Young Film Fest

Karolína Davidová - Film Producer

 

 

German guests in the Czech Republic:

Markus Walsch - journalist and creative media expert with expertise in storytelling using artificial intelligence and development of films and TV series - lecturer of Masterclass I'M YOUR STAFF WRITER! (Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7 September at 16:00)

Prof. Taç Romey - screenwriter, director, producer and professor at the University of Television and Film in Munich - lecturer Masterclass I'M YOUR STAFF WRITER! (Ústí nad Labem, Public Hall Hraničář, 7.9. at 16:00)

Anne Gensior - dramaturge, script consultant and lecturer of screenwriting workshops (Midpoint, Torino Film Lab, Eave Workshops, CineSud ScriptLab and others) - lecturer of FILM INN project (6 - 8 September)