Innovative project is joined by new section: OPPOSE OTHERING!
For years now, goEast has taken a stand: against racism, homophobia and xenophobia of all types, and for humaneness and solidarity. Now this commitment has grown to include a dedicated festival section, which will present the first results of last year's newly created project OPPOSE OTHERING! to the festival audience. OPPOSE OTHERING! is dedicated to the examination of all manifestations of othering - a term used to denote focussed misanthropy and exclusionary practices directed at groups or individuals of different social, religious, cultural and ethnic backgrounds and/or sexual orientations and gender identities.
With the support of the Foundation ”Remembrance, Responsibility and Future“, five young directorial duo teams from Germany and Central and Eastern Europe have worked for the past year on film ideas and projects treating the subject of othering, for which they received production grants at last year's edition of goEast. Now their films have reached completion and are set to celebrate their world premieres at goEast on April 28th and May 1st, with the filmmakers on hand to present them.
At the same time, ten newly nominated directorial tandems will participate in a workshop program at goEast 2017 - five of these teams will be honoured with production grants of 4,000 euros per duo for the realisation of their film concepts over the course of the following months. The jury that will choose the production grant recipients includes Askold Kurov, director of THE TRIAL: THE STATE OF RUSSIA VS OLEG SENTSOV (PROTSESS: VENEMAA RIIK OLEG SENTSOVIVASTU). In his work, Kurov addresses human rights issues and social injustice in today's Russia.
East-West Talent Lab
goEast fosters and connects young filmmakers and artists from Central and Eastern Europe, the Rhine-Main region and all across Germany. An extensive educational program has been put together for thirty Lab participants from Germany, Georgia, Croatia, Macedonia, Poland, Russia, Serbia, Ukraine, Hungary and Belarus, featuring panel discussions on such subjects as broadcasting possibilities and film funding in the world of television, case studies on financing approaches for co-productions, pitching workshops and master classes, presented among others by experts like director Agnieszka Holland and producer Johannes Rexin (SPOOR/ POKOT).
On May 1st Lab participants will present their 14 project ideas in the categories short fiction film, documentary, experimental film and video art, to the general public as well as an expert jury. The best pitch will be honoured with the goEast Development Award, made possible with the support of Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain and endowed with 3,500 euros in prize money.
In addition, for the first time the Lab will be accompanied by a critic blog, initiated by LICHTER Film Festival Frankfurt International in the scope of a workshop conducted by the Hessen Film and Media Academy (hFMA).
A vital component of the Lab is the Open Frame Award - Experimental Film and Video Art Competition, made possible with the support of BHF-BANK Foundation and endowed with 5,000 euros in prize money. This year's Open Frame Jury is composed of members Tasja Langenbach (artistic director of Videonale Bonn), Alex Gerbaulet (artist and filmmaker, Berlin) and Michel Klöfkorn (artist and filmmaker, Frankfurt on the Main). The ten entries to the Competition, presented by young artists and filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe and students of Hessen's film and fine arts academies, will be shown in part as an experimental film program at Caligari FilmBühne (Thursday, April 27th, at 6 pm) and in part as a video installation exhibition at Museum Wiesbaden (opening on Thursday, April 27th, at 8 pm, and running through Sunday, May 7th).
Young Filmmakers for Peace
For the third time, Young Filmmakers for Peace will take place at goEast, realised with the support of the Robert Bosch Stiftung. The project's aim is to bring together up-and-coming filmmakers from areas currently affected by armed conflict and post-conflict regions in Eastern Europe as well as from other conflict regions around the world and from Germany.
By taking part in the program, the twelve participants from Turkey, Serbia, Egypt, Palestine, Russia, Georgia, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Germany receive the opportunity to step outside of environments charged with conflict and to attend lectures, workshops and panel discussions that focus on filmmaking in periods of conflict and cinema as a tool for promoting peace and democratisation. Young Filmmakers for Peace treats the issues inherent in making films both under the conditions of violent conflict and about such conflicts.
The complete program for the 17th edition of goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film will be announced in early April: www.filmfestival-goeast.de
goEast - Festival of Central and Eastern European Film is hosted by Deutsches Filminstitut and supported by numerous partners. The festival is primarily funded by the Hessen State Ministry of Higher Education, Research and the Arts, the State Capital Wiesbaden, Foundation “Remembrance, Responsibility and Future” (EVZ), Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain, the Robert Bosch Stiftung, ŠKODA AUTO Deutschland, BHF-BANK Foundation, the Adolf und Luisa Haeuser-Stiftung für Kunst und Kulturpflege, the Federal Foreign Office, Deutsch-Tschechische Zukunftsfonds, the municipality of Eschborn, the Foundation for Polish-German Cooperation and Krušovice. Media partners include among others 3sat, the FAZ and hr-iNFO.
