Background | Generation Reports

22Feb

The reality of queer Black girls in South Africa – an interview with Sandulela Asanda about her film Black Burns Fast

A few days after the premiere of Black Burns Fast, Sarah and I have the opportunity to sit down with director Sandulela Asanda and chat about her film and the state of racism and homophobia in South Africa today. Having experienced South Africa as white Europeans several times over the last years, we feel privileged to discuss Sandulela’s perspective on her home country as a queer Black South African woman. Sandulela Asanda, © Felix Seuffert fGR: To start us off, could you please tell us a bit about how you experienced growing up with racism in South Africa and how things may have changed over time? Sandulela Asanda: The end of apartheid was the end of racial segregation, and opened up a lot of avenues and access for Black people, including economically. At the same time, even 30 years...

Windows of revolution – interview with the directors of Memories of a Window

19Feb

By Liv ThastumNo Comments

Background, General, Interview, Review

Windows of revolution – interview with the directors of Memories of a Window

One of the most moving and politically urgent films in this year's Berlinale program is the Iranian shot film Memories of a window by Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar. The film documents the Women, Life, Freedom protest in Iran in 2022 and the brutal oppression of the Iranian regime. At the same time, it is a poetic and deeply beautiful call to fight for your rights.I was eager to get to know the filmmakers behind this remarkable documentary. Since they couldn't make it to Berlin, we met online and I am very happy to be to share our conversation here. Amin Pakparvar and Mehraneh Salimian are both from Iran where they studied at Tehran University of Art. In 2023 they moved to Chicago to study at the Art Institute of Chicago. As Mehraneh explains they are partners in crime, in lif...

13Feb

By Leo, Liv Heyden, Liv Thastum, Hannah Everitt and Anouk SegebartNo Comments

Background, General, Review

It’s Time

A rustling sound. At first very quiet, barely distinguishable from the wind, then growing louder and louder, hissing and roaring. A flickering, bright light flashes on and off, clacking and clicking — until finally, slowly, a heavy hatch opens and thick steam hisses into the evening sky. ‘Do you think time travel is real?‘ The time machine is the mystery that gives this year's Kplus opening film, A Fabulosa Máquina do Tempo, its title. From the perspective of 10-year-old Manuellinha and her friends, the film explores questions about the past and future, among other things, and what it actually means to grow up. After watching the film, we also took a closer look at these questions and collected various impressions as brief texts, which we would like to share with you here. At the...

Waiting until it gets dark – about one of America’s most dangerous migration routes

20Feb

By Liv ThastumNo Comments

Background, Film and Poetry

Waiting until it gets dark – about one of America’s most dangerous migration routes

Critique, background article, and poem on the short film Atardecer en América And suddenly, an uncontrollable sadness rises from my stomach, and I feel the tears running. I sit there in front of my computer, in the midst of my research, and find myself crying. I see the images from the short film reappear, I watch the landscape – the Altiplano high plateau – vanish; people, animals, and nature disappear. I see people dying. I hear the buzzwords from the articles I’ve read: Venezuela – the world’s second largest exodus, 7.7 million people, plus climate refugees, drought, rising temperatures, 7,000 kilometers from Venezuela to Chile, and countless unreported cases. “Atardecer en América” – Sunset over America – is the title of the short film that moved me so deeply and led me to the re...

Police brutality in the Favelas – a backround article on ‘Hora do Recreio’

18Feb

By Anouk SegebartNo Comments

Background

Police brutality in the Favelas – a backround article on ‘Hora do Recreio’

Favela Rocinha (https://rioonwatch.org.br/?p=33602) The noon sun burns on the corrugated iron roofs. The afternoon breeze carries many smells and sounds: from the smell of barbecues at informal street shops to the humming exhausts of motorbikes in the narrow alleyways of the favelas. Artistic illustrations are sprayed on some of the unplastered house walls. In these parts of the Brazilian metropolis, art and culture is everywhere, but at the same time, alongside life on the breadline, discrimination and marginalisation, there is a seemingly insoluble complex of problems of violence and organised crime: both of which are symptoms of a racist and classist system in which power monopolies exploit favelas in order to maintain and reinforce the inequalities of society. ...

Between Tradition and Self-determination

16Feb

By ClaraNo Comments

Background

Between Tradition and Self-determination

a review on "Uiksaringitara" With the world premiere of “Uiksaringitara” (The Wrong Husband), director Zacharias Kunuk returns to the Berlinale program after several years, attracting not only the attention of generation audience. Kunuk is considered one of the most important Inuit filmmakers and co-founded the first independent Inuit production company, Isuma. Isuma is intended to give Inuit filmmakers a platform and enable self-determination. Since the 1990s, Kunuk has been producing and directing films by, with and about Inuit and has won several awards. Like Kunuk's previous films, “Uiksaringitara” tells the story of people from the Inuit community: The story is set 4000 years ago in the Canadian Arctic region of Nunavut. Kaujak (Theresia Kappianaq) and Sapa (Haiden Angutimarik) ...

Little Rebels Cinema Club (Here we go again: Berlinale 2025)

14Feb

By KonstantinNo Comments

Background, General

Little Rebels Cinema Club (Here we go again: Berlinale 2025)

The time has finally come: tonight, the 48th edition of Generation will officially open at the Haus der Kulturen der Welt! It's a special year - the Berlin Film Festival is taking place for the 75th time - but then again, the Berlinale is always special. As every year, more and more people gather at Potsdamer Platz, film crews from all over the world arrive and trudge through Berlin's streets, people stand in endless queues outside the cinemas while others desperately try to click the “Tickets” button on their laptops in the right microsecond - and it's snowing. It's snowing! However, with this year's anniversary edition and the new Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle, there are definitely some changes ahead, and we are excited to see how the festival will grow with it. There is also...

Racism in the job search: background research on “Ellbogen”

25Feb

By Zaide E.No Comments

Background

Racism in the job search: background research on “Ellbogen”

Racism in Germany is a serious and structural problem. The Berlin film "Ellbogen" is about 18-year-old Hazal, who tries to forge her own path. She fails because of the racist system. Not only in her job search, but also in her everyday life. This background research deals with everyday racism and the possible mechanisms for dismantling it. When talking about racism, it is important to differentiate. There is of course overt racism, such as insults and physical attacks. But so-called microaggressions also play a major role. These are the everyday racisms that so many people are exposed to. These can include glances in public, racist ideas shining through or the generalisation of character traits attributed to a certain group. This form of everyday racism, microaggressions, are a large pa...

23Feb

By ClaraNo Comments

Background

About strong daughters and mothers

a review on "Reinas" Lima, Peru, 1992: The country is facing political and economic crises and challenges. While the economy collapses and drastic inflation burdens the citizens, terror and violence are on the political agenda. In April 1990, elections are held, which Alberto Fujimori wins with his newly founded "Change 90" party. He is seen by the population as a political outsider who stands up for disadvantaged groups and wants to take action against terrorism and corruption. He is supposedly fighting terrorism with his policy by handing out weapons to the local communities so that they can defend themselves against terror. In addition, the executive is no longer taking action against basic terrorism, but rather against individual groups suspected of terrorism. Today, the Inter-Am...