Hamburg ShortFilmFestival

Never mind the climate change – just look for shelter in our cinemas

From June 6th on, the 23 rd International ShortFilmFestival Hamburg is screening more than 400 short films

It’s the beginning of May, and temperatures in Hamburg have already passed the 20°Celsius mark weeks ago. It’s conceivable that June weather will make it impossible not to walk the streets of our city bare-naked. This leaves you the choice of either turning into an exhibitionist or joining us in the coolness of our festival locations – or both, if you wish.

For one week, hundreds of shorts will be dominating the screens of the six cinemas. The 23 rd International ShortFilmFestival has seen 3832 works from 104 countries entering the competitions, and in June, we will be showing the most promising ones of the lot. As always, there will be special programmes as well, looking at different cultures, different sounds, and much more. And if that isn't your cup of tea either, you can always go to the festival club (new location this year: an old WWII bunker) and get wasted. The choice is yours.
Almost simultaneously, the 9th Mo&Friese Children’s ShortFilmFestival is showing about 60 international shorts in 23 screenings for four different age brackets from June 3rd until June 10th. There will be further fun and awards in our special competition, workshops and programmes, including the “Mo&Friese late night” for grown-ups. For further information, please visit our website at www.moundfriese.de, mail us at kinder@shortfilm.com or call us at 040/39 10 63 29.

All non-English films will be shown in the original version with English subtitles. Additionally, every programme in the German competition will once be featured with a sign language translator.

Prize Money and Competitions
Don’t expect to find the competition sections the way they used to be. Merging the old sections Made in Hamburg und Made in Germany, we are proud to introduce the German competition, this year also endowed with a jury prize,
Additionally, there will be an award for best national and best international film soundtrack.
All in all, 226 films will be competing for 30,000 euros worth in prize money. Established categories NoBudget, International Competition and Three Minute Quickie (topic: “Heimat”, a term meaning the regional home where you have your roots) are still in place, of course, as well as prizes by TV stations ARTE und ZDFdokukanal.
A list of all sponsors and awards can be found at:
http://festival.shortfilm.com/index.php?id=575&L=1

Special Programmes
In What are the Other Ones up To?, a programme with ethnographic films from the last 100 years, we take a look at what the other ones used to do or what they are up to now. We present fragments from both everyday life and high holidays of “alien” people from all over the world. The pioneers of filmmaking had to rely on mere display, but with the development of the talkie the all-explaining voice-over conquered the genre. The ways of presenting “the other one” range from filmed catalogues of crafts of colonized natives to self-portraits of the natives and experimental forms of uncommented presentation. Also showing: Selected films from the vaults of Denmark-based American film collector and b-movie-archeologist Jack Stevenson - stories of school cellars, dumps, retailers specializing in garbage, a dubious network of “personal contacts” of hermits, that should by definition not be having any personal contacts at all.
Touring Lebanon
Beirut's nickname had been “Paris of the Orient” up until the 1970s. Countless beliefs, ideologies and ancestries had formed a unique cultural landscape. And in spite of 30 years of smouldering conflicts, this tradition is still very much alive. Three programmes will present Lebanese realities, which often have little in common with the dominant stereotypes.
Tracking Sound
In this programme, we are “tracking the sound”. Turning our archive upside-down, we have unearthed several outstanding examples in which music and noise are much more than just by-products. Come and hear!
MICROTON – science+sounds
In spite of their vast influence on our daily lives, scientific films have remained rather obscure as a short-film-genre. In the special programme “MICROTON – science+sounds”, we have gathered composers and sound-researchers from the various fields of new and electronic music in order to let processes from scientific films resonate.
Work in Progress
Karl Marx once wrote that ”work is the fire of creation”. As a tribute to working men and women everywhere, we have dedicated three programmes to the subject of work. “Work:Place:Port” is all about harbour-related work throughout the times, disintegrating work-structures are the subject of “Professional Pictures” and in Do whatever you like we take a look at the future of work.
20 years of Three-minute quickies
Three minutes are enough to cover topics like “Revolution”, “My favourite song” or “Fish” - proven in the course of 20 years of extremely short shorts. We will be celebrating the anniversary by presenting a selection of winners and other favorites from previous years.

A Wall is a Screen
Despite running for four consecutive years, “A Wall is a Screen” still offers a unique experience every year. Once night is falling over Hamburg, we will be strolling the streets of the city with a mobile projector. For approximately two hours, any building front is a potential screen.
Friday, June 8th, Saturday, June 9th,, 10:15 pm each time, Graskellerbrücke (near station Rödingsmarkt, line U3)

Press pictures and interviews
Our logo and Festival poster as well as stills from selected films can be found at
http://festival.shortfilm.com/index.php?id=480&L=1
Please contact us if you’d like to conduct an interview with our festival directors Jürgen Kittel and Karsten Stempel or one of the curators or visiting filmmakers.

Friedensallee 7, 22765 Hamburg, Germany www.shortfilm.com
general contact: festival@shortfilm.com
for children’s films: kinder@shortfilm.com
for press matters: presse@shortfilm.com