Film Series "TENSE FUTURES - FUTURE TENSES. Um/Welten im Film"

D 2023, 91', subtitled OV, directed by Aleksi Kuesy, Trailer

Guest: Aleksi Kuesy

This 2-channel video installation presents a brilliant, associatively linked audiovisual archive on climate change. The cinematic work gathers on the screen the discourse of climate science in the context of the political climate of the last 40 years. The restless work consisting of found footage from radio and television is thereby an appeal not to lose any more time in the fight against climate change. It demonstrates the failure of politics to reach an effective global agreement to stop harmful climate change. In parallel, a second screen shows various audiovisual content, mainly from Western pop culture.

Aleksi Kuesy is a Mexican climate activist and artist with an engineering background who lives and works in Hamburg.

US 1982, 86', without dialog, directed by Godfrey Reggio, Trailer

Guest: Sighard Neckel (sociologist)

A film as experience, journey and trip. The intoxication of images and music confronts different worlds and has become a classic of recent film history. Known for its unique approach to framing in its use of time-lapse, slow motion and telephoto lens, the film lays out an artistic approach to issues of technological progress and the impact of human activity on our planet. The film takes the audience on a journey of contrasts between supposedly pristine landscapes, the structures of urban modernity, their technological developments and environmental impact. At the same time, the monumental work remains rather abstract and does not provide a traditional narrative structure; only the music by Philip Glass gives the film its hypnotic effect.

Sighard Neckel is a sociologist and professor of social analysis and social change at the University of Hamburg. He is the spokesman of the humanities centre for advanced studies Futures of Sustainability at the University of Hamburg.

US 1973, 97', OV, directed by Richard Fleischer, Trailer

Guest: Sören Altstaedt (sociologist)

 A dark and disturbing ecodystopia that is one of the classics of the science fiction genre. The film from the early 1970s shows New York in the year 2022: the city is plagued by a persistent heat wave and forty million people struggle to survive due to scarce resources. A privileged few live in air-conditioned high-rises and still enjoy meat and whiskey. For everyone else, there are pellets called Soylent Green, supposedly derived from algae. When police officer Robert Thorn (Charlton Heston) is assigned to solve the murder of a wealthy high-rise resident, he slowly uncovers the secret behind Soylent Green. The film explores themes of environmental degradation, overpopulation, social injustice and the social consequences of technology and science.

Sören Altstaedt is a sociologist and research associate at the DFG Research Group "Futures of Sustainability" at the University of Hamburg.

US/GB 1974, 84', subtitled OV, directed by Saul Bass, Trailer

Guest: Max Haertel (Biologist)

An unconventional science-fiction film that subtly and scarily stages the position of humanity and its relationship to nature. Surreal landscapes alternate with visually stunning images of ant colonies. The plot focuses on two scientists, Dr. Ernest D. Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and James R. Lesko (Michael Murphy), who notice strange behavioral changes in ants in the remote Arizona desert. These ants seem to be organizing themselves in inexplicable ways. The two scientists begin to investigate the ants' behavior in more detail, and it becomes apparent that the ants may pose a threat to humanity. Without resorting to typical horror elements, the film creates an atmosphere of unease in the age of the Anthropocene.

Max Haertel is a biologist with a special interest in insects, specifically the communication and colony formation of ants. He is currently investigating the biodiversity of different ant species during a research stay in South Africa.

US 2004, 123', subtitled OV, directed by Roland Emmerich, Trailer

Guest: Theresa Mieslinger (Meteorologist)

An enormous cold snap causes extreme weather conditions around the world, including hurricanes, floods and huge hailstorms. Temperatures drop rapidly, and large parts of the world descend into chaos. The film shows the desperate efforts of Dr. Hall (Dennis Quaid) to protect his family and other survivors in the midst of the freezing apocalypse. At the same time, the film raises questions about climate change and human responsibility for the environment.

Theresa Mieslinger is a research associate at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, working on climate simulations that offer the possibility of better understanding small-scale and larger processes such as the Gulf Stream. She also has a particular fascination with clouds.

1. "Sonne Unter Tage"

D 2021, 39', subtitled OV, directed by Mareike Bernien, Alex Gerbaulet, information about the film

Guest: Mareike Bernien & Alex Gerbaulet (the talk takes place after "Sonne unter Tage").

A polyphonic storytelling feels its way through times. The essayistic documentary focuses on the uranium mining areas in Saxony and Thuringia, which bear witness to the former Soviet-German joint stock company Wismut. Under cover names, this belonged to one of the largest uranium producers in the world from 1946 to 1990. The image plane thereby demonstrates the limits of visibility itself, visualizing the effect of the invisible radioactive rays whose history the film follows - rays that can neither be felt, smelled nor tasted, but which have left geopolitical, landscape and physical traces. In a disturbing way, the archive of German nuclear history radiates into our present ecosystem and beyond.

Mareike Bernien and Alex Gerbaulet live and work as artists and filmmakers in Berlin. What their working methods have in common is that they often start from objects or places and are interested in the socio-political formations and conflicts stored within them.

2. "Sonnensucher"

DDR 1958, 114', subtitled OV, directed by Konrad Wolf, information about the film

Directed by Konrad Wolf, this is the only DEFA feature film on the subject of uranium mining, made in 1958. The melodrama focuses on the workers of a uranium mine of the Wismut-AG in the Erz Mountains. Different characters are brought together in a small space: Forced laborers, socialist miners, ex-Nazis and Soviet engineers. The film sheds light on the ideals and political propaganda of the GDR, which portrayed work in the uranium mines as a contribution to socialist society. Because the film no longer fit the Soviet Union's foreign policy disarmament strategy when it was completed, it was not allowed to be shown publicly until 14 years after its completion. To this day, the film remains a unique document of this period and a dense description of the mining world. The exterior shots were mainly filmed in Johanngeorgenstadt, a town in the Erzgebirge district of Saxony, where uranium mining ceased in 1956.

RW/US 2021, 105', subtitled OV, directed by Saul Williams, Anisia Uzeyman, Trailer

Guest: Adyam Tesfamariam (author & social scientist) / The talk will take place prior to the film.

 In the hills of Burundi, a group of escaped coltan miners have formed an insurgent computer hacking collective. From their electronic waste dump, they seek to overthrow the authoritarian regime that exploits the region's natural resources as well as its inhabitants. "Neptune Frost" provides space for interpretation and discussion about the complex relationships between technology, environmental change, and social injustice in the Anthropocene. The film encourages reflection on the globally unequal impacts of climate change and the responsibility of the Global North.

Adyam Tesfamariam is passionate about writing, studies social sciences, gives workshops in anti-racism and empowerment, and is a DJ. Several elements of Afrofuturism come together in her work, combining her enthusiasm for writing, music, and Black resistance and liberation.

CA 2022, 103', subtitled OV, directed by Jacquelyn Mills, Trailer

Guest: tba

Two women on a deserted island off the coast of Nova Scotia: Sable Island. Conservationist Zoe Lucas first came there as an art student in the 1970s and has now lived mostly alone on the island for decades. Director Jacquelyn Mills films her making everyday observations of flora and fauna. Her studies of the population of feral horses for which the island is known, and of biodiversity on Sable Island in general, have made the self-taught scientist a valued expert. Collecting alarming amounts of plastic waste is also part of everyday life here. Mills films on 16 mm, and the material lends special beauty to the barren landscape. Science and art merge in the activities of the two women, enriching each other. The movements of beetles are transformed into music. Horse manure provides Lucas with interesting data. Mills experiments with it, with algae and other plants in film exposure and development.

"Nuestra voz de tierra, memoria y futuro"

CO 1981, 108', subtitled OV, directed by Marta Rodríguez & Jorge Silva, information about the Film

Guest: Diana Sánchez (filmmaker)

The Anthropocene as colonial history. In this milestone of Colombian cinema, both documentary and fiction blend to create a poetic indictment of the exploitation of the Pueblos Orginarios. For over four years, Marta Rodríguez and Jorge Silva accompanied indigenous people in the Cauca region of Colombia. In a mixture of fiction and documentary, they show their struggle against land theft, poverty and political oppression by the military. The film shows how environmental degradation, particularly deforestation and pollution of land and water, threatens the lives of indigenous people and farming communities in Colombia. The film emphasizes the close connection between the cultural identity of these communities and their environment.

"Flores del Otro Patio" (supporting film)

CH/CO 2022 ,15', directed by Jorge Cadena, Trailer

In northern Colombia, a group of queer activists use their flamboyance to denounce the catastrophic exploitation of Colombia's largest coal mine through performative actions.

Diana Sánchez is an audiovisual artist and cinematographer. She graduated in film and television production in Colombia. She has a focus on performance, music and documentary film and lives and works in Hamburg

D 2020, 125', subtitled OV, directed by Roswitha Ziegler (Wendländische Filmkooperative), Trailer

Guest: Roswitha Ziegler

 The free republic of Wendland is still a symbol of resistance and protest culture in the FRG. For 33 days in May 1980, a protest camp under this name existed near the planned nuclear waste repository Gorleben, which for the participating people was concrete utopia and lived resistance at the same time. The film goes on a search for traces of this non-place, shows archive material and interviews contemporary witnesses and follows the archaeologist Attila Dézsi, who excavated the remains of the free republic from 2017 to 2018.

Roswitha Ziegler is a filmmaker and founded the Wendland Film Cooperative Wendländische Filmkooperative, with others in 1975, which has documented the struggle of the anti-nuclear movement in the Wendland for 40 years.

GB/US 2012, 87', without dialogue, directed by Lucien Castaing-Taylor & Véréna Paravel, Trailer

Guest: Sea Shepherd (input before the film).

An experimental observation of fishing in the harsh and dangerous environment of the North Atlantic. The film largely avoids traditional narrative structures and interviews, relying instead on stunning visual and audio elements. Multiple Go-Pro cameras attached to fishing nets, the workers, and the ship itself give an unexpected perspective on the environment. The film is an intense and immersive experience, conveying the fragility of the relationship between humans and nature in the face of ecological changes and the exploitation of marine resources.

Sea Shepherd is an international, non-profit marine conservation organization dedicated to preserving biodiversity and the marine ecosystem.