FACING NEW CHALLENGES

Programme 2024

IFFMH Salon Edition

Five experimental short films

The Distance From Here, Bani Abidi
Country: Pakistan
Duration: 12:00 minutes, without dialogue

Ocean Is Future, Latent Community
Country: Greece
Duration: 4:00 minutes, without dialogue

Four Seven Round-the-Clock, Krassimir Terziev
Country: Bulgaria
Duration: any, without dialogue

In the Tesla to Schnellroda, Tommy Neuwirth
Country: Germany
Duration: 4:00 minutes, language: German

Correspendance(s), Sahar El Echi
Country: Tunisia
Duration: 6:18 minutes, language: French and Arabic with English subtitles

Besides an international film festival, Mannheim is also home to an international scene of first-class hairdressing salons and barbershops. This is where the city shows off its best-groomed side. And that’s why this year we are showing five experimental short films in five of the city’s salons, including a tattoo parlor. The films all take the viewer into strange worlds; in one of these, they even celebrate waiting: the film by Pakistani director Bani Abidid deals with the absurdities of national borders. Another is an enchantingly beautiful underwater film by Greek artist duo “Latent Community”. Then there is a cinematic miniature by the Bulgarian media artist Krassimir Terziev. And a journey through North African metropolises with the Tunisian director Sahar El Echi, as well as a musical road movie by Thuringia-based artist Tommy Neuwirth.

• Wo und wann:
• Robi Schnitt in T2, 18 | MO-SA 10:00-19:00 Uhr |Zugang barrierefrei
• Barberia Quagliata in S4, 1 | DI-FR 10:00-19:00 Uhr, SA 9:00-16:00 | nicht barrierefrei
• F&G Friseur in Q4, 6 | MO-FR 10:00-19:00 Uhr | Zugang barrierefrei
• Electric Circus Classic Tattoo in T3, 22 | MO-FR 12:00-19:00 Uhr, SA 11:00-16:00 Uhr | nicht barrierefrei
• Şen Herren Friseur Salon in G4,10 | MO-SA 10:00-19:00 Uhr | nicht barrierefrei
• Die Salons verfügen über keine Kundentoiletten.
• Admission: free

Today Is the Shortest Day of the Year but Somehow Hanging Around With You All Day Makes It Seem Like the Longest. Perverse Decolonization.

Video installation: 31 minutes, 2018
Saddie Choua

Saddie Choua’s video installation is a playful and radical deconstruction of cinematic images of the body. Choua calls her method “meta-documentary” and she brings together central works of film history: Chantal Akerman’s feminist masterpiece “Jeanne Dielman”, Leni Riefenstahl’s exploitation documentaries, and “Black Girl” by the Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène, which can also be seen in our retrospective this year. The work places us in the middle of (film) history as well, creating space for reflection by provoking disruptions with a sense of humor.

The lecture with the Moroccan film historian and curator Rim Mejdi on 15 November at 18:00 has unfortunately been cancelled.

Instead, there will be a discussion between art historian Alexandra Vinzenz and section curator Jan Philipp Possmann on 15 November at 18:00 on interculturality and othering in cinema using the example of Saddie Choua's installation. The discussion will be held in German.

• When and where: The installation can be visited at any time during the opening hours of the Festival-Lounge Heidelberg on all festival days.
• Languages: English and French.
• Completely barrier-free.

Uncensored Lilac

Video work: 30 minutes, 2024
Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan

Hyper-feminine goddesses cavort in CGI landscapes and dream-like architecture. In this computer-generated video work by Irish artist duo Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Jennifer Mehigan, mega-femme entities monologue poetically, profoundly, and at the same banally about their deepest desires and fantasies. Their almost brutal hyper-femininity reflects a world in which “hotness” is synonymous with power – global warming is the logical consequence. Visually, the two artists draw on pop culture, computer games, and mythology. They juxtapose female bodies and landscapes – a common motif in feminist utopian literature. The exhibition takes place in Wavehouse, a future server farm for Heidelberg iT and the largest 3D-printed building in Europe. The venue encases the installation as a sculpture, underlining how the digital becomes an analog reality.

On Saturday, 9 Nov, at 4:30pm, curator Lena Reitschuster will give an introduction to the work. This will be followed by a joint tour of the Wavehouse. The introduction will be in German.

• Where and when: Wavehouse, near Karlstorbahnhof: Billie-Holiday-Straße 7, 69126 Heidelberg.
• Opening times: Friday, 8 Nov, 2pm-8pm | Saturday, 9 Nov, 11am-8pm | Sunday, 10 Nov, 11am-8pm
• Language: English with English subtitles.
• Barrier-free access, no barrier-free bathrooms
• Admission: free