Official Selection 2024
479 short films from 51 countries were submitted for the “9th Weimar Poetry Film Award”. The program commission nominated 12 films for the competition.
Screening & Award Ceremony:
Sat. 1.06.2024, 6:00 pm
at Lichthaus cinema (am Kirschberg, 4)
*The playlist will be online from 31 May to 15 June. You’ll receive the password when your ticket is purchased.
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09.01. Berkovich
Animation: Anya Ryzhkova
Text: Evgenia Berkovich
Germany 2024, 5:59 min
The film is based on a speech by the Russian theater director Evgenia Berkovich. Together with the playwright Svetlana Petriychuk, Evgenia Berkovich has been under arrest and jailed since May 2023 on charges of “public calls to terrorism”. On the ninth of January 2024, before the verdict was supposed to be announced, she read her final speech in verse.
Les fleurs du mâle
Direction: Hadi Moussally
Text: Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867)
Spain 2023, 3:49 min
The mysterious creature, Salma, realizes that being herself has repercussions on her life and that she will never be accepted as she is. So she decides to ask the creatress of this world for mercy.” The film was shot in super 8 in-camera edited. It was inspired by the letter sent by Charles Baudelaire to the Empress Eugenie after being censored and fined for his book “Les fleurs du mal”. The reason of the condemnation: offense to public morals and good manners as well as offense to religious morality.
Ciel Ouvert
Animation: Annie St-Jean
Text: Andrée-Anne Fréchette
Canada 2023, 2:10 min
The end only announces a beginning. A man stands at the edge of life, ready to fiercely embrace the journey that takes shape before him in the form of a loop. Because even when routine appears to be inevitable, its thousand and one tones are revealed, joyful like a nursery rhyme. Ciel Ouvert by Annie St-Jean offers a carousel of film photographs gradually illuminated with watercolor and a reflection on the unnoticed charms of verbal (text by Andrée-Anne Fréchette) and bodily (performance by Rémy Girard) languages.
trains passing
Direction & Text: Ani Mrelashvili
Germany 2023, 10:00 min
A small group meets every Wednesday in a flat. They relax, do movement exercises and are given the task of writing a documentary poem. As they immerse themselves in the writing process, they are unexpectedly interrupted by a stranger who is actually looking for a flat.
march 20/64 kalymnos
Animation: Susanne Wiegner
Text: Robert Lax (1915-2000)
Germany 2024, 7:30 min
The film is based on a poem by Robert Lax about the Greek island of Kalymnos that he wrote in 1964. After exactly 60 years, the question arises of how the poem can be visually translated in today’s time, considering the impact of the climate crisis, which also affects Greece very much.
We Are the Dinosaur
Direction: H. Paul Moon
Text: Bob Holman
USA 2023, 2:49 min
“We Are the Dinosaur” is a street-rant lament for the state of the planet delivered to an unsuspecting public seemingly content to yawn and go about its business while the Poet bumrushes the Courthouse, whispers in the ear of the Anonymous Businessman, suggests a cannibal diet at the site of the Nation’s first capital, takes flight at the Oculus near the World Trade Center, and swims against the implacable tide of humanity in Times Square. With a wrench-raucous score by Marc Ribot, energized-intrusion cinematography by director H. Paul Moon, and an over-the-top-and-then-some performance by poet Bob Holman, this poem promises to either explode the dead-soul reactions of the populace to climate crisis or become a deconstructive language bomb that blasts open the Gates to Kingdom Come.
Painted Flowers, Printed Leaves
Animation: Olaf Boqwist
Text: Robert W. Monk
Germany 2023, 2:45 min
The lyrical text, accompanied by minimalist sounds, describes Jasmine’s thoughts. She hasn’t left her small flat for days. She observes the floral patterns on the wallpaper and receives their messages. The film animation of the wallpaper illustrates Jasmine’s increasing delusion.
Fokstroty International: Troianker. Tiger Lilies
Animation: Sascha Conrad, Grycja Rd
Text: Raisa Troianker, Volodymyr Sosiura, Beatrix Kersten, Ulrike Almut Sandig
Ukraine 2023, 4:46 min
Raisa Troianker (1909–1945), a poet from avant-garde circles, came to Ukrainian literature from a Jewish shtetl. She is said to have left a traveling circus, where she worked as a tiger tamer, because of an affair with Volodymyr Sosiura – Ukrainian master of love lyrics (track includes the record of his original voice). Here they are singing a duet. Poet and performer Ulrike Almut Sandig in collaboration with Yuriy Gurzhy creates the German version of the song (the poem is translated by Beatrix Koersten).
The original version of the song is a part of the FOKSTROTY album by Serhiy Zhadan and Yuriy Gurzhy (2021) dedicated to Ukrainian modern literature. The track includes the recording of the original voice of Ukrainian poet Volodymyr Sosyura, as heard in the Poezija programm of the Radio Kultura of the Ukrainian National Broadcaster.
Curator and Producer: Oksana Shchur
VOLL
Direction & Text: Jörg Piringer
Austria 2022, 2:02 min
A film about the full and the empty and everything in between.
Wer, Wenn Ich Schrie
Direction: Gunter Deller
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)
Germany 2024, 6:15 min
Rainer Maria Rilke was writing his achieved „Duineser Elegien / Duino Elegies“ between 1912 and 1922. In this time the shattering and speechless First World War occurred. During a troubled night the poet burns a notebook including a list of single words, but saving them in his “Testament”.
Für immer
Direction & Text: Christian Tung Anh Nopper
Germany 2023, 6:50 min
In the experimental short film “Forever”, a young German-Vietnamese tries to communicate with his parents. In Vietnamese culture, feelings are rarely expressed. For that reason, the main protagonist uses dance elements to give insights into his inner world and the relationship with his parents.
Oskar
Animation: Max Vannienschoot
Text: James P. Honey
Canada 2022, 9:00 min
Astride his motorcycle, Oskar speeds through serene landscapes along the North Sea, hoping to avoid a storm that looms over the horizon. Exhausted from running away, he stops on a vast and bright beach to enjoy the comfort of a cigarette as he considers his options and the journey ahead. But this respite is short-lived—the tumultuous weather has already caught up with him. And so, he chooses to turn around and face it. As the storm rages, he is engulfed in its darkness. Will he be able to find his way back to the light?