Dear docfilm42 community,
docfilm42 celebrates diversity and advocates greater visibility for the numerous independently produced documentary and semi-documentary film projects.
However, an increasing trend in public television is focusing on fewer films and so-called “excellence productions”.
Next week, we will be talking to one of Germany’s most profound media experts about this development and its consequences for independent documentary film.
on February 11, 2025, at 8 pm POSTPONED
Heiko Hilker from the Dresden Institute for Media, Education and Consulting will answer your questions.
Registration here and more info below.
And while billionaires are hijacking the government in the USA, we’re showing our new movie of the month on March 2, 2025, at 7:00 pm in our next DOC&TALK “the other side of the American dream”.
BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA is a poignant, multi-layered portrait of the landscapes of the Mojave Desert and life there. The voice of poet and prisoner Stanley “Spoon” Jackson reads excerpts from his autobiography “By Heart”, intercut with images of a world soaked in pure American mythology, drowning in the brutal reality of ruthless financial policy. (Giona A. Nazarro – Visions du Réel)
Spoon will call us from prison at the Docfilm42 screening after the end of the film and add his own unique viewpoint to our subsequent film talk.
Registration here and more info below.
Two other noteworthy events for March.
At our next digital regulars’ table exclusively for our members, we will be talking to Jutta Feit from JIP-Verleih on March 11, 2025, starting at 7:30 pm, about “What does a film distributor actually do?”.
In addition, another DOC&TALK will follow on 16.03.2025 at 7:00 pm with ERNTE TEILEN (Sharing the harvest). The film tells the story of farmers who want to counter the growth compulsion of our system and create a different form of economy – solidarity agriculture.
Registration here and more info below.
If you want to join docfilm42, you can become a member for 42€ per year. Students pay only 24€ for the first year.
You can find the membership form here.
If you have any questions about membership, write to us at vorstand@docfilm42.de.
Your docfilm42 team
Online event
Tuesday, February 11, 2025, 8:00 pm
‘NARROWED PERSPECTIVES? On the reform of public broadcasters and its impact on independent documentary film‘
An ongoing trend: Large production companies such as Constantin Film or Bavaria Film have set up their own documentary divisions, as it is quicker and cheaper to produce there. This fulfils ARD’s desire to focus on ‘excellence productions’ while reducing the
total number of produced documentary films. What does this mean for independent documentary film? We ask Heiko Hilker, a extensive expert on the reform process that ARD has initiated. More than almost anyone else, he monitors and evaluates the content-related discussions that are being held within the public service media about the future of program design. What impact will these upheavals have on the future of independent documentary film within the ARD broadcasting organisations? We can ask Heiko Hilker these and similar questions while discussing the consequences of the reform processes.
Moderation: Robert Krieg
Online doc&talk – Barstow, California
Sunday, 02.03.2025, 19:00 h
BARSTOW, CALIFORNIA
Director: Rainer Komers, 76 minutes, 2018, English / German UT, Germany / USA
The African-American poet Stanley “Spoon” Jackson was born in 1957 as the second youngest of 15 brothers in Barstow, a small town in California’s Mojave Desert. After a childhood overshadowed by violence, he killed a man in a domestic dispute at the age of 20 – the day he enlisted in the Marines. He was sentenced to life without possibility of parole in a trial with racist overtones. In San Quentin, he attended a writing workshop and played Pozzo in Samuel Beckett’s “Waiting for Godot” in a theater performance. From San Quentin he wandered through several Californian “high security” prisons and is now in Solano State Prison.
The film was awarded the ARTE Documentary Film Prize at the Duisburg Film Week. As at screenings in Berlin, Hamburg, Missoula/MT, Münster and Szczecin, Spoon will call us from prison at the Docfilm42 screening on 28.02.25 at 7 pm after the end of the film, talk to us and recite poetry, interrupted by an AI voice: “This call will be monitored and recorded.” and “This call will be terminated in 60 seconds.”
Followed by a discussion with Rainer Komers (director) and Stanley “Spoon” Jackson. Moderation: Angela Zumpe
Online doc&talk – Sharing the harvest
Sunday, 16.03.2025, 19:00 h
Sharing the harvest
Director: Philipp Petruch, 81 Minutes, 2023, German / English / French / Spanish UT, Deutschland
Followed by a discussion with Philipp Petruch (director). Moderation: Katrin Falbe
Sharing the harvest, tells the story of farmers who are taking a stand against the growth compulsion of our system and breaking out of the structures of conventional agriculture. Filmmaker and activist Philipp Petruch takes the audience on a journey to three SolaWi initiatives in Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. They are united by a clear goal: with the help of communities, they are creating a local supply cycle based on the values of ecology and the common good. With courage, a sense of community and a new relationship between consumer and producer, they show how it is possible to change agriculture. And a little bit of the world.