Dear docfilm42 community,
This year is docfilm42’s birthday. The fifth!
We continuously celebrate documentary film gems, but this year has some special highlights. Get ready. Our program group is in the starting blocks to screen new favorite films for docfilm42.de.
You can submit suggestions and clarify open questions at info@docfilm42.de. One of the criteria is that the proposed films are online or available on streaming services. And that they capture our minds and senses.
You can find out more here: https://docfilm42.com/about-us/
Also take a look at our YouTube channel. Here you can find two more film talks, about Berlin Excelsior (2017) by Erik Lemke and Ruina (2014) by Markus Lenz.
And because of the Berlinale, we postponed our February film of the month, so we have two March films as an exception.
In our next DOC&TALK on March 2, 2025 at 7 pm, we will be showing “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, 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?”.
There will be a second DOC&TALK on March 16, 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, please write to us at vorstand@docfilm42.de.
Your docfilm42 team
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
Digital Regulars’ Table
Tuesday, March 11, 2025, 7:30 pm
What does a film distributor actually do?
Talk with Jutta Feith from JIP Distribution.
After many years of experience in various areas of film production and international co-production, Julia I. Peters and Jutta Feit founded jip film & verleih in 2017. In continuous cooperation with directors, producers and cinema operators, they produce and distribute small and large documentaries and feature films. Intensive project preparation and impact producing are the building blocks for successful production and sustainable and successful distribution. We are interested in political and socially critical and relevant fiction and documentary films. jip film & verleih was awarded the Hessian Film and Cinema Prize in the “Newcomer” category in 2022.
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.