UNDERDOX halftime | 5 june 2025 filmmuseum münchen 7 pm | guest: Elfi Mikesch
Filmgalerie 451 | Elfi Mikesch
Elfi Mikesch, camerawoman and director, who has received several awards for her visual visions, is an early pioneer of feminist-queer film. Born on May 31, 1940 in Judenburg, Styria, she started out as a photographer and painter. painter. In the early 1960s, she met Rosa von Praunheim in Frankfurt am Main and went with him to West Berlin. and went to West Berlin with him. She worked closely with Praunheim, and soon after with Werner Schroeter (camera for MALINA) and Monika Treut, with whom she founded Hyäne-Filmproduktion in 1984. Her first own works were photo films, which she continues to this day as a chronicler of the hidden. To mark the 85th birthday of this exceptional camerawoman, UNDERDOX is showing an excerpt from her work. Elfi Mikesch is our guest. More information
Starring: Bernd Brehmer und Tim Leyendekker Shot on location: FIDMarseille, 2023 Music: Kiko El Crazy & Angel Dior with “Pa’Ti Ya” Camera & editing: Dunja Bialas
“not the artist in focus” Khavn and Alexander Kluge as guests at the Filmmuseum Munich
Today, Wednesday, the 19th UNDERDOX ends with the big Closing Night at the Filmmuseum München, 9 pm.
Our closing film MAKAMISA: PHANTASM OF REVENGE is the latest film by “not the artist in focus” KHAVN. The Filipino artist, author, filmmaker, designer and musician has a long-standing collaboration with Alexander Kluge. The still active, enterprising and innovative innovator of German film will be in conversation with KHAVN at the Film Museum and will bring a surprise film with him.
There will also be a cine-concert by KHAVN on the grand piano, accompanied by Babel Gun on the drums. Afterwards: Festival finale in the Favorit Bar
18 feature-length films have made it into the official UNDERDOX selection this year. Among them are major titles such as GRAND TOUR by Portuguese director Miguel Gomes (Best Director, Cannes), PEPE by Colombian Nelson Carlo de los Santos Arias (Silver Bear, Berlinale) and DIRECT ACTION by Frenchman and Berliner-by-choice Ben Russell and Guillaume Cailleau (Berlinale Encounters Award). But also the “unspectacular” award winners THE OTHER WAY AROUND by Spaniard Jonás Trueba (Best European Film, Cannes) (German premiere), EIN SCHÖNER ORT (A GOOD PLACE) by Cologne-based Katharina Huber (Best Director, Locarno, Best Actress Locarno for Clara Schwinning) and ANIMAL by Greece’s Sofia Exarchou (Best Actress Locarno for Dimitra Vlagopoulou).
This does not mean an esoteric or sensitive orientation. We are focusing our attention on what is happening on the screen. And on everything that heightens our awareness: that is the awareness we mean.
We often become conscious when something is missing. Stanley Schtinter brings the most radical version with his film SCHNEEWITTCHEN (German premiere). Based on the drama by Robert Walser, the film pays homage to the Portuguese master João César Monteiro, who accidentally hung his coat over the camera while shooting BRANCA DE NEVE. An illustrious cast investigates the attempted murder of Snow White. Hanns Zischler (the hunter), director Stanley Schtinter and Joshua Bonnetta (film editor) are present. (Saturday, 12 Okt 6pm, Filmmuseum München)
Basque director Oskar Alegria is a master at detecting nuances, the unspoken and the invisible. We are also showing his films under the theme of awareness, and he is also this year’s Artist in Focus. Our opening film ZINZINDURRUNKARRATZ (German premiere) invites you on a journey full of memories, in search of an old shepherd’s path, with a Super 8 camera and a donkey as your companion. (Thursday, 10.10. 7 p.m., Filmmuseum Munich) Also in the “Artist in Focus” program: THE SEARCH FOR EMAK BAKIA (2012), about the search for the location of Man Ray’s surrealist cine-poem EMAK BAKIA (1926). (Friday 11.10. 9 pm, Werkstattkino) Oskar Alegria will be present at both screenings.
Oskar Alegria, Zinzindurrunkarratz – Eröffnungsfilm
Filipino filmmaker KHAVN is the master of This is not. Therefore we deny that he is our second artist in focus, KHAVN is a musician as untamed as filmmaker. He unleashes Alexander Kluge and Lilith Stangenberg and scratches the picture while hammering into the piano keys. In our closing night he will give a ciné concert on the wing of the Filmmuseum accompanied by Babel Gun. Also running KLUGE’S 5TH BIRTHDAY 1937 (German premiere), and as a closing film we show MAKASIMA: PHANTASM OF REVENGE with Lilith Stangenberg. We are expecting Alexander Kluge and Lilith Stangenberg as guests (requested). Also in the program: MAKBETAMAXIMUS (2024), Monday 14.10., 9.30 pm, Werkstattkino. Khavn will be present at both screenings.
For the second time, we have invited the younger generation to curate a program of films by young filmmakers in the Young People’s Choice funding program. Vid Radičević (Belgrade) and Paula Ruppert (Munich) have also found two world premieres for their short film program Belgrade Youth, which consists of seven films. They will be present at the screening. (Tuesday, 7 p.m., Werkstattkino)
César Vayssié | FR 2018 88 min | HD | French, English B+DOP+E: César Vayssié | M: Avia x Orly | S: César Vayssié, Pierre Avia | P: AFE (Caroline Redy) | Sales: Shellac | With Elsa Michaud, Gabriel Gauthier www.cesarvayssie.com
Elsa Michaud and Gabriel Gauthier are both students at the Beaux-Arts school in Paris. They are in a relationship and conduct artistic research together. They become artists in chaotic times. The footage, without dialogue, hypnotised by the music of the duo Avia X Orly, combines gestures, symbols, world events and the everyday life of the two students from March 2017 to March 2018. The film harnesses the frenzy of the digital flow through a visual proposal. It presents the paradoxes of a society celebrating the events of May 68, fifty years on.
thu 6 june 2024 | 7 pm | filmmuseum Guest: Tula Roy, Peider A. Defilla, Christoph Wirsing
What do Tula Roy and Peider A. Defilla have in common, apart from a Swiss passport? The answer is Christoph Wirsing. The cameraman has worked with the Swiss filmmakers, who live in and around Munich, time and again, as a constant companion. To mark the 90th birthday of Tula Roy and the 70th birthday of Peider A. Defilla, we invite you to a Swiss double bill of two different works that each bear the signature of their time of origin. We have given the programme the title “Gestures of the avant-garde”. Tula Roy is one of the most prominent women on the Swiss film scene, and she has made history with her milieu studies in the feminist underground. Peider A. Defilla is one of the outstanding video pioneers of the European avant-garde and composer and arranger of the “video opera”. In an experiment, we combine both personalities, connected by the Munich cameraman Christoph Wirsing.
The VIDEODOX Award 2023 goes to the Munich artist Lilian Robl. The jury, consisting of Jörg Koopmann, photographer and curator, Daniela Stöppel, art historian and curator, and Renate Wiehager, curator, selected Lilian Robl’s four-part video work Atem / Stimme / Blick / Gehen (Breath / Voice / Look / Walk) from thirteen for the video art prize nominated positions, endowed with 1000 euros. The prize donor is Peider A. Defilla from B.O.A. Videofilmkunst.
The jury’s statement:
Lilian Robl’s four-part video work Atem / Stimme / Blick / Gehen (Breath / Voice / Look / Walk) convinced the jury because of its minimalist use of writing and diagrammatic forms in the moving image medium. Using four tableaux presented on flat monitors, she explores the relationship between sign and signified, subject and object, by allowing concepts and conceptual fields to enter into a dynamic diagrammatically organised relationship with each other and with the viewer. These figures of thought unfold in precise rhythmic cycles that physically involve the recipients. Through a conceptual use of the design element of writing, which otherwise only occurs marginally in the medium of film (for example, in the opening and closing credits), and through the combination of an apparently objective visual language with poetic, open content, a haunting work has been created that unfolds its intellectual and aesthetic effect in a formally reduced pictoriality.
As Lilian Robl is currently in residency abroad, the artist’s parents accepted the award.
From the left Mr. and Mrs Robl, Daniela Stöppel, Peider A. Defilla
The exhibition VIDEODOX with all nominated works can be seen until 22 October at the Galerie der Künstler*innen (Maximilianstr. 42). We thank all participating artists for the successful exhibition!
From the left seated Eunju Hong (squat), Paul Valentin (cap) Julia Walk (pink trousers), Leila Fatima Keita, Ayala Shoshana Guy
“The Underdox Film Festival in Munich presents itself highly topical in its 18th edition.” Jürgen Moises, “Süddeutsche Zeitung”
About the opening film of UNDERDOX:
“Nature knows no clear, fixed boundaries. But humans, with their fences and walls, are constantly trying out new dividing lines. The consequences of this can currently be seen in Ukraine, at the EU’s external borders or in the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. The latter will probably cease to exist very soon. This was decided after the last fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan. The conflict has been going on and smouldering for some time. It’s just that almost no one has been interested. Unlike Daniel Kötter, who went in search of clues in Nagorno-Karabakh for his film “Landshaft”. At the Underdox Film Festival, “Landshaft” can be seen as the opening film on 5 October at 7 pm in the Munich Film Museum.”
About the Artist in Focus Declan Clarke:
“A beautiful discovery are the films of Declan Clarke, this year’s “Artist in Focus”. The Irish artist links contemporary and family history with the forms of essay and feature film. He also follows the history of the European left in two experimental “thrillers” and ends up at the Oktoberfest.”
A trailer as condensate. Eighteen years of UNDERDOX. Godard was always there. This year “Connecting Futures” kept us on our toes, first we went to Belgrade for the BELDOCS festival, then to FIDMarseille. We are now diving into the 3rd phase of young adult cultural exchange. “Nervous” is the adjective that goes under this phase. But we don’t let that throw us off track. After all, we are “bien équilibrés”, well balanced, as JLG assures us with “Pierrot le Fou”.
Trailer: Dunja Bialas Text & Sound: Jean-Luc Godard, PIERROT LE FOU (1965) Music: Ludwig van Beethoven, “Die Fünfte” (1808)
Dancers: The young adults of “Connecting Futures” Cameos: Dunja Bialas and Bernd Brehmer Shot on location in Belgrad.
