19. UNDER|DOX 10-16 OKT

Impressions from the Munich Connecting Futures table tennis tournament by César Vayssié.

Merci à toutes et à tous! Zahvaljujući svima vama! Захваљујући свима вама!

“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.”

Read here: https://www.sueddeutsche.de/muenchen/muenchen-underdox-filmfestival-filmmuseum-werkstattkino-theatiner-filmkunst-1.6267628

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.

© UNDERDOX 2023

Dear UNDERDOX visitors, perhaps you have noticed: we have a completely renewed website! Our big thanks go to Florian Geierstanger, artist and curator, who has also worked for UNDERDOX for many years. He has been working behind the scenes for a year to make UNDERDOX responsive.

We ourselves are thrilled with the result: as heavy festival visitors, we know how annoying it can be to have to click through the complexities before you get to the information you’re looking for. We hope to provide clarity with our menu and not to hide important information behind clicks!

We are also enthusiastic about Michi Kohl. He wrote an article about UNDERDOX in the “Münchner Feuilleton” that UNDERDOX understood to 100%! After the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” banned us from the feuilleton (too little star power), we are all the more happy about this (almost) whole page!

Anyone who feels the urge to also give us something for our anniversary is welcome to bring a gift to the opening on Thursday, 5.10, at 7pm at the Film Museum! Baked goods, crisps, wine, sparkling wine, donations and more will be greatly appreciated!

New works by Daniel Kötter, Jonás Trueba and Selma Doborac practice cinematic border crossings – Werner Herzog comes to UNDERDOX

The festival will be opened at the Filmmuseum München on Thursday 5 October with the German premiere of Landshaft by German director Daniel Kötter. In the border region of eastern Armenia, along the new dividing lines between Azerbaijan and Armenia that have emerged since the Nagorno-Karabakh war in 2020, he traces the geopolitical fault lines, following a flock of sheep.

Im the Stadtmuseumsall at the first floor of the Filmmuseum, the festival is showing Daniel Kötter‘s VR feature-length documentary Water & Coltan. The 50-minute 360° film transports the viewer directly to the sites of women’s struggle in coltan mining in South Kivu in Congo and shows the extractivist practice with its consequences. The VR film is screened like a cinema film with fixed starting times.

Even dwarfs started small. This famous title from Werner Herzog‘s early work can also be taken as the motto for the 18th edition of the UNDERDOX international film festival. Werner Herzog will personally present his film, shot on Lanzarote, where he also holds workshops for young filmmakers, at the Filmmuseum Munich on Saturday 7 October.

Spanish director Jonás Trueba‘s You Have to Come and See It recalls the playful experimental set-ups of Hong Sang-soo. Two thirtysomething couples who are friends re-sort their lives, or not. Peter Sloterdijk’s essay “You have to change your life”, Bill Callahan’s “Let’s Move to the Country” and Chano Domínguez’s jazzy flamenco accompany them in their escape from the real. The film will be shown as a German premiere on Saturday, 7.10. at the Theatiner.

In her film De Facto (Caligari Prize at the Berlinale), Selma Doborac deliberately places the concepts of testimony and authenticity on uncertain terrain. Texts whose origin is as unclear as their truth content challenge the limits of the imaginable. Selma Doborac will present her film in person at the Theatiner on Sunday, 8 October.