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
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)
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
Political Reflections: War, Militarization, and the Rise of Totalitarian Regimes.
What does the future of young people in Europe look like? And which questions can we consider with film, whether documentary or experimental, as a discursive medium? In three project phases, CONNECTING FUTURES traces the questions about the future in a Europe in permanent crisis mode. Three film festivals each invite ten young people from three European cities to an intercultural exchange. The focus is on political issues and raising awareness of democracy and human rights, as well as on the first steps toward professionalization and opportunities for collective cooperation.
Already on May 10, 2023, we will go to BELDOCS, the international documentary film festival in Belgrade.
Trilateral youth exchange project in Europe BELDOCS Belgrade – FID Marseille – UNDERDOX Munich
In three project phases CONNECTING FUTURES wants to trace the questions about the future in a Europe in permanent crisis mode. Three film festivals invite ten young people each from three European cities to an intercultural exchange. Political questions and the sensitization for democracy and human rights are in the focus as well as first steps of professionalization and possibilities of collective cooperation.
Target group and conditions of participation
CONNECTING FUTURES is aimed at young adults (18-22 years old) from all educational backgrounds. Prerequisites for participation are a keen interest in the audiovisual medium and a willingness to reflect on political issues. The language of communication between the project participants is English. The three project phases will take place on location. Participation in the workshops is free of charge for the young people. Travel and accommodation costs will be covered by the project.
Please send your application with your personal profile and a short letter of motivation explaining why you are interested in participating to info@underdox-festival.de. Application deadline: March 31, 2023
The theme of “volatility” is driving us this year. Nothing lasts. Peace. Health. Elements. Films. Jean-Luc Godard has passed on. And even the last excursion of UNDERDOX is history. In the summer of 2021, we went to Palić, Serbia, to present a short film program at the local festival. We left the EU and got to know a secluded, mysterious world near the Hungarian border. The trailer reminds us of our trip. It shows a shot of the dead lake of Palić, which is completely tilted. That doesn’t stop us from reveling in idyll: Slowly, the barge draws a circle over the greenish-yellow water, folk tunes wistfully reminiscent of old, better times. Suddenly, the sound of a film projector mingles. – This was just a new prank by JLG. Marguerite Duras sits across from him, praising his film. The latter smirks: he can only ever say bad things, he admires her praise. Then they say: Shall we begin? Yes, we begin.
I+DOP+S+E: Dunja Bialas Found Footage: Walt de Mirabeau Starring Bernd Brehmer, Jean-Luc Godard, Marguerite Duras and the Palić’ tourists.
Now online! Here you can find the complete UNDERDOX program of the 17th edition! There are 16 feature films and countless shorts, from 15 countries from almost all continents: Argentina, Bolivia, Germany, France, Italy, India, Kazakhstan, Lithuania, Ukraine, USA, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Austria, Philippines. With 7 German premieres!
Dear Jimmy, Courtesy The Museum of Modern Art, New York
“No Wave”: Under this slogan UNDERDOX presents its ARTIST IN FOCUS this year Harald Vogl and his “New York Trilogy”. Vogl came to the Munich Academy of Arts in the seventies, where he studied painting with Günter Fruhtrunk. At the end of his studies he showed white canvases, “empty pictures”, hinge works to his already started intensive film work, which lasted until 1988. In New York he came into contact with the “No Wave” scene around the legendary Club 57 in East Village and became part of the post-punk period and the “Cinema of Transgression”. In 1975 he showed his films for the first time in Jonas Mekas’ “Anthology Film Archives”, even before creating a New York trilogy with “Only You” (1981), “OK Today Tomorrow” (1983) and “Measure Taken” (1984), preceded by “Dear Jimmy” (1978), a classic of No Wave.
Underdox shows the “New York Trilogy” in the copies restored by the Museum of Modern Art as a German premiere. Harald Vogl is a guest! Read more…
