
News Festival
Freedom, Freedom, Reality
20 confirmed films set somewhere between awakening, borderline experience and reality. And amidst it all the “UNERHÖRT! Filmfestival” will celebrate its 10th anniversary at the Reeperbahn Festival with films about music, bands and their fans, about music movements between underground and high culture.
Hardly any other country is better suited for spiritual borderline experiences than India. This is how the Beatles saw it and it’s how the British rock musician Johnny Greenwood (Radiohead) and the Israeli composer Shye Ben Tzur see it.
The two exceptional artists are accompanied by the five times Oscar award winner Paul Thomas Anderson who, in his first documentary "Junun" (photo), equipped with just a hand camera, filmed the album recordings of the band Rajasthan Express at an old Indian castle. A colourful journey to the cradle of spirituality – and, of course, lots of music.
The works of the Arabic artists who were accompanied by Farid Eslam through the protests and riots of the Arab Spring in “Yallah! Underground” are much more progressive and political. Repression meets liberal weltanschauung, feelings of disappointment alternating with vague hope – hope directly from the depth of the Arabic underground.
You could write whole books about the close relationship between music and political stance. Or shoot a film. In the documentary “Deutsche Pop Zustände – Eine Geschichte rechter Musik” (German pop conditions – a history of right-wing music) nominated for the Grimme Award the two filmmakers Dietmar Prost and Lucía Palacios deal with the interaction of pop culture and right-wing ideology. Scientists, musicians and dropouts from the German rightist scene comment and analyse the implications of rightist music in Germany which not only serves as soundtrack for the inhuman world view of veteran rightists but, in particular, are a mobilising influence for getting young people in touch with the neo-Nazi scene.
In Mali, danger does not arise from music but rather from radical Islamists who, in the north of the African country, prohibit secular music and dance. In “Mali Blues” the filmmaker Lutz Gregor tells us about the uniting power of music. About four musicians, who do not want to accept hate, distrust and a radical interpretation of Islam, neither in Mali nor in any part of the world.
Still unknown to the largest part of the world: The female graffiti scene.
In an attempt to capture women active in the scene, the Czech graffiti artist Sany travelled to 15 cities all over the world in 7 years. Her film “Girl Power” is an impressive report of strong characters trying to assert themselves with their unbending will in a world dominated by men.
Here you can find the complete film program and all other confirmations.