Love and its complexities have always been one of the strongest engines of film dramaturgy. Yet what happens when the portrayal of love sets sail into the realm of societal taboos and defy the legal and moral boundaries? Should certain love relationships not be thematized and/or cinematically portrayed? Is the dynamic different in a feature film than in a documentary? Is it legitimate to want to get increased attention for one's film by treating an apparently taboo subject?

Four feature films and documentaries provide the necessary inflammable materials for these and other questions to be controversially discussed on many levels by a quintet of experts from the film industry.

Films

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Geliebt
Nina
Zwillinge

Presentation

Susanne Eichner Scientific employee of the HFF “Konrad Wolf“

Participants

Professor Dr. Lothar Mikos
Professor for media science of the HFF “Konrad Wolf“

Jürgen Brüning
Since 1986 film productions, cooperation with various film festivals and founders of the Pornfilmfestivals Berlin 2006

André Wendler
Media scientist of the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar. Besides he is writing texts to the cinema for various of Blogs and the »Sissy« magazine for non-heterosexual films

Sonja Heiss
Film maker - „Hotel Very Welcome"

Thalia 3 FOCUS-DISCUSSION 16.00h

This year, all eyes in the world will turn to South Africa for the World Cup. Departing from the scene of glamorous football stars, triumphs and defeats, sehsüchte will instead be showing authentic stories from the country on the Cape. Upcoming filmmakers present their vision of their country and people, future and past, and their nation’s real present.
What moves the young South African filmmakers 15 years after the end of apartheid? sehsüchte presents the many-sided filmic answers to this question and the Focus discussion will give unique insights into the situation of young cinematic work and student films in South Africa.
Directors and experts will tell us what it means to film in South Africa. The developments, opportunities and restrictions in the country on the Cape will be discussed authentically and directly. An interesting and open-minded roundtable discussion awaits the audience in the Thalia Kino.

Thalia 3 PANEL DISCUSSION 19.00h

Part 1: Meet the Composers

Film music composers introduce themselves and their projects

Daniel Velasco – „systemfehler_freiheit“, „Zeche is nich“
Felix Raffel – „The Boy Who Wouldn't Kill“, „Das Erbe oder Coffee To Go“
Fabrizio Tentoni – „Das Versteck“, „Märchendising“
Hector Marroquin – „I Vamos Caballeros“, „Empire Domino“
Henning Fuchs – sehsüchte-Trailer 2010, „Fast schwarz“
Kurt Widorski – „Hanna harrt aus“, „Der Pelz“
Peer Kleinschmidt – „Steinfliegen“, „Lumo“
Sabine Zlotos – „Nora“, „Der Doppelgänger“
Tina Rupp – Diverse image and advertising films

Part 2: Discussion

Why do we love music? Why do we hate music? Film music can do many things: stylize, manipulate, kitschify, obfuscate, explain, synchronize... What is it's role in young filmmakers' work? Does music "belong" to film like cinematography or editing? Why create original music, when the music libraries are now stuffed full? Are methods such as sweeping orchestras and accompanying underscores necessarily conventional and antiquated? What do the latest trends look like?

Guest Speakers:

Uli Reuter Film music composer, Deutscher Fernsehpreis 2009 – “Die Drachen besiegen“, “Die Tote im Spreewald“, “14 Tage Lebenslänglich“

Andreas Kleinert Regisseur, mehrfacher Grimme-Preis-Träger – „Mein Vater“, „Freischwimmer“, „Barriere“

SEHSÜCHTE SOCCER TOURNAMENT 10.30h

Who will play with the most original tactics? Who will show the greatest fighting spirit and win the legendary sehsüchte Cup at the traditional soccer tournament? It's all happening on Friday on the field of FSV Babelsberg. Filmmakers from all over the world, students at the HFF, teams from the media industry and, of course, the "sehsüchte All-Stars" team will line up against each other in this good-spirited event. Drinks will be provided.

Thalia 3 DRAMATURGY LIVE 14.00h

Friday stands under the sign of the screenplay. Professors Torsten Schulz and Timo Gößler will open up their bag of dramaturgical tricks. Using film examples, they will give us insight into the craft of screenwriting, refine our vision of filmmaking and put the revealed structures behind the magic of film up for debate. There's always more to discover!

Professor Torsten Schulz
Screenwriter, Director and Professor for Dramaturgy at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“ – Boxhagener Platz

Timo Gößler
Screenwriter, Dramaturge and Lecturer in screenwriting and dramaturgy at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“

Room 1104 WORKSHOP DISCUSSION INCLUDING SCREENING 18.00h

Theme:

The Production and Implementation of 3D Films at Film Schools

Thanks to James Camerons' recent film Avatar, 3D seems to be a new trend that is spreading. More and more films advertise themselves with their tridimensionality. 3D cinema has become a new event. Experts have now declared the stereoscopic process as the technology of the future. The 3D trend doesn't stop at the film schools, as the first 3D productions from film students demonstrate. The HFF „Konrad Wolf“ has already shot a documentary /live-action film in digital 3D, as well as the 3D animated film “Barfly“. At the beginning of this year, the first big 3D live-action film „Topper gibt nicht auf“ came into being at the HFF in the context of the PRIME project. But other film schools are also exploring "future-looking technology" as well. The Hamburg Media School was one of the first film schools to produce a project in stereoscopic 3D with the film Tomorrow.

Even sehsüchte will be donning 3D glasses this year and will show student film productions in 3D for the first time. In an accompanying workshop discussion, the filmmakers will talk about the production and implementation of 3D films and will discuss the possibilities and limits of 3D technology at film schools with experts.

Presentation:

Mariann Gibbon - Lecturer at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“

Participants:

Félix Koch - Director, „Topper gibt nicht auf“
Paul Andexel - Producer/Marketing, „Topper gibt nicht auf“
Benjamin Raeder - Cinematographer, „Topper gibt nicht auf“
Sönke Kirchhoff - Post-production, „Topper gibt nicht auf“
Katrin Habermann - Producer, Tomorrow
Jesko Jockenhövel - Lecturer at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“
Robert Laatz - Lecturer in cinematography at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“, 3D Producer „Topper gibt nicht auf“

Films:

Topper gibt nicht auf
Feature Film | Germany | HFF ”Konrad Wolf“ 2010 | 21'20'' | 3D | Color | German

Director: Félix Koch
Screenwriter: Florian Hawemann
Producer: Jennifer Hoffmann
3D Producer: Robert Laatz
Production Coordinator, Marketing Coordinator: Paul Andexel
Cinematographer: Nicolai Mehring
Image Creator: Benjamin Raeder
Cast: Claude-Oliver Rudolph, Maximilian Vollmar, Anna-Maria Sturm

Axel the film student can barely believe his good fortune: his childhoohd hero, the action legend Til Topper, is playing the lead role in his short film. Of course, Topper turns out to be an arrogant eccentric on the set and threatens the whole project. Then Marleen comes into the picture. She plays the female lead, awakens his ambitions - and is Axel's girlfriend.

Barfly
Animation | Germany| HFF ”Konrad Wolf“ 2010 | 5'40'' | 3D | Color | German

Director, Screenwriter: Nadja Klews
Line Producer: Annika Nizze
Sound: Paul Rischer
Music: Johannes Repka

This film is about a small guy with a big problem. A predominantly funny but also dramatic story about the course of alcoholism.

Tomorrow
Feature Film | Germany | Hamburg Media School 2009 | 4'15'' | 3D | Color | German

Director: Max Zähle
Cinematographer: Moritz Anton
Production Coordination: Katrin Habermann
Editor, Coordinator: Ramon Urselmann
Music: Christian Seim

See the economic crisis as an opportunity and a time to confront a new medium, 3D. Tomorrow summarizes impressions and emotions about the economic crisis in order to break through them in a positive way in the film's 2nd half.

Thalia 3 SCREENPLAY LOUNGE 19.00h

Cinema in your head- Films to be heard!

The five most exciting and extraordinary screenplays by young writers nominated for this year's Best Screenplay will be presented in excerpts. Prominent voice actors breathe life into the figures in a scenic reading accompanied with live music and sound, which ensure the proper atmosphere. It is exciting to be given a peek inside five fascinating scripts that couldn't be more different from one another!
The Boje Buck Produktion have donated a 1,500 euro prize exclusively for upcoming authors. Which one of these young talents will walk away with it will only be clear on Saturday.

Nominated Screenplays

Durchgekommen
von Burkhardt Wunderlich (2010)

Before the lives of 16 year-old Lukas and his friend Manuel have even begun, they have to deal with death, thanks to cancer and painful chemotherapy treatments. They try to escape the everyday life of the hospital and look for “normal“ experiences of growing up.

Burkhardt Wunderlich was born in 1981 in Berlin. In 2000, he published his novel “Durchgekommen“. An education in screenwriting at the Filmarche in Berlin and his studies in screenwriting at the HFF “Konrad Wolf“ were to follow.

Filmography (Selection)
2009 Wasserschildkröten (Regie: Julia von Heinz)
2009 und dann war alles still (Regie: Pola Schirin Beck)
2009 Genau Gleich (Regie: Burkhardt Wunderlich)
2008 Schein und Sein (Regie: Burkhardt Wunderlich)
2007 Wie Schwefel in der Luft (Regie: Burkhardt Wunderlich)

Grenzflimmern
von Denijen Pauljevic (2010)

A Serbian musician flees the military police to Germany during the Kosovo War and tries to begin anew there. Yet though his new life seems so close, he has to decide against it.

Denijen Pauljevic was born in 1974 in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He studied Slavic literature and intercultural communication at the LMU München and worked as a translator, interpreter and aide to the handicapped. From 2008 to 2009, he took part in a screenwriting workshop in Munich.

Filmography
1995 Beschränkung (Regie: Denijen Pauljevic)

Haudegen
von Johannes Held (2010)

Haudegen is the last German weather station in the Arctic, which was closed in 1944. The men stationed there are to provide their homeland with weather data. When one of the men lets the provisions go bad, it causes a battle for survival, in which each person is surely next to die.

Johannes Held was born in 1979 in Gelsenkirchen. He initially studied theater, media and literature in Leipzig, and then dramatic writing at the UdK in Berlin. From 2006 to 2009, he has been studying screenwriting at the dffb in Berlin.

Filmography
2008 Das Mädchen mit den gelben Strümpfen (Regie: Grzegorz Muskala)
2009 Fracht (Regie: Lisa Bierwirth)

Paul Arschloch
von Sebastian Heeg (2010)

The pain of a fist impact, the adrenaline of the return punch, the energy of celebrating with heavy alcohol consumption and the relaxation after a night full of sex. Paul Manschura wants to feel every second that he’s alive. Yet when he is diagnosed with Hepatitis C and also sleeps with a woman who really might mean something to him this time without a condom, Paul suddenly has a problem. Responsibility just isn’t his thing.

Sebastian Heeg was born in 1986 in Baden-Baden. Since 2007, he has studied screenwriting at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg.

Filmography
2009 Rot Gold Schwarz (Buch)
2009... wie die Raben (Buch)
2008 Individuality (Regie: Sebastian Heeg)
2008 Poltern (Kamera: Sebastian Heeg)
2008 Crazy Gregg (Buch, Regie, Kamera: Sebastian Heeg)

Warten auf Wetter
von Duc-Thi Bui (2009)

As an old man, Levy uses a time machine to keep his younger self from entering a loving relationship. Yet love always takes its own course.

Duc-Thi Bui was born in 1978 in Bien Hao, Vietnam. He studied architecture and city-planning at the Universität Stuttgart before he began studying at the ifs Cologne between 2006 and 2009.

Filmography
2009 Warten auf Wetter (Buch)
2009 Sonnenwende (Regie: Jonas Schweitzer-Faust)
2008 freiSPIELEN (Regie: Lisa Violetta Gaß)
2008 Sex-Man (Regie: Cuc-Thi Bui)
2008 Eden 3.0 (Buch)