ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival

For the first time, the Zebra Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin will be held in Münster from 27-30 October at cinema Schloßtheater. Established in Berlin in 2002, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival was the first and remains the largest international platform for cinematic adaptations of poetry: poetry films.

With three poetry-film competitions – one international, one German, and one North Rhine-Westphalia based – as well as themed film programmes, a retrospective on TV poetry hosted by Klaus-Peter Dencker, readings, a Colloquium, a lineup for younger audiences called ZEBRINO and a lineup focused on works from the Flanders and the Netherlands, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival 2016 promises to showcase the richness and diversity in the emerging film genre of poetry films.

This year, more than 1,100 submissions from 86 countries were submitted to the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin, among which 80 have been nominated by the program commission to compete in the international and national competitions. Four prizes totaling €12,000 will be awarded by the three-member international jury, including the "ZEBRA Award for the best poetry film", the "Goethe Film Award", the "Ritter Sport Film Award", as well as the "Award for the Best film for Tolerance". Additionally, 18 films will be presented in the newly established NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) competition.

The Flanders and Netherlands Focus

As part of the official programme of the Frankfurt Book Fair, ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster | Berlin will bring into focus Dutch language and literature this year, and present work of artists from Netherlands and Flanders. With selected poetry films from this year's submissions, award-winning classics and the results of the Master Class "Poetry across the borders", ZEBRA will showcase the diversity in language arts in the area between the dunes and the polders through poetry readings and Film Talks.

In this year's festival, we have permission from Dutch poet Mustafa Stitou, author of the poem oracle van een gevonden schoen, to use said poem as a theme for short films. The six best among the filmmakers who decided to center their film on oracle van een gevonden schoen have been invited to Münster to present and engage in discussions of their work.

The Festival Committee has also organised a Retrospective on the work of Klaus Peter Dencker, visual poet and literary scholar, who is widely considered to be the inventor of the TV poetry. Klaus Peter Dencker created the Sequencing form, which in turn has influenced his work of visual poetry. Throughout his years in the television industry, he played an important role in creating more than 100 documentary and experimental films for ARD and ZDF, including influential experimental films like starfighter, rausch and Austronaut, which were broadcast over the now defunct SWF of Baden-Baden during 1970-1971. Professor Dencker will be present at the festival to talk about his work.

ZEBRINO Program for Young Audiences

The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival Münster/Berlin will make poetic forays with younger audiences. What is a poetry film? Where does the idea of making a cinematic poem come from? What is a poem? ZEBRINO is a lineup of colorful short films based on poems which target audiences of 10-14 years old and aims to bring children closer to the genre of poetry film. In this program, the young visitors will not only meet a rabbit-turtle, a black bear, people with funny mice, but also travel with two brothers back into their past. In the end, the young participants will get to choose their favorite film by voting. The film with the most votes wins the ZEBRINO competition 2016 prize worth 500 euros.

The Zebra Poetry Festival is organized by the Filmwerkstatt Münster in cooperation with the Haus für Poesie (formerly Literaturwerkstatt, Berlin). It is made possible by the support of Kunststiftung NRW, the LWL Kulturstiftung, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the city of Münster, the Stiftung der Sparkasse Münsterland Ost, the Kulturrucksack NRW, the Netherlands Consulate General and the Flemish Embassy. The competition prizes have been donated in 2016 by the Haus für Poesie, the Goethe Institute, the Federal Foreign Office of Germany, the Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG and Deutsche Lufthansa AG. The festival is also supported by the Münstesche Filmtheater-Betriebe, GUCC grafik & film, as well as the Factory Hotel.