Poetic strip(e)s: ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival puts the spotlight on German poetry films and the UK

19.09.2019

The 10th edition of the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is showcasing the poetry film scene in Germany for the first time. From 5 to 8 December it will be presenting in a competition in Kino in der KulturBrauerei the best poetry films that have been (co)produced in Germany. Ten art schools in Germany have also produced and curated a programme of their own. As a contrast a special focus is on the poetry film in the UK, currently one of the most astonishing scenes in the genre.

The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival, back in Berlin since 2018, is the biggest international platform for short films based on poems – known as poetry films.

This year’s open call was for poetry films produced or co-produced by Germans. From the approximately 500 submissions a programme commission comprising Yun-hua Chen (film scholar), Katharina Schultens (writer), Heinz Hermanns (interfilm Berlin), Heiko Strunk (lyrikline.org) and Thomas Zandegiacomo Del Bel (ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival) have chosen the best films for the competition. In a ceremony on 8 December the jury of international experts on film, poetry and media will announce the winners.

Accompanying the competition the festival will provide an insight into the broad spectrum of poetry films, especially the poetry film landscape of the UK. Ten German art schools will be presenting new poetry films they have produced in the course of one year. Together with their British colleagues they will be discussing the importance of the poetry film in education and comparing art schools in Germany and the UK.

The best poetry film for children and youngsters is awarded in the ZEBRINO-competition, flanked by a varied workshop and film programme for Berlin schoolchildren.

In response to the ZEBRA open call, film makers have produced visual interpretations of this year’s festival poem “native vegetation a natural resource” by Daniel Falb (German original title “Dieses regionale Getreide”) and the results will be shown at the festival. Readings by poets from Germany and the United Kingdom will round off the programme.

From 2002 to 2014 the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin, now renamed Haus für Poesie, organised the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival in Berlin. From 2016 to 2018 it was organised by the Filmwerkstatt Münster in co-operation with the Haus für Poesie, before returning to Berlin in 2018. In recent years, the festival has been hosted in nearly 50 countries around the world. The best poetry films are presented regularly in the programme of the Haus für Poesie, including in the monthly series ZEBRA-Poesiefilmclub.

 

Thursday 5 December – Sunday 8 December

10th ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival

 

Venue: Kino in der KulturBrauerei, Schönhauser Allee 36, 10435 Berlin

Further information and the complete programme (from beginning of November): haus-fuer-poesie.org

ZEBRA is on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

 

For inquiries:

    Silvia Halfter

    Tel: 030. 48 52 45 24

    E-Mail: presse@haus-fuer-poesie.org

 

The ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival is hosted by the Haus für Poesie in co-operation with the Kino in der KulturBrauerei. It is sponsored by Berlin’s Senate Department for Culture and Europe and the British Council, and gratefully acknowledges the kind support of the Federal Foreign Office, the Goethe-Institut, Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG and interfilm Berlin. It is presented by taz and ASK HELMUT.