The winners of the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festivals 2022

The Jury – Christine Franz, Dagmara Kraus and Ebele Okoye – awarded the following prizes:

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ZEBRA-Award for Best Poetry Film, donated by Haus für Poesie:

BLACK. BRITISH. MUSLIM. OTHER

GBR 2021 | 4 min
R·D: Enas Saeed
G·P: Black. British. Muslim. Other.
D·P: Enas Saeed

Jury statement:

We don't need a big stage to make big statements. From barely three square-meters, we are confronted with questions about identity, tolerance, and stereotypes. An outstanding poem with an extraordinary linguistic quality, delivered from a female perspective fueled by indignation.
The combination of cinematic realization and technical efficiency wrapped around a minimalistic setting, yet with vibrant images, captivate the viewer while triggering thoughts on gender, femininity, physical disability, and freedom of expression. This film challenges the traditional female role in a patriarchal world.
A woman boldly confronts the audacity of role assignment. A highly political film. A self-liberation.”

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Goethe-Filmpreis - Sustainable Living, donated by Goethe-Institut:

TERRA DEI PADRI / FATHERS' LAND

ITA 2021 | 11 min
R·D: Francesco Di Gioia
G·P: Various poems
D·P: Fadil Hasin Ash-Shalmani

Jury statement:

“What does sustainability mean? Does the term only apply to environmental and ecological issues? Or is history also sustainable?
A historical poem, recited in a highly rhythmic way, along with a collage of archive material and propaganda films, open up a perspective upon an overlooked chapter of European colonial history.
Libya in the 1910s: Thousands of civilians are deported and killed by Italian military forces. The poet Fadil Hasin Ash-Shalmani processes this in prosodically impressive verses that have lost none of their potency, poignancy and explosiveness.
A poetic and cinematic unveiling of a forgotten tragedy.”

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Ritter Sport Filmpreis, donated by Alfred Ritter GmbH & Co. KG:

IMAGININGS

NLD 2022 | 13 min
R·D: Anja Hiddinga
G·P: Walls and Dreams
D·P: KITCHEN's LIGHT

Jury statement:

“What is poetry without sound? What is poetry without hearing?
This film proves that poetry also works without words; that one can hear with the eyes and see sound: a choreography of signs that is as proud as it is sensitive.
Signing as rebellion.
The film shows poets who struggle daily with the challenges of the hearing world, which hardly notices them. An ignored perspective on our society is told in a cinematically outstanding way. Music video aesthetics meet the poetry of gesture. This poem does not exist as spoken word, but only as moving images.”

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Honorble Mention:
THE MIRROR NEURON (POETRY MIX)

USA 2021 | 10 min
R·D: Tommy Becker
G·P: 4,000 Miles / Before the Sun Turns
D·P: Tommy Becker 

Jury statement:

“This film is an epiphany – literally: with its sun-hump gloriously suspended in the sky in a leap, jerkily rotating around itself in unabashed ass-bombing posture, wrought from yellow sock and mischievous wit, from stuff, tongue-in-cheek and quotation, from acrylic colours and old cassette-tapes. Its creator is the most cagey of the image poets. He is the dodgy Parmigianino of poetry film.”

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Honorable Mention:

ZYKLUS / CYCLES

DEU 2021 | 3 min
R·D: Jonas Schmieta, Eva Matz
G·P: Zyklus
D·P: Eva Matz 

Jury statement:

“This film is messy. This film is a drama. It is a blood bath. It is offensive. It is defensive. This film is an outrage against a condition unknown to half of mankind. A woman, taking up space, breaks millennia-old taboos. And yes, it's fucking painful.”

ZEBRino Award for the Best Poetry Film for children, youth and young adults 2022

LE LOUP ET LE CHIEN

FRA 2022 | 3 min
Regie: Héloïse Le Bail
Gedicht: Le Loup et le Chien
Dichter: Jean de La Fontaine

The film was funny and had a moral, animation and music were convincing in this timeless classic, that is how the audience jury aged 8 to 13 from the Max-Beckmann-Oberschule Berlin explained their choice.