at the Documentary - and Videofestivla, Kassel
11/14 - 11/17/ 2007
SPLICE IN is a term used in film editing. It means inserting a part into an existing sequence without deleting anything. The result is a change in dramaturgy. As a film programme, SPLICE IN intervenes in ongoing discourses by inserting other perspectives.
In the short history of Afghan cinema, women have been behind the camera for the first time only since 2001. Their cinematographic work is political in that it reflects and criticizes the present situation and is committed to the future status of women in Afghan society. The subjects of their films include the assumption of political offices, the abolition of forced marriages, criticism of traditional family structures, or efforts against corruption.
The SPLICE IN festival juxtaposes the theme of "women and Afghanistan", which has been repeatedly instrumentalized, with local initiatives of female filmmakers, actresses and women's organizations, whose political work partially goes back to pre-Taliban times and has since then also been pursued in exile. These perspectives are brought together with films from the neighbouring states of Iran and India that address comparable political concerns. The Indian film Nari Adalat ("Women's Courts") by the filmmaker and feminist Deepa Dhanraj, for example documents an alternative legal form that emerged from an independent initiative and intervenes in existing hierarchical judicial structures.
In addition to current documentary film productions, full-length feature films and short educational films, historical films from the archive of Afghan Film will be screened for the first time in Germany. This includes the feature Talabgar ("The Marriage Candidate") by Khaleq Alil or the short feature Saya ("Shadows") shot in 1990 by the director Nacir Alqas, who now lives in Kassel, Germany. The current production conditions in the field of film and television - particularly for women - are discussed in a panel with film makers and film producers from Afghanistan. Women are subject to the social pressure of traditional family structures and fundamentalist animosities to a greater extent than their male colleagues. Moreover, in the present phase of reconstruction, Western relief organizations have become a decisive factor in Afghan film production. This raises the question of whether and how these organizations influence the contents of film scripts and which values they seek to assert.
The film Ungeduldig ("Impatient") shot in Hamburg in 2007 extends the range of films to Germany: Young migrants talk about how they cope with their status of short-term residency and live with the permanent fear of being deported.
The festival opens with the film Kabul Transit produced in 2006, which documents the contrasting everyday lives of international and local actors in Kabul, a metropolis of millions. The filmmaker and sociologist Maliha Zulfacar, currently the Afghan ambassador to Berlin, will attend the screening and present her film.
After Kassel, the SPLICE IN film programme will be shown in Berlin
(Kino Arsenal: 11/22/-11/26/2007) and Hamburg (Kino Metropolis: 11/28-12/06/2007).
The final screening will be in Kabul in the end of April 2008.
Entrance to the Women's Park in Kabul
Photo: Elfe Brandenburger
Se noughta 'Three Dots' by the Afghan director
Roya Sadat (2004/AF).
