joaoflux / digital / analog / culture

I just got back from the dokfilmfest in Kassel, where I showed a tiny video that - with a lot of good will - can be categorized as a documentary. The festival in in the city of Documenta was very well organized. Like many other participants we did not stay in a hotel, but with a private person. What sounds like an annoyance turned out very good in our case. Our host was not only exceptionally nice, but grooved right in with our film and party rhythm. Not that you need a guide for finding your way around in Kassel, but it’s quite nice to have a local with you.

The quality of the selection was very good (at least what I saw in during the three I stayed). Seeing many documentaries in a short time can emotionally be quite a bit more extreme than seeing fictional movies. Within a short time I went from laughing out loud (Die große Depression - Made in Germany), over being stunned (Die Flüsterer - Eine Reise in die Welt der Dolmetscher) to somewhere between crying hopelessly and the urge to scream from anger (Coca - Die Taube aus Tschetschenien) to perplexity (Vater und Feind).

There was also also an exhibition with video and film installations as a part of the festival, which I found quite disappointing. Maybe my expectations were a bit high - after all the exhibition was in the same space where I have discovered some great art during the past 3 Documentas. Strange were also the opening times for the exhibition: 5 pm to 10 pm. It was almost impossible for me to fit it in my schedule.