In Focus
Images: TEVÎ HER TIŞTÎ – TROTZ ALLEDEM / Krieg & Nolte GbR
Acompannying Program IN FOCUS
Creating Films Together
This is the title of the transcultural workshop discussion on international co-productions between creatives from German-speaking countries and the Global South. How can collaboration here be artistically enriching, fair, and self-determined? Filmmakers from both regions come together to exchange concrete experiences, discuss challenges, and develop joint solutions. A variety of questions will be addressed, such as: How can different film traditions and aesthetics creatively inspire each other without one side dominating? What practical steps—from project development to financing and post-production—are needed to work in partnership?
Satindar Singh Bedi (India) and Maria Kaur Bedi (Switzerland) have been working together as a directing duo since 2019. Gudula Meinzolt (Autentica Films) has been producing films from Latin America and Africa in collaboration with Paulo de Carvalho since 2004. Shaheen Dill-Riaz has directed numerous award-winning documentaries and lives in Germany and Bangladesh.
Participants: Maria Kaur Bedi & Satindar Singh Bedi, Gudula Meinzolt, Shaheen Dill-Riaz
Moderation: Melanie Gärtner
Wednesday, Mai 20, 2026, 10:00 – 12:00 (Seminar Room)
DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Since the number of participants is limited: Registration required
Africa’s Witnesses – A Film Database on German Colonial History
The new film database “Africa’s Witnesses” on the “History Open” platform of the Institute of Contemporary History provides free access to authentic, uncut interviews with African contemporary witnesses from the German colonial era. These interviews were conducted and filmed by documentary filmmaker Peter Heller in Tanzania, Namibia, and Cameroon between the 1970s and 1990s. The platform links directly to the database upon request, where the original recordings are available for free viewing. Additionally, all translated transcripts of the testimonies are available to researchers.
“With this pilot project, we show: These are films—not ‘film scraps’ that would otherwise be discarded. These documentary recordings are a living societal memory. History must not be forgotten—it must stay alive!” emphasizes Peter Heller. The filmmaker will present interviews and their background at the DFF cinema, using illustrative examples, and introduce the use of the database.
Guest: Peter Heller
Moderation: Cornelia Wilß
Wednesday, Mai 20, 2026, 13:00 – 14:30
DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (Cinema)
Panel
Media, Power and Resistance: Images from Iran
In the panel “Media, Power, and Resistance: Images from Iran,” filmmakers, media representatives, and experts discuss the role and significance of images from Iran. Key questions include: What digital forms of resistance were possible before the current war situation—and which still exist today? How are illegal images made visible both inside and outside the country? What visual propaganda does the theocratic state use to consolidate its power? And how were filmmakers able to act strategically to bypass state censorship in Iran before the war began? Finally, the discussion will also explore what options remain for filmmakers living in exile today.
Iranian filmmaker Jafar Najafi, known for award-winning films like Alone (2022), currently lives as a refugee in Darmstadt and is fighting for his right to asylum. During a stay in Frankfurt in 2025, Iranian authorities searched his Tehran apartment and confiscated his film material on police violence against the Woman, Life, Freedom protests.
Participants: Jafar Najafi (Filmmaker), Parastou Forouhar (Artist and Activist), tbc
Moderation: Awa Yavari
Wednesday, Mai 20, 2026, 18:00 – 19:15
Evangelische Akademie Frankfurt
In cooperation with:
Masterclass: Robert Krieg
Robert Krieg is a sociologist with a PhD and has been making documentary films in Latin America, the Middle East, and Europe since 1983. His filmography includes documentaries such as Intifada – On the Way to Palestine (1989), Children of the Stones – Children of the Wall (2010), and his latest film Tevî her tiştî – Trotz alledem (2025). The film follows the daily lives of Kurdish women in the autonomous region of Rojava (Syria). Amidst war and destruction, these women have built a new society, which is currently threatened by an Islamist government. The film deliberately adopts the perspective of those affected, and, apart from the filmmaker, the entire crew consisted of Kurdish individuals.
Robert Krieg will provide participants with insights into his working methods and the creative process behind his directorial work: “For me, documentary filmmaking is memory work. If there is such a thing as the collective memory of a society, then documentary film has its rightful place here. Patient observation, exploring the background, taking the time to ask questions, the poetry of images, and the sensuality of the narrative flow create new connections and perspectives in the mind. Documentary filmmaking is also an act of imagination. Imagination cannot regenerate itself; it needs impulses from reality, otherwise its resources will eventually be exhausted.”
Guest: Robert Krieg
Moderation: Melanie Gärtner
Thursday, Mai 21, 2026, 10:00 – 12:00 (Seminar Room)
DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
After a break, film screening in the cinema:
13:00: TEVÎ HER TIŞTÎ/TROTZ ALLEDEM (2025) by Robert Krieg,
Since the number of participants is limited: Registration required
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Networking Meeting Shortly Before the Start of the Film Conference
The AG Globale Perspektiven im Film (Working Group on Global Perspectives in Film) is a network of filmmakers and activists engaged in cultural and political film and educational work. At the heart of their concerns is the question: How can diverse film work be realized when films produced in Germany are predominantly Eurocentric? The initiative advocates for decolonizing perspectives on the Global South in film production and distribution. This includes strengthening film productions commissioned by public broadcasters, which are increasingly failing to fulfill their cultural mandate. Additionally, the working group demands adequate film funding – both for production and distribution. During the networking meeting, planned actions will be presented.
Tuesday, Mai 19, 2026, 13:00 – 14:30
DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum