Cinema Crossing Borders

23rd International Bremen Film Conference

Since its invention, cinema has been exploring the practice of creating and identifying borders, including: geographical borders, national borders, the abolition of borders and the construction of walls to delimit borders. Since its beginnings, cinema has become a key part of the global economy as well as of colonialism and of the appropriation of the world through images. Films are themselves specific products of the global trade. They speak of their own border crossings, rendering them visible, audible and relatable, thus contributing to border negotiations.

The concept of cross-border cinema is linked to specific characters: vagabonds, migrants, merchants, tourists or terrorists – but also to far less defined and less related phenomena – such as strangers or aliens. Cinema crossing borders anchors only partially to classical genre – such as the road movie, western, war film and science fiction; or to contemporary forms, including postcolonial and transnational cinema. As a genuine portrayal of movement, cross-border cinema encompasses all of these genres – including Hollywood cinema, documentary film, auteur cinema, essay film, etc. From its origins to the present, cinema seems to be the predestined medium for staging and transcending border transitions, for reflection as well as documentation and thereby for shaping border practices.

In connection with modern studies of the cinema of migration and of transnational cinema, this Conference invites international experts to reflect on cinema crossing borders within the wider interdisciplinary contexts of Border Studies. Central to this discussion are, among others, the new forms of cosmopolitan cinema, European borders, American borders as well as genre borders.

Delia González de Reufels, Winfried Pauleit, Angela Rabing, Christine Rüffert
University of Bremen

Tue, Apr 24Th

19:00 : Film

   El Norte
       USA 1983, director: Gregory Nava, 142 min., OV with English subtitles * presented by Delia González de Reufels

Wed, Apr 25Th

19:00 : Keynote 1

   | Film Worlds: Cosmopolitical Theroy Construction in Cinema
       Matthias Christen & Kathrin Rothemund (Bayreuth)
       * lecture in German

20:30 : Film for Keynote 1

   The World - Shijie
       China 2004, director: Jia Zhangke, 135 min., OV with English subtitles
       * presented by M. Christen and K. Rothemund
       * in cooperation with Konfuzius-Institut Bremen

Thu, Apr 26Th

10:00 : Panel 1: Cosmopolitan Cinema

   10:00 : Grenzüberschreitung als Gefühl
       Migration als mediale Zirkulation
       Hauke Lehmann (Berlin) * lecture in German
   10:45 : Exil als Erkenntnism?glichkeit durch Grenzüberschreitung der Exterritorialit?t
       Anke Zechner (Frankfurt am Main) * lecture in German
   11:40 : Reimagining French Immigrant Descent Youth in Sciamma's Girlhood (2014)
       and Benyaminas's Divines (2016)
       Transcultural Identities, Symbolic Borders and Third Spaces
       Olesya Dronyak (Deusto) * lecture in English
   12:25 : Brazilian Cinema Goes Global: An Analysis of Aquarius (2016) Festival Tour
       Humberto Saldanha (Cork) * lecture in German

14:30 : Film for Panel 1

   Bande de Filles
       F 2015, director: Céline Sciamma, 113 min., OV with English subtitles
       * presented by Olesya Dronyak

16:45 : Keynote 2

   Unfolding Borders: Filming Territory in the Age of Globalization
       Laura Rascaroli (Cork) * lecture in English

20:00 : Film for Keynote 2

   Sacro GRA
       I 2013, director: Gianfranco Rosi, 93 min., OV with German subtitles
       * presented by Laura Rascaroli

Fri, Apr 27Th

10:00 : Panel 2: European Borders

   10:00 : Demarkationen, Barrieren, Grenzen
       Reflexionen über einen Topos im arabischen Filmschaffen
       Evelyn Echle (Berlin und Zürich) * lecture in German
   10:45 : Geraubte Sichtbarkeit und "Cinematic Justice"
       Filmische Grenzkorrektur
       Iris Fraueneder (Zürich) * lecture in German
   11:40 : Towards a Typology of Crossing Borders in Popular European Cinema
       Anders Marklund (Lund) * lecture in English
   12:25 : Nation, Patriarchy and the Capitalist Death Drive in Catalan Science-Fiction
       Aidan Power (Cork) * lecture in English

14:30 : Film for Panel 3

   Nothing But a Man
       USA 1964, director: Michael Roemer, 95 min., OV * presented by Severin Müller

16:45 : Keynote 3

   | Border Futures: Migrant Labor and the Frontiers of Security
       Camilla Fojas (Virginia) * lecture in English

20:00 : Film for Keynote 3

   Sleep Dealer
       MEX/USA 2008, director: Alex Rivera, 90 min., OV with German subtitles * presented by Camilla Fojas
   |  supporting film: Ramona
       USA 1910, director: D.W. Griffith, 17 min., silent * presented by Olaf Stieglitz

22:00 : Film for Panel 3

   Sicario
       USA 2015, director: Denis Villeneuve, 121 min., OV with German subtitles * presented by Martin Holtz

Sat, Apr 28Th

10:00 : Panel 3: American Borders

   10:00 : Bordered Lands
       Die Visualisierung des Grenzgebiets zu Mexiko im US-Kino der 1910er Jahre
       Olaf Stieglitz (K?ln) * lecture in German
   10:45 : Das Ged?chtnis einer Transnation
       Die mexikanische Küste als Kontaktzone
       Sergej Gordon (Eichst?tt) * lecture in German
   11:40 : Grenzüberschreitung als Kriegsmetapher
       Die Frontier zwischen Mexiko und den USA in Sicario
       Martin Holtz (Greifswald) * lecture in German
   12:25 : Stimmen von der anderen Seite
       Grenzüberschreitungen in Roberto Minervini’s The other Side
       Severin Müller (Mainz) * lecture in German

14:30 : Film Programme: Border Experience

       * curated and presented by Klaas Dierks (Bremen)
       * with guests
   Neighbours
       Norman McLaren, CAN 1952, 9 min.
   Die Grenze
       Franz Winzentsen, D 1995, 3 min.
   |  Grenzzone
       Lutz Homann, D 1992, 10 min.
   |  Preservation
       Annagul Beschareti, D 2017, 7 min.
   On Standardisation. Or how to be sure us humans win the final battle against nature
       Bruno Siegrist, D 2017, 11 min.
   |  A Set of Non-Computable Things
       Charlotte Eifler, D 2017, 21 min.

16:30 : Film for Panel 3

   Redes
       MEX 1936, director: Fred Zinnemann & Emilio Gómez Muriel, 63 min., OV with German subtitles.
       * presented by Sergej Gordon

19:30 : Film for Panel 2

   Les Sauteurs – Those who jump
       DK 2016, director: Moritz Siebert, 82 min., OV with subtitles.
       * presented by  A. Marklund * subsequent discussion with Abu Bakar Sidibé

22:00 : Filmmuseum on Location

   No Country for old men
       USA 2007, director: Ethan & Joel Coen, 122 min., OV.
       * presented by Lennart Soberon
       * in cooperation with the Austrian Filmmuseum

Sun, Apr 29Th

10:00 : Panel 4: Genre Borders

   10:00 : Postkoloniale Dispositive
       Black Cinema als transgressives Kino
       Ivo Ritzer (Bayreuth) * lecture in German
   10:45 : Building Borders
       American Action Thriller and the Politics of Space
       Lennart Soberon (Gent) * lecture in English

11:30 : Filmprogramme film:art 81: Border Lines & Border Crossings

       * curated and presented by Christine Rüffert (Bremen)
       * subsequent discussion with Moslem Salmani
   Best of Luck with the Wall
       Josh Begley, USA 2016, 7 min.
   |  Koropa
       Kaura Henno, F 2016, 19 min.
   Dirty Pictures (Hotel Diarys #6)
       John Smith, Palestine 2007, 14 min.
   Women in Sink
       Iris Zaki, ISR/GB 2015, 36 min.
   Exposure
       Treasa O'Brien & Moslem Salmani, GR 2016, 1 min.

Subject to alterations!