FRIDAY 19 SEPTEMBER | 14:00 | SCREENING | HISTORIES OF VIOLENCE

On the outskirts of the small town of Gommern, in Germany, Thomas Brück films a garden where the rendering plant of Ernst Reindel, a former executioner, once stood. A stoic voice recites original documents from his biography. Diane Kaneza films Burundians who, at the risk of their lives, during the murderous madness the country endured, hid and protected friends and neighbours of the other ethnicity. In a geography of disappearance inspired by the pictorial tradition of European romantic landscapes, Victor Arroyo documents economic struggle, daily violence, and forced disappearances in rural Mexico, drawing on the testimony of a person who survived an abduction.

Thomas Brück: Begehung | Documentary | Digital | colour | 0:29:40 | Germany | 2023

On the outskirts of the small town of Gommern, a heath garden has been inviting visitors for a walk since 1996. This was once the site of Ernst Reindel's rendering plant, who executed numerous people as an executioner during the Nazi era. The insistent camera view shows images in the here and now, while a stoic narrative voice recites original documents from Ernst Reindel's biography. What do we remember? How do we commemorate? What remains?

The term "Begehung" is ambiguous in German. The title can be understood as "Begehung eines Ortes" (site visit) as well as a term from jurisprudence: "Begehung eines Verbrechens" (committing a crime). Since a corresponding translation in English seemed insufficient, we decided to keep the German title as the international title.

“I am always interested in making the invisible visible or tangible. By this I mean real but inaccessible places, as well as mental spaces, abstract systems of thought or belief, and complex systematic processes. The reappraisal of history, especially of its dark sides, seems to me to be of crucial importance for the understanding of the present and for the creation of a better future, especially in our increasingly vulnerable existence. In view of a steadily increasing insecurity due to radicalization of ethnic groups and parties, and an already inadequate reappraisal of our history, it is often the painful questions that are of relevance. Such questions cannot be asked often enough.”

Biography

Thomas Brück was born in Zapopan (Mexico) in 1988. He first studied Latin American Studies at the University of Bonn (Germany) and from 2013 Time-Based Art at Burg Giebichenstein Kunsthochschule in Halle and in 2017/18 Media Art and Cinematography at Havana University of the Arts. In 2022 he graduated from the Professional Media Master Class of the Werkleitz Society for Artistic Documentary and was a fellow of the Art Foundation of the State of Saxony-Anhalt and the Art Fund Foundation. He is currently developing his first documentary feature film as a scholarship holder of the Graduate Funding of the State of Saxony-Anhalt. In his artistic work he deals with various epistemological concepts on the formation of reality and identity and the relationship between objectivity and aesthetic illusion. Thomas Brück lives and works in Halle and Leipzig (Germany).

Diane Kaneza: Ubuntu | Exp. documentary | hdv | colour | 0:34:00 | Burundi | 2023

In the heart of Burundi, rivalries and ethnic extremism have caused thousands of deaths since independence. Amidst the murderous madness we have endured, there have been those who protected life. At the risk of their own lives, they hid and protected friends and neighbours from other ethnic groups.

Biography

For 15 years, Diane KANEZA has been combining cinema, audiovisual communication and journalism. Passionate about images, she uses them to tell stories from her homeland. She graduated with a Master's degree in Creative Documentary Film, producing the film ‘Mon Identité’ (My Identity). This work encapsulates all her expertise in documentary filmmaking and her ability to create from real life.

She co-founded and has directed the communications agency MIKADIE Production since 2012, which produces institutional/auteur films and communication tools.

She was in charge of programming for the Burundi International Film and Audiovisual Festival from 2013 to 2015 and was the festival's director in 2016. Since 2020, she has combined the production of audiovisual and cinematographic works with the management of the television channel ‘Burundi News Publication Television’ (BNP TV). Communicating and sharing have always been her leitmotif through the magazines “Événement Culturel de la Semaine”, “Bonne réponse” and “Notre Terre, Notre Héritage”, which she developed while working for National Television from 2006 to the end of 2011 as a TV producer and presenter.

A visiting professor at two universities in Bujumbura (Université Lumière de Bujumbura and Université du Lac Tanganyika), she teaches Documentary Production in the Faculty of Communication Sciences, specialising in communication and audiovisual design.

Victor Arroyo: Disappearance in Three Acts | Act l | Exp. documentary | hdv | colour | 0:15:00 | Canada / Mexico | 2024

“Disappearance in Three Acts | Act One” is an ethnography of violence reflecting on a history of conflict in Central Mexico. The video piece posits a decolonial approach to the visual representation of violence in Mexico, transporting us beyond the realm of suffering into a space for quiet contemplation as the violent terrain of occupation enters the frame. Following the pictorial European Romantic landscape tradition with its depiction of the uncontrollable power of nature, this piece is an investigation on enforced disappearance in rural Mexico, reclaiming undermined histories of everyday violence and economic struggle.

The video piece appropriates visual motifs from 18th century European Romantic landscape tradition with its depiction of the uncontrollable power of nature and cataclysmic extremes, echoing violent occupation of land in rural Mexico. Through a poignant testimony of a kidnapping survivor, intertwined with the pastoral rural landscapes of her captivity, the video documents geographies of disappearance at the threshold of detectability.

Biography

Video artist working in the crossfield between cinema and contemporary art, Victor Arroyo was born in Mexico in 1977, and is based in Montréal, Canada.

His films are informed by various modes of listening and seeing, emerging from long periods of observation and documentation. His practice is situated at the intersection between aesthetics, knowledge production and community-based research, often concerned with the encounters and tensions between lived experiences, knowledge regimes and the politics of display.

His work is regularly programmed in museums and festivals internationally, including Kasseler Dokfest, Sheffield Doc/Fest, RIDM, Canadian Centre for Architecture CCA, BIENALSUR, Cinemateca de Bogotá, Cinémathèque Québécoise, Cinémathèque Pacific, Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe, among others.