Cinema Copains

cinema copains

"I often think that you make films for friends; not only for those around you, of course, but also for those you've never met." Luis Buñuel

 

The French term cinéma copains stands for cinema produced without money among friends. Negatively, it stands for amateur cinema, for self-exploitation plus exploitation of friends. Without yet having found a recipe against self-exploitation, we are working on turning the term into a positive one: cinéma copains stands for independent filmmaking with the means at our disposal, on issues that really interest us.
Since 2000, we have been working as cinéma copains in cooperation with copines and copains from all over the world. We are interested in economic issues, which we always understand as political and social questions. Our documentary works, which include lectures, performances, installations and artistic documentaries, are based on long-term projects. At the interface of documentary film and art, with a visible political stance, we seek form for content.

 

 

 

urban solutions

experimental film (2022, 30 min.)

Festivals: IFF Rotterdam; Cinéma du réel, Paris; IndieLisboa; Kulzfilmfestival Hamburg; DMZ International Documentary Film Festival, Seoul; Black Canvas, Mexico; Encounters, Bristol; New York Film Festival

Awards: Prix du court métrage, Cinéma du réel; Best documentary, IndieLisboa; Amnesty International Award 2022

 

Eigentum und Recht und Freiheit

sound installation (2021, 14 min.)

Exhibitions: ‹doku.ARGU.Experi.PIg.› at Galerie Nord / Kunstverein Tiergarten

 

We reimagine the possible

photo series (2019 / 2021)

Exhibitions: We reimagine the possible at Goethe Institut Porto Alegre;
‹doku.ARGU.Experi.PIg.› at Galerie Nord / Kunstverein Tiergarten

 

Whose Hand Was It?
Clip 16mm (2018, 3:15 min.)
Festivals: Internationales Kurzfilmfestival Hamburg; Filmfest Weiterstadt; Internationale Kurzfilmwoche Regensburg; Next Generation Short Tiger-Screening, Festival de Cannes
Awards: FFA - Short Tiger Award 2019

Distribution: Kurzfilmagentur Hamburg

 

Fictions and Futures: Over the Counter = Under the Table
lecture performance (2017, 30 min.)
Die Jetztzeit der Monster - What comes after Nations, HKW, Berlin

 

Fictions and Futures: There is nothing so disastrous as a rational policy in an irrational world

film lecture (2015, 75 min.)
Festivals: Cine Esquema Novo, Porto Alegre; The Cost of Wealth, Brüssel

 

Fictions and Futures #1 - Happiness in the Abstract
2-channel-installation, (2014, 30 min.)
Premiere: Forum Expanded, Berlinale 2014
Festivals: Impakt, Utrecht; Cine Esquema Novo, Porto Alegre, REZ Belgrade
Exhibitions: Bergen Assembly, Kunsttriennalen Bergen, Norwegen; Life's Finest Values, Kunsthalle Exnergasse, Wien

 

Multi Level City Home
16 mm - double projection with Leïla Saadna and Sophie Watzlawick, (2012, 7 min.)
Festival: Wiener Festwochen - Into the City, „Gran Lux“, Wien Museum

 

in arbeit / w toku / en construction / lavori in corso
chain of interviews: Parts 1 - 3 (2012, 147 min.), Parts 4-6 (20218, 147 min.)
Premiere: Internationales Forum des Jungen Films, Berlinale 2012
Festivals: Split International Festival for New Film, Croatia; L'Etoile de La Courneuve, Paris; Ohne Genehmigung, Zeughauskino Berlin; Summerscreening LaborBerlin
Exhibitions: „Labour of Love, Revisited” at ARCO Art Center, Seoul, Korea 2011;
„Ambiguous Being”, Hong Gah Museum, Taipei Biennial 2012;
„Ästhetik des Widerstands”, Wien 2014; „Exemplarische Kämpfe”, After the butcher, Berlin 2020
Distribution: Arsenal

Territorio Domestico / Domestic Territory
documentary short (2011, 12 min.)
Festivals: Globale 2011, Berlin und Köln
Exhibition: „Dependencias mutuas, empleadas de hogar y crisis de los cuidados”

 

La Sartoria delle Nonne
installation, Villa Romana, Florenz (2008, 25 min.)

 

Vom real existierenden Sozialismus zur real existierenden Demokratie
film-performance (2006, 63 min.)
Exhibition: „La Normalidad”, Palais de Glace, Buenos Aires

Jarmark Europa
documentary filmessay (2004, 115 min.)
Premiere: Internationales Forum des Jungen Films, Berlinale 2004;
Festivals: Mill Valley Film Festival, USA; Dox Dokfilmfestival, Kopenhagen; Viennale, Wien; Duisburger Filmwoche; Planete DOC Film Festival, Warschau 2012, u.a.
Exhibitions: „Ex Argentina”, Museum Ludwig, Cologne; „Learning From”, NGBK, Berlin
Distribution: Arsenal
Cinema release: April 2005
TV: arte, Sept. 2005