71st International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, 29 April – 1 May 2025
Fascism, Ideology Machines and the Aesthetics of Resistance
The 2025 Oberhausen Podium discussions
Are there neurological predispositions that drive people to the extreme right? How can cultural institutions preserve their independence in the age of digital outrage? What aesthetic strategies can be seen as resistant today? These and other questions will be examined in Oberhausen at the Festival’s five Podium discussions.
Wednesday, 30 April 2025
Who Goes Fascist?
In 1941, writer and journalist Dorothy Thompson asked “Who Goes Nazi?” in an influential article in Harper’s Magazine. She concluded that the answer was based less on ideology than on an individual’s personality. 20 years later, psychologist Stanley Migram conducted a controversial experiment to test the willingness of average persons to follow orders that are in direct contradiction to their conscience. The surprising result: In the majority of test persons, authority won over conscience. This panel asks, with reference to new neurological findings, whether there are psychological and neurological predispositions that drive people to the extreme right – and what these might be.
With: Prof. Emilie A. Caspar, Lecturer in Social and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Ghent; Rod Dickinson, artist, Bristol; Dr. Agnieszka Golec de Zavala, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, Goldsmiths, London; Artur Zmijewski, artist, Warsaw.
Moderated by Galit Eilat, curator, researcher, writer and leader of the Oberhausen Seminar 2025, Tel Aviv.
Thursday, 1 May 2025
The Long Way to the Neighbour – GDR Films in Oberhausen
This panel is part of the 2025 Theme programme and explores the strong presence of GDR filmmaking in Oberhausen: never a matter of course, never free of conflicts!
With: Helke Misselwitz, filmmaker and professor, Film University Babelsberg; Wolfgang J. Ruf, festival director from 1975-1985; Felix Mende, curator of the Theme programme.
Moderated by Cornelia Klauß, curator and writer, Berlin.
Friday, 2 May 2025
Ideology Machines.
The Conformism Trap in Culture and its Institutions
Cultural institutions have come increasingly under pressure: Political scandals, digital outrage and boycott calls dominate their debate culture and influence decisions about programmes, personnel and artistic content. In his book “Ideologiemaschinen” (Ideology Machines), author Harry Lehmann analyses these processes. The panel asks how cultural institutions can maintain their independence in the midst of this pressure.
With: Gertrud Koch, Professor of Film Studies, ret., Berlin; Harry Lehmann, writer and Research Associate at the University Luxemburg, Berlin.
Moderated by Jonathan Guggenberger, writer, critic and member of the Oberhausen Programme Committee, Berlin.
Saturday, 3 May 2025
The Aesthetics of Resistance: Really?!
Aesthetic Strategies between Immunity and Resilience
How do art and film react to criticism and political appropriation? Do positions labelled as “political”, “activist” or “critical” really make art and film resistant – and against what? Or do they contribute to their de-politicisation? Is resistance rather to be found in debate: in an openness for ambivalence, for ambiguity and friction? The guests discuss, based on their own practice in art and teaching, which aesthetic means and strategies are still resistant today.
With: Roee Rosen, artist and filmmaker, Tel Aviv; Franz Wanner, artist and filmmaker, Berlin.
Moderated by Jonathan Guggenberger (s.a.) and Michel Wagenschütz, artist, theatre and filmmaker and member of the Oberhausen Programme committee, Berlin.
Sunday, 4 May 2025
Critical Closeness, Productive Distance: Festival Films and their Interrelationships
With reference to the panel on the aesthetics of resistance, the Festival will discuss with filmmakers and jury members how they put their own perspective into context, both in filmmaking and in talking about films. Which role is played by production conditions? By political stance, identity and identification? A self-questioning deliberately dedicated to concrete practical and critical cinematic criteria that are expressed in the work on films, in juries and for the festival.
With: Philipp Gufler, artist, Amsterdam/Munich; Philbert Aimé Mbabazi Sharangabo, filmmaker, Kigali; Silke Schönfeld, filmmaker, Amsterdam/Dortmund.
Moderated by Jonathan Guggenberger and Michel Wagenschütz (s.a.).
Oberhausen, 24 April 2025
Press contact: Sabine Niewalda, phone +49 (0)208 825-3073, niewalda@kurzfilmtage.de