The poster of the Oberhausen Short Film Festival reflects the special programme 'catastrophe'.
	- Short Film Festival Oberhausen - Short Film Magazine - Goethe Institute's Film Guide - Florian Wüst's homepage

–I did not understand a word, but watched one hour with delight

–Carrying boxes and watching films day and night", describes Herbert Schwarze the first impression of his stay in Tampere. The 42-year old German filmmaker is a member of the commission of the Internationale Kurzfilmtage (International Short Film Festival) Oberhausen. This engagement brought him also to Tampere. On a weekend in January he has been screening hundreds of Finnish submissions for the International Competition of the Oberhausen Festival in May 2002. Festnews spoke with the curator and projectionist about the Short Film Festival in Oberhausen and his impressions in Tampere.

Do you pick the good films on a gut level or do you have set criteria?

–Well, my guts generally only want to go to eat. I have my personal criteria. I am interested in innovative films, which are esthetically dealing with the current state of production. In the same time, films should have a critical potential, show self-reflection and ideally deal with scientifically relevant topics. And in any case I enjoy watching humorous, well-made films.

How would you describe the Oberhausen Short Film Festival with three keywords?

–First of all it is one of the world's oldest short film festivals. It has a long tradition and in the same time has stayed up-to-date over the years. And in the framework of its special programmes it has started to deal with new media and its developments very early.

One thing that might strike many people this year is the special programme titled 'catastrophe'. How was the topic chosen and when?

–Definitely before the 11th of September, we do not want to arrogate any visionary predictions. Many films of last year's special programme 'Out of time' already centered around catastrophies. It is a very media-specific topic, which can be processed well cinematically. And there is the proximity to the medium, to the film as well as to the media. Now, it is up to the curator Florian Wüst to process the topic and to choose the contributions.

How were the reactions to this choice?

–Immediately after the 11th of September many pitied us that we picked just this theme of all and that we had chosen a plane for this year's poster. With the distance to the event we did not have any further reactions, but we are curious to see how things evolve at the festival.

Videos play a special role at the Oberhausen Short Film Festival. Why?

–The MuVi (Music Video) Award was introduced three years ago as a reaction to the media development. We have noticed that many stylistically interesting, esthetic and innovative works were submitted in this area. Somehow the videos are defined by music and in that sense a new genre emerged. We show music videos in a German competition and in parallel also an international selection. Among those can be videos that one knows from MTV and Viva (German music channel), but there are also works from Azerbeidjan and Asia.

How would you compare the cities of Tampere and Oberhausen and their film festivals?

–Analogies are visible in one point: Both cities have an industrial past and are occupied with their conversion. I think that Tampere is a step ahead, but that is only my first superficial impression. In Tampere there are many students, loads of young people. In Oberhausen we have to motivate people from other cities to come to the film festival. Here, the audience is on site, which is definitely an adavantage. For us the problem with the Tampere Film Festival is that it takes place during the high-time of our screening. Tampere has a legendary reputation, especially when it comes to sauna visits, but unfortunately we have never had time to be here in March. This year I have at least the possibility to watch loads of Finnish films.

What would you have liked to see at the Tampere Film Festival?

–Difficult to say as I have seen all Finnish films already during this screening. If I have some spare time this weekend I will have a look at the Scandinavian films. And I have discovered a great Finnish documentary film, called "Love is a Treasure". It tells about five women with mental problems. Their phantasy worlds are visualised in an excellent way. A documentary film made with tremendously beautiful stylistic means. I did not understand a word, but I watched it one hour with delight.

Founded in 1954 by Hilmar Hoffmann the Internationale Kurzfilmtage (International Short Film Festival) Oberhausen is the world's oldest short film festival. The 1960s brought turbulences to Oberhausen: In 1962 26 young filmmakers declared in the Oberhausen Manifesto: –The old film is dead. We believe in the new one. Six years later Hellmuth Costard's film 'Besonders wertvoll' (Particularly precious) was banned due to pornographic content. Most German filmmakers walked out in protest. In 2001 about 450 contributions were shown in 60 festival programmes and some 1,000 accredited guests from around the world participated. Short films are nowadays competing in the International, the German and the Children and Youth Film Competition as well as for the MuVi (Music Video) Award. Oberhausen has the only international children and youth short film competition in Germany. A special programme picks up current thematic topics in order to create a forum for social discussions that go beyond film-related issues. In 2002 the special programme 'Catastrophe' is compiled by the curator Florian Wüst. The genre of video plays a strong role: A video section was established in 1989, since 1993 video works are admitted to all competitions on an equal basis and in 1999 the MuVi was introduced as the world's first festival music video award.

TEXT: Isabel Hartmann
PHOTOS: Oberhausen Short Film Festival
UPDATED: 1 March 2002

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