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Realities, Visions, Utopias

Crisis is the word of the present day. We talk about financial crisis, about climate change, about the threatening collapse of complex systems. Today, no-one can realistically estimate the driving force of piled-up energies. That goes for economic systems in the same way as for climate models, populations and social models. It has taken us less than 200 years to burn most of the world’s oil reserves and pollute the atmosphere in doing so. The influences of human actions accumulate in a historically unique way. The world population is growing so strongly that it can no longer be fed without energy-intensive food manufacturing. Poverty, famines, social rejections threaten. Yet, there have always been apocalyptic predictions, just like unexpected ways out. But what then? What will the world look like after it has all been overcome?

Tomorrow we will see, the day after tomorrow, beyond uncertainty, inevitable processes, the world will look different. Visions, utopias, projections show how life can look after everything has been overcome. Contemplations, projections from the present to the future.

What seems realistic, what would be desirable? Living, cohabiting, surviving under conditions that we can barely forecast today. Or a world without man (maybe he was just an evolutionary slip-up?).

Films can be submitted in three categories:

1. Documentary style. The compilations of current expert interviews is not what is meant (there are enough of them), but the formal rendition with elements of the documentary film: Interview, watching real scenes, commentary. As we are looking far into the future, a mixture of fiction and non-fiction is allowed. Yet, this is not a must. Observations of the present can throw light on the life of tomorrow. In the same way, fictitious scenes of the future can imply what preceded. Therefore, reports about the present day are just as possible as fictitious documentaries, reports, interviews “afterwards”.

2. Fiction / short film. The contents and storyline can also be freely designed here. The story can take place in the present, in the past or in the future. It is important that there is a recognizable dramaturgy, a storyline that is carried by dialogues or drama. The number of roles, the way the camera works, music and production design can be freely selected.

3. Free choice / animations / graphics: We are looking for ways of free artistic dealing with realities, visions, utopias. Collages, musical films, animations or combinations are imaginable. There are no limits to form and aesthetics. It is important that the theme remains coherent. That means no art as an end in itself but a recognizable approach to the theme of the competition.