The 29th Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival (ISFF)

Hamburg, May 22nd, 2013
The 29th Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival (ISFF)
From June 4th to June 10th: More than 400 short films from over 40 countries
There is a cinema that is rebellious, uncompromising, unreasonable and at times brilliant.
It does not have to choose between blockbuster and arthouse. A cinema, where art and
genre, experiment and narrative, adherence to style and breaching of style love each other
in all genres and all film languages with neither snobbery nor pride. We honor it in five
competitions, six special programmes and extra screenings, both in the cinema and openair,
at the KurzFilmKlause and in the NoBudget Hotel ...
In order to cope with the huge variety in short film production, our selection teams have
plodded for months through more than 5,000 submissions from over 70 countries and
selected the best contributions – more than 200 films – that will be shown in our
competition programmes: The International, German, Hamburg, NoBudget as well as
Three-Minute Quickie Competition (Topic: "Breakthrough").
This year's special programmes present the ethnic minority of the Sami People in our
COUNTRY feature. The FINDS programme features a cinematographic treasure from the
estate of the "Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner", and we trace the avant-garde of the
advertising film in EARLY AND COMMISSIONED WORKS. The GALLERY explores the
"(dark) traces", the creation of myths in European video art, while the MOTIF deals with
the mass ornament in regard to the aesthetics of surfaces; additionally at the LAB, we will
carefully listen to the sounds of the borderlands.
Our programme will offer additional extras such as the cinematic walking tour A Wall Is a
Screen, where mobile projectors turn walls into movie screens made of brick and
concrete, the Spanish Trash Night which aptly includes a horror punk concert, and
Strange Days, a joint film programme curated by Vienna Independent Shorts, the
International Short Film Festival Winterthur and the Hamburg International Short Film
Festival.
At our highly acclaimed Festival Center ("Best location for a festival center Iʼve had the
chance to see.") in Halle 5 at the Kolbenhof, we shall have the usual standards such as
the information counter, the ticketing and accreditations desks, and the festival café. The
atmospheric heart of the festival also houses the NoBudget Hotel, guarantees dazzling
nights at the festival club and provides a festive setting for the awards ceremony.
Furthermore, the compound with its unique industrial charm hosts film screenings, the film
market, workshops and the KurzFilmKlause.

At the same time as the Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival – from June 2nd to June
9th – the 15th Mo&Friese Childrenʼs ShortFilmFestival will be celebrating the short film
form. This is also its birthday! We shall have 11 programmes with more than 50 short films
from over 20 countries in store for our audience, children of ages 4 to 14. The complete
programme, along with further information, is available on http://www.moundfriese.de.
You will find further details regarding the festival, special programmes, screenings and the
festival center under the following captions:
• Festival information (screening locations, competitions and price money)
• Special programmes
• Festival center (including screenings and club programme)
• Further extras
Artwork / Press DVD / Interview Partners
In the press section on our website you will find our logo, this yearʼs festival motif as well
as stills from selected films suitable for artwork in printable resolution:
http://festival.shortfilm.com/index.phpid=pressebilder
We will gladly send you our press DVD on demand, on which we have compiled a
selection of short film highlights from this yearʼs competitions and special programmes. If
you require material for TV or web coverage, you are welcome to contact us (see contact
information at the end of this message).
We would be pleased to offer you interviews with our art director Birgit Glombitza, our
administrative director Sven Schwarz, the KurzFilmAgenturʼs CEO Alexandra Gramatke or
the curators of the different special programmes.
Throughout the festival, we are happy to liaise and connect you with attending filmmakers.
We would highly appreciate an editorial consideration and schedule announcement. If you
have any further questions and requests, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Festival Informations
Locations, Prices and Competitions at the 29th Hamburg International
ShortFilmFestival from June 4th to June 10th
Festival Center
Halle 5, Kolbenhof, Friedensallee 128, S-Bahn Station Bahrenfeld, Bus 183, 283
Info counter: Open daily from 11am until 8pm.
Cinemas & Admission Fees
zeise kinos, Friedensallee 7 – 9, www.zeise.de
Metropolis, Kleine Theaterstraße 10, www.metropoliskino.de
Lichtmeß, Gaußstraße 25, www.lichtmess-kino.de
B-Movie, Brigittenstraße 5, www.b-movie.de
3001, Schanzenstraße 75, www.3001-kino.de
Rialto Lichtspiele, Vogelhüttendeich 30, www.rialto-lichtspiele.de
filmraum, Müggenkampstraße 43, www.filmraum.net
Tickets
Single ticket: 6.50 Euros
5-screenings pass: 27.00 Euros
10-screenings pass: 54.00 Euros
Festival Award Winners Programme: 7.50 Euros
Childrenʼs Short Film Festival: 3.50 Euros
NoBudget day pass (3 screenings on Friday or Saturday): 10.00 Euros
Advance Ticket Sales
Ticket hotline: From May 21st until May 31st
040 / 39 10 63-134 (on workdays), ticketing@shortfilm.com
During the regular box office hours at the zeise kinos.
During the festival, the cinema box offices will start selling tickets 30 minutes before the
first screening.
At the Rialto and the filmraum tickets are sold for the events on their premises only.
Tickets are also available at all major booking offices and on www.ticketmaster.de.

Competitions and Awards
With a selection of short films of all genres, the International Competition mirrors
contemporary international short film production.
The German Competition focuses on the trends and tendencies of short films from
Germany, with the Hamburg Competition hosting selections from its festival hometown.
The NoBudget Competition is both the festivalʼs origin and its laboratory. It creates an
environment for radically subjective views – for experimental, marginal, borderline,
demanding, non-commercial and innovative short films.
The Three-Minute Quickie Competition calls for short filmmaking under strict conditions.
Each year, we are searching for contributions of three minutes maximum that pursue a
given topic. This yearʼs topic: Breakthrough.
Competition Prizes and Awards:
International Competition
The Hamburg Short Film Award (3,000 Euros) will be given by a five-member jury.
German Competition
The Jury Award (2,000 Euros) will be given by a three-member jury.
The Liberté Audience Award, sponsored by Gauloises (1,500 Euros), will be given to a film
from the International and German Competitions.
NoBudget Competition
The NoBudget Jury Award (2,000 Euros) will be given by a three-member jury.
The NoBudget Audience Award is "The Optimistic View" (1,500 Euros)
ARTE Short Film Award
The competition-spanning ARTE Short Film Award will be given by a two-member jury.
The prize consists of the purchase of the film by ARTE (for up to 6,000 Euros), which will
then be broadcast in its short film program.
Pilsner Urquell Hamburg Night
Pilsner Urquell Audience Award (1,500 Euros)

Three-Minute Quickie Competition
This year's topic: Breakthrough.The Three-Minute Quickie Audience Award (1,000 Euros)
is sponsored by the Hamburgische Kulturstiftung.
A total sum of more than 15,000 Euros will be awarded.
Opening and Awards Ceremony
We are looking forward to welcome a great number of guests from the international short
film world to the festive opening ceremony of the 29th Hamburg International
ShortFilmFestival.
Our festival center in Halle 5 at the Kolbenhof will provide a unique setting for the awards
ceremony.
Festival Opening: Tuesday, June 4th, 7.30pm at zeise 1
Awards Ceremony: Sunday, June 9th, 8pm at the festival center
Festival Award Winners Programme:
Sunday, June 9th, 10.15pm at the Festival Center
Monday, June 10th, 7.15pm at zeise 1
Special Programmes
• COUNTRY: Films from Sami – Indigenous Cinema From Europe
• FINDS: A Cinematographic Treasure - Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner
• EARLY AND COMMISSIONED WORKS: Commercial Breaks
- Avant-garde Between Advertising Film and Eye Music
- Some More Logos
• GALLERY: (dark) traces – Recent Trends in Myth Creation in European Video Art
• MOTIF: The Mass Ornament – Cinematic Reliefs
• LAB: Sounds of the Borderlands – Of Smugglers, Neuroscientists and Dropouts

COUNTRY: Films from Sami – Indigenous Cinema From Europe
Since the founding of the International Sami Film Centre in Kautokeino (Guovdageaidnu),
Norway, in 2007, a very productive film scene has come into being in the very North of
Europe. Across national borders, Sami filmmakers from Norway, Sweden and Finland are
dealing with their cultural roots – exclusively in short fiction films and documentaries, as of
yet, which address the social and political standing of the Sami People as an ethnic
minority in the modern world.
The post-millenial works that will be screened in three programmes at the ISFF range from
anthropological documentations of reindeer breeding and artisan craftwork, to surveys of
changing lifestyles, as well as fiction shorts and videos for the Eurovision Song Contest.
We are looking forward to welcoming many special guests at our screenings.
Curator: Jörg Schöning (Szene Hamburg, CineGraph, Nordic Film Days Lübeck)
FINDS: A Cinematographic Treasure - Neue Filmkunst Walter Kirchner
"Those who grew up in the 50s and started to go to cinema screenings and developed an
interest in sophisticated films saw – intentionally or unknowingly – films of the 'Neue
Filmkunst Walter Kirchner'." (epd film) Back then, Walter Kirchner did not only bring
contemporary films by Buñuel, Clair, Antonioni or Renoir to the silver screen, he also
uncovered works by Lubitsch, Ophüls and Hitchcock from the 20s and 30s.
Up until the bankruptcy of his company, "Filmkunst GmbH" in 1974, he also collected
internationally awarded short films from renowned festivals such as Cannes, Venice and
Mannheim-Heidelberg. His collection mainly consists of short film experiments,
animations, and documentaries – most of them by avant-gardists who shaped film history:
such as Norman McLaren, Walerian Borowczyk, Chris Marker and Bert Haanstra.
After Kirchnerʼs death in 2010, his daughter Sandra Kirchner left about 100 35mm short
film prints to the faithful safekeeping of the KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg (Hamburg Short
Film Agency). We have carefully examined the gems of this treasure, which had been
hidden under four decades of dust, and proudly present the highlights of the Walter
Kirchner Collection in a one-night-only programme.
Curator: Giuseppe Gagliano (Hamburg ShortFilmAgency, ShortFilmArchive)

EARLY AND COMMISSIONED WORKS: Commercial Breaks
- Avant-garde Between Advertising Film and Eye Music
The 1920s was a time of fantastic collaboration between avant-garde filmmakers and the
film industry. These experimental filmmakers were motivated by financial pragmatism on
the one side, and on the other, by the aspiration to subvert the commercial film and its
aesthetics by use of new visual forms. In 1921, the film critic Bernhard Diebold referred to
this novel fusion of painting and music in the so-called abstract film – as represented by
artists like Walther Ruttmann or Hans Richter – as "eye music".
One of the central figures in the exchange between the cinematic avant-garde and the film
industry of the Weimar Republic was the advertising film producer, Julius Pinschewer, for
whom a great number of artists such as Walther Ruttmann, Oskar Fischinger and Lotte
Reiniger worked. Somewhere between advertisements for chocolate and face cream,
women on the moon and dreaming Hunnish queens, avant-garde and industry worked
hand in hand, as the vision of creating an "eye music" in abstract film influenced the
aesthetics of contemporary cinema.
Curator: Anja Ellenberger (art historian and film scholar)
- Some More Logos
Advertising, marketing, and PR translate into film shots with seemingly unlimited budgets,
money, style, corruptibility – not just since the advent of "Mad Men". The advertising
industry is the launch pad for careers and a financial paradise of milk and honey.
Throughout the years, advertising film production has brought about a great number of
both masterpieces and the bizarre, as well as bread-and-butter works from famous film
directors.
This yearʼs special programme of early and commissioned works presents a number of
excellent examples of advertising on film. We are very happy to welcome experienced
filmmakers with a background in advertising who will help us take a closer look, in order to
catch a glimpse behind the polished surfaces. Colleagues and peers are welcome to
applaud each other, pass criticism or share a good laugh …
We are looking forward to an evening full of fascinating commercials beyond the standard
advertising film stock.
Curators: Sven Schwarz (Administrative Director of the Hamburg International
ShortFilmFestival) and Mirjam Wildner (Freelance curator and translator, Hamburg)

GALLERY: (dark) traces – Recent Trends in Myth Creation in European Video Art
Anachronistic dualisms such as good and evil, traces of abysms, and the creation of myths
around people, places and events are impulses that can be discovered in various kinds of
forms in video art. These impulses sway that reality perceived as governed by logic and
reason; thusly causing an oscillation between realities. Giving this oscillation, or perhaps
more properly, this "twilight zone" a pictorial space, is a freedom that manifests itself most
particularly in time-based video art. This approach is by no means esoteric, and is not
based on the longing for irrationality. Rather, it derives from our fascination with the
uncontrollable. (traces) refers to the literal fixation as well as the elimination or deception
that reveals itself in the selection of (dark) traces in an abstract manner in the human
fascination for the cynical-diabolical, as well as the deliberate apotheosis of historical and
fictional figures and circumstances.
Curator: Monika Lahrkamp (Cologne)
MOTIF: The Mass Ornament – Cinematic Reliefs
Detailed busy pictures, molecular structures or marches: Mass as a demonstration of
omnipotence or as a choreography of animal survival instinct. Mass as a posture of fear, of
attack or of industrial efficiency. "The Mass Ornament" presents fascinating and disturbing
cinematic reliefs. The title of the programme may be borrowed from Siegfried Kracauerʼs
same-titled collection of essays, but unlike his studies about the "exotic of daily life" it is
compliant with its literal meaning and addresses the aesthetics of surfaces.
In two programme blocks, our curator Lars Frehse will be searching for the fascinating and
ephemeral gatherings on the topmost layers of the moving image.
On his quest, he will encounter biomechanic Spartakiads, animal swarms driven by
uncanny intelligence as well as serial chorus lines.
Curator: Lars Frehse (Hamburg)

LAB: Sounds of the Borderlands – Of Smugglers, Neuroscientists and Dropouts
Since apparently everyone is moving towards the center of societies and the urban areas
of this world, we take the time to listen to the sounds at the fringes of society, perception
and cultures – their crunches, whistles and chirps. Frontier crossers, smugglers,
neuroscientists, dropouts and other specialists for borders and the marginal serve as
motion detectors and scouts.
Following their festival programmes of the past four years ("Urban Sounds" in 2009,
"Sound, Picture, Action" in 2010, "Man-Machine: Where Are the Riots" in 2011 and
"Onomatopoeia – Poetry and all that Jazz" in 2012), our lab duo Hanna Nordholt and Fritz
Steingrobe listens once again very carefully to detect the sounds that have been preserved
on celluloid, magnetic tape and digital video discs.
Curators: Hanna Nordholt and Fritz Steingrobe (Hamburg)
Festival Center
Halle 5 at the Kolbenhof: Quality assured festival center. Home base of the Hamburg
International ShortFilmFestival
Physical laboratory, quality management, chemical laboratory, dark room, foreman's office
– usually these terms are associated with labor and industry. For us, however, they mean:
festival club, NoBudget Hotel, screenings, film market, workshops and KurzFilmKlause! A
gathering point for "alfinmassels" turns into an open air cinema, and a former industrial
compound becomes the "best location for a festival center Iʼve had the chance to see"
(Diego Ongaro, director of "Bob and the Trees", International Competition 2011).
It's the third year for us at the Kolbenhof – a terrain that still offers undiscovered corners as
of yet unused in past events. The festival's atmospheric heart is to be found in the shadow
of the Hermes high-rise. Located just 800 meters from the zeise cinemas and and a fourminute
walk away from the S-Bahn station Bahrenfeld, it is the perfect starting and
finishing point for excursions to the cinemas and programmes.
Apart from standards such as the information counter, the ticketing and accreditations
desks, and the festival café, we will be hosting our infamous parties well into the wee
hours of the morning. Talkative short filmmakers are sure to be found at the bar and
festival team members will be eager to learn about our audienceʼs experiences. We are
excited to welcome guests that are not familiar with short films and we will make sure to
spark their interest – for example at our screenings under the open night sky. All the
locations on the Kolbenhof compound radiate an intriguing industrial charm.

Awards Ceremony
Mark you calendars! On June 9th, at 8pm at the festival center, the festival will culminate
in the awards ceremony and the subsequent screening of the Festival Award Winners
Programme.
NoBudget Hotel
On June 5th, starting at 7pm, we will be celebrating the opening of the NoBudget
Competition at the NoBudget Hotel. Here, trashy vintage and recycled furniture and decor
create a proper NoBudget ambience. This is the place, where the NoBudget short film will
be liberated from the restraining corset of cinema programmes. We will be showing
whatever the moment may call for. Films can be repeated or stopped, discussions may
take longer than a short film, neither the order nor the compilation of works are set. The
audience is responsible and self-determined and we invite everybody to abandon their
plain receptive roles and dive into the free world of the NoBudget Hotel.
NoBudget – the name is the game: The NoBudget day pass allows our guests to see 3
screenings on either Friday or Saturday for only 10.00 Euros.
Open Air
Once again, the open air cinema will be set up behind Halle 5. On the festival weekend,
we will be showing short films on the big screen in an amazing industrial setting. Plenty of
sausages and beer will be provided. Should the weather not cooperate, no worries: We will
move our open air events to the factory hall (Fabrikhalle).
We will start the open air Season on Friday evening (June 7th at 10.15pm) with this year's
Three-Minute Quickie Competition featuring the topic Breakthrough. Those who want
to avoid the heat and crowds at the programmeʼs premier at the Lichtmeß cinema, are
invited to enjoy an alfresco screening in the immediate vicinity of the festival club.
On Saturday evening (June 8th at 10.15pm), the open air Programme Commercial
Break will be presenting a potpourri of logos – at times, silky-soft and balanced; at others,
evil and quirky.
Three days before the festival kick-off, on June 1st at 9.30pm, we will walk to the
Kolbenhof festival center in order to create a record: We shall attempt to master the
presumably greatest distance yet between a projector and a projection screen.
Approximately 120 meters will lie between the projectionist and the white facade of the
Euler-Hermes high-rise. The sound will exclusively be heard on the Kolbenhof compound,
but the films can be seen from many kilometers away. Our surprise programme will feature
films that work without audible sound as well.

Festival Club
On June 4th, we will not only open the short film season, but the club season as well. For
all those who are not only in a cinema but also a party mood, we have danceable music in
store. ByteFM presents punk, electronica and freaky stuff at our festival club! Our festival
center in Halle 5 at the Kolbenhof is the ideal place to relax one's eyes and shake one's
bootie after a long day of film viewing.
The musical acts are as diverse as our short film programme: they range from Spanish
horror punk rock ("Eyaculación Post Mortem" and the "Motorzombis") to chain-breaking hip
hop by DJ Yoda and fine indie electro music by "Iʼm Not A Band". Everyone is invited to
party till dawn!
Tuesday, June 4th
Skar (ByteFM)
Wednesday, June 5th
Spanish Trash
Thursday, June 6th
DJ Yoda (Live AV Show)
Friday, June 7th
I'm Not A Band
Nerk (De:Bug)
Saturday, June 8th
Die Vögel
Sunday, June 9th
DJ Team Thrashing
KurzFilmKlause
From Friday night, June 7th, starting at 12.30am, till the early hours of Saturday, the
KurzFilmKlause will be open at the festival center. The landlord at Sepp's Tavern will
present top-notch NoBudget game delicacies. Nobody knows if or when it will close its
doors. One thing is for sure, though, it will be a long night …

Karl Nussbaum: Hilbert Space
On Sunday, June 9th, at 10.15pm, Karl Nussbaum, experimental artist from New York,
will guide us in his video performance Hilbert Space to the same-titled theoretical place,
where temporal and spatial dimensions can no longer be tracked, where life and death
dissolve into pure infinity.
Urban Industrial Warfare
The program Urban Industrial Warfare features short films which reflect the ambience of
our postindustrial festival cosmos. Excavators attack the urban space, cranes heave giant
containers onto a mechanized area – urban industrial warfare. Our short film theme park, a
continuous-loop programme, will be on permanent display. Everyone is invited to explore
the festival compound to find the exact screening location.
Gory Excesses in the Chamber of Horrors
Our worn-out cathedral of the industrial age has many dark hidden corners that provide the
perfect ambience for short horror flicks. In our Chamber of Horrors, we will present a
programme that features exquisite horror films – from both our Short Film Archive as well
as current submissions. On Friday and Saturday (June 7th and 8th) at 12.30am, zombies,
drugs, crime-scene cleaners and the resurrection of Judas can be witnessed in our boiler
room of horrors.
Spanish Trash Night - Best of Horrorvision Film Festival Barcelona
Our combination of Spanish horror-trash-exploitation films and a horror punk concert
at our festival club will surely be another extraordinary experience not to be missed. Jan
Fangmeier, the founder of the "Bizarre Cinema Series", will bring some guests along as he
presents the festival highlights (original versions with English subtitles) on June 5th at
8.15pm. All told, there shall be 94 minutes of the finest horror trash – which in Spain is
affectionally called "Basura" (trash). Following the film programme will be live
performances of "Eyaculación Post Mortem" and the "Motorzombis" at the festival club.

Further Extras
Visiting Festivals
We are not alone. The world is full of short film festivals. Some love punchline cinema or
present new talents and future directors of feature-length, flatscreen-embracing films.
Others are sheer events or film markets for the commercially minded in the industry. Not
all short film festivals are driven by pure cinephilia on their search for experimental artists'
films or a new documentary cinema.
This year, we are very lucky to welcome five international short-film-loving festivals that will
present their own programmes. Our NoBudget friends won't surely be the only ones who
will be delighted to see the "Lo-Budget Mayhem" programme curated by the London
Short Film Festival. The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen will present a
number of music videos, that had been selected for the 15th MuVi Award Competition. Our
sister festival, the Dokufest Prizren, will be showing recent Kosovan short film
productions.
Strange Days is the title of a joint film programme curated by three festivals – Vienna
Independent Shorts, the International Short Film Festival Winterthur and the
Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival. Each festival puts together a programme which
examines the significance of the programme title from individual aesthetic, social and
receptive perspectives.
So lights out, put the popcorn aside and open your eyes for the extravaganza of moving
pictures from our amazing guests!
A Wall Is a Screen: Wasteland Hamburg
Only two S-Bahn stations away from the city center lies Hammerbrook, the "City Süd"
neighborhood with narrow, windy streets, a cluster of service companies and corporations,
and most recently, a student dormitory. Filled with thousands of busy bees during the day,
this area becomes deserted scenery at night. Before the Harbor City is going to complete
the prevalent dreariness, A Wall Is A Screen will bring some life to the wasteland.
The short-film walking tour will start from the S-Bahn station Hammerbrook on June 7th at
10.15pm. No charge.

HamburgerKino presents the 12th KinoKabaret Hamburg
From May 31st to June 8th, the Gängeviertel will once again turn into a short film
laboratory. About 200 film buffs from all around the world will be meeting-up to make short
films. This is about fun, teamwork and improvisation, because no matter what – after 48
hours all films have to go on-screen. Professional or newbie – anyone is welcome to
participate! Further information is available on www.hamburgerkino.de and www.dasgaengeviertel.info.
Screenings:
Saturday, June 1st, 8pm at Lichtmeß
Monday, June 3rd, 8pm at Metropolis
Thursday, June 6th, 8pm at (silent films paired to live accompaniment)
Saturday, June 8th, 10.30pm at the Gängeviertel (open-air)
Rock 'n' Roll Film School
If the feature film is the album, the short film must be the EP – shorter, crisper and without
any fillers. Music has always played a major role in short film: For example, finding the first
rock 'n' roll love while buying a Buzzcocks single, or music performances in unusual
places. Everything has already been captured on short film.
On June 6th, 8pm at the Rialto Lichtspiele, we will be presenting a programme of short
(music) films in feature length.
For further information regarding the 29th Hamburg International ShortFilmFestival, please contact:
Tim Gallwitz / Hanna Schneider, presse@shortfilm.com, 0049-40/39 10 63 - 27 / -12, Friedensallee 7,
D-22765 Hamburg; www.shortfilm.com / Please let us know, if you do not wish to receive further press
releases.