Conference Schedule 2021
Coherent Action, Incoherent Cinema
Two-Part Opening Conference of the Berlin Critics’ Week 2021 on February 27 and 28
How can conviction be shown? On the screens and displays out there, do there exist sequences of images that make it possible to imagine the future of cinema in the midst of a pandemic? Scheduled for the weekend before the Berlinale’s European Film Market, this year’s Berlin Critics’ Week Conference is taking on a film-philosophical heavyweight: the German term of “Konsequenz,” which simultaneously translates into coherence and consequence. Unter the title “Coherent Action, Incoherent Cinema,” we explore the idea of Konsequenz in film, in the culture industry, and not least in critical practice.
We present the opening conference with support of the U.S. Embassy Berlin and the Ibero-American Institute.
Schedule
February 27, 2021
3.00 pm
Opening
Keynote: Towards a Consequential Criticism
B. Ruby Rich
3.40 pm
Panel discussion: Creation and Position – Autonomy in Art and Criticism
with Juliane Rebentisch (philosopher), Merle Kröger (author / filmmaker), Philip Scheffner (filmmaker / producer), Victor Guimarães (film critic)
Moderation: Dennis Vetter (Berlin Critics’ Week)
With filmmakers Philip Scheffner and Merle Kröger (“Havarie”, “Revision”), philosopher Juliane Rebentisch (“The Art of Freedom”) and critic Victor Guimarães, we will discuss the notion of autonomy and how art and criticism can challenge each other to pursue aesthetic freedom without losing sight of current events.
**** break ****
5.10 pm
Lecture: In Search of Incoherence – Desktop Aesthetics, Race, and Practices of Non-Enclosure
Suneil Sanzgiri (filmmaker)
Suneil Sanzgiri (“Letter From Your Far-Off Country”) will examine, among other questions, whether a film’s coherence translates to conviction, and what the impulse to make persuasive connections has to do with ideology.
5.45 pm
Film programme:
“ears, nose and throat” (D: Kevin Jerome Everson, 10 min.)
“Alone” (D: Garrett Bradley, 12 min.)
6.15 pm
Panel discussion: Imagining Coherence
with Garrett Bradley (filmmaker) and Kevin Jerome Everson (filmmaker)
Moderation: Devika Girish (film critic / Berlin Critics’ Week selection committee)
Following a program of their short films, the artists Garrett Bradley (“Time”, “America”) and Kevin Jerome Everson (“Tonsler Park”) will explore the methods they use to position themselves cinematically in relation to the fraught histories and social realities of the US.
February 28, 2021
6.00 pm
Opening
Lecture: Shrinking Towards Abundance: Learning From Mad Science Hollywood
Arne Hendriks (artist / designer / researcher / art educator)
Panel discussion with Arne Hendriks and Petra Palmer (Berlin Critics’ Week)
Arne Hendriks founded the project “The Incredible Shrinking Man” as a demand for downsizing the human species. He will present a lecture and a talk about using aesthetic methods to inspire action in the present, and applying speculative research and the techniques of design against facts.
7.00 pm
Panel discussion: Making Future Love Tonight
with Janaína Oliveira (curator, film critic and professor, Federal Institute of Rio de Janeiro), Khaled Barakeh (artist / activist) und Kara Keeling (culture theorist, University of Chicago)
Moderation: Julia Bee (media theorist, Universität Weimar)
The final discussion of the conference explores the consistency, determination and tenacity required in both theory and practice to shape what comes next.