Steilvorlage

Steilvorlage

10th of February 2026 – 8pm Hackesche Höfe Kino

Films:
FICTION CONTRACT
WORRY TIME

Debate Format: STEILVORLAGE

Films as a template, as an invitation, as a provocation for debate. In this format, the filmmakers of the evening are joined by a member of the selection committee to answer questions from the moderator and the audience. 

Guests: Tom Brennan, Eileen Jones, Emma Paetz

FICTION CONTRACT

D: Carolyn Lazard, C: Lorren Williams, Morenike Jegede, Adrielle El-Dyson Otoo, Lindsay Dallemand, Chinyere Ogbonna, DOP: Alex Ashe, USA 2025, 9 Min., English Original – European Premiere

A crisis in the maternity ward sends an all-Black obstetrics team into emergency mode. Viewer anxiety is high too, even though what’s being witnessed is only a training exercise, and the pregnant patient is a mannequin—also Black—“ventriloquized” to speak with a human voice. Carolyn Lazard’s powerfully surreal observational drama reframes a medical staff simulation meant to address the appallingly high maternal mortality rates of Black women, who, in the U.S., die in childbirth in significantly greater numbers than their white counterparts. Such simulations are called “fiction contracts.” But what is the nature of the “fiction contract” that Lazard’s audience is drawn into by this anxious scene of childbirth, with its uncanny verisimilitude?

WORRY TIME

D: Tom Brennan, C: Emma Paetz, Stefanie Martini, Ben Aldridge, Afsaneh Dehrouyeh, Douggie McMeekin, DOP: Rob O’Kelly, GBR 2025, 89 Min., English Original – World Premiere

Annette is finally getting her big break: she’s getting to actually make the film she wrote. Her story is one of abuse of women by men—a story based on a traumatic incident that all of her friends seem to have forgotten or forgiven. Not Annette. Obsessed with psycho-drama, violence, and her own vaginal discharge, she embarks on a shoot that is simultaneously a journey of self-discovery and self-destruction. We see bits and pieces of her film, a mystery tale which shifts between drama and gore. Emma Paetz and Tom Brennan have created a work that circles around fear, abuse, pregnancy and hate; but also around light, color, fake blood, sex, insanity and discomfort, both bodily and psychological.

Tom Brennan is a director of theater and film, playwright, and actor. His multi-award-winning theater company, The Wardrobe Ensemble, was an associate company of Complicite, Bristol Old Vic and Shoreditch Town Hall. His work with the company has been performed at The National Theatre and Almeida Theatre, among many other venues across the UK and USA. He is a Creative Associate of The North Wall Arts Centre and was the Geoffrey Garton Creative Arts Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. His published plays with The Wardrobe Ensemble have been performed by companies all over the world. His credits as writer and director for theater include Princess Smartypants (2024), The Unicorn (2022), and Robin Hood: The Legend of The Forgotten Forest (2021). His short film A WOMAN WALKS INTO A BANK (2022) was part of the official selection for several film festivals and was nominated for Best Emerging Talent and Best Experimental Film.

Originally from Northern Canada, Emma Paetz moved to the UK to train at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. Having worked across stage and screen, she is most known for her roles in HBO’s GENTLEMAN JACK, PENNYWORTH, and for playing Uta Hagen in Richard Eyre’s 8 HOTELS. WORRY TIME is her feature film debut as a screenwriter.