IDEOLOGY: Leni Riefenstahl shaped a controversial legacy, prompting reflection on whether her work’s fascist ideals still resonate in contemporary culture.
RUSSIA: Victory Day in Russia in 2022 – barely six weeks after Putin's invasion of Ukraine – plays out the same tired old themes of the Red Army's victory over Nazism in 1945, with those celebrating eagerly taking up the new propaganda of victory.
CINEMA: More prescient than ever, Doclisboa's «Documentary on the March» retrospective provide a blueprint for today's documentaries for social change.
IDEOLOGY: A disintegrated society finds unity, energy, and meaning by uniting around a suitable' enemy'. Totalitarian propaganda has led to the decision to allow Ukraine to use F-16 fighter jets against the nuclear power Russia - with the significant consequences it may entail.
CINEMA: Four films and two books – can they capture something about this newly dead legend of cinema? Let me try, especially with Godard’s intellectual autobiography and two new films about him.
HISTORY: Nina Gladitz’s film about Roma and Sinti survivors of Shoah has been hidden in the WDR archive since 1982. Reactions to her book show we live in times when searching for the truth and giving voice to the weakest in societysociety causes suspicion, not respect. But simply accepting that such are the times might be the real problem.
CONFLICT: Reconstructing and visualising the historical context of the Babi Yar tragedy, where 33,771 Jews were massacred during Ukraine's German occupation.
ENVIRONMENT: Fifty years after capturing America’s consumerist landscape, photographers revisit their work, offering a reflective documentary on environmental crises and unfulfilled promises.
ANARCHY: Leonardo Caffo’s argument for an anarchic society suggests that real freedom comes from rejecting old systems and embracing autonomy, not from restoring the state.