As part of the HUMAN/NATURE project, five selected film teams explored the tense relationship between man and nature. Between April and August, five artistic documentary films of around 15 minutes in length were produced in the Münsterland region. The filmmakers will show their short films in the reopened planetarium of the LWL Museum of Natural History in Münster on Wednesday, 24 August 2022 at 8 pm and provide insights into their work in a workshop discussion.
The planetarium is now opening its doors to artistic documentaries as part of the HUMAN/NATURE programme. With its new equipment, the Sternenhaus is one of the most modern planetariums in Europe, and under its dome the short films take the audience into the darkness of the Teuto and give a voice to the stories surrounding Warendorf Forest. They explore the power of biological and social transformation processes in urban spaces and explore the emotional bond between animals and humans. From a post-colonial perspective, they invite us to look at the man-made cultural landscape of Münsterland from a new angle.
(Photo: LWL / Oblonczyk)
Admission to the event at the planetarium on 24 August is free. Admission starts at 19:30.
The collective film project HUMAN/NATURE is funded by the RKP – Regional Culture Programme NRW of the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia and the LWL Cultural Foundation. The LWL Media Centre for Westphalia is the partner for the evaluation of the films.
HUMAN/NATURE – Film descriptions
KOMPOST SEIN
(D 2022 24 min. | D: Severin Halder | C: Tobias Jall)
What can we learn from compost before we turn into it? The short film takes us on a philosophical journey into unknown and threatened underworlds full of life and pressing questions about the future of our planet: The return to earth as an answer to the soil crisis. Severin Halder and Tobias Jall accompanied the Compost Festival 2022 in Münster with their short film. They visited local initiatives such as Blatt-Beton, Grüne Beete and the Hansa-Forum and listened to important voices from science, art and philosophy – for example Matthew Gandy, Ella von der Haide, Harald Lemke, Marco Clausen and Yusif Idies. KOMPOST SEIN is a teeming film about the art of constant transformation, the allure of rotting and the end as a beginning: What is the dirt for, where to put the rubbish and who is it, this compost?
Severin Halder is a geographer, artist, activist and co-founder of the orangotango collective. He uses experimental and participatory methods to promote geographical education from below. Tobias Jall is a freelance cameraman and studied at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg and in Lodz. Tobias Jall and Severin Halder previously produced the documentary THIS IS NOT AN ATLAS! together in 2018.
WE ANIMALS
(D 2022 13 min. | D: Angelika Herta | C: Filip Jacobson)
The short film traces the emotional bond between animals and humans. In her work, Angelika Herta immerses herself in the world of two young women who have developed a close bond with animals. Julie and Rosina have created spaces in which they can live freely with animals – and have thus helped to revitalise places in times of farm deaths.
Angelika Herta is a filmmaker and member of the collective Dokomotive for artistic documentary film. She first studied Comparative Literature at the University of Vienna and later Media Arts at the Academy of Media Arts in Cologne. At the International Women* Film Fest Dortmund+Cologne in 2021, she received the SHOOT Newcomer Award for her documentary film LIFE COULD BE SO BEAUTIFUL.
THE CHILDREN’S PLAY
(D 2022 15 min. | D: Tianlin Xu | C: Elí Roland Sachs)
The Westphalian forest is the source of many stories and folklore. In this hybrid documentary film, the Warendorf forest becomes a stage. Everyone in the film is both narrator and actor of the story. In her work, TianlinXu approaches the perspective of children on nature.
TianlinXu works as a filmmaker and media educator in Hattingen. She grew up in a city near the east coast of China. She studied German language and literature in Beijing. She completed her Master’s degree in International Media Studies at the Bonn-Rhein-Sieg University of Applied Sciences. TianlinXu has already produced several short films and the feature-length documentary COMING AND GOING. In January, her film DAS JAHR DES KRANICH was screened at the Max Ophüls Preis film festival.
A MISTRESS IN THE WOODS
(D 2022 17 min. | D: Nele Dehnenkamp | C: Feline Gerhardt)
What does it feel like to be a woman* alone in the forest? In Nele Dehnenkamp’s short film, courageous women* explore their own vulnerability. Her film is an associative forest walk through her own discomfort – shot in the darkness of the Teuteburg Forest.
Nele Dehnenkamp works as a freelance author and director for documentary formats in word, image and sound. After studying social sciences at the Humboldt University in Berlin, she completed a bachelor’s degree in documentary film directing at the Baden-Württemberg Film Academy in Ludwigsburg. Nele’s work has already been screened at renowned documentary film festivals such as DOK Leipzig and IDFA in Amsterdam.
WHAT THE WATER WHISPERED
(D 2022 16 min | D: Atiruj Jerddeesakul, Daniel Pineda, Elikem Ayeke, Jane Lagos Salazar | C: Atiruj Jerddeesakul, Elikem Ayeke | B: Daniel Pineda, Jane Lagos Salazar, Jorge Hidalgo)
Are we part of nature or here to subjugate it? Jorge has lived in Germany for several decades. Together with his dog Zora, he takes the audience on a dreamlike journey into the depths of the Dortmund-Ems Canal in Münsterland. Jorge uses his body to create images that reflect the fragmented relationship between people and nature. WHAT THE WATER WHISPERED is a docufiction that plays with dystopian premonitions of our time. A time in which people watch helplessly as natural resources dwindle, the planet warms up and ecosystems die as a result of human intervention.
The international team’s short film explores the relationship between humans and nature in Münsterland from a post-colonial perspective. Daniel Pineda (Medellin), Atiruj Jerddeesakul (Bangkok), Jane Lagos Salazar (Tegucigalpa) and Elikem Ayeke (Accra) were brought together by the Visual Anthropology Master’s programme at the University of Münster (WWU). Their studies are characterised by the Corona period. The short film is their first collaboration in presence.
The team was supported in the development of the film by fellow students Cily Ngai Sze Pang (Hong Kong), Arjunraj Natarajam (born in Kerala, grew up in Mumbai), Rida Hariri (Beirut) and Sabbah Jalloul (Beirut), among others.
