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Developmental Special Film Award by Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) at the Berlinale
Contents
The Berlin International Film Festival (Berlinale) represents through its reach and its international reputation a significant place of dialogue, creative interaction and international network and is also the world's largest public film festival. Issues of Development Policy have been addressed in films at the Berlinale for years. Both, the programming of the Film Festival and supporting side events and projects, create various opportunities to discuss development policy issues at the Berlinale. The Film Award CINEMA fairbindet, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is the first cross-section Film Award at the Berlinale.
Award
The award includes prize money in addition to the implementation of a German-wide roadshow of the winning film. In up to 25 cities the CINEMA fairbindet Roadshow offers film screenings with a background information programme in the second half of the year.
CINEMA fairbindet 2014
In 2014 the award was given to the movie Concerning Violence by the Swedish documentary filmmaker and TV journalist Göran Hugo Olsson. The movie is about the African Freedom Movement in the 1960s and 1970s. It merges newly discovered archived materials on the violent confrontation with the colonial powers with quotes from Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth", recited by Lauryn Hill.
The Roadshow starts on September 17th 2014 at 8:00 p.m. at Kino Arsenal in Berlin. Following the film there will be a discussion with director Göran H. Olsson and the head of the Berlinale Panorama section, Wieland Speck, moderated by Dorothee Wenner.
The second opening event will take place on September 19th 2014 at 6:30 p.m. in the Rex-Lichtspieltheater in Bonn. The director and a jury member will be available for discussion after the screening.
The documentary will be shown in more than 20 German cities until December 2014. Cinemas all across Germany will present the film and offer discussion sessions with the director or interesting speakers from culture, science and politics.
Objective
The award aims at reaching a broad audience for development policy issues, esp. for the focus areas of German development policy such as education, health, rural development, good governance, climate change, etc. in order to implement them as societal responsibility. The nominated films take up thematically related elements in an artistic way. The movies should show the real-life conditions in partner countries without resorting to clichés – and make it clear that if development policy is to be effective in the future, commitment from the business world, civil society, and politics is needed.
The Film Award CINEMA fairbindet also promotes a dialogue between the audience, film directors and experts in the field of development cooperation during the Berlinale.
History
In 2013, German Development Minister awarded the prize to the Palestinian actresses and the director Udi Aloni, Mariam Abu Khaled and Batoul Taleb for their film ART/Violence. They translate their mourning for the murdered Arab-Jewish founder of the Freedom Theatre, Juliano Mer-Khamis into artistic rebellion against patriarchal oppression and the Israeli occupation in their work. In 2012, the award went to the documentary Call me Kuchu directed by Katherine Fairfax Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall. The film shows the life and struggle of gay and lesbian activists in Uganda who worked together with human rights activist David Kato, the first openly gay man in Uganda. In 2011, the prize was given to the Iranian director Mohammad-Ali Talebi for his children's film Bad o meh (Wind and Fog), a powerful depiction of the effects of war – especially on children.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) launched the CINEMA fairbindet award (a play on words in German that roughly translates as ‘cinema connects fairly’) on behalf of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2011. The Arsenal Institute for Film and Video Art and the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb) are cooperation partners, and Deutsche Welle supports the film award as a media partner.
Jury
An independent international jury consisting of film and media professionals selects the winning film after the film nominations have been effected by the heads of the various Berlinale sections.