Short Sharp Shots - Focus on German Short Films
Short Sharp Shots
In comparison with the rest of Europe, Germany is one of the biggest producers of short films: between 900 and 1,000 new shorts are made each year. Most of these films can be seen at specialized short film festivals, which are not only numerous, but also very popular in Germany. And German short films also take part regularly at international festivals and enjoy considerable success. Production is of a scarcely equaled scope and variety, and represents an important element of German art and culture.
THE HISTORY BEHIND SHORT FILM
Short film can look back on a long tradition in Germany. Its origins lay in the pioneer age of cinema when all films were «shorts». When film genres unfolded and the full-length feature film was developed, two very different lines of development - which were to influence the future of short films in Germany - emerged between 1910 and 1930: the educational, so-called cultural film and the artistic short film. Almost as soon as the cinema had been established as a new mass media, short films were produced to be shown as a supporting program before the main films. The big film company Ufa, for example, ran its own cultural film department from 1918 onwards. The content of these films was primarily cultural and educational - usually they examined questions of health or investigated scientific topics. Animal films were especially popular. An independent production structure also unfolded parallel to studio production, and this continues to be typical of German short films today. A large number of independent cultural filmmakers worked alone as their own authors, directors and producers. Often, they even took distribution and projection into their own hands. Traveling across the country with their film copies, they showed their works in schools and in district cinemas, the predecessors of today's communal cinemas.
Another tendency that continues to characterize German short films today also emerged at that time: a preference for experimentation with film aesthetics and form. During the 1920s, the short film - if not a cultural film - was generally an avant-garde film. Ranging between Dadaism, Bauhaus and New Objectivity, filmmakers such as Richter, Eggeling and Fischinger worked within a context closer to art than to educational film or entertainment cinema. However, this development was abruptly stopped by the National Socialists during the 1930s. Most film artists emigrated or abandoned their work. Only a few compromised with the Nazi system. While the artistic tradition of the German short film was not taken up again until much later, the cultural film «survived», remaining the dominant form of short film in Germany until well into the post-war era.
As a result, the first German short film festival in Oberhausen was founded as the West German Cultural Film Festival in 1954 and was renamed Oberhausen International Short Film Festival only five years later. The festival itself developed from the educationally-oriented film movement, more precisely from a conference of education experts belonging to the Oberhausen adult education service. Their director, Hilmar Hoffmann, was the founder of the film festival. In the late 1950s it was already possible to see independent, formally innovative productions from abroad in Oberhausen - for example the French Nouvelle Vague and the British New Cinema -, but German short film did not adopt these international innovative tendencies until the 60s. During this period, short film offered a platform to young filmmakers with ambitions to produce features who were as yet unable to find their place in the German film industry. Directors such as Peter and Ulrich Schamoni, Edgar Reitz, Alexander Kluge and Werner Herzog produced short films, and consequently rebelled against «Grandpa's cinema» at a festival of short film.
The famous Oberhausen Manifesto - written in Munich and circulated at the West German Cultural Film Festival of 1962 - declares that short film has become «a school and field of experimentation for feature film». Those who signed it - 26 young directors - therefore underpinned their pretension «to create the new German feature film». They demanded «freedom from the current conventions in the field» and «freedom from the influence of commercial partners». Among the far-reaching consequences for German film culture of this rebellion against »old film» were the foundation of the «new German feature film», the foundation of film academies, and publicly-funded film promotion, from which short film has also benefited in the long run.
Whilst New German Cinema turned away from short film and towards feature film, distribution collectives and production mergers were established according to British and American patterns during the mid-sixties, and these produced short films of various genres. Directors such as Werner Nekes, Hellmuth Costard, Helmut Herbst, Kurt Rosenthal, Franz Wintzensen or Thomas Struck, for example, belonged to the Hamburg Filmmakers' Cooperative (1967-1975), and some of these directors are still making short films today.
Following artistic movements such as Fluxus, Pop-Art, American Underground Film, and films made by the Actionist group in Austria, a parallel German experimental film scene emerged in the mid-sixties. Informal meeting places evolved - such as XSCREEN in Cologne, founded by W + B Hein, who devoted themselves exclusively to experimental film. Filmmakers belonging to this artistic tradition of German short film distanced themselves from institutional cinema, but they also rejected art institutions and the art market. For its part, the art world continued to ignore film as an art form until well into the 90s. As a result of the 1968 student movement, the film festivals also discarded experimental film and the discussion of cinematic aesthetics, turning instead to political film and ideological discussions. There was therefore no festival platform for experimental film in Germany until the foundation of the International Experimental Film Workshop in Osnabrueck in 1981 (from 1988: European Media Art Festival).
A situation that had become rather bogged down altered quite suddenly during the 80s. This was a period of departure: a new, young short film scene developed far away from the established committees and institutions. Influenced by new popular cultural developments (Punk and New Wave) and equipped with reasonably priced consumer cameras (Super 8 and video), this new generation displayed great skepticism towards the older political «68ers» on the one hand and the formalistic structuralist experimental 70s filmmakers on the other. They were outsiders, entering the scene as dilettantes without cinematic training, rejecting film support and lacking career intentions, but they brought a breath of fresh air onto the scene. If they built upon tradition at all, one might recognize stylistic links with early avant-garde film and the art movements of the pre-war years (Expressionism, Dadaism). One feature of these short films and videos was the employment of found images and sounds. Taken from the everyday flood of images, these were used in a deconstructive, iconoclastic way or assembled constructively to create new pictorial worlds. Radical in cinematic terms, this generation had a definitive influence on the visual aesthetics of the following years, which were assimilated by music television and the advertising field in particular. Lacking other possibilities for distribution and as a reaction to their rejection by established festivals, soon a video or short film festival in every big German city emerged from this scene, although only a few - like Interfilm Berlin - still take place today.
A BRIEF DIGRESSION: SHORT FILMS IN THE GDR
Initially, short films in the GDR [German Democratic Republic] - apart from 16 mm amateur films produced in the cine-film clubs of large production companies - were made exclusively in the state studios at DEFA: in the DEFA animated film studio in Dresden-Gorwitz, for example, which concentrated on animation using puppets and silhouettes. By contrast to animated filmmakers in West Germany, those at DEFA had an official commission with a defined aim: they were to produce «children's films with a positive message». The resulting productions tended to be rather harmless and twee (Little Sandman/Sandmaennchen). It is true that the DEFA's animated film studio was «wrapped up» in 1992 after radical political change in Germany, but Dresden has remained the location for a number of animated film producers (Balance Film, Hylas Trickfilm, Artificial Illusions). The Dresden Film Festival, established 15 years ago, has also taken up the specialized film tradition of the location.
By contrast, the short films made at the DEFA studios of documentary film in Kleinmachnow displayed higher artistic quality. As opposed to West German short films, these documentary shorts were made under studio conditions using 35 mm film. One special feature was that documentary film productions were supervised by a dramatic advisor. The resulting films, by contrast to those of the West with its 16 mm cameras, were highly-developed with respect to form and dramatic composition. Despite their subjects - mostly social observations - these short films had considerable artistic substance. Often hampered by censorship, outstanding documentary filmmakers such as Winfried Junge and Volker Koepp frequently made short films. This group also included the filmmaker and artist Juergen Boettcher (alias «Strawalde»), whose shorts Rangierer (1984) and Die Kueche (1986) were also successful in the West.
One important platform and international forum for the short films of the GDR was the Leipzig Festival of Documentary and Animated Film, founded only a year after Oberhausen as the «All-German Week of Cultural and Documentary Film Leipzig», which continues to be one of the bigger festivals involving a short film competition in Germany today. An autonomous art scene developed in the GDR during the 80s, and ultimately experimental and underground films were made in this context - mainly shot with 8 mm film. Within this artistic field, therefore, the East and West German short film scenes converged even before the fall of the Wall.
PRESENT TRENDS - SHORT FILMS BETWEEN BLACK BOX AND WHITE CUBE
Cinema, television and film festivals have long ceased to be the only possible «exhibition location» for works by the young generation of filmmakers. At present there are very few exhibitions of modern art worth mentioning that do not include film or video. With increasing regularity, German film artists are also being invited to present their work in museums and galleries. The most successful are those filmmakers whose cinematic works correspond to the topics and needs of the current art scene. These include filmmakers such as Matthias Mueller, Christoph Girardet or Bjoern Melhus, who all process pictorial material with great sensitivity, although in different ways and with characteristic individual styles. Crossing the borders between art and film, they are primarily concerned with our society's pictorial worlds and horizons of experience.
THE DIVERSITY OF SHORTS IN GERMANY
The current panorama of short films in Germany is heterogeneous, and an outsider may have difficulty gaining an overview. Due to the federal structure of Germany, no central organizations and institutions have developed. There is therefore no homogeneous production structure, but a range of short film scenes corresponding to a wide spectrum of forms and styles. The large proportion of documentary shorts in Germany is remarkable - they make up more than 20% of the entire production. The share of artistic and experimental short films may be smaller in terms of quantity, but is clearly more important when subject to international comparison. Of consistent high quality, the artistic short film is one of the German film culture's strengths. The short feature film is now also the most widespread film genre in Germany with more than 40% of production, but this share is considerably less than in other countries. Within the spectrum of the German short film scene, the feature film adopts a special position insofar as it is produced mainly at the film academies, whilst the other film genres dominate among independently produced short films in Germany.
SHORT FILM AS A CALLING CARD - SUCCESSFUL FILM ACADEMIES
It is true that short films represent the majority of works made at the film academies, but the aim of training is not, as a rule, the production of shorts in the narrowest sense. These short films serve students as calling cards with which to enter into professional life in film, television and other branches of the media. After completing their training, as a rule, they abandon short film production - meaning that they have little lasting influence on the short film scene.
However, during the last ten years, works from German film academies have enjoyed considerable international success. Films almost exclusively by students were successful at larger film festivals and competitions in which the narrative, short feature film is preferred. Examples include Freunde - The Whiz Kids by Jan Krueger - a graduation film at the Academy of Media Arts (KHM) in Cologne which received the Silver Lion at the 58th Film Festival in Venice.
German student films have been particularly successful at the Academy Awards; one could almost refer to a string of successes:
1988 Student Academy Award:
Butterflies (Schmetterlinge) by Wolfgang Becker
1989 OSCAR for Best Short Film:
Balance by Christoph and Wolfgang Lauenstein
1993 OSCAR for Best Short Film:
Black Rider (Schwarzfahrer) by Pepe Danquart
1994 Student Academy Award:
Making Up (Abgeschminkt) by Katja von Garnier
1996 OSCAR for Best Short Film:
Quest by Tyron Montgomery and Thomas Stellmach
1997 Student Academy Award:
An Ordinary Mission (Ein einfacher Auftrag) by Raymond Boy
1998 Student Academy Award:
Rochade by Thorsten Schmidt
1999 Student Academy Award:
Small Change (Kleingeld) by Marc-Andreas Borchert
2000 Student Academy Award and OSCAR for Best Short Film:
Quiero Ser by Florian Gallenberger
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| Scene from "Zara" by Stefanie Saghri (photo courtesy of HFF/B, Postdam Babelsberg) |
2001 saw Johannes Kiefer receive a nomination for his short Gregor's Greatest Invention (Gregors groesste Abenteuer) and in 2002 the film students Chris Stenner, Heidi Wittlinger and Arvid Uibel received a nomination for their animated short Rocks (Das Rad). Only two exceptions prove the rule: Pepe Danquart's Black Rider and Gregor's Greatest Invention by Johannes Kiefer were not student productions!
WHO PRODUCES SHORT FILMS IN GERMANY?
By far the largest proportion of German shorts - around two thirds - are made outside of film academies and training institutions. Around half of the filmmakers are author/producers - that is, both the producers and directors of their own films, for which they often personally fulfill even more functions (screenplay, camera, editing, etc.). The least division of labor exists in the field of experimental film, whose production method is closer to that in other fields of art than to the classic division of labor method more common in film production.
Although producing independently, these makers of short films are still involved in the system of film education: most of them - like Jochen Kuhn, who recently received the Film Critics Award for Neulich 3 - teach as a main or second profession at one of the big German film academies, the numerous professional colleges or art schools.
In Germany there are only a few production companies which specialize in short films. In the main, this is because short films are not profitable. If at all, short films are produced at companies that have established themselves with another form of short film, for example in the field of industrial or advertising film or productions commissioned by television.
A few independent artists and filmmakers do produce their films at their own production companies, and these may occasionally also take on a colleague's film. These form the very small group of established short film directors who have been able to finance their productions over the course of many years on the basis of license sales, film support and prizes.
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| Scene from "Los Rebeldes" by Ariane Kessissoglou (photo courtesy of KHM Cologne) |
FILM SUPPORT AND OTHER SOURCES OF FINANCE
Film is promoted on both a national and a federal state level in Germany. Around 30% of the financial support for short films in Germany is awarded by institutions on a national level, while 70% of funds come from the federal states. However, the share of short film promotion within overall funds for film is only a modest 3 to 4%! It is therefore logical that only a small number of the almost 1,000 short films made each year have enjoyed public funding of some kind.
The amount of support and the nature of funding measures vary considerably from state to state. Short film producers from Bavaria, North Rhine Westphalia and, until recently, Saxony have better chances of support than those in other states. Over two dozen committees attached to various funding institutions are responsible for the endowment of film support in the federal states. An estimated — 2.5 million are available for short films here.
Around — 1.1 million are available on the national level. The largest proportion of funds for the production of short films is provided by the German Federal Film Board (Filmfoerderungsanstalt/FFA). The second main pillar of support is the cultural budget of the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), which provides production funding and presents the German Short Film Award. Up until the year 2002, the federal government's economically-oriented promotion measures adhered to the model of «short films suited for the cinema». This meant that funding was based on a delusion, for the short film (supporting film) has long ceased to exist in commercial cinemas!
Last year, the regulations concerning the German Short Film Award were amended to match the true situation of production. Instead of a maximum running time of 7 or 15 minutes, now films of up to 30 minutes are eligible. There are also new awards for different genres (feature film, animation and documentary film), and videos are also admitted. In the year 2002, one film in particular profited from this: Old Choi's Film by Bin Chuen Choi, a documentary film with a length of 18 minutes made on video, which received a German Short Film Award in Gold. Neither Katja Pratschke's short feature Fremdkoerper (Gold in the category feature film of up to 30 minutes) nor the film Freunde - The Whiz Kids (Silver) which also received an award at Locarno, would have had a chance under earlier conditions. The same applies to the prize-winning music video Entinen Mies (Silver).
The cash prizes of the German Short Film Award must be invested in the production of a new film. But film prizes at festivals and other awards that are not purpose-bound are particularly important to the short film scene. During the past year, approximately 60 to 70 German shorts won almost 100 prizes and awards amounting to a sum total of around — 600,000. Such awards are often the only source of income for a filmmaker, particularly in the case of artistic and experimental works, a field where the German short film is especially successful.
However, recently the growing interest of the art market has opened up a new financial basis, making artist-producers more independent of festival awards or secondary sources of income.
SHORT FILMS IN THE CINEMA AND ON TELEVISION
During the sixties, it was still common to show a short film with «cultural value» before the main film at cinemas. The reason for this was a tax advantage for the owner of the film theater: if a highly-rated short film ran before a main film that had a lower rating, the entertainment tax was waved on the gross entrance fees for the entire program. National short film production profited indirectly from this tax regulation, as did trade with short films from Eastern Europe. Today this tax - difficult to justify legally - on the entertainment involved in watching films without a quality rating is levied in very few communities. Since this tax regulation has been abolished, and the hiring of advertising before the main film has proved so lucrative, supporting films are now shown only in communal cinemas and some program cinemas in Germany.
SHORT FILMS IN THE CINEMA AND ON TELEVISION
What has proved very successful - at least in art cinemas - is the occasional screening of reels of shorts and tour programs, for example the German Short Film Award on the Road (www.kurzfilmpreisunterwegs.org). In the context of its brief tour, the latter was certainly seen by more viewers than each individual film of the reel would ever be able to reach as a «supporting film».
The KurzFilmAgentur Hamburg («Short Film Agency Hamburg») has played a significant role in the distribution of short films in cinemas, also having supervised the tour program "German Short Film Award on the Road". Alongside sales and distribution departments at the public and confessional media offices of education, which are an important factor for short film in Germany, as well as festival archives, the Hamburg KurzFilmVerleih («Hamburg Short Film Distributors») is the most important distribution address for shorts. Since January 2000, a significant total of 1.3 million cinema visitors have seen short films originating from the Short Film Agency Hamburg's distributors! The subscription system of the Hamburg Short Film Distributors is particularly successful: for a set annual fee, it permits cinemas to make a different weekly selection from the agency's stock of short films.
Whilst several private broadcasting stations still showed a few programs of short films during the 80s and 90s, only the cultural broadcasters 3sat and ARTE have fixed slots for short films in Germany today. 3sat shows a short film twice or three times a week in the «time gap» between a feature film and the subsequent program. The German-French cultural channel ARTE developed a special program format for short films two years ago - the weekly magazine program Kurz-Schluss (Court-Circuit, «Short Circuit»). Around 60 short films are acquired each year, just under a third of which were made in Germany. In addition, the program format is embedded into a magazine offering a weekly report on current trends, directors' portraits and festivals from the world of short films.
SHORT FILMS AT FESTIVALS
The short film finds its main audience at festivals. In Germany there are around 80 film days or weeks, and large and small festivals which show short films. Among the specialized short film festivals, the most significant platforms for short films - primarily due to their activities beyond the duration of the actual festivals - are the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and the Hamburg International Short Film Festival. Each has a different emphasis in its program: the Hamburg festival is a big city event for the public, and because of the wide-ranging activities and the commitment of its organizer, the Short Film Agency Hamburg, it has become an important factor on the German short film scene. Oberhausen - with its emphasis on artistic film and special thematic programs - is an important meeting place and location for discussion among filmmakers, while its film market offers a survey of almost all the short film productions in Germany each year. The festival continues to influence the scene all year round, mainly because of the information it offers on the Internet (Short Film Exchange and Kurzfilmmagazin at 
www.shortfilm.de).
GERMAN SHORT FILMS ABROAD
Up until now, there has been neither a central contact, nor fitting representation of German short films at relevant international film markets and television fairs. But this is due to change soon!
The Export-Union of German Cinema has made a start, although it currently has neither the personnel nor the financial capacity to represent short films in the same way as it does other film genres abroad. Nevertheless, it has supported the short academy film since 1998 with its initiative Next Generation. In the context of the Next Generation program, an annual selection of films by students of German film schools is made by an independent jury and are premiered in Cannes and screened at all of the Export-Unions festivals of German Cinema worldwide. The publication of a DVD including the program's annual selection has also been a great step forward.
Furthermore, there are currently concrete plans regarding a better representation of German short films abroad. Their initiator is the association AG Kurzfilm, founded in the year 2002. The AG Kurzfilm (based in Dresden) is the first central organization for matters concerning short film in Germany. On the one hand, the AG Kurzfilm intends to act as a nationwide lobby for short film on various political committees, whilst its second priority is to represent the interests of German short film abroad. The first projects were successfully realized at the beginning of this year: the AG Kurzfilm made itself known to the specialist public with stands at the Berlin Film Festival and at the Festival du Court Métrage in Clermont-Ferrand. Should it succeed, German short film will not only have a political mouthpiece in the future, but will also enjoy suitable representation abroad.
Useful Contacts
Reinhard W. Wolf,
editor of the Oberhausen International Short Film Festival's Short Film Magazine