This year, we return with parts of the film programme to a location that is rich in tradition for us – festival films were screened at the Hasetorkino in the first ever EMAF, back in 1988. This year, fresh winds will blow at this historic location – the programme being shown there is explicitly geared towards youths and others who are crazy about new, current and sometimes way-out cinema. In addition to the established EMAF programmes “Media Art for Beginners” and the MC programme “Clip-Klapp-BuMM”, we have selected brand-new motion pictures and art-house films that explore the emotions of modern-day adolescents. For instance, a preview will be shown of the Indie icon and Golden Palm winner Gus Van Sant’s new film “Paranoid Park”. As in his previous films, van Sant shines the spot light on a world of adolescent outsiders, in this case a group of skaters, all of them young lay actors cast by van Sant via the internet platform myspace! “The Tracey Fragments”, a wild collage of image scenes arranged as fragments of the story, tells the story of 15-year-old Tracey, whose father insults his children, calling them “accidents”. She sets off to escape. But her odyssey increasingly resembles a nightmare, and she ends up only just managing to escape, dressed in a shower curtain …

This year we will be playing the Zimmertheater for the first time. We envisage this location as a cross between a lounge and a living-room: a place where you can watch films and videos ranging from White to Black Cube in a relaxed atmosphere. This programme’s motto is “Displaced identity”. Here is just one example: Laurin Federlein sets out on an extremely obscure journey through the Scottish hill moor, to tender the idea of a mobile disco to the blokes enrooted there. On a budget of just 5000 euro, Federlein has managed to create an Easy Rider remake in which Vincent, as a modern Don Quixote, roams the countryside on a moped. Another example: In “I-BE-AREA” Ryan Trecartin, who also appears in multiple guises, has his whole circle of friends and acquaintances and his complete set of relations appear in a shrilly, colourful space soapera. Trecartin’s art involves saying no to a world that we think we know and yes to a crazy world, based on virtual and utopian possibilities. Ryan Trecartin can justifiably be called the grandson of the magical and unique performer and show-off, Jack Smith.

It goes without saying that the Lagerhalle is also the central point of this year’s international selection for the EMAF film programme. They are primarily short films, classified into programmes according to their subject. This year, however, many of the shorts are longer than usual, i.e. they exceed the usual length of 10 minutes and are now between 20 and almost 40 minutes long. This fact also has to do with the subjects they explore – they are critical, self-aware films on the environment, society, film and family history, located in the crossover between documentary and feature film. There is also a return to the different qualities of film material (super 8, 16mm, found footage, black/white), which is also expressed by the fact that there are numerous perfect cinematic montages and fewer computer-generated works. One of the absolute cinematic highlights is RR, the latest work by the doyen of composition, variation, structure and texture of (16mm!) film, James Benning, whose screenings were sold out at the Berlinale, Rotterdam and in Hof. Another highlight is Guy Maddin’s homage to his place of birth and home town, which is also the title of the film: My Winnipeg. The Canadian experimental filmmaker calls his work Docu-Fantasia, and arte is of the opinion that: “You simply have to have seen it.” Unfortunately, there is just one chance to do so – on Thursday at 8 p.m. Also, make sure you don’t miss the other 52 programmes and the awards ceremony. And for the late-comers there is still always (as in the last 20 years) the “Best of EMAF” on Sunday evening.

We wish all of our guests, friends, visitors and filmmakers “square eyes” and loads of fun in Osnabrueck.