Win­ston-Salem, North Car­oli­na, embod­ies the con­trasts of a typ­i­cal Amer­i­can sub­ur­ban city—where wealth and pover­ty, priv­i­lege and strug­gle, mobil­i­ty and depen­dence on public trans­port create a divide that feels insur­mount­able. THE LACK OF IT fol­lows two indi­vid­u­als ded­i­cat­ed to improv­ing trans­porta­tion access in their com­mu­ni­ty while uncov­er­ing the his­to­ry of the Safe Bus, once the largest Black-owned tran­sit system in the world. Through their jour­ney, the film explores the last­ing impact of seg­re­ga­tion, resilience, and the fight for equi­table mobility.

Kontra9 was found­ed as a col­lec­tive in 2024 as part of the Film Mas­ter’s pro­gram at the Inter­na­tion­al Film School Cologne (ifs), Ger­many. They are cur­rent­ly in post-pro­duc­tion for the short film MEINE MARIE, which delves into the world of the incel com­mu­ni­ty. At the same time, they are shoot­ing their first fea­ture film, PRINȚESE, which explores the hard work of immi­grant labor­ers in German aspara­gus fields through a love story.

Kontra9: Chris­t­ian Belz, Lia Camp­bell, Fränzi Hein­rich, Ulduz Madatkhano­va, Lavinia Moroff, Lena Ton­del­lo, Kleber José Valim, Janis Westphal

Pro­duced by: Kontra9, ifs Inter­na­tion­al Film­school Cologne, UNCSA School of Filmmaking

Lost in an unfa­mil­iar dig­i­tal realm, Samuel’s soul search­es for a way home, guided only by a mys­te­ri­ous voice from the sky. As he nav­i­gates this vir­tu­al land­scape, the film … read more

One day, I lost my mother. Slowly, I am trac­ing my steps back to her. This film is an attempt to under­stand moth­er­hood for women of West Indian descent in … read more

“You suffer as long as you breathe,” shouts a hoarse voice out­side the pic­ture, and then adds with honest irony: ”Dust is our wealth.” The voice belongs to a street … read more

At 7 o’clock in the morn­ing, the Elek­trich­ka, a wooden-class train, sets off from Tbil­isi (Geor­gia) to Bor­jo­mi, 150 km away. The wind whis­tles through the pain­less win­dows. The train … read more

In Guil­laume Apol­li­naire’s poem, two visions col­lide: the image of France learned in Mada­gas­car and the real­i­ty later expe­ri­enced in the former metrop­o­lis. For a for­eign­er, adapt­ing to French life … read more

In Songs of Slow Burn­ing Earth, film­mak­er Olha Zhurba doc­u­ments Ukraine’s slow descent into the abyss of war over two years. But what does war truly mean and what images … read more

I grew up in Yangon. In Feb­ru­ary 2021 my dreams came to an end. My mother said: ‘Son, wake up. The mil­i­tary has taken over the coun­try’. The days got … read more

The Lebanese film­mak­er makes sev­er­al trips from Ger­many back to her home city of Beirut over the course of the three years fol­low­ing the onset of a cat­a­stroph­ic eco­nom­ic col­lapse … read more

Through the story of a single family, THE NAKBA ACROSS GENERATIONS explores the last­ing impact of the Nakba and the inher­it­ed trauma of exile. Blend­ing per­son­al nar­ra­tives, his­tor­i­cal events, and … read more

This year, we’ll be taking you and our fes­ti­val guests on two cinema hikes through Freiburg’s dis­tricts. Equipped with a pro­jec­tor, power gen­er­a­tor, mobile sound system, and laptop, we’ll be … read more