Students’ Platform - Our Section for the Next Generation of Filmmakers

This edi­tion marks a spe­cial mile­stone as the Stu­dents’ Plat­form cel­e­brates its 10th anniver­sary since its found­ing in 2015. The fresh per­spec­tives, crit­i­cal thought, and cre­ative energy of stu­dents and young film­mak­ers con­tin­ue to enrich the world of anthro­po­log­i­cal­ly informed cinema. Once again, we strive to create space for film­mak­ers, visual anthro­pol­o­gists, and media artists to share their work with the world.

Stu­dents, for us, becomes a posi­tion of engage­ment that is cen­tred around the act of learn­ing, taking risks and making mis­takes. Draw­ing from this under­stand­ing, we wished to pro­gram films that care­ful­ly, and yet reck­less­ly, tread the fault lines of tra­di­tion­al cin­e­mat­ic prac­tices. True to the festival’s spirit as a forum, the Stu­dents’ Plat­form is not a com­pe­ti­tion but a space for dia­logue, dis­cus­sion, and exchange. The film screen­ings are fol­lowed by dis­cus­sions where the film­mak­ers inter­act with the audi­ence, peers and our friends across the world, espe­cial­ly through the Junc­tions programs.

This year, we received over 500 film sub­mis­sions from 77 coun­tries, reflect­ing a diverse range of inquiries, approach­es, and cin­e­mat­ic forms. It was pleas­ant­ly sur­pris­ing and frankly reas­sur­ing for us to see such exper­i­ments with image, sound and anthro­po­log­i­cal inquiries being made by young film­mak­ers. Each of these works has opened new imag­i­na­tions of the worlds they come from and pushed us to reflect on what we see and how we see it. The final selec­tion of the 17 films across the 6 pro­grams was extreme­ly chal­leng­ing, to say the least.

These films engage with press­ing global issues from diverse per­spec­tives, rang­ing from inti­mate, per­son­al and auto-ethno­graph­ic nar­ra­tives and forms to col­lec­tive action and mobil­i­sa­tion through the act of film­mak­ing. Devel­op­ing our final pro­gram was a greater chal­lenge, as we attempt­ed to bring con­tex­tu­al, formal and con­cep­tu­al diver­si­ty that was reflect­ed in the film sub­mis­sions into it. Our goal is to high­light the diver­si­ty, cre­ativ­i­ty, and engage­ment of the next generation—those who tell per­son­al sto­ries within local con­texts while thought­ful­ly explor­ing the com­plex­i­ties of our world.

We would like to recog­nise the efforts of all the film­mak­ers that chose to turn their cam­eras towards the world and back at them­selves. In these uncer­tain times, we envi­sion the Stu­dents’ Plat­form as a space for immer­sive view­ings, deep engage­ments and vul­ner­a­ble dis­cus­sions that can gen­er­ate a sol­i­dar­i­ty and a crit­i­cal dis­course for young film­mak­ers and anthro­pol­o­gists from across the world. Wir freuen uns darauf, Studierende, Film­schaf­fende, Wissenschaftler*innen, Künstler*innen und Freund*innen erneut in unserem Kino in Freiburg und auch im Livestream begrüßen zu dürfen! Ein Großteil des Stu­dents’ Pro­gramms wird zusät­zlich via Livestream ver­füg­bar sein.

The jury:
María Casa Castil­lo, Mar­lene Mass­mann, Nika Senica, Sasha Ihna­tovich, Savyasachi Anju Prabir, Sujay Iyer, Ulan Garba Matta