We are happy to continue our collaboration with the
Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) in presenting
Urban Lens Film Festival 2021. The
eigth edition of the festival will be held
online, from
November 18 to 21, 2021.
Since its inception in 2013, this one-of-a-kind film festival has screened 201 films from 40 countries in 37 languages, that reflect upon and re-examine the cities we live in. This year, the festival will feature curated sections of films under the titles
The City and Beyond, COVID-19, Conflict and Cinema and
Student Films.
© Philip Scheffner
One of the filmmakers in the section
Filmmakers in Focus is award winning
German filmmaker and artist
Philip Scheffner. Three of his films,
Day of the Sparrow,
Havarie and
The Halfmoon Files will be screened at the festival. Also
Philip will be in conversation with
Madhusree Dutta and
Nicole Wolf on his approach to cinema and what shapes his individual film practice. This conversation will be streamed
live on the festival website on
November 19, 2021,
7 p.m. IST.
Philip Scheffner, born 1966 in Homburg/Saar, lives and works as an artist and filmmaker in Berlin. Together with Merle Kröger, Alex Gerbaulet and Caroline Kirberg he runs the production platform
pong.
He took part in the
Berlinale Forum with Havarie (2016), And-Ek Ghes… (2016), Revision (2012), Der Tag des Spatzen (Day of the Sparrow) (2010), The Halfmoon Files (2007).
Photo: Bernd Meiners © pong / ZDF
Der Tag des Spatzen (Day of the Sparrow) | 2010 | 100 min.
Day of the Sparrow is a political wildlife film. It centres around a country where the border between war and peace fades. On November 14, 2005, a sparrow is shot dead in Leeuwarden, the Netherlands, after it toppled over 23000 domino stones. A German soldier dies in Kabul as a result of a suicide bombing. With these headlines appearing side by side, Philip Scheffner is induced to use ornithological methods in his quest for the war. In Germany, not in Afghanistan. Since it is here that we are faced with the question: Are we living in a state of peace or war?
© pong
Havarie | 2016 | 93 min.
The coordinates 37°28.6'N and 0°3.8'E mark a point in the Mediterranean – 38 nautical miles from the port city Cartagena in Spain or 100 nautical miles from the Algerian port city Oran – depending on the narrator’s perspective. Observing the sea from this point, the whole world is water, sky and boundless horizon. A “sea of possibilities”, charged with the hopes, fears and dreams of the voyagers.
The Halfmoon Files | 2007 | 87 min.
© pong
"There once was a man.
This man came into the European war. Germany captured this man.
He wishes to return to India.
If God has mercy, he will make peace soon. This man will go away from here."
Mall Singh's crackling words are heard as he spoke into the phonographic funnel on 11th December 1916 in the city of Wünsdorf, near Berlin. 90 years later, Mall Singh is a number on an old Shellac record in an archive - one amongst hundreds of voices of colonial soldiers of the First World War.
Films will be streaming
free for
all 4 days of the festival, and you can tune in from anywhere in the world.
Register now for the Urban Lens Film Festival 2021!
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