Oberhausen announces first films in the International Competition

The International Short Film Festival Oberhausen has announced the first films selected for its International Competition 2017, including works by John Akomfrah, Josef Dabernig, the artist Susannah Gent and the artist duo Mona Vatamanu/Florin Tudor.

The bigger part of the competition entries will be selected over the next few weeks and announced on 12 April.

The British documentary filmmaker John Akomfrah, who was recently awarded the Artes Mundi Prize 7 for international contemporary art, is known for his work on race, identity and post-colonial issues. His new film Tropikos is an experimental drama set in the 16th century revolving around the first meeting between Europeans and Africans. The Austrian artist and filmmaker Josef Dabernig, to whom the Festival dedicated a Profile programme in 2016, will present his new work Stabat Mater in competition, a meditation about lack of communication and architecture. Oberhausen also selected Analiza wzruszen I rozdraznien 2 (Analysis of Emotions and Exasperations, Part 2) by Wojciech Bąkowski, winner of the Grand Prize of the City of Oberhausen in 2015 for Głos mojej duszy (Sound of My Soul).

Two other works by artists were selected: British artist Susannah Gent, who works with experimental film and artistic taxidermy, will present Unhomely Street, an exploration of Derrida’s concept of hauntology. The Romanian artists’ duo Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor, who have been working together since 2000, will present Gagarin’s Tree, in which they use an interview with philosopher Ovidiu Tichindeleanu as starting point for an examination of space travel, imagination and propaganda in the socialist utopia and the post-communist era.