KAFKAESQUE: EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS FROM GERMANY AND THE U.S.

Join Chicago Filmmakers, Nightingale Cinema and Goethe-Institut Chicago for a special screening of KAFKAESQUE: EXPERIMENTAL SHORT FILMS FROM GERMANY AND THE U.S. programmed by Leah Gallant of Goethe-Institut Chicago.

2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the death of Franz Kafka (1883-1924), whose writing remains an integral part of world literature. The feelings of absurdity, futility, and existential fear that characterize his work gave rise to the term ‘Kafkaesque.’

In these short films, there are no direct adaptations of Kafka works, but there is a pervasive atmosphere of anxiety, disorientation, and political inefficacy. Animals act with human-like qualities, narrators lose themselves in unending monologues, and the tools of filmmaking itself become haunting, humorous protagonists.

FULL PROGRAM

FERAL CAKES

Dana Sherwood

United States, 2017 | 06:27

Raccoons, cats, and opossums devour an elaborate nocturnal feast laid out in the wild.

HACKED CIRCUIT

Deborah Stratman

United States, 2014 | 15:18

This surreal portrait of the Foley process, the studio production of sound effects for cinema, suggests connections between state surveillance, filmmaking, and fabrication.

EN EL MISMíSIMO MOMENTO (At That Very Moment)

Rita Pauls, Federico Luis

Argentina, Germany, 2023 | 11:47

A boy who lives in the mountains films as he talks. Composed of a single, shaky long shot, this startling portrait of a child's world is as playful as it is dark.

INK IN MILK

Gernot Wieland

Germany, 2018 | 12:30

A meandering, hypnotic story that moves between scenes from an Austrian childhood, Schizophrenia, and crystals, filmed on dusky Super 8 film and interspersed with drawings.

I SIGNED THE PETITION

Mahdi Fleifel

Germany, Switzerland, United Kingdom, 2018 | 10:26

After signing a petition, the filmmaker cycles through feelings of futility and doubt on a phone conversation with a friend.

FOREVER LIVE: THE CASE OF K. GUN

François Bucher

Colombia, Germany, United Kingdom, 2006 | 12:35

Translator and whistleblower Katharine Gun leaked information compromising the U.S. and U.K. governments in their push for a U.N. resolution for the invasion of Iraq. Here, she translates Kafka’s parable "Before the Law" live from Chinese into English over the telephone.

VILLAGE, SILENCED

Deborah Stratman

United States, United Kingdom, 2012 | 07:24

This reworking of a clip from Humphrey Jenning's 1943 THE SILENT VILLAGE, in which coal miners from the Welsh village of Cwmgiedd re-enact the Nazi invasion and annihilation of the resisting Czech villagers of Lidice, suggests the repetition of history and sound as a mode of social control.