duisburger-filmwoche.de<\/a><\/p>\n
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xxx<\/pre>\nUNEASE IN DOCUMENTARIES
\nON THE FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUISBURG FILM WEEK
\n<\/strong>By Patrick Holzapfel<\/p>\n![\"Ich](\"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/Ich-denke-oft-am-Hawaii_D26_04-\u00a9-Quelle-Deutsche-Kinemathek-Copyright-Deutsche-Kinemathek-Elfie-Mikesch-e1771510332548-524x295.jpg\")
Ich denke oft an Hawaii<\/em> by Elfi Mikesch \u00a9 Deutsche Kinemathek \/ Elfi MIkesch<\/p><\/div>\nBest thing to do would be to leave the cinema. You can hardly stand the film anymore; you look away, and would actually like to shout at the screen. Why isn\u2019t anyone complaining? How can they show something like that? What cheek! But you are still sitting there and can\u2019t look away. After all, aversion goes hand in hand with fascination. At some point, the film is over. And suddenly you realize that what you thought was uncomfortable before, is in fact posing questions about your own viewing habits.<\/p>\n
The Duisburg Film Week, which celebrates its fiftieth anniversary this year, has exposed itself to unease since the very start. Given its focus on documentary forms that engage with a world that is uncomfortable at times, this is unavoidable.\u00a0 Duisburg\u2019s defining culture of discussion\u2014after every film, an hour-long discussion takes place in a separate space\u2014allows films\u2019 disruptive and disturbing aspects to become part of the shared, active labor of perception. Reflecting on and emotionally processing what one has just experienced in the cinema reveals the need to negotiate ethical, formal, and representation-critical questions. What can we agree on? Where does an imposition generate productive friction? And when does it become too much?<\/p>\n
We present four examples from the festival\u2019s history: a poeticized perception of a life of poverty in Ich denke oft an Hawaii<\/strong><\/em> (1978) by Elfi Mikesch, the possibly obscene revelation of taboo themes in Baby, I will Make You Sweat<\/strong><\/em> (1994) by Birgit Hein, the imbalance between protagonist and filmmaker negotiated in front of the camera in Uncomfortably Comfortable<\/strong><\/em> (2021) by Maria Petschnig, and the disturbingly intrusive closeness to the protagonists in Das Block<\/strong><\/em> (2007) by Stefan Kolbe and Chris Wright.<\/p>\nUnease is subject to cultural and historical contexts. A scene that was considered offensive just yesterday, can already be viewed as ordinary tomorrow\u2014and vice versa. Representations of sexuality and violence are simply the more widely debated examples in this regard. What\u2019s \u201ctoo much\u201d must be measured in the context of the present moment. As a rule, films that come too close to us, that lastingly disturb or unsettle us, challenge us to see things in a new way. They change our view of cinema, and at the same time, of the world.<\/p>\n
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“The Duisburg Film Week will celebrate its anniversary in 2026: 50 years of documentary films and discussions in a collectively agreed festival format\u201450 years of the present. We\u2019re flattered and delighted to be celebrating with our Austrian friends. The program presents us with challenging\u2014and thereby galvanizing\u2014films that confront viewers\u2019 habits of seeing and ways of looking at the world. Documentaries that understand cinema as a place where what may initially seem unbearable can become the subject of a new perception.” \u2014 Alexander Scholz | Festival Director Duisburg Film Week<\/p>\n
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The Films: Baby, I Will Make You Sweat Birgit Hein DE 1994, 66 min Das Block Stefan Kolbe, Chris Wright DE 2007, 75 min Ich denke oft an Hawaii Elfi Mikesch BRD 1978, 85 min Uncomfortably Comfortable Maria Petschnig US\/AT 2021, 71 min Curated by Patrick Holzapfel, Friederike Horstmann \u2192 duisburger-filmwoche.de UNEASE IN […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-93936","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93936"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93936\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94756,"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/93936\/revisions\/94756"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.diagonale.at\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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