Laura Horelli’s Namibia Today (2018) will be screened at Exground Filmfest, held from November 16–25 in Wiesbaden, Germany. Namibia Today is included in the short film programme Colonial, screened on Saturday, November 24, at 15:00 in Caligari FilmBühne.
Namibia Today premiered at Forum Expanded programme of the 68th Berlin International Film Festival. Seven people wait in an underground station below Karl-Marx-Allee in former East Berlin. Billboards line the walls, each combining a front page of “Namibia Today” with associative material. “Namibia Today” was a journal of the Namibian liberation movement, which was printed and distributed by the GDR during times of military confrontation with South Africa. SWAPO’s (South West Africa People’s Organisation) editorial board was forced to operate from exile in Angola, and without the ideologically motivated help of the GDR the mass production of the periodical (1980–1985) would not have been possible. Rushing underground trains pick up the slow moving shot between the billboards and the protagonists, between fragments of image and speech. The participants with their memories and diverse ways of storytelling stand still in the movement. Namibia Today has been previously screened in the German competition of Oberhausen International Short Film Festival and awarded with a Honorary Mention at CineMigrante, Buenos Aires.
Laura Horelli (b. 1976, Helsinki) lives in Berlin and works with experimental documentary video. She is interested in representations and mediations of the past taking on a microhistorical approach. Her works have been exhibited at Venice Biennale (2001, 2009), Manifesta 5, (2004), ARS 11, Kiasma (2001, 2011), Galerie Barbara Weiss (2003, 2007, 2011) and Badischer Kunstverein (2014). She has participated in film festivals like Berlinale Forum Expanded (2017, 2018), IndieLisboa (2017), Kasseler Dokfest (2013) and CPH:DOX (2009). In 2011, she received the Hannah Höch Prize for Young Artists.
Exground Filmfest, November 16–25 2018, Wiesbaden, Germany
More information: Exground Filmfest