Film & Talk: If Objects Could Speak
Upcoming Event:
Film & Talk:
If Objects Could Speak
13/01/2022
6 pm CET / 8 pm EAT
Online
Join us for an online screening of the film "If Objects Could Speak" followed by a panel discussion including the filmmakers and members of IIP!
Film Synopsis:
A mysterious wooden object from Kenya is stored in the Linden Museum in Stuttgart. All that is known about its origin is that it was entered in the inventory book in 1903. Why doesn’t the museum know more about it? This does not seem to be unusual in Europe: Countless non-European objects are hidden away in depots and have never been exhibited. Their existence is therefore known neither to the local public nor to the societies of origin.
Two young filmmakers, he from Kenya, she from Germany, want to find out more about this object. Since it is not possible to take the physical object with them, they create a 3D digital copy and go on an adventurous journey with an open end. They encounter young people in the streets of Nairobi and skeptical but knowledgeable elder people in the villages of the Kikuyus. They find out a lot - both about the object and about our common history, and ongoing relationship as Kenyans and Germans.
Nominated for the African Movie Academy Award 2020.
Won the Osmane Sembène Short Film Award 2021.
Panelists:
Elena Schilling, born 1991, studied General Rhetoric and Philosophy in Tübingen. Currently she is studying film directing at Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. She was involved in designing the web portal „Daheim in der Fremde“ („At home abroad“, European Media House, Stuttgart / SWR) and created various movies and installations during her studies. Mixed media plays an important role in her work. In these days she is finishing her diploma project.
Filmography: HEUTE NICHT (2016), NETTE KERLE (2017), SCHREIBTISCHTÄTER (2017), 82 QUADRATMETER (2018), IF OBJECTS COULD SPEAK (2020).
Saitabao Kaiyare is a writer, director, and producer from Kilifi, Kenya. He is an alumnus at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg in Germany. His films, documentary, and TV shows have been critically acclaimed across numerous film festivals internationally and won accolades. He is the creative director and co-founder at Baruu Collective, a multi-media production house that re-thinks and re-imagines the African narrative and goes beyond documentation to create a conducive environment for sustainable audience and community participation in the conservation of cultural heritage.
Filmography: PSYCHO (2013), DECEIT (2013), SEPTEMBER (2014), OSILIGI (2016), CAREER TALK (2017), THE SYSTEM (2018), EXCUSE, PARDON MY MANNERS! (2019), IF OBJECTS COULD SPEAK (2020)
George Juma Ondeng’ studied MA Cultural Heritage and International Development at the University of East Anglia (UK). He is currently working for the National Museums of Kenya as Keeper Antiquities, Sites and Monuments - Western Region. He is also one of the founding members of the International Inventories Programme – an international research and database project that investigates Kenyan objects held in museums and heritage institutions worldwide - which came into being in 2018. George Juma Ondeng´ has been part of the curatorial team of the Invisible Inventories Exhibition: questioning Kenyan Collections in Western Museums; an international exhibition held in three cities of Nairobi (Kenya), Cologne and Frankfurt (Germany).
Simon Rittmeier studied visual arts and film at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Hamburg and at Academy of Media Arts Cologne. His works, both experimental and essayistic, explore the power of moving images and their political impact. His films fluctuate between documentary and fiction and are always the result of a strong bond with unique stories and places.
In 2009 he received the First Prize of the NRW Competition at the Oberhausen Film Festival for "A Taste of Honey", that was developed during a residency in Cuba. Together with Sam Hopkins he developed the artist book "Letter to Lagat", that was published 2015 and that is part of an ongoing investigation into objects, agency and cultural patrimony. Since 2018 he is part of the SHIFT Collective, a multidisciplinary art collective between France and Germany.
Festivals and exhibitions include EMAF, Visions du Réel, Nyon, and The Studio Museum Harlem, New York.