Archive notice: This article was originally published on November 24, 2009. Links and embedded videos are preserved as part of the historical record.
How did animation develop at HFF? What influence do technological developments in the film market have on students’ artistic work? Is animation political? What are former students doing today? Konrad Weise, himself an HFF graduate and artistic staff member in the Animation programme, will examine these questions during the evening.
Babelsberg has a long tradition of feature films. Until the fall of the Wall, animation was something of a neglected stepchild: its right to exist was not denied, but neither was it particularly loved. The focus of interest was always the live-action feature film. The Animation programme was founded at HFF in 1984, and over the past 20 years it developed into an artistic and technological heavyweight in the international higher-education landscape. The school’s graduation films have won many important industry awards and appear every year at national and international festivals from Rostock to Rio de Janeiro. “Animation students do not limit their visual motifs to bouncing bulbous noses in colourful costumes; in their films they create a contemporary and intelligent elevation of reality,” Konrad Weise stresses. The range of genres and animation techniques is broad, and Thursday’s stories tell of the things of life, but also of mistreated monkeys, cockroaches in the refrigerator and the devil on the underground. “The audience can expect an entertaining evening in which emotions are not neglected and imagination knows no bounds.”
The programme addresses not only the results of the training in the form of finished films, but also the route taken to reach them. Konrad Weise will speak with his guests Gabor Steisinger and Markus Wende about how young students experienced their studies during times of upheaval and what experiences they later had in their careers.
The event is public and admission is free.
When: Thursday, November 26, 2009, 17:00
Where: HFF “Konrad Wolf”, Marlene-Dietrich-Allee-11, 14482 Potsdam, cinema auditorium
