Preparations are underway for the premiere of the Stolperstein films on January 26 and 27 at Puschkino. Titled 'Unseen!', this year's production series sheds light on stories that have long remained in the shadows of memorial culture. The films give voice to women forced into prostitution at Buchenwald concentration camp, and to Kurt Koch from Halle, a gay man whose story has never been told. One production follows Michal Saar Bleiweiß on her journey from Israel to Halle for the installation of a Stolperstein in memory of her father Manfred Katz, and explore with Tanya Yael Raab how antisemitic body norms continue to shape beauty ideals and the pursuit of self-optimization today. Another production documents the attacks on the Stolpersteine in Zeitz, capturing the civil courage of a city that refuses to look away.
On the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust 2025, the Puschkino Halle, in cooperation with the City Museum of Halle (Saale), the Jewish Community, and the Master's program in Multimedia and Authorship, presented four short film productions from the film series "STOLPERSTEINE - Films against oblivion" on January 27, 2025, at 6 PM.
The four short films are the result of a creative process that originated within the Master's program in Multimedia and Authorship seminar Media Practice: Format Development 'STOLPERSTEINE'. In my role as artistic director of the seminar, I introduced the audience to the themes of the films. Together with my colleague Maren Schuster, I curated the program which is based on the quote: 'I am always running behind'. Irene Eber – the protagonist of the Film THE JOURNEY from whom this quote originates – said it in the context of a felt sense of deficiency:
"Had there been no war, I could have gone to school. I would have finished much earlier. I would have received my doctorate, my degree, much earlier. I would have started much earlier, but I am always running behind. I have lost time and I will never catch up."
This persistent feeling of running behind - from different, yet distinctly female perspectives - is the main metaphor within the framework of the films we curated for the screening as well as part of the panel discussion with one of the filmmakers Evi Lemberger after the screening.
Within the anthology "Language and Discrimination / Language Against Discrimination," a joint essay on the topic of "Cultural Expressions of Gaze and Glance" has been published. In it, Leef Hansen is focusing on the "Filmic Documentation and Re-Formation of Perspectives on Traumas in Indonesian Memory Culture" with the title: (Re-)Presenting Silence.
The contribution is based on the presentation during the international conference "Language Against Discrimination" at the Institute of Romance Studies of the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg, which took place from October 11 to October 14, 2022, in Halle (Saale).
The article is co-authored with Prof. Dr. Franzsika Heller, Dr. Anne Fett and Birte Joppien.
During the 37th Film and Media Studies Colloquium, which will take place from March 20 to 22, 2024, at the Institute for Theatre, Film, and Media Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt, Leef Hansen will give a lecture on "Documentary Interventions" as part of Panel 4, which is dedicated to the topic of "Documentary Worldmaking." In his presentation, he will historically situate the role and influence of "Documentary Interventions" as media practices and discuss their connections and relationships to current trends within the (Post-)Documentary movement.
On the occasion of the International Day of Commemoration in Memory of the Victims of the Holocaust 2024, the Puschkino Halle, in cooperation with the City Museum of Halle (Saale), the Jewish Community, and the Master's program in Multimedia and Authorship, presented four short film productions from the film series "STOLPERSTEINE - Films against oblivion" on January 24, 2024, at 6 PM.
The four short films are the result of a creative process that originated within the Master's program in Multimedia and Authorship seminar Media Practice: Format Development STOLPERSTEINE. In my role as the artistic director of the seminar, I introduced the audience to the themes of the films.
Two publications recently appeared in the 09/23 issue of the German Cultural Council's newspaper “Politik & Kultur”. “Debate culture. “History and the present” is the topic of the current september issue, for which Leef Hansen wrote two articles.
The Music Video FAKKT »GIFT« directed by Leef Hansen and Anna Schürmer was part of an expanded cinema performance on Friday 7th of July, 2023 within the framework of the Long Night of Sciences at the LeoLab (Francke Foundations Halle Saale). The music performance of rap-artist FAKKT was combined with an expanded cinema projection by Leef Hansen and Lars Drawert. In addition to that two lectures by Anna Schürmer and Leef Hansen on the subject of AUDIO:VISIONEN - Cultures of debate within images and sound introduced the performative part of the evening. Leef Hansen's lecture focused on VISUAL INTERVENTIONS in general as well as aspects of DOCUMENTARY INTERVENTIONS in particular. In this context, he talked about the artistic process of creating the music video as part of the curation of the annual exhibition of the Francke Foundations 2023/24: STREIT, as well as the concept of the music video in general.
The Music Video FAKKT »GIFT« directed by Leef Hansen and Anna Schürmer will be staged as part of the Long Night of Sciences at the LeoLab (Francke Foundations Halle Saale) on Friday 7th of July, 2023 starting at 8:30 p.m.
There will be two lectures by Anna Schürmer and Leef Hansen on the subject of AUDIO:VISIONEN - Cultures of debate within images and sound as part of an performative video installation combined with an appearance by the rapper FAKKT.
On March 18, 2023, the exhibit FAKKT »Gift« celebrated its premiere as part of the opening ceremony for the annual exhibition of the Franke Foundations.
FAKKT - Gift:
Rap can be considered as an artistic culture of dispute, encompassing both scenic-visual and linguistic-acoustic dimensions. It finds its performative expression in 'battles', in which 'dissing' through words, gestures, and poses is elevated to a stylistic device. These cultural practices of disputing are frequently accompanied by a formalized representation of mockery and shaming. The genre is therefore attractive for artistic transgressions of taboo, through which the boundaries of what can be said are constantly renegotiated and staged anew.
In his contribution to the exhibition, Halle-based rapper FAKKT slips into a role: The artist engages textually, acoustically, and visually in a state of confrontation with internal and external perspectives of 'dissent', which manifests in the music video through stylized gestures, poses, and speech acts. The exhibit deliberately plays with invisible and visible masquerades. What is said and shown is intended as an interpretation of contemporary digital hate comments, which are processed as fragments and worked through (self-)critically within the exhibit GIFT.
SCREENS:
By their very nature, technologically mediated (mass) media such as film, television, or social media make the process of communication complex. After all, these media detach our natural communication – face to face – from the otherwise necessary physical presence. Watching others argue, being entertained, laughing about it, but also thinking, reflecting, commenting, and talking about it – this is what audiovisual media and digital media make possible.
This is primarily seen through screens – or, more broadly – screens in a wide variety of formats: whether the wide widescreen format that unfolds a particular fascination in the cinema, or the former 4:3 television screen, which later adopted the dimensions of 16:9; or, quite emblematically and currently: the characteristic vertical format of the smartphone. These screens, with their specificities, shape communication spaces in manifold ways, in which media users as observers find themselves confronted with many questions: What is my own position toward what I see mediated through media? How am I being positioned? Why do I continue watching? Do I remain passive or do I become active? How do I actually use the images that surround me?
The shooting for the exhibit FAKKT »Gift« for the annual exhibition of the Francke Foundations 2023/24 has been completed and the film project is now entering the post-production phase. The music video will premiere on March 18th, 2023 as part of the opening ceremony at the Freylinghausen Hall.
The shooting phase for the exhibit FAKKT »Gift« for the annual exhibition of the Franke Foundations 2023/24 has started today and will continue until February 24th, 2023. The music video is produced in cooperation with the Francke Foundations.
"STOLPERSTEINE – Filme gegen das Vergessen // Films Against Oblivion" is a series of short films from the master's program Multimedia and Authorship at the Department of Media and Communication at the Martin Luther University in Halle-Wittenberg. As part of the artistic direction, Leef Hansen is responsible for the STOLPERSTEIN films, which will be produced in 2023.
Inspired by artist Gunther Demnig's project, students have been dealing with the people and stories behind the memorial stones in documentary film projects since 2007. In his introductory speech before the film screening at the historical hall of the Stadtmuseum Halle, Leef Hansen first thanked the students and their commitment. "Without you, these films and the associated memories of the Shoah and the Holocaust would not exist."
The Stadtmuseum Halle holds a film screening on the occasion of the German day of remembrance for the victims of National Socialism on Thursday, January 26, 2023 at 6 p.m. Three films by students from the master's program Multimedia and Authorship at the Department for Media and Communication (Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg) from the series "STOLPERSTEINE – Filme gegen das Vergessen // Films against oblivion" will be shown. As artistic director of the STOLPERSTEINE films this year, Leef Hansen will moderate the event and introduce the films to the audience.
Leef Hansen is talking about the possibilities of non-fictional cinema as a place for intervention aside Prof. Dr. Franziska Heller & Dr. Anne Fett at the International Conference of language and discrimination at the University of Halle/Wittenberg.
The conference-lecture takes places at the 13th of October 2022 in Halle/Saale.
There is much and extensive argument about disputes. What are the limits of what can be said - where does constructive discussion end and personal insult and disparagement begin? In 2023, the Francke Foundations are dedicating their annual exhibition to the difficult and socially central topic: DISPUTE. People, media and mechanisms in the 18th Century and today.
As part of the curatorial team for the upcoming annual exhibition, Leef Hansen - together with Franziska Heller - will be responsible for the content selection of one of the 7 exhibition rooms. In addition to that he is also responsible for the content creation of the transition from showroom Screens to showroom Sound Stage. Here he works closely together with Anna Schürmer.
For a new film-project about the Holocaust and the Shoa Leef Hansen met Ivan Ivanji. Ivanji was deported to Auschwitz concentration camp in 1944 and from there to Buchenwald. The conversation took place in Weimar.
A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE is nominated for the Award Best Student Documentary at the 2021 edition of the Close:Up Film Festival Reykjavik and is also nominated for the screening selection of the festival. The film will be available on Filmpixs together with a short Q&A with the directors.
It is a great honor to announce that A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE is nominated for the Award Best Student Documentary at the 2021 edition of the Close:Up Film Festival Reykjavik.
THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS is officially selected for the RETRO AVANT GARDE FILM FESTIVAL 2020. The festival is taking place in Juli 2020. THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS will be shown within the competition for Best Experimental Film.
A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE is officially selected for the 10th Cambodia International Film Festival. The festival is taking place from the 13th until the 22nd of March 2020 in Phnom Penh where the film will have its world premiere. A PLACE BENEATH THE SURFACE will be shown within the Documentary slot “Glimpses of Cambodia” at the Bophana Center.
THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS is officially selected for THE LIFT-OFF SESSION LONDON 2019. The festival is taking place from the 14th of December until the 21st of December 2019 in London.
THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS is officially selected for the Backup and Beyond Film and Media Art Festival 2019. The festival is taking place from the 27th of November until the 1st of December 2019 in Weimar. THE LIBRARY OF UNREADABLE SIGNS will be shown within the competition for best short film.
