interfilm Agency

BE A BETTER BEING

Self versus system: film meets science!

The Junge Akademie, in co-operation with the Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, filmArche, interfilm Berlin, the Deutsche Kinemathek and the media partner H-Soz-Kult, is calling for contributions from filmmakers anywhere in the world to the competition of the forum be a better being.

Highlights and winners from the film competition, revealing the reflections emerging from science, film, and the public sphere.

The project website no longer exists.

Die Junge Akademie launches with the short film competiton ´be a better being´ the discussion through film makers and academics on the 17th to the 18th of November 2016 in the Deutsche Kinemathek. The talks will reflect the desire to ameliorate tensions between individual and society.

The films selected by the jury will be presented in mid-November 2016 at the two-day forum be a better being and will provide the basis for discussions between filmmakers and scholars. Some of the contributions will be available for viewing and discussion beforehand on the online platform www.betterbeing.info. The contributions presented online will not necessarily be part of the competition and may include films produced more than three years ago.

Session 1 › What a difference a day makes … - more
Session 2 › Ain´t No Way? - more
Session 3 › Another Brick in The Wall - more
Session 4 › Don´t stop me now! - more
Award Ceremony

Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck will moderate the event. - Entrance is free.

‘Be a better being!’ is a phrase that is generally directed at oneself. Its focus is the increasingly widespread drive for individual improvement, the desire to become a “better being”. Yet what does it mean to be a “better being”? What criteria should be used to define such a concept? Many of the measurements we hear about nowadays are based on an ideal body, an ideal depth of meditation, an ideal diet, or even an ideal stress level. The often opaque norms of apps, of self-help books, of the marketing world produce certain concepts of what a human is or should be.

be a better being is looking for short films that deal with these phenomena in creative and unconventional ways. Submissions should authentically portray the large, small, and odd aspects of the diverse ways in which our world manifests itself as a place of actual or imagined self-improvement, thus contributing to a dialogue between scholars, filmmakers, and society at large.

We award a screening fee of 300,- EUR to all films selected for screening during the Forum scheduled for November 2016. In addition, an audience prize of 1000,- EUR will be awarded.

The project is led by Dr. Philipp Kanske Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Prof. Dr. Magdalena Nowicka, Humboldt Universität zu Berlin and Dr. Evelyn Runge, Fellow der Martin Buber Society, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.Philipp Kanske is Member of Die Junge Akademie, Evelyn Runge and Magdalena Nowicka are Alumnae. The script writer Bobby Henzler is coordinating the project.

The project from Die junge Akademie is supported by Commerzbank Stiftung. Partners are Filmuniversität Babelsberg Konrad Wolf, Filmarche, Deutsche Kinemathek and interfilm Berlin. Mediapartner is H-Soz-Kult

 

Remember the Kick off at interfilm 2015

Be a Better Being: Introducing a new Format

Remember: The project started one year ago at the interfilm interforum with the Kick off at Grüner Salon. We announced the theme, discussed it, even put a film in focus.

And: we ate a great cake!

Several films from the competition you still can find onlinebetterbeing.info/films-online

Filmtalks

Filmstills