Focus Weaving Tomorrows

We don't exist in a vacuum, but in stories, relationships and networks instead. Our individual selves and our collective identity arise from stories which we share with one another. Our FOCUS section takes a look at historical situatedness, at traditions, at cultural heritage, at the communities that we have and that we form, and asks: What can we find here to survive the grim era that surrounds us, to strengthen one another and protect cultural identities from erasure?

Weaving Tomorrows counters the capitalist logic of isolation with short films – as a tool to practice solidarity, develop resilience and weave utopias. We ask: How do film and the short film format help us to preserve traditions, cultural heritage and communities? How do counternarratives become sparks of resistance?

In five programs, 25 short films delve into time and memory in Indigenous communities, the invisibility of FLINTA* directors in the male-dominated history of film, pre-Nakba Palestinian film heritage, how queer and anti-colonial thought re-evaluate spaces and relationships and a retrospective look at the work of director Bassel Shehadeh, who was murdered in the Syrian Civil War. Between resistance, memory and future, we explore how stories can shape our world – radically, subversively, forging vital connections.