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Film short abstract:

In the late 1970s, three identical giraffe sculptures by Hans-Detlev Hennig were put up in the German Democratic Republic: one in Rostock, one in Berlin Köpenick, and one in Frankfurt (Oder). This short documentary takes a look at the current state of those inanimate triplets.

Film long abstract:

In the late 1970s, three identical giraffe sculptures by Hans-Detlev Hennig were put up in the German Democratic Republic: one in Rostock, one in Berlin Köpenick, and one in Frankfurt (Oder). This short documentary takes a look at the current state of those inanimate triplets. Although originally similar in form and intended to remain so, the contexts they were set in have changed their physical shape, their histories and the memories they hold. The film is an experiment to change the objects to subjects and rewrite the stories of the three cities from the perspectives of its silent witnesses.

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Film short abstract:

Freedges are a sharing mechanism aiming to reduce food insecurity and food waste, building a stronger community while sharing food. When examined more closely it seems that there is more behind these actions than the mere desire to reduce food waste, involving affect, empathy and emotions.

Film long abstract:

Freedges are a sharing mechanism aiming to reduce food insecurity and food waste, building a stronger community while sharing food. Everyone can bring food to put in the fridges and they are open for everyone to take the food they want from them. When examined more closely it seems that there is more behind these actions than the mere desire to reduce food waste, involving affect, empathy and emotions.

Empathfridges opens up the doors of the Freedges by examining emotion, affect and empathy through food, as well as exploring the activities and feelings of their users. The aim of the documentary is to go beyond the sharing of food and deeper into what drives people to engage with these emotional practices. The Freedges play the main roles in the documentary by highlighting their agency on people’s actions and meaning-making.

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Film short abstract:

Based on their experiences living and working amongst Soviet-era concrete, panel-block apartments, the filmmaker together with five visual artists, examine past and present attitudes towards their former homes, especially considered in light of Russia's brutal war of aggression in Ukraine.

Film long abstract:

Based on their experiences living and working amongst Soviet-era concrete, panel-block apartments, the filmmaker, together with five visual artists, examine past and present attitudes towards their former homes. Combining touching, personal stories with experimental research on the history of twentieth-century art and architecture, the film creates both a compelling narrative, and a contemporary aesthetic of panel-block mass housing using original watercolors, put into motion using digital animation and stop-motion techniques. Interweaving global and personal histories, the film explores notions of moral and political responsibility as evinced in physical space. On February 24, 2022, Russia began a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine. An early symbol of war became Soviet mass-housing blocks devastated by bombing raids, standing with missing façades and exposed furniture. In newly occupied regions of Ukraine, private Russian contractors are currently building panel-block mega-projects, arguably, to solidify Russia’s presence in the region. As former postsocialist countries have been thrust, or hang on the edge of new humanitarian and political crises, the film expresses its own rallying cry against destruction, all from the vantage point of concrete, panel-block apartments. Empathy for Concrete Things thus considers how modern architecture has become the site of both utopian fantasies, and major calamities that shaped the history of the twentieth century, and continues to shape history today.