INTERFILM 40: ESSAY 01: Reality Bites

Like every year, we're thrilled to bring you films in »Reality Bites« that confront you with a difficult choice: true or false? But what is real anyways these days, and what qualifies as fake? Back in the day it was simple: there were mockumentaries that seemed real and docs that were too absurd to be true. We have arrived at the next level of the postmodern, where reality can be fictional and fiction can be real. And what does »real« even mean, when the fictional, the virtual and the freely invented can have totally concrete, real consequences? It's all a matter of perspective.

Welcome to the 40th INTERFILM Festival!

Four decades of DIY, punk and absolute madness – INTERFILM is back and celebrating: Bodies! In a world that unceasingly subjects bodies to norms and treats them like commodities, we are reclaiming them. Every wrinkle, every gesture, every imperfection is unique and writes its own (hi)stories. Like bodies, our festival has also gone through transformations of its own – it's grown, stretched, regrouped, while remaining fluid and hungry for the new. To you, our cells as it were, we provide handpicked films – vibrant, diverse and the furthest thing from monotonous.

For our 40th anniversary we are not only putting a focus on Embodiment but are also looking back at our beginnings: Berlin in the 1980s - a city full of anger, thirst for action and resistances. Rebellious bodies on Super 8 film had become beloved among DIY artist, who told their stories in clubs, cafés and upon the Wall. »We were all dilettants, they called us ingenious.« Born out of street fights, wild fashion shows and rebellious projections, INTERFILM became a platform for everything that dares to resist.

Come and experience the energy! Our screens will turn to skin, upon which all that is raw, imperfect and alive can be seen!

Information about the festival and the whole program: www.interfilm.de

PHOTO: © Film »Been There« by Corina Schwingruber Ilić