Prior to the 23rd edition of goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film, the Kitchen Conversations podcast was joined by the manager and artistic director of the festival – Heleen Gerritsen. In the course of the talks, Gerritsen spoke about the history of the festival, its programme and its general approach to screening and discussing Eastern European cinema within the context of Western Germany.
Since the 1980s, the Deutsches Filminstitut und Filmmuseum (then known as Deutsches Institut für Filmkunde) had been organising East European cinema weeks on behalf of the federal government in order to introduce West Germans to the culture of their eastern neighbours. In April 2001, the film institute took up this tradition once again and launched goEast. Since then the festival has been held in Wiesbaden, each year has featured new, innovative filmmakers from Central and Eastern Europe but also the Caucasus and Central Asia.
Heleen Gerritsen, originally from the Netherlands, studied Slavonic Languages and Economics in Amsterdam and St. Petersburg. Prior to taking over the management of goEast in 2017, Gerritsen worked as a film producer and also founded her own film production company called Serious Directions. In the podcast, she gives an insight into the work of a festival organiser, including the process of selecting films for the festival, as well as relevant topics to raise and discuss – especially in light of the current geopolitical situation in Ukraine and other countries affected by the imperialist policy of the Russian Federation.
This year the goEast Film Festival will take place between 26 April and 2 of May in Wiesbaden (state of Hesse). The audience can look forward to, among others, a retrospective programme of films by Bosnian filmmaker Jasmila Žbanić, a masterclass by Polish filmmakers Elwira Niewiera and Piotr Rosołowski, a historical animation programme of psychedelic movies from the 70s and 80s made in Estonia and Hungary, as well as a symposium on the urgent topic of “Decolonizing the (Post-)Soviet screen”. Check out the festival’s programme and go get your tickets!
Listen to the podcast here:
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(C) Guardian Of The Frontier, Maja Weiss, 2002 -
Space Age Animation, (C) Värvilind, Rein Ramaat, 1974 -
(C) A Racs, Gyula Macskássy, Gy Várnai, 1970 -
(C) Okkupatsiya: Misterii, Andrey Kudzinenka, 2004 -
After After, Jasmila Žbanić, 1997, courtesy by goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film -
Space Age Animation, (C) Nekem Az Élet Teccik Nagyon, Kati Macskássy, 1977
Kitchen Conversations is an independent podcast platform produced by the artist Patrycja Rozwora (since May 2020). To support further development of the projects become a patron via patreon.com/kitchenconversations.
