Catalogue > Un extrait vidéo au hasard

SCHICHT (SHIFT) unfolds the portrait of the filmmaker's family - brought to life by records from private archives - and embarks on a dizzying trip through the shrinking industrial city of Salzgitter, Germany. A city that is a cyborg with an iron skeleton and a heart beating 1000 metres deep under layers of soil and concrete. Mining, steel factory, model city. Upon the years 33 and 45, the first post-war generation projects itself into the future. Rudolf Gerbaulet completes his apprenticeship at the Reichswerke AG (formerly known as Hermann-Göring-Werk), works in the mine and at the Volkswagen plant. His wife Doris suffers from multiple sclerosis. Her diary is an expression of her slow disappearance. They name their first daughter after a singer: Alexandra. As a rebellious punk the daughter finds her own rhythm. Pulsating, sometimes breathless, the film follows the exposed stories. The filmed locations are attacked with archival material: propaganda, news, photos from family albums. Everything is subjected to the filmmaker's interpretation. A film between analysis and imagination, composed of the punk of the filmmaker's youth, accompanied by the roar of the steel mill and the noise of the highway. Interrupted by the cutting silence of abandoned mines, in which from 2020 nuclear waste will be dumped. Half-life of 24,000 years. 685 generations

Alex Gerbaulet, * 1977, artist, filmmaker and curator, lives and works in Berlin. Between 2000 and 2007 she studied Philosophy, Media Science and Fine Arts in Braunschweig (Germany) and Vienna. In 2008 she was awarded a scholarship from the Hans-Bückler-Foundation, in 2011 she was selected for Berlinale Talent Campus DOK Station, in 2012 she received a scholarship from the Mayor of Berlin (program for women artists) and in 2014 a grant from Art- und Culture-Foundation Stade (Germany). Between 2006 and 2011 she was a member of the Selection Committee of the Documentary Film- and Video-Festival in Kassel (Germany); 2012 and 2013 member of the Selection Committee of the European Media Art Festival (EMAF) in Osnabrück (Germany). From 2007-2011 she was staff member at the University of Arts in Braunschweig, 2012-2014 she tought at the University of Arts in Kassel. Since 2014 she works as a producer with Pong Film GmbH in Berlin. For her artwork the notion of documentarism gives an important impact. She has made several video-art projects among them BY LAND (2002), DATTERODE (2006), TATTOOED PRISONERS (2007) and ALREADY AFTERNOON (2009) in the art context. SCHICHT (SHIFT, 2015) is her first film specially for the cinema space. It was awarded with the prize for the best contribution to the German Competition at the International Short Film Fest Oberhausen, the First Film Award at FID Marseille, the German Film Critics Award 2015, the Award for Best Female Director at the Vienna Independent Shorts Festival 2016, the Jury Award of the German Competition at the International Short Film Festival Hamburg and was awarded 'Best Documentary Film' at the Moscow International EXperimental Film Festival 2016.