Living Archives

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

Film Festival: Where the Wind Scatters Seeds;
7.−9. February 2025
Filmhaus Köln

Where The Wind Scatters Seeds, memories bloom from barren ground of tears in the soil, whispers of forgotten friends, shadows of distant homes, erased faces on torn photographs. Echoes of yesterday, dreams of tomorrow. 

Over the course of three days, a carefully curated film program, born from interdisciplinary collaboration - takes shape. 
Weaving together the intersection of memory, dislocation, and radical solidarity, the program uses film to confront, as well as imagine beyond colonial violence and the ways it warps our sense of self, community, time and space. Complimenting the film program with alternative media forms such as food, music, an interactive drawing corner & a healing conversation circle, the cinema is transformed into a space for nurturing ancestral forms of belonging. It reflects on the essence of home—its presence, what it carries, and the void left in its absence. The showcased works examine the act of remembering, transforming archives into dynamic spaces for resistance, reclamation, and processes of un-learning.

Curated by:

Schaho Balbas

Vincent E.

Idil Xaashi Hassan

Julia Jesionek

Lan Mi Le

Polina Resnianska

Sarah Savalanpour

Shadi Tabibzadeh

Safiya Yon

DAY 3: Radical Kinship: Reimagining Communities Through Solidarity
The films in this program invite us to traverse the labyrinths of colonial violence, resistance, and radical imagination. They explore how communities, beyond oppression and alienation, can forge connections with one another. By examining the shared experiences of groups affected by colonialism across different geographic contexts, the program fosters solidarity between communities suffering from colonial violence and its aftermath.

Starting from the Vietnamese diaspora, the films delve into forced migration and cultural survival, exploring how living archives are constructed through personal histories. These intimate insights challenge dominant narratives shaped by power structures, which are perpetuated by selective forgetting. These works examine the complex process of negotiating identity "in the belly of the beast". This confrontation with identity under colonial legacies is not only an act of survival, but also reclaiming of self in spaces shaped by systemic forces of control.

The second part of the program shifts focus to film as an archive of resilience, one that documents testimonies of colonial violence. These works disrupt established historical narratives and open new pathways to present collective suffering and resistance. The films urge questioning the systemic conditions that distort or erase the testimonies of marginalized subjects, encouraging new ways of listening and understanding. The screen becomes a space for deconstructing past and present traumas, enabling the creation of alternative methods and perspectives of documenting vulnerability.

The concluding section shifts towards radical imaginations from black and Kurdish resistance movements: What could a world beyond colonial legacies look like? These films imagine ways of living, creating, and being together outside the structures of imperial control. Through documentation of revolutionary practice, they break inherited hierarchies and propose alternative visions grounded in justice, reciprocity, and liberation.

In presenting these perspectives, the films invite the audience to view solidarity as a tool for healing and transformation.

Program #1: Living Archives

Short film program:

Roan (D: Thùy Trang Nguyễn; Germany 2019; 12'; Vietnamese; English subtitles)
An elderly Vietnamese grandmother and her German-born grandchild spend a quiet day together in her apartment, bridging cultures and generations through tender moments, small discoveries, and profound reflections on life.

What If (D: Ngọc Anh Phan; Germany 2021; Vietnamese, English, German subtitles)
Exploring the 'what-ifs' of her parents' meeting, director Ngọc Anh Phan pieces together fragments of memory, weaving through time and space to uncover hidden layers of her family's history.

What The Soil Remembers (D: José Cardoso; 29'; English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, English subtitles)
«What the Soil Remembers» examines the trauma of a community uprooted during the Apartheid regime, making way for an educational institution that would become synonymous with the foundation of white supremacist ideologies. The film follows a group of elders who illuminate the screen with their approach to the problem. The collective wisdom and patience embedded in their actions is what a nationalist regime tried to violently take away from them years earlier. 

Curated by Schaho Balbas, Idil Xaashi Hassan, Lan Mi Lê and Safiya Yon

IMPORTANT NOTES
If you don't have a ticket, come by and we will put you on the waiting list.
If you have a ticket, please come earlier (at least 15min). If you are late, we might give your place to the people on the waiting list.