Cinema Fairbindet, stylised CINEMA Fairbindet and meaning "CINEMA connects", was an award given by Germany's

Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development The Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (, ; abbreviated BMZ) is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its main office is at the former German Chancellery in Bonn with a second major office at the Eu ...

(BMZ) at the

Berlinale The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

(Berlin International Film Festival) between 2011 and 2014.

History

The

Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit The (GIZ, ) is the main development agency of Germany. It is headquartered in Bonn and Eschborn and provides services in the field of development cooperation, international development cooperation and international education work. The organizat ...

(GIZ) launched the CINEMA Fairbindet award (a play on words in German that roughly translates as "cinema connects fairly") on behalf of Germany's Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in 2011. The and the Federal Agency for Civic Education ( bpb) were collaborative partners, and

Deutsche Welle (; "German Wave"), commonly shortened to DW (), is a German state-funded television network, state-owned international broadcaster funded by the Federal Government of Germany. The service is available in 32 languages. DW's satellite tele ...

supported the film award as a media partner.

Description

The Berlinale represents through its reach and its international reputation a significant place of dialogue, creative interaction and international network and is also the world's largest public film festival. Issues of Development Policy have been addressed in films at the Berlinale for years. Both the programming of the film festival and supporting side events and projects create various opportunities to discuss development policy issues at the Berlinale. The Cinema Fairbindet, sponsored by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) was the first cross-section film award at the Berlinale. It was presented by Germany's development minister Dirk Niebel, and was worth 5,000 euros.

Objective

The award aims at reaching a broad audience for development policy issues, especially for the focus areas of German development policy such as education, health, rural development, good governance,

climate change Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in Global surface temperature, global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate variability and change, Climate change in ...

, etc., in order to implement them as societal responsibility. The nominated films take up thematically related elements in an artistic way. The movies should show the real-life conditions in partner countries without resorting to clichés – and make it clear that if development policy is to be effective in the future, commitment from the business world, civil society, and politics is needed. The Cinema Fairbindet also promotes a dialogue between the audience, film directors and experts in the field of development cooperation during the Berlinale.

Award

The award includes prize money in addition to the implementation of a German-wide roadshow of the winning film. In up to 25 cities the CINEMA Fairbindet Roadshow offers film screenings with a background information programme in the second half of the year.

Jury

An independent international jury consisting of film and media professionals selects the winning film after the film nominations have been effected by the heads of the various Berlinale sections. Cinema fairbindet 2

Award nominees and winners

In 2011, the prize was given to the Iranian director Mohammad-Ali Talebi for his children's film ''Bad o meh'' (''Wind and Fog''), a powerful depiction of the effects of war – especially on children. In 2012, the award went to the documentary ''Call me Kuchu'', directed by

Katherine Fairfax Wright Katherine Fairfax Wright is an American filmmaker and documentarian, best known as co-director with Malika Zouhali-Worrall of the 2012 film '' Call Me Kuchu''.Malika Zouhali-Worrall. The film shows the life and struggle of gay and lesbian activists in Uganda who worked together with human rights activist

David Kato David Kato Kisule ( – 26 January 2011) was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement and described as "Uganda's first openly gay man". He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities ...

, the first openly gay man in Uganda. In 2013, German Development Minister awarded the prize to the Palestinian actresses and the director

Udi Aloni Udi Aloni (; born December 10, 1959) is an Israeli American filmmaker, writer, visual artist and political activist whose works focus on the interrelationships between art, theory, and action. Biography Udi Aloni is the son of Reuven and Shulam ...

, Mariam Abu Khaled and Batoul Taleb for their film ''ART/Violence''. They translate their mourning for the murdered Arab-Jewish founder of the Freedom Theatre, Juliano Mer-Khamis into artistic rebellion against patriarchal oppression and the Israeli occupation in their work. Another film nominated that year was ''Char - The No-Man's Island'', directed by Sourav Sarangi. In 2014 the award was given to the movie ''Concerning Violence'' by the Swedish documentary filmmaker and TV journalist . The movie is about the African Freedom Movement in the 1960s and 1970s, and merges newly discovered archived materials on the violent confrontation with the colonial powers with quotes from Frantz Fanon's "The Wretched of the Earth", recited by Lauryn Hill. The roadshow took place on 17 September 2014 at

Kino Arsenal The Berlin International Film Festival (), usually called the Berlinale (), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europ ...

in Berlin, with a second event on 19 September 2014 in the Rex-Lichtspieltheater in

Bonn Bonn () is a federal city in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, located on the banks of the Rhine. With a population exceeding 300,000, it lies about south-southeast of Cologne, in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr region. This ...

. There were discussions with the director and others after the screenings, and the documentary was then shown in more than 20 German cities. The ''Flowers of Freedom'', a film about the people of

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan, officially the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia lying in the Tian Shan and Pamir Mountains, Pamir mountain ranges. Bishkek is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Kyrgyzstan, largest city. Kyrgyz ...

directed by Mirjam Leuze, was nominated for the award in 2014.

References

{{reflist German film awards 2011 establishments in Germany 2015 disestablishments in Germany