SHORT MONDAY

In the organizer's words:

Regularly on the second Monday of the month at 8 pm at Filmhaus Köln, Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Cologne

Short Monday - The Short Film Monday at Filmhaus Köln
An initiative of the KFFK/Kurzfilmfestival Köln, the SK Stiftung Kultur and the Filmhaus Kino - curated in rotation between the three cooperation partners.
Admission: 8 € / 6 € reduced

Monday, September 09: Excavated - Rhenish lignite mining area
Presented by the SK Stiftung Kultur in cooperation with Köln im Film

For decades, great sacrifices have been made for the raw material lignite in the Rhenish mining area: In the mining areas Garzweiler I, II and in the Hambach mine, the energy company RWE extracts lignite from the ground at depths of up to 200 meters. The coal is extracted using gigantic bucket wheel excavators, burned in coal-fired power stations and fed into our sockets as electricity. To achieve this, around 41,000 people were displaced from their home villages, resettled, dispossessed and relocated to new development areas - their houses and farms with memories were demolished and dredged up. The Rhenish mining area is the largest emitter of CO² gases in Europe. At the beginning of October 2022, the German government reached an agreement with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the utility company RWE to phase out lignite-fired power plants in the Rhenish mining area by 2030.

The recultivation of the remaining areas has also been underway for decades, landscape and nature conservation areas have been created and animal species have been introduced - on an even larger scale in the future: The largest part of the pit remaining in Garzweiler is to be transformed into a lake from 2030. For around 70 years, around 60 million cubic meters of water will then be channelled from the Rhine into the pit every year. The lake that is to be created there will be up to 190 meters deep, cover an area of 23 square kilometers and have a capacity of 2 billion cubic meters of water. This corresponds to around one thirtieth of the annual discharge of the Rhine at Cologne.

The short film program "Ausgebaggert" in cooperation with Köln im Film provides insights into this enormous transformation and allows those affected and experts to speak.

Curated by Birgit Hauska and Stefanie Wüster-Bludau

Films in the program:

Voracious open-cast mining from Toxic Tour (5/6), Squawk, F 2021, 6'25, documentary The "biggest hole in Europe" has been controversial for four decades. There is hardly a greater intervention in nature, cultural landscape and water balance than this open-cast mine in the Rhenish mining area.

Excerpt from Rheinische Braunkohle, Kuhlenbau und Klüttenmachen, D 1983, LVR-Institut für Landeskunde und Regionalgeschichte, abridged version approx. 11'35 Pre-industrial lignite mining for heating private stoves - the lignite is still produced by hand as a lump, later as briquettes.

Kölner Wochenschau No. 7 - Der große Kahlschlag, D 1978, abridged version ca. 15'
Between Cologne and Aachen, Rheinbraun, a subsidiary of the RWE energy group, begins to mine brown coal in 1978. Huge areas of land have to be removed (85 square kilometers), some of which still belong to the farmers living there. The 1000-year-old Hambach forest is also to fall victim to the mine. Statements by those affected, members of the citizens' initiative against open-cast mining and a local councillor from Hambach contrast with Rheinbraun's official statements. The Kölner Wochenschau, an alternative video magazine, used this footage to create counter-publicity - a contemporary document on open-cast lignite mining in Hambach.

41812 Pesch, Jens Standke, D 2010, 6'30 min. Windows... doors... houses... a line of streets... Some houses seem uninhabited... The camera glides past bricked-up windows and overgrown steps. This documentary miniature is a brief observation of the strangely predetermined situation of a village in the Bay of Cologne. Since the beginning of 2012, the area around the village of Pesch has belonged to the Garzweiler II open-cast mine. Pesch has disappeared!

Good Soil, Sebastian Lemke, D 2013, 8', documentary Garzweiler II also includes the village of Borschemich with 258 properties and 645 inhabitants. In the year of filming, all but 50 people have left the village. Among the remaining people on site are the twin brothers Helmut and Joachim Meier, who have been running a market garden there for three decades. We witness their thoughts. To preserve Borschemich for posterity, they are planning a replica of the village for their large model railway layout. Heimspiel, Julia Groteclaes, D 2021, 29', documentary The film delves into the microcosm of the "village" and tells the story of those affected by lignite mining in the Rhineland up close and emotionally. The political vacillation and constant weighing up of the options means that the local people, who are directly affected by the political timetables, have no peace of mind, either then or now. This is about feelings of home, neighborhoods and a lot of money.

Heimspiel, Julia Groteclaes, D 2021, 29', documentary The film delves into the microcosm of the "village" and tells the story of those affected by lignite mining in the Rhineland up close and emotionally. The political vacillation and constant weighing up of the options means that the local people, who are directly affected by the political timetables, have no peace of mind, either then or now. This is about feelings of home, neighborhoods and a lot of money.

The program will be followed by an audience discussion with those affected and experts. N.N.

The film series "Short Monday - Der Kurzfilm-Montag im Filmhaus Köln" is an initiative of the KFFK/Kurzfilmfestival Köln, the SK Stiftung Kultur and the Filmhaus Kino and is curated alternately by the three cooperation partners. The series, which takes place on the second Monday of each month, aims to give short film greater public visibility and a regular platform in Cologne.

Location: Filmhaus Köln, Maybachstraße 111, 50670 Cologne

Further information:

https://www.kffk.de/2023-best-of-festivals/
https://www.kffk.de/short-monday/
www.filmhaus-koeln.de