Two Rivers and a Wind

Film Festival: Where the Wind Scatters Seeds;
February 7-9, 2025
Filmhaus Cologne

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.

Ido Hassan

Julia Jesionek

Lan Mi Le

Polina Resnianska

Sarah Savalanpour

Shadi Tabibzadeh

Safiya Yon

DAY 2

Our Eyes Have Exhausted the Vocabulary of Death/

Borrowing its title from Etel Adnan's Jenin, this program brings together films that challenge the colonial and authoritarian use of visual media. By reframing archives as spaces of resistance and reclamation, these works highlight memory's survival and vulnerability, offering insights into how storytelling can preserve histories, forge solidarity, and foster hope amidst loss.
Organized into three sections-Two Rivers and a Wind, Resisting Oblivion, and Vocabulary of Absence-the program traverses landscapes of conflict and displacement, connecting stories across borders to expose shared struggles and resist erasure.

Program #1: Two Rivers and a Wind

Two Rivers and a Wind examines the role of visual media in occupation and dispossession. Spanning Taiwan, Palestine, and Buryatia, these films reveal the structures of occupation and preserve ancestral memory, reclaiming visual media as a tool for solidarity.

Films:

Water Sleep II Akaike River under Xizang Road

We Have Always Known the Wind's Direction

The River I Grew Up With

Curated by Vincent E., Sarah Savalanpour and Shadi Tabibzadeh

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.

In the organizer's words:

Film Festival: Where the Wind Scatters Seeds;
February 7-9, 2025
Filmhaus Cologne

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 Lê

Polina Resnianska

Sarah Savalanpour

Shadi Tabibzadeh

Safiya Yon

DAY 2: Our Eyes Have Exhausted the Vocabulary of Death
Borrowing its title from Etel Adnan's Jenin, this program brings together films that challenge the colonial and authoritarian use of visual media. By reframing archives as spaces of resistance and reclamation, these works highlight memory's survival and vulnerability, offering insights into how storytelling can preserve histories, forge solidarity, and foster hope amidst loss.
Organized into three sections-Two Rivers and a Wind, Resisting Oblivion, and Vocabulary of Absence-the program traverses landscapes of conflict and displacement, connecting stories across borders to expose shared struggles and resist erasure.

Program #1: Two Rivers and a Wind
Two Rivers and a Wind examines the role of visual media in occupation and dispossession. Spanning Taiwan, Palestine, and Buryatia, these films reveal the structures of occupation and preserve ancestral memory, reclaiming visual media as a tool for solidarity.

Short film program:

Water Sleep II Akaike River under Xizang Road (D: Su Yu Hsin; Taiwan 2019; 10'; English/Japanese/Traditional Chinese, English subtitles)
Maps are controlled by nation-states: who creates them, what they will look like, how they will be read, and how they will be shared. water sleep II Akaike river under Xizang Road is an essay film which the artist guide us to find the lost river in historical maps.

We Have Always Known the Wind's Direction (D: Inas Halabi; Palestine 2019-2020; 11'; Arabic, English subtitles)
Fragments of landscapes and voices cohere into a rich exploration of the unrepresentable in this film about the possible burial of nuclear waste in the South of the West Bank and the invisible networks of power that control the region.

The River I Grew Up With (D: Natalia Papaeva; The Netherlands 2022- 2023, 30'; Russian/Buryat, English subtitles)
"The River I Grew Up With" captures Orlik's landscape and family tales, blending Buryat and Russian through a bilingual mother-daughter duo. Papaeva uses red and green text to depict a family's view of a shifting culture.

Curated by Vincent E., Sarah Savalanpour and Shadi Tabibzadeh

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.

Price information:

7,89 € / 4,74 € / 11,05 €