The Hof International Film Festival (HIFF) has been the place for fresh ideas and experimental cinema since it was founded in 1967. The cinema experience remains the central focus of everything. This means not only observing the digital revolution but actively shaping it. With the support of the Rainer Markgraf Foundation, in 2023, HIFF launched the “HoF XR” (Extended Reality) project, which brings immersive film experiences into the festival mix. The project is now entering its second round to explore even more new paths and visions for the cinema of tomorrow.
An absolute highlight this year is the virtual reality (VR) installation Duchampiana, which is boldly dedicated to the topic of body politics. Inspired by Marcel Duchamp’s legendary painting “Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2,” the installation takes the audience on a fascinating journey—a journey on which the female form symbolically escapes conventions and rises up into the sky. It is a powerful act of resilience and self-discovery.
Another fascinating project is Emperor — an interactive VR experience that immerses visitors deep into the brain of a father suffering from aphasia. In a surreal, black-and-white environment, you experience the emotional story of the daughter. She desperately tries to establish a connection with her father despite all the language barriers. As the audience scours the father’s enigmatic memories, they decipher his life story step by step.
In addition, Kollektiv 17 will present a new augmented reality application in which festival visitors will tell the festival’s stories as 3D-scanned avatars in a VR environment. This is part of a larger project that further develops creative formats to connect people and technology.
Additionally, a project on the topic of “democracy” will be put in the spotlight. With interactive workshops and exciting discussions, young people, in particular, will be encouraged to learn more about democratic processes and recognize their influence on cinematic stories.
The HIFF focuses on dialogue and innovation. During the festival, XR panels will take place, inviting discussions about digital transformation and the connection to classic cinema. Digital projects with real questions. Thanks to the Rainer Markgraf Foundation in Bayreuth for their support, which allows us to experience the future together.
The festival’s innovative spirit is reflected in its constant development—especially when it comes to technology.
Duchampiana is an artistic VR installation focused on the theme of body politics. Departing from one of art history’s most notorious paintings—Duchamp’s “Nude Descending A Staircase No. 2”—this immersive installation invites its audience to engage in a physical transgression of social constructs. The female form, once displayed without agency, breaks free from convention as DUCHAMPIANA chooses to move upward, skyward. There is no finish line: the journey towards a free and authentic self means pushing forever onwards. An exercise in resilience and an encounter with truths buried deep within our physical bodies.
About the artist
Location: Bürgergesellschaft Hof
Time: every 2 hours, duration approx. 30min
Seats: 1x XR, 1x VR
Price: Free
Date | Time |
---|---|
23.–25.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. |
26.10. | 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
27.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. |
HoFXR – XR panel talk "Virtual worlds - real questions"
Wednesday, 23 October 2024, 6:00 pm
Bürgergesellschaft
Emperor is an interactive and narrative experience in virtual reality, which invites the user to travel inside the brain of a father suffering from aphasia. It is the story of a man who has lost his ability to speak and of the daughter trying to communicate with him. It is the story of a woman who wasn’t given the chance to know the man behind her father, now obscured by this illness. As she tries to piece together what remains of his language, she discovers that his relationship to words is connected to his memories—the memories of an entire lifetime. Step by step, clue after clue, we will dive alongside her into the inner world of this man in an attempt to decipher the story he can no longer tell us. In a monochrome aesthetic, close to traditional animation, this personal story is told as a journey with surreal overtones, offering an exploration of aphasia as a distant country.
EMPEROR is a poetic experience of the loss of one’s faculties, of the passing of time, and of the bonds that, through it all, remain.
Location: Bürgergesellschaft Hof
Time: every 2 hours, duration approx. 40min
Seats: 2x VR
Price: Free
Date | Time |
---|---|
23.–25.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. |
26.10. | 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
27.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. |
The immersive VR film project “In the Labyrinth of Democracy: Find Your Way!“ offers young people an intensive and interactive experience in which they are introduced to the principles of democracy through virtual reality (VR). The immersive experience and active decision-making processes bring democratic values and processes to life and make them tangible. What is special about the project is that participants experience the story in stereoscopic 3D using VR glasses. At important points, they can decide for themselves how the story continues. In this way, all viewers experience the story very individually and are therefore very close to it.
The VR pilot short film TRUTH IN THE SHADOW was shot as a prelude. In it, investigative journalist Julia Ehrlich (Nadine Knobloch) receives information from several sources that suggests that the city's mayor, Heinrich Feist (Gerhard Polacek), has taken bribes to obtain approval for the construction of a new office complex. If this information turns out to be true, the mayor would have abused his office in the worst possible way, as there is a youth center on the same site, which would then have to make way for the new building project.
The VR pilot short film TRUTH IN THE SHADOW was shot as a prelude. In it, investigative journalist Julia Ehrlich (Nadine Knobloch) receives information from several sources that suggests that the city's mayor, Heinrich Feist (Gerhard Polacek), has taken bribes to obtain approval for the construction of a new office complex. If this information turns out to be true, the mayor would have abused his office in the worst possible way, as there is a youth center on the same site, which would then have to make way for the new building project.
When Julia Ehrlich and her colleague Claudia Merck (Sandra Willmann) investigate, they discover that the mayor was actually bribed. Editor-in-chief Frederik Neuer (Dieter Rupp) sees the potential behind the story, but remains skeptical about publishing it. Not least because the mayor pays him an angry visit in the newsroom and threatens to shut down the daily newspaper just like the youth center.
The pilot film was shot in the newsroom of Badische Neueste Nachrichten and in the film studio of the Filmboard Karlsruhe at the Alter Schlachthof. It was directed by Dr. Oliver Langewitz, with Oskar Tanaka at the 3D camera, flanked by Robert Fuge.
The subsequent planning and development of a VR room together with young people as part of the Long Night of Democracy on October 2, 2024 will make it possible to further deepen the knowledge gained and to generate lasting enthusiasm for democratic engagement.
The project is a cooperation between the Filmboard Karlsruhe e. V., the Lions Club Karlsruhe-Mitte, the Karlsruhe City Youth Committee and the Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences - Institute for Intelligent Interaction and Immersive Experience.
Continuous
Bürgergesellschaft
HoFXR – XR panel talk “In the labyrinth of democracy: Find your way!”
Friday, 25 October 2024, 6:00 pm
Bürgergesellschaft
Kollektiv17 presents an innovative augmented reality application (AR) that enables festival visitors to actively participate in a virtual environment. With the help of 3D scans, participants become digital avatars who tell the stories of the festival themselves in this interactive AR environment. The application offers visitors the opportunity to engage in the festival world in a new way by co-creating its story from their own perspective.
This project is another endeavor by Kollektiv17 that explores the use of XR technologies to bring real people‘s stories to life in digital space. The focus is on the question of how digital tools and immersive technologies can be used to create new forms of creative expression and at the same time strengthen interaction and a sense of community in the context of cultural events.
The ar application offers an exciting opportunity to push the boundaries of traditional festival experiences and take visitors on a completely new, interactive journey.
Location: Bürgergesellschaft Hof
Date | Time |
---|---|
23.–25.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. |
26.10. | 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. |
27.10. | 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. |