Category: Film

  • Workshop: Holistic Compost Lab

    Workshop: Holistic Compost Lab

    Workshop: Holistic Compost Lab

    Saturday morning of our festival is dedicated to the topic of composting. As part of our special topic “Closing the Loop: Living within Planetary Boundaries” we will look at ways how food waste and other nutrients can help to nourish and be reintroduced into soil. In a circa three hour long workshop, Andreas Doerne of the Holistic Compost Lab in St. Peter as part of the festival will give fascinating insights into the composting they do at their site, how it works and what you yourself can do. You can also find out more about the Holistic Compost Lab on their website.

    To reserve a place for the workshop, please send us an email at reservation@greenmotions-filmfestival.de.

    The workshop takes place in the gallery of the Kommunales Kino Freiburg. Those of you who want to learn more about composting and hear inspiring stories about communities that compost on a larger scale can stick around for the screening of People at the Heart of Change and Ben bEartha right after the workshop.

    08.11.25

    10:00 AM

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  • Short films programme + Awards ceremony

    Short films programme + Awards ceremony

    Short films programme + Awards ceremony

    On the final evening of our festival, we show a colourful variety of short documentaries and animated films from our annual short films competition. Like our festival, they are focused on topics of sustainability, environmentalism and social justice.

    After the about one-hour-long programme we start this year’s awards ceremony, where the awards in the special topic category and for the best short film will be given out by our juries of experts. We will also give out the prizes for the best short film in the kids category and the audience award for the best feature length film.

    To close out the festival there will also be a small party with snacks, wine from the Weingut Andreas Dilger and music by the cosmic mints in the gallery of the KoKi.

    09.11.25

    8:30 PM

    Tickets

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  • Purpose

    Purpose

    Purpose

    Director: Martin H. Oetting

    Duration: 96 min

    Language: Various

    Subtitles: German

    The global multi-crisis is accelerating and affects all levels of society: democracy, climate, biodiversity, migration, justice, equality, institutions, farming. And yet, there is no mainstream debate about the issue at the core of many – if not all – of these problems: our economies. How they function, what they deliver and how they are designed is not really part of public discourse. Purpose shows how economists Katherine Trebeck and Lorenzo Fioramonti fight to bring society off of its destructive course.
    Following the film, there will be a discussion with director Martin H. Oetting, a representative from ICLEI and Benedikt Schmid of the chair of geography of the university of Freiburg.

    09.11.25

    6:00 PM

    Tickets

    No seats left? We also show the movie in a parallel screening in the cinema’s smaller gallery room! There won’t be a discussion there, however.

    Gallery Tickets

    Trailer

    Stills

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  • HOLY SHIT: Mit Sch#!$e die Welt retten

    HOLY SHIT: Mit Sch#!$e die Welt retten

    HOLY SHIT: Mit Sch#!$e die Welt retten

    Director: Rubén Abruña

    Duration: 85 min

    Language: Diverse

    Subtitles: German

    What happens to the food we digest after it leaves our bodies? Is it waste to be discarded or a resource to be reused? Looking for answers, director Rubén Abruña embarks on an investigative and entertaining quest through 16 cities across 4 continents. He follows the poop trail from the long Parisian sewers to a huge wastewater treatment plant in Chicago. The presumed solution, adopted around the world, to use the semi-solid remains of the wastewater treatment process as a fertilizer, proves to be a living nightmare, because they contain heavy metals and toxic PFAS chemicals. Can excreta be used to grow food and ease the imminent fertilizer scarcity?
    Following the screening: Discussion with director Rubén Abruña and Andreas Doerne (Holistic Compost Lab) + presentation of the book „Holy Shit“ by publisher Undine Löhfelm.

    06.11.25

    8:00 PM

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    Trailer

    Stills

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  • The Battle for Laikipia

    The Battle for Laikipia

    The Battle for Laikipia

    Directors: Daphne Matziaraki, Peter Murimi

    Duration: 94min

    Language: Swahili, English, Samburu

    Subtitles: English

    The Battle of Laikipia paints a panorama of an escalating conflict in the heart of Kenya: on the Laikipia plateau, nomadic Samburu pastoralists and white landowners have been confronting each other for decades – a legacy of colonial land grabbing that is now being reignited by apocalyptic droughts and disputed water and grazing rights. The film documents how a dangerous dynamic is emerging in the grass-poor plains: Herds are led onto irrigated, fenced-off ranches and armed confrontations escalate.

    After the film, there will be a discussion with Edwin Mutyenyoka of the Arnold-Bergstraesser-Institute.

    07.11.25

    8:30 PM

    Main Screening is sold out!

    But we also show the movie in a parallel screening in the cinema’s smaller gallery room! There will be no discussion in the gallery, however.

    Gallery Tickets

    Trailer

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  • Li Cham (I Died)

    Li Cham (I Died)

    Li Cham (I Died)

    Director: Ana Ts’uyeb

    Duration: 84 min

    Language: Tzotzil

    Subtitles: English

    Li Cham (I Died) is the rebirth of three Tsotsil women. After losing the lives of their babies and family members to patriarchal violence, parts of them die. With the arrival of Zapatismo, their dreams blossom again and they defend the most precious thing they have: their land and a life of independence and hope. The film tells the inspiring story of the women, who had to endure many hardships on their path to independence.

    08.11.25

    6:30 PM

    Tickets

    No seats left? We also show the movie in a parallel screening in the cinema’s smaller gallery room!

    Gallery Tickets

    Trailer

    Stills

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  • Bottlemen

    Bottlemen

    Bottlemen

    Director: Nemanja Vojinović

    Duration: 84 min

    Languages: Serbian, Romanian

    Subtitles: English

    On the outskirts of Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, lies one of the biggest landfills in Europe – Vinča. Once an archeological site of the European neolithic, this toxic place, unsettled by fires, is a workplace for a community of plastic bottle collectors – Bottlemen. In this documentary-western, we follow the last days of this community before their jobs become obsolete, as we focus on the struggle of a good-hearted boxer, Yanika, to be a group leader in a chaotic system.

    09.11.25

    4:00 PM

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  • Birdsong + Au 8ème Jour (Short Film)

    Birdsong + Au 8ème Jour (Short Film)

    Birdsong + Au 8ème Jour (Short Film)

    Directors: Kathleen Harris / Agathe Sénéchal, Alicia Massez, Elise Debruyne, Flavie Carin & Théo Duhautois

    Duration: 60 min (52 min / 8 min)

    Languages: English / No Dialogue

    Subtitles: English

    This double feature showcases the beauty of the natural world and reminds us, how close we are to losing it. The French film Au 8ème Jour delicately illustrates how humans disrupt the balance of Earth’s tightly interwoven ecosystems. This artfully animated film serves as a grim metaphor of humanity’s role on the planet.

    Birdsong presents the ambitious project of ornithologist Seán Ronayne who attempts to make sound recordings of every bird species that still breeds in Ireland. Throughout his journey he travels to some of the country’s most beautiful and remote locations to find its most elusive species and soundscapes. Seán’s search for species is complicated by the fact, that a lot of Irish bird populations are on the verge of extinction. With its intimate animal scenes and its charismatic, authentic protagonist, the film inevitably arouses a fascination of the living world surrounding us.

    08.11.25

    5:00 PM

    Tickets

    Trailer

    Stills

    Birdsong – 1
    Birdsong – 2
    Birdsong – 3
    Au 8ème Jour – 1
    Au 8ème Jour – 2
    Au 8ème Jour – 3

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  • Roots of Resilience: Stories of Caribbean Women in Agriculture + Weeds (short)

    Roots of Resilience: Stories of Caribbean Women in Agriculture + Weeds (short)

    Roots of Resilience: Stories of Caribbean Women in Agriculture + Weeds (short)

    Directors: Curmiah Lisette & Keithlin Caroo-Afrifa / Pola Kazak

    Duration: 62 min (48 min / 14 min)

    Languages: English / No Dialogue

    Untertitel: English

    To start this double screening, Pola Kazak’s Weeds illustrates the relationship between flowers in our gardens and those in nature all around us. Her film, which she animated by painting on glass using stop motion animation techniques, reflects on the human stewardship of the life that surrounds us.

    Subsequently Roots of Resilience tells the story of agriculture on the Caribbean island nation of St. Lucia. In light of St. Lucia’s past journey from indigenous roots through European colonisation and slavery, the film focuses on the inspiring work of the organisation Helen’s Daughters. Led by Keithlin Caroo-Afrifa, it empowers women farmers across the Caribbean with innovative contributions like FarmHers markets and rural training programs.

    08.11.25

    3:30 PM

    Tickets

    Trailer

    Stills

    Roots of Resilience – 1
    Roots of Resilience – 2
    Roots of Resilience – 3
    Weeds – 1
    Weeds – 2
    Weeds – 3

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  • People at the Heart of Change + Ben & bEartha: A Community’s Compost Love Story

    People at the Heart of Change + Ben & bEartha: A Community’s Compost Love Story

    People at the Heart of Change + Ben & bEartha: A Community’s Compost Love Story

    Directors: Karen Logan /Jordan Osmond

    Duration: 66 min (27 min / 39min)

    Language: Englisch

    Subtitles: Englisch

    This double feature is dedicated to an essential aspect of our special topic of living within planetary boundaries – composting. Focusing on a Zero-waste and Environmental justice project in the city of Durban, South Africa, the heart-warming documentary People at the Heart of Change shows the power of small but local solutions with big impact. Waste-pickers, traders, artists, activists and neighbours come together and prove that if we can slow down long enough to listen to each other, we can lay the groundwork for a more just world.

    Ben & bEartha follows the story of passionate composter Ben Bushell of Community Compost, Nelson. Through the inspiring story of Ben and his dedicated composting community, we get to know bEartha, an automatic composting machine that’s about to revolutionise small-scale commercial composting. This inspiring film offers a potentially game-changing approach to making compost on an urban scale.

    After the screening, there will be a discussion about waste management in Freiburg with Veit Cornelis of the ASF.

    08.11.25

    1:30 PM

    Tickets

    Stills

    Ben & bEartha – 1
    Ben & bEartha – 2
    Ben & bEartha – 3
    People at the Heart of Change – 1
    People at the Heart of Change – 2
    People at the Heart of Change – 3

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