The Anniversary – 20 years Three-Minute Quickie

It has been two decades since the festival's two old fogeys, Markus Schäfer and Axel Behrens, had an idea. Back then, the festival was still called “No Budget Festival Hamburg” and they were sitting in a cosy bar in the “Karolinenviertel”, when they came up with a concept that would eventually turn into one of the festival's trademarks: What would film makers come up with if they were to be given a subject and a maximum film-length of three minutes? The Three-Minute Quickie was born and the filmmakers reacted. In the beginning, this reaction was rather humble: For the first subject, “The Hole”, 13 films were submitted and all of them got screened. But as the years went by, the participation became more dedicated and numerous. Thus, the competition turned into a main attraction, and by now more than 200 film makers from all over the world are doing their “home assignment” for the festival every year. Of these, the “Primus inter Pares” is mercilessly judged and showered with laurels in the crowded cinematic arenas.

Ever since, it has been obvious that the Three-Minute Quickie is a real “everyman's competition”. Even though there is an occasional professional production using 35mm or Betacam in the programme, the majority of the contributions have been and still are amateur films. At the same time, the contributions of the last twenty years mirror the technical development of film material and recording equipment. In the beginning, Super 8 was the dominating material; later S-VHS and Hi 8 held sway over the silver screens, and these days the programme mainly consists of Mini-DV productions.

But in spite of tiny budgets and chaotic recording conditions (or even because of them), these home videos are bubbling over with wit and creativity. The submitted films fed an ever-growing pool of films, without which the legendary Trash-Nites of the 90s wouldn't have been half as entertaining.

To mark the anniversary, the festival will be taking a look back and will be presenting 35 films from the entire history of the festival – in a relaxed atmosphere without the tension of a poll. A “Best of 20 Years”, so to speak, in which the curators have chosen a completely subjective path through the jungle of topics. The “Best of”-part doesn't exclusively refer to the award winning films of the past competitions. The programme will include outstanding films which didn't have the audience votes on their side, as well as contributions by film makers who had been with us from the beginning and who stayed close to the competition without gaining any laurels. Some years will have more entries than others, but all share the same sensible passion and creativity in implementing their ideas, no matter how absurd and bizarre. What counts is the approach to topics like “Money”, “Trembling”, “Mother”, “Fish” or “Football”. For that, we have always admired all of the filmmakers out there. This is why we would like to cordially thank all participants for their unwavering and ever growing co-operation at completing their “home-assignments” for the Three-Minute Quickie.

Wednesday, 6 June, 22.00 h, Metropolis

Sunday, 10 June, 19.30 h, Lichtmeß

 

 

Die Bürgerinitiative (Citizen’s Associations)

Folke Kerckhoff, Germany 1987

Fiction, 03:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Mein wunderbares Klo (My Beautiful Toilet)

Reinhard Westendorf, Germany 1988

Experimental Documentary, 03:08 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Zeichenfischfilm (Anifishonfilm)

Markus Kempken, Germany 1989

Animation, 02:30 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Mutter schafft mich (Mother Kills Me)

Reinhard Westendorf, Germany 1990

Fiction, 02:50 Min., German OV

 

 

Gauner, Geld und gute Laune (Gangster, Money and good Humor)

Matthias Stoltze, Germany 1990

Fiction, 03:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Schwitzen (To Sweat)

HL/TV-III, Germany 1991

Fiction, 01:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Zipp-Rap

Peter Pabst & Gacks Lütje, Germany 1992

Fiction, 02:58 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Vegetaren (The Vegetarian)

Jes Andersen & Niels Grønllykke, Denmark 1992

Animation, 02:00 Min., without dialogues

 

 

Chinesisches Kriegsgericht (Pasta Invasion)

Miko Zeuschner, Germany 1993

Animation, 03:30 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Le Repas (The Meal)

Jon Carnoy, France 1993

Fiction, 02:48 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Alt som ingenting (All as Nothing at All)

Torbjørn Skårild, Norway 1993

Experimental Fiction, 02:00 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Golden Gate

Oleg Korastelev & N. Tkachenko, Belarus 1993

Animation, 03:00 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Bettzeit (Bedtime)

Lars Henning, Germany 1996

Fiction, 01:34 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Mit Mutti ins Paradies (With Mommy to Paradise)

Bettina Schoeller, Germany 1996

Documentary, 03:45 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Konterrevolution (Counterrevolution)

Verena Kraemer, Germany 1997

Animation, 02:45 Min., German OV

 

 

 

In Bar (Cash)

Björn Zielaskowsky, Germany 1997

Fiction, 02:06 Min., German OV

 

Ja ja die schönste auf der Welt ist meine Bar (Did you Happen to See the most Beautiful Bar in the World)

Dagie Brundert, Germany 1998

Fiction, 01:00 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

 

Fuck die Scheisse (Fuck that Shit)

Susanne Hofer & Urs Hofer, Switzerland 1998

Animation, 02:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

 

Der große Möllmann (The Big Möllmann)

Bernhard Zipfel & Julia Harzer, Germany 1998

Fiction, 03:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Schnee von Gestern (Yesterday's Snow)

Eva Sütterlin & Daniel Nocke, Germany 1999

Animation, 02:04 Min., German OV

 

 

Moskau (Moscow)

Reinhard Westendorf, Germany 2000

Musikclip, 02:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Out the Fire

Luke Jaeger, USA 1999

Animation, 03:30 Min., English OV

 

 

 

Schüssel (Satellite Dish)

Anna Berger, Germany 2000

Documentary, 03:44 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Flatsch

Thomas Oberlies & Helge Weichmann, Germany 2000

Fiction, 03:10 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Quench

Jim Lacy, Daniel Haude & Kathrin Albers, Germany 2002

Animation, 02:00 Min., without dialogues

 

 

Hard Time

Bill Kabel, USA 2000

Fiction, 03:00 Min., English OV

 

 

 

Pop Musik (Pop Music)

Jörg Wagner & Markus Schaefer, Germany 2002

Fiction, 02:30 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

 

The Snoozatron

Loyd Price & Christopher Sadler, England 2002

Animation, 02:18 Min., English OV

 

 

 

Grundig Super Stereo

Klaus Hammerlindl, Germany 2004

Documentary, 02:09 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Best of Lukas M (The Best of Lukas M.)

Lukas Müller & Stephan Müller, Germany 2004

Docu-Fiction, 03:30 Min., German OV

 

Eventuell, eventuell – gewinnt heute der VfL (Maybe, Maybe the VFL Will Win Today)

Lars Kühl & Martin Hirsch, Germany 2004

Music Video, 01:13 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Zwei absolute Giganten (Two Absolute Giants)

Carsten Knoop, Germany 2005

Experimental, 02:00 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Defensiver Mittelfeldmann (Defensive Midfielder)

Kyros Kikos, Greece / Switzerland 2005

Experimental, 03:05 Min., German OV

 

 

 

Bauchtanz (Bellydance)

Stefan Möckel, Germany 1999

Animation, 01:23 Min., without dialogues

 

 

 

Play

Eva Heitzinger, Austria 2006

Docu-Fiction, 03:09 Min., German OV