Laudation of the jury – Belonging, provoking each other, trying to get closer, seeking distance, being casual. Being young and cool is hard work! With extraordinary ease, "Melodies of Barking Dogs" tells the story of a group of teenagers on their way to becoming adults. But in the details, there are sensitive and intelligent analyses of themes such as masculinity, hidden intimacy, loneliness and a general search for meaning. The original narrative, in combination with a strong ensemble and sensitive camera work, creates an atmospheric short film that draws us into the cinematic world from the very beginning and celebrates a very special sense of humour. "Melodies of Barking Dogs" is a quiet film that doesn't seem to want too much, but it succeeds in everything it intends to say.
During the shooting of "Bärbel (WT)", Daniel created a collection of photographs, which won the new talent award of the Desideria Photography Award 2024. For the jury, these photographs authentically express one of the basic features of the Conditio Humana. Respect and loving interaction with one another across all cultural and social boundaries.
In January 2024 "Melodies of Barking Dogs" had its premiere at Filmfestival Max Ophüls Preis and was shown at La Cinémathèque française in Paris. It was also selected for the german competition of the International Shortfilm Festival Oberhausen and will be available in Arte's online media library until 16 April 2025.
• arte.tv
As a part of a diverse exhibition including works by musicians, photographers, painters, sculptors, dancers, magicians and performance artists, the photo-poem collection "Zünde es an" was presented at the cultural festival RAUM 2023 and "Melodie of Barking Dogs" was screened at the shortfilm programme.
• kultur-raum.com
In summer 2023, we spent five days at the clubhouse of Ludwigsburger Hundefreunde shooting Melodies of Barking Dogs with Elias Maria Burckhardt, Valentin Oppermann, Mieke Schymura, Mikke Rasch, Tristán López and Zlatin Stoychev. Production designer Martha Brenner completely redesigned elements of the wood-paneled room and developed a visual concept together with cinematographer Kim Hausner, based on the idea of shooting the film on the Arri Amira's S16 mode.
We spent six days shooting around Stuttgart and Ludwigsburg together with Mandy Fabian, Béla Can Leon and director of photography Anian Krone with the support of Profi-Wash in Schwieberdingen. In November 2023 Zoe took part at the competition program of the up-and-coming film festival Hannover and was screened at exground filmfestival in Wiesbaden and Caminhos Filmfestival in Portugal.
After RAUM took place for the first time in 2018, over 150 people from multitude creative disciplines and different age groups came together this weekend. In addition to a cinema program with fiction films, animation shorts and documentaries, there were live concerts, lectures and performances.
Amélie Hug, Alexandra Huss and Milena Kaltenbach created three days and nights of improvisation in the summer of 2019. Taking a farm in Zehdenick as our starting point, director of photography Mirko Hans accompanied the actors with the camera and we experienced the uncertainty of not knowing what was going to happen next. 72 hours of improvisation.