56th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, © Kurzfilmtage/Boros

Dates: 29 April – 4 May | Location: Oberhausen, Germany

The 56th International Short Film Festival Oberhausen is going back to the roots of cinema, presenting the biggest programme of early films in Germany so far under the title ‘From the Deep: The Great Experiment 1898-1918′. Bringing together works from one of the most wildly experimental and unknown periods of cinema production, ‘From the Deep’ will feature more than 100 films, plus discussions and other related events.

“These are productions from an age when all films were short films, when movie theatres were the first public space shared by all age groups and classes, the first worldwide web in a way: for the first time in history, people in far flung regions of the world were able to watch the same shows,” says festival director Lars Henrik Gass. “It was an exhibition practice which for us is also a continuation of our research into an imaginary Kinomuseum, where museum is re-invented by cinema.”