WATER & COLTAN | 360° SCREENING
Daniel Kötter, Yasmine Bisimwa, Olande Byamungu, Christian Muhigwa
Germany/ DR Congo 2021, Original with English subtitles, 52 min
WED 11 – SUN 15 NOV daily 6 PM
SAT 14 NOV 7 PM Artist Talk with Daniel Kötter & Olande Byamungu
MISS READ SPACE
“Water & Coltan” explores the impact of mining on landscapes and communities in western Germany and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. While WATER imagines posthuman near-future scenarios for the former coal-mining region of the Ruhr, COLTAN takes its audience directly to the sites where women are fighting for their rights in artisanal coltan mining camps in South Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Based on research conducted by the filmmaker together with social worker Yasmine Bisimwa, lawyer Olande Byamungu and engineer Christian Muhighwa, and drawing on the myth of Tantalus from Homer, the 360° documentary brings together two local perspectives on the same violent global phenomenon, the extractivist exploitation of natural and human resources and its long-term consequences for the environment and society.
Daniel Kötter (b. 1975 in Germany) is a documentary filmmaker and theatre director. His research-based work moves between different media and institutional contexts and has been presented at film festivals, galleries and theatres around the world. Since 2007, his visual research into urbanisation and political landscapes has taken him across the African continent and the Middle East.
His major works include the film and performance series STATE-THEATRE, exploring the urban conditions of performativity in Lagos, Tehran, Berlin, Detroit, Beirut and Mönchengladbach (2009–2014); the research, exhibition and film project CHINAFRIKA (2013–2019); and the film trilogy HASHTI TEHRAN (2017, Special Award of the German Short Film Award), DESERT VIEW (2018) and RIFT FINFINNEE (2020, DEFA Award at DOK Leipzig), focusing on urban peripheries in Tehran, Cairo and Addis Ababa.
Since 2019, Daniel Kötter has been working on LANDSCAPES AND BODIES, a series of spatial performances and 360° films exploring the consequences of extractivism in Germany, West Papua and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. His 360° film WATER & COLTAN (2021) premiered at IDFA DocLab.
Olande Byamungu is a qualified lawyer, originally from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), and lives in Germany. She has experience in the fields of media, human rights, migration and civil society engagement, both in the DRC and in Germany.
She currently works at the Psychosocial Centre for Refugees in Düsseldorf, where she provides guidance and support to refugees. In the DR Congo, she worked as a journalist and reporter for Radio Sauti la Rehema in Bukavu (South Kivu), with a particular focus on communication and raising awareness of women’s rights. She is a member of the board of the NGO Action Chaîne de Solidarité Universelle, which supports women in rural areas and children affected by armed conflict in South Kivu. She was also president of the NGO Volontaire pour le Développement Rural (VDR), where she addressed issues of development, environmental protection and the exploitation of natural resources, as well as their impact on local communities.
Alongside her legal and civil society work, Olande Byamungu is involved in documentary film and theatre. Her artistic work focuses in particular on women’s rights, migration, human rights, colonialism and the exploitation of natural resources. Her career thus combines law, journalism, civil society engagement and artistic creation.
