akademie der autodidakten Film

„…the creatures, too, must become free“, Karl Marx once said, and with that he meant that the way a society deals with animals is indicative of its general condition.

Out in the Open is akademie der autodidakten’s new collective film project. In collaboration with the artists Shirin Begum and Veronika Gerhard the protagonists developed the film’s characters and a plot merging their multiple narratives and perspectives. During the realisation of the film, all the participants were involved in directing, behind the camera, working with the boom arm and clapboard, as well as editing. Originating from a small eco-queer movement in the context of the urban-rural transitional area, revolutionary animals and their human allies are fighting against gentrification, displacement, national borders, racism, paternalistic structures, the authoritarian state, and for social rights across species. Animal and human rights activists help revolutionary humans of various backgrounds to secure electronic devices that enable them to decode the languages of wild and domesticated animals. After the first redundancies and arrests take place, comrades of the eco-queer committee for social change occupy a national TV station. Aided by the wild animals, they force the technicians to interrupt the minister of the interior in his speech defending the deployment of military police to forcibly deport refugees. Then they broadcast a multi-species statement. After suffering arson attacks by unidentified perpetrators, the eco-queer activists take their activities underground.