After its world premiere at the Cork International Film Festival, Hannes Lang’s new documentary THE CLOUD FACTORY will now be broadcast on television for the first time: ARTE is presenting the film on its renowned La Lucarne slot, which showcases exceptional voices in international documentary cinema. La Lucarne is known for its curatorial openness to experimental, radical and essayistic forms – an ideal context for Lang’s cinematic exploration of the anthropogenic clouds over the Rhenish lignite-mining region.

THE CLOUD FACTORY was filmed in 2023/24 with a small mobile team in the Rhineland. The film views the lignite-mining district as a site of climate change and seeks conversations with the people who regard this industrial landscape and its monumental structures as their home. What dreams and utopias can be imagined in the shadow of the cooling towers?

The film was created with the collaboration of Hannes Lang (writing, directing, editing, production), Mareike Wegener (writing, production), Felix Rier (cinematography), Peter Rösner and Isabel Cope (sound & sound design), Tobias Wiedmer (grading), Katrin Gruber (title design). The poster was designed by Caspar Newbolt and David Gruschka contributed the trailer. The film was overseen editorially at ARTE by Kathrin Brinkmann.

THE CLOUD FACTORY was funded by IDM South Tyrol, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the Office for Culture and Media Bolzano, and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Spectacle is a collectively run screening space in Brooklyn, NY, operated since 2010 by dedicated, cinema-loving volunteers. Its programming includes overlooked works, offbeat gems, contemporary art, radical polemics, live performances, and much more. This November, Spectacle devoted a series to Mareike Wegener’s debut film Mark Lombardi: Art and Conspiracy, presenting multiple screenings accompanied by a virtual Q&A. As part of the program, the film even received a new trailer and poster.

The documentary portrays American artist Mark Lombardi, whose graphic works traced the opaque power networks of global elites across finance, politics, and organized crime. After the attacks of September 11, his drawings even came to the attention of the FBI – yet Lombardi himself could no longer be questioned; he had died the year before, apparently by suicide, in his New York studio. The film follows an exceptional artist who used only publicly available information to make visible the hidden structures of a globalized world.

Mareike Wegener received the Gerd Ruge Grant for the development of this project in 2009. The film was produced by unafilm and shot in New York in 2010, with Sophie Maintigneux as cinematographer.

The final screening will take place on 29 November 2025.

Hannes Lang’s new documentary short THE CLOUD FACTORY celebrates its world premiere in the International Short Film Competition at the Cork International Film Festival. Taking place this November for the 70th time, the festival is not only Ireland’s largest but also its oldest film festival. Winners of the short film competitions automatically qualify for Academy Award® consideration. The screening is scheduled for November 11th.

THE CLOUD FACTORY is a cinematic exploration of the skies above the Rhineland lignite mining district, where air masses enriched with emissions rise into the atmosphere and alter the climate. The film reflects on what these human-made clouds may reveal about our future – and whether visions of another, livable world can still take shape within this artificial atmosphere.

The film features interview excerpts with Uschi Quirini, Katja Kaufmann, Detlef Wingrich, Frank Meller, Fabio Quirini, and Anika Friedrichsmeier, who share insights and perspectives on life in the shadow of THE CLOUD FACTORY, probing the fragile balance between identification, belonging, and threat.

THE CLOUD FACTORY was produced in co-production with ARTE’s La Lucarne, editorially supervised by Kathrin Brinkmann. Hannes Lang directed and co-wrote the film together with Mareike Wegener. The compact shooting team included Felix Rier (cinematography) and Peter Rösner (sound), who also designed the sound together with Isabel Cope. Hannes Lang edited the film, Tobias Wiedmer was responsible for the color grading, and Katrin Gruber designed the titles. Caspar Newbolt (Version Industries) created the poster, and David Gruschka conceived and produced the trailer.

The film was funded by IDM South Tyrol, the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, the German Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the Department of Culture and Media Bolzano, and the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.