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.

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.

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.

Sabine Panossian has been nominated for a special Grimme Award in the Fiction category for her outstanding cinematography in our film ECHO. Sabine Panossian studied at the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF and has since worked in both fiction and documentary filmmaking. Her short film Am Ende der Wald won the Silver Student Academy Award in 2016. Her graduation film Off Season was invited to the Berlinale in 2019 and was honored with the Michael Ballhaus Award for Sabine's cinematography, among others.

The Grimme Award is the most prestigious accolade for television content in Germany and has been presented by the Grimme Institute in Marl since 1964. The winners of the 61st edition will be announced on March 6. An overview of all nominations can be found here.

ECHO is a film by Mareike Wegener, co-produced with WDR (commissioning editor: Andrea Hanke), where it premiered in March 2024.

The Cinématèque Leipzig presents films in its "Tatorte" series that explore the crime genre in diverse and unique ways. Some of these films may feel familiar, while others challenge the audience’s viewing habits. The selection includes crime stories that inspire reflection or wonder, spark discussions, provoke laughter, or perhaps even lull one to sleep. Films that can be soothingly dull or thrillingly entertaining – but in any case, remarkably good in their own distinctive way.

Mareike Wegener's debut feature film ECHO, which plays with elements of the crime genre to explore themes of history, haunting, and repetition, will be screened on Sunday, January 5, at 8:15 PM at the Cinématèque Leipzig.

For Museum Night on November 2, MOOZ will present a short film program in the new spaces of the Academy of Media Arts Cologne. MOOZ is essentially a virtual space for artistic works featuring moving images from the Academy and, as an anagram of ZOOM, it focuses on experimental audiovisual formats. The program includes Mareike Wegener's first short film "Haarteile" (2005, 7min, 16mm, b/w).

Under the title talk talk, MOOZ will showcase artistic works for Museum Night that vary in approach—documentary, experimental, performative, or installation-based. Each piece communicates in a distinct, intense, and personal language, drawing attention to diverse forms of communication.

"Haarteile" was created in the seminar "Documentary Miniatures" under Dietrich Leder, with the assignment of documenting a repetitive action. During the seminar, Mareike Wegener watched "Oskar Langenfeld. 12 Mal" (1966) by Holger Meins, which had a profound impact on her both thematically and formally, influencing the fragmentary structure of "Haarteile". The film is an intergenerational study of hair rituals among women, where biographical patterns seem to repeat themselves. By observing three women of different ages engaging in their hair rituals, one discovers more commonalities than differences: young-middle-aged-elderly, morning-noon-evening, styling-dyeing-hairpieces.

During the summer break, the KINDL invites visitors to an open-air film programme exploring the topic of fragility both artistically and thematically. The curated selection, titled States of Fragility, features seven short films by contemporary international artists and directors. Our film RIAFN will screen alongside works by Factory of Found Clothes (FFC), Eva Giolo, Sky Hopinka, Yeo Siew Hua, Pauline Curnier Jardin, and Alice Rohrwacher & JR. These films explore themes of transformation and change, the natural cycle of life and death, and the rituals in between. They engage with myths, ancestors, and traditional beliefs, portraying a vulnerable world and the fragility of ecosystems. Some films reference actual events and build narratives around them, while others unfold through montages of images and the creation of atmospheres. The overarching theme of fragility and its far-reaching facets connects all the films.

Wednesday, August 21st, 8 pm at KINDL - Zentrum für zeitgenössische Kunst in Berlin. With an introduction by curator Katherina Perlongo. Free admission.

Mareike Wegener's film debut ECHO is currently streaming online at ARD Mediathek until June 3rd.

The film tells the story of the war-wounded chief inspector Harder (Valery Tscheplanowa), who survived a bomb attack as a police trainer in Afghanistan. Back in Germany, as a fresh start she is supposed to determine the identity of a bog body found in the moorland of a peaceful village. It's our first feature film production, co-produced with WDR. The production was supported by the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, KJDF, BKM, and DFFF. After completion, the film premiered at the Berlinale 2022 and was distributed to cinemas by Grandfilm.

On the occasion of the TV premiere, Matthias Hannemann writes in the FAZ: 'With her debut, the author and director skillfully reminds us that while German society engages with guilt and crime through the pervasive presence of crime shows on television, it fails to delve deeply into the complexities of guilt. The omnipresent public memory stands in no relation to the silence that prevails when remembering becomes uncomfortable: at one's own doorstep, in one's own house."