Symposium Werner Herzog – At the Boundaries

Werner Herzog is one of the last decade's most important auteurs. He pursues his singular vision of film and the search for what he calls "ecstatic truth" with unrivalled forcefulness and pays no heed to the rules or boundaries of conventional cinema or the political zeitgeist. Despite this or precisely because of it, Herzog is an international superstar, while Germany reduced him for a long time to his early features with Klaus Kinski. This now appears to be slowly changing: over the last few years, several of his films have received a German cinema release, while current publications also prove that he has moved back into the focus of attention (e.g. Chris Wahl, (Ed.) Lektionen in Herzog, 2011; Moritz Holfelder: Werner Herzog. Die Biografie, 2012).

The Deutsche Kinemathek and the Einstein Forum, Potsdam are organizing a symposium on October 26 2012 to examine Herzog's current oeuvre. The focus is on his innovative use of fictional and documentary forms of narration, his treatment of science and myth as well as his self-portrayal as a Bavarii rebel and subtle sense of humor. The staging of animals in his films will be explored as well as the reception of his work from a media arts perspective. With Valérie Carré (Strasbourg), Paul Cronin (New York), Christoph Hochhäusler (Berlin), Daniel Kothenschulte (Cologne), Sabine Nessel (Berlin) and Chris Wahl (Potsdam).