Zur Nachahmung empfohlen! Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit
"Zur Nachahmung empfohlen! Expeditionen in Ästhetik & Nachhaltigkeit" ("Recommended for Imitation! Expeditions in Aesthetics and Sustainability") is an exhibition project by by Adrienne Goehler (curator) and Jaana Prüss (project director) opening at the Uferhallen Berlin on Sept. 2. On view are artistic practices seeking to contribute to the preservation of the planet and exerting influence on conscious consumer behavior. Sustainability requires expanded perception regarding interaction. For this reason, the borders between artistic and technological creativity, between viability and idea, are deliberately abolished. The film program will be shown at both the Uferhallen and Arsenal.
Magical History Tour Close-up: The Face
Faces look at you — everywhere! Visual communication would lack a pivotal element without the representation of the human physiognomy, with the career of facial images in the 20th century being inconceivable without cinema and close-ups. The versatility of the filmic depiction of the face — from the perfectly lit, subjectivizing, and identity-shaping shots of the star's countenance to the de-individualized motif "face" — is at the center of the Magical History Tour in September and October. It starts with a selection of films featuring the most various "stars", whose faces — going beyond their function as a carrier of meaning and attention, as the most prominent interface between inside and outside and the scene of big, often disturbing emotions — have time and again become the projection screen of the audience's dreams.
Moving Politics – Cinemas from India
The four films of the final program part of the film and discussion series, "Moving Politics" curated by Dorothee Wenner und Nicole Wolf, are dedicated to the theme of "Family Ties" and focus on the varied relationships between actual family ties and their fictive counterparts in film. For example, the arranged marriage in India, usually oriented toward collective family interests, is by no means a thing of the past — and therefore a constantly ticking, political time bomb posing a threat to individual desires of the heart. At the same time, family relations are being newly conceived — in, with, and outside of cinema.
DEFA Maverick: The Films of Ulrich Weiß
Ulrich Weiß is one of the great DEFA directors, one who broke taboos and rules, an independent mind in line with no period or society, a maverick. Breaks occur with him out of necessity: He thinks along different paths than the customary one, far away from conventions. His unbiased, often naïve view of reality frequently leads him to paradoxes, and in paradoxism the tragicomedy often appears. This leads to pictorial solutions and forms that that are surprising, astounding, disconcerting, and disturbing.
New Cinema from Chile
For a long time now, Chile has been producing an astonishing number of remarkable films for such a small country. After seventeen long, repressive years with very little culture during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973-1990), when cinema itself played no role in the country, Chilean film production had first to be reactivated again. Since then, a lot has happened: Censorship was abol-ished, film schools were founded, and state funding of films was initiated. A young generation of filmmakers has now impressively re-entered the stage of global cinema, with successful presentations at international film festivals. A surprising upswing, even domestically, where Chilean cinema is currently more popular than ever.
DAAD Grant Recipient Akram Zaatari
The Lebanese video artist Akram Zaatari, whose works have been shown at many international festivals and exhibitions, is currently a guest of the DAAD Berlin Artists Program. Zaatari's entire work is characterized by his dealing with the effects of the civil war. As a collector of images, sounds and objects, he brings to light the invisible history of his country in an archaeological manner and simultaneously examines the codes of representation and image-making in times of war. This reflection is accompanied by a fundamental questioning of the significance of documents. In addition to several works (August 27) dedicated in an aesthetically complex way to resistance in southern Lebanon during the Israeli occupation, Zaatari will present, as a Berlin premiere, his multilayered video essay THIS DAY (2003, August 29) dealing with the production and circulation of images and ideologies in the Middle East.
6th Berlin Biennale
A two-part program of the Berlin Biennale presents works by Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka) and George Kuchar. Vom Gröller (Kubelka) is a photographer, psychoanalyst and filmmaker. Since the 1960s she has shot filmic portraits that are reminiscent of Warhol's Screen Tests. Yet in contrast to Warhol, she is occasionally also in front of the camera.
Vaginal Davis presents Rising Stars, Falling Stars
Silent movie expert Vaginal Davis presents F.W. Murnau's TARTÜFF (Tartuffe, D 1925): With an eye on his money, a housekeeper devotedly cares for her ill employer and sees to it that his grandson is disinherited. As a counter-move, he — disguised as the projectionist of a traveling movie theater — screens a film that in the form of a parable uncovers the intrigue. It's the story of Tartüff, who wants to do his friend out of his money and is revealed by a trick. The musicians John and Tim Blue accompany the adaptation of Molière’s comedy live. And the moral of the story: Afterwards Miss Davis invites the audience to drinks in the Rote Foyer. (July 25)
Happy Birthday to Winfried Junge
On the occasion of Winfried Junge's 75th birthday, we will show two films from the chronicle of the children of Golzow, documenting the development of children of a school class from their first day at school in 1961 to the year 2007. In addition to the short film with which everything began, WENN ICH ERST ZUR SCHULE GEH' (GDR 1961), we will also screen JOCHEN – EIN GOLZOWER AUS PHILADELPHIA(Barbara und Winfried Junge, D 2002). "Originally, Jochen was to become the hero of our first film. For school enrolment, we had tailored the leading role for the funny, fat rascal, but the cameraman found that Jochen had 'the facial expression of a polar bear.' The son of a agricultural functionary was trained as a milker, he was a border guard, and had two sons at an early age. Born in Philadelphia and educated in a socialist spirit, Jochen is disappointed with both the GDR, in which he had placed so many hopes, and its collapse." (Barbara and Winfried Junge). Introduction: Ulrich Gregor (July 21)
In the Jungle
Accompanying the children's exhibition "In the Jungle," the Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen presents a film series on the theme. ZWEI BRÜDER (Two Brothers, Jean-Jacques Annaud, F / GB 2004, July 25) is about the tiger babies Kumal and Sangha that have been captured and are now being raised by humans. The film was shot in the famous temples of Angkor and in the Cambodian jungle.