Events and Film Program

We are opening our new special exhibition “Frame by Frame – Restoring Films”. Join us in celebrating with free entry into the entire museum!

This special training will take place in German. Pleas consult our German language event calendar for further information.

This tour will be given in German. Please consult our German language event calendar for further information.

Expert seminar

“Accessible Film Heritage: Animated films for a diverse audience” with Marco Lipski (Zentrum für Kultur und visuelle Kommunikation e.V. Potsdam), Anke Nikolai (Audio description producer), Joseph (Member of the Berliner FBW-Jugend Filmjury)
Moderation: Jurek Sehrt (Deutsche Kinemathek)

Upon request, the event can be made accessible using AD (Audio description) and DGS (German Sign Language).

More and more digitized vintage German films are now available in accessible versions. But what about animated films? And how can we ensure that the films are also accessible to children? A panel of experts from the production of sign language versions and audio descriptions, and educators will look at the production of accessible version of animated shorts and television series. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

The sixth edition of the Film Heritage Festival will open with a short welcoming speech by Dr. Rainer Rother, Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek.

Migration

‘Palermo oder Wolfsburg’ (Palermo or Wolfsburg)
FRG, CH 1980, Director: Werner Schroeter

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.66, color
Screening print: DCP, 180 min, Deutsche Kinemathek

This film follows a young man named Nicola who leaves Sicily to work at the Volkswagen factory in Wolfsburg. He falls in love with Brigitte, which helps him survive the xenophobic humiliations he suffers as a guest worker. But when she deserts him, a toxic mix of aggrieved honor, loneliness, and alienation explodes. Awarded the Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear, Werner Schroeter’s epic film combines documentary-like passages with operatic scenes to shine a satirical light on Germany and its work ethic.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Exile

"Foreigners in Hollywood – Two moments in time" with Jan-Christopher Horak (Film scholar)
In English

There were two moments in 20th century Hollywood history when large numbers of foreigners arrived in the film mecca. The first began in the 1930s, as Hollywood stepped up production of foreign language movies. L.A. studios recruited Spanish, Mexican, and other Latin American filmmakers from the large production houses. Then, beginning in 1933, as Nazi Germany started marginalizing some of its best talent, a host of German-speaking “émigrés” arrived in Hollywood looking to begin anew.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Exile

Lecture

“‘Doña Francisquita’ and Film Exiles in Spain before the Spanish Civil War” with Imme Klages (Johannes Gutenberg-Universität), Mark Oliver (Director)

In English

The 1934 film ‘Doña Francisquita’ was shot in Spain by Ibérica Films, the production company founded by David Oliver. It was directed by Hans Behrendt, the sets were designed by Herbert Lipschütz, and Heinrich Gärtner was behind the camera – all three were German Jews who had fled to Barcelona. The location of Ibérica, a production company founded and run by exiles, exposes a gap in research about German exiles – the flight to and via Spain.

Screening

‘Doña Francisquita’
ES 1934, Director: Hans Behrendt

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, bw
Screening print: DCP, 80 min, Filmoteca Española

Introduction: Tiago Antunes (Cineric, Lisbon)

Francisquita is in love with poet, Fernando. He, however, is infatuated with the actress Aurora la Beltrana, who is the lover of Lorenzo Pérez. None of the three women at the heart of the film are shy about expressing their desires. The film was released two years after Spain passed its first divorce law in 1932. This was one of a number of films that represented Spanish cinema’s response to a new era of civil rights.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Otherness

‘Insel der Dämonen’ (Wajan – Son of a Witch)
DE 1933, Director: Friedrich Dalsheim

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.19, bw
Screening print: DCP, 82 min, Deutsche Kinemathek

Introduction: Louise von Plessen (Cultural manager), Maxi Zimmermann (Deutsche Kinemathek)

Inspired by Robert Flaherty’s narrative documentaries, Jewish ethnologist and filmmaker Friedrich Dalsheim made this documentary film with a narrative plot. The people of Bedulu on Bali live in peace and harmony. The only thing threatening their happiness are the witches and demons that create confusion and bring disease down on the village. Wajan, son of the local witch, and Sari, daughter of a respected merchant, cannot find happiness until they have overcome the demonic forces.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

This tour will be given in German. Please consult our German language event calendar for further information.

Exile

‘The Killers’
USA 1946, Director: Robert Siodmak

OV
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, bw
Screening print: DCP, 102 min, Universal Pictures/Park Circus

Introduction: Jan-Christopher Horak (Film scholar)

Two hitmen wait in Henry’s Diner for the local gas station attendant, a former boxer known as “The Swede.” Although he has been warned, he makes no attempt to flee. Because he held a life insurance policy, an insurance investigator starts looking into the murder. With ‘The Killers’, Robert Siodmak, who first fled to France in 1933, and then to exile in the USA in 1939, created a prototypical film noir that shows clear influences of the expressionist cinema of Weimar Germany.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Transnational

‘El día que me quieras’ (The Day You Love Me)
USA 1935, Director: John Reinhardt

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, bw
Screening print: DCP, 87 min, Fundación Cinemateca Argentina

Introduction: Jan-Christopher Horak (Film scholar), Marcela Cassinelli (Cinemateca Argentina)

Before his tragic death in an airplane accident, the legendary Argentine singer Carlos Gardel starred in several American-made Spanish-language features that were extremely successful across Europe and Latin America. Released in July 1935, a few weeks after the singer’s death, ‘The Day You Love Me’ was an international hit. The film follows the life of a singer who marries a dancer against his father’s wishes. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Transnational

“Transnational Archive Efforts” with Can Sungu (bi’bak, Berlin), Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal, Berlin), Martin Koerber (Deutsche Kinemathek)
Moderation: Madeleine Bernstorff (Cultural producer)

In englischer Sprache

Films with a background in migrant communities are in a difficult position when it comes to national archives. That includes films made without subsidies as well as films with protagonists anchored in different cultures, or movies made by or about diasporas. At issue is who is ensuring preservation of those movies. And what can archives do to help projects marginalized by film history. Can a “national” cinema history be reconstructed at all without transnational archive work? 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

Lecture

“Cinema of Exile and Migration” with John Sundholm (Stockholm University)

‘The Foreigner’ is a typical exponent of independent, exile and migrant filmmaking. It contains documentary footage from both Finland and Turkey and depicts the situation of a forced migrant: to be placed in-between two countries and two different socio-political situations. It is also a typical when it comes to its production history, since the film exists in several languages. It addresses not only the question of where it belongs, but also how we construct and reproduce film heritage.

Screening:

‘Ulkomaalainen/Yabancı’ (The Foreigner)
SE, FI 1983, Director: Muammer Özer

A young, indigent peasant leaves Turkey for Finland hoping to earn enough money for a better life. But life in the north soon begins to tear him apart. On the one hand is the hard factory work, the sensory overload of consumer goods, and the seemingly constant sexual availability of the women and, on the other hand, news of the political turmoil in his homeland. His near delusional state is expressed cinematically in a montage of documentary and almost surreal images.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Otherness

‘Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask’
UK, TN, MQ 1996, Director: Isaac Julien

OV
Original format: 35 mm (Super-16 Blow-up), 1:1.66, color
Screening print: DCP, 70 min, British Film Institute

Introduction: Mark Nash (Filmmaker)

Starring Colin Salmon as Fanon, and using reconstructions, archive footage and interviews, ‘Frantz Fanon: Black Skin, White Mask’ tells the story of the life and work of the highly influential anti-colonialist activist and writer. Isaac Julien undertakes an intellectual and poetic exploration of Fanon’s life, influence, and legacy, from his early years in Martinique to his professional life as a psychiatrist and revolutionary in Algeria during the war of independence with France.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

‘Déjà s’envole la fleur maigre’ (From the Branches Drops the Withered Blossom)
BE 1960, Director: Paul Meyer

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.65, bw
Screening Print: DCP, 83 min, Cinematek

Introduction: Bruno Mestdagh (Cinematek, Brussels)

This documentary-style narrative film is a portrait of an Italian family in the crisis-ridden Belgian mining region Borinage. The family son, and his experiences as an immigrant child, are at the center of the film. Meyer shot his film in and around the mining huts – with the seasonal workers playing themselves. The result is a snapshot in neo-realistic style of the decline of an entire region that depicts, in particular, the lives of the children in a realistic and moving way.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

Talk

“In Conversation With Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud” with Bruno Mestdagh (Cinematek, Brussels), Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud (Director)

In French with English translation

Following his studies at the INSAS film school in Belgium, filmmaker Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud made several narrative and documentary films. His debut ‘Crossing Over’, which premiered at the 1982 Venice Biennale, took the absurdity of migrant life in Europe to new heights. In this presentation, Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Bruno Mestdagh will talk about making the film and how it was received as well as about restoring the movie.

Screening

‘Traversées’ (Crossing Over)
TN, BE 1982, Director: Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.85, color
Screening print: DCP, 95 min, Cinematek

Introduction: Bruno Mestdagh (Cinematek, Brussels)

Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud’s first feature film draws on his own experience, telling of the wild ride of two ferry passengers who run into trouble with border authorities on New Year’s Eve. A perfect illustration, still very topical, of the Kafkaesque situations facing candidates for freedom. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Exile

Workshop report

“Lotte Reiniger Revisited – On matters of discontinuity and discoloration” with Anke Mebold (DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt/Main)
In English

Lotte Reiniger’s oeuvre stands as an example of a film career thrown out of whack by the totalitarian regime of Germany’s Third Reich and the ravages of World War II. Internationally celebrated as a great German filmmaker, Reiniger became a British citizen in 1962. Her disjointed career is reflected in the way her work survives, strewn across archives worldwide.

Screening

‘Helen La Belle’
UK 1957, Director: Lotte Reiniger

OV
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, color
Screening print: 35 mm, 14 min, DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut& Filmmuseum

Paris is given an apple inscribed “to the fairest goddess” and he is tasked with deciding whether to award it to Hera, Athena, or Aphrodite. He chooses Aphrodite because she promises to help him win Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris and Helen fall in love, but she is already married to King Menelaus. So the gods use subterfuge to allow Paris and Helen to escape together.

‘A Night in a Harem’
UK 1958, Director: Lotte Reiniger

OV
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, color
Screening print: DCP, 15 min, DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut& Filmmuseum

Colored silhouette animation set to a modern arrangement of Mozart. A hot-air balloon inscribed “just married” makes an emergency landing in the desert. Both bride and groom survive unscathed, but a band of men on horseback falls upon them and makes off with the bride. While the sultan greets the newest addition to his harem with gleeful anticipation, the groom manages to escape from his bonds. The two flee, but the sultan’s men are hot on their heels.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

Workshop Report

“Alvaro Bizzari and ‘The Seasonal Woker’ – The camera as a weapon in the fight for the rights of seasonal workers” with Léa Ritter (Cinématheque suisse, Penthaz)
In English

‘The Seasonal Worker’ was made in 1972 by and for the community of Italian seasonal workers in Switzerland. Alvaro Bizzari was responsible for the film club of the Swiss migrant association Colonie Libere Italiane in Biel. He recognized the political potential of film and taught himself to use the narrow-gauge camera to fight against discrimination and for fair treatment of seasonal workers.

Screening

‘Lo stagionale’ (The Seasonal Worker)
CH 1971, Director: Alvaro Bizzarri

Original with German subtitles
Original format: 16 mm (8mm-Blow-up), 1:1.37, bw
Screening print: DCP, 55 min, Cinémathèque suisse

Introduction: Léa Ritter (Cinématheque suisse), Alvaro Bizzarri (Director)

Struck by the difficult conditions of immigrants in Switzerland, Bizzarri shot ‘The Seasonal Worker’ in 1970. The film tells the story of Giuseppe, a seasonal worker in the construction industry, who leaves his wife and son behind in Italy. When his wife dies, Giuseppe takes his son Stefano to Switzerland, which is illegal at the time. The making of the film inspired a demonstration for the rights of seasonal workers – which can be seen at the end of the film.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Transnational

Lecture

“The Albatros Studio in Paris: ‘The Italian Straw Hat’ – an “old” comedy in a modern style?” with Émilie Cauquy (Cinématheque française, Paris)
In English

The rise of the legendary Albatros film studio in Paris is a fascinating story of amalgamation, integration, and adjustment. Founded by White Russian émigrés Alexandre Kamenka and Joseph N. Ermolieff, the production house developed its own style that is worthy of recognition even today. It made light, witty comedies à la française. ‘The Italian Straw Hat’ exemplifies the transition from early French cinema to the American comedic style. 

Screening

‘Un chapeau de paille d‘Italie’ (The Italian Straw Hat)
FR 1928, Director: René Clair

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, bw & tinted
Screening print: DCP, 115 min, Cinémathèque française

Introduction: Émilie Cauquy (Cinémathèque française, Paris)

René Clair’s first big success was also his second directorial outing for Albatros Studio. In this French comedy, a horse eats the hat of a married woman, while she is enjoying guilty pleasures with her lover. In this silent film adaptation, a rather conventional and wordy stage play, René Clair created a visually effective burlesque piece that skillfully melds American slapstick and the traditions of French silent comedies à la Max Linder.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Exile

‘Hortobágy’
HU 1937, Director: Georg Höllering

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.19, bw
Screening print: DCP, 85 min, National Film Institut Hungary – Film Archive

Introduction: György Ráduly (Nemzeti Filmintézet – Filmarchívum, Budapest)

This film-poem draws a true picture of Hungary’s Pannonian Steppe, or puszta, and the people living there. The story focuses on the Czinege family. Austrian director Georg Höllering worked for more than two years under difficult conditions in the puszta on this docu-fiction, with peasants and herdsmen playing themselves. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Transnational

Film Restored – Curator's Tour of the Exhibition “Frame by Frame – Restoring Film” with Martin Koerber (Deutsche Kinemathek)
In German, English tour on request

The current exhibition at the Deutsche Kinemathek, “Frame by Frame – Restoring Films”, pays homage to the work of film restoration and illuminates the work of preserving our collective visual memory. The five segments of the exhibition provide a comprehensive look at the most important aspects of restoration – from finding surviving film, to working with existing material, the digital color correction process, and involving the filmmakers in the process. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

‘Il valore della donna è il suo silenzio’ (A Woman’s Greatest Value is Her Silence)
CH, BRD 1980, Regie: Gertrud Pinkus

Original with German subtitles
Original format: 16 mm, 1:1.66, bw
Screening print: DCP, 93 min, Deutsche Kinemathek

Introduction: Gertrud Pinkus (Director)

This film is about a southern Italian emigrant in Frankfurt in the 1970s. It was planned as a documentary, but it soon became clear that none of the women wanted to speak out in front of the camera, for fear of betraying their families. That is why Maria tells her story off camera, only in sound, while other southern Italian immigrants depict Maria’s story. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Migration

‘300 mil do nieba’ (300 Miles to Heaven)
PL, DK, FR 1989, Director: Maciej Dejczer

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.66, color
Screening print: DCP, 89 min, Filmoteka Narodowa – Instytut Audiowizualny

Introduction: Katarzyna Wajda (Filmoteka Narodowa – Instytut Audiowizualny, Warsaw)

In the Polish countryside in the 1980s, the brothers Jędrek und Grześ live in poverty, and see no hope for a future. Their father has lost his job as a history teacher due to his involvement with the Solidarity movement and is subject to constant harassment by the communist authorities. His sons decide to flee to the West, where they hope to fulfill their dreams of a better life. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Exile

‘Isabel auf der Treppe’ (Isabel on the Stairs)
GDR 1984, Director: Hannelore Unterberg

Original with English subtitles
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, color
Screening print: DCP, 69 min, DEFA-Filmverleih/Deutsche Kinemathek

Introduction: Hannelore Unterberg (Director)

Rosita Perez and her 12-year-old daughter Isabel have been living in East Germany for six years, after fleeing Chile in the wake of the Pinochet coup. A family named Kunze originally sponsored their immigration, but they have limited contact. The young girl often sits on the stairs, hoping to intercept the postman in case he is bringing news of her father’s death in Chile. When the news finally does arrive and Rosita collapses, Isabel finds a loving new home with the Kunze family.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Remigration

“Animated Films by Kurt Weiler”
GDR 1977–1988, Director: Kurt Weiler

OV
Original format: 35 mm, divers formats, color
Screening print: DCP, 75 min, DEFA-Filmverleih/Deutsche Kinemathek

Introduction: Till Grahl (Deutsches Institut für Animationsfilm e.V., DIAF), Hannes Linhard (DEFA)

This program of shorts provides a look at Kurt Weiler's artistic range. In ‘Recollections of a Conversation’ (1984, 5 min), King Pyrrhus and Cineas discuss world domination. To the strains of Claude Debussy, a derided deacon sets out on the ‘Hunt for Turlipan the Bird’ (1977, 14 min). In ‘Zeus, Eagle, Dung Beetle’ (1988, 12 min), a small beetle uses its wiles to defeat the top god. A ‘Made Man, or the Double Dealer’ (1979, 15 min) satirizes a morals officer with criminal intent. And ‘The Tale of Caliph Stork’ (1984, 30 min) renders the Wilhelm Hauff fairy tale as a colorful collage animation.

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

Remigration

‘Der Verlorene’ (The Lost One)
FRG 1951, Director: Peter Lorre

OV
Original format: 35 mm, 1:1.37, bw
Screening print: DCP 2K, 99 min, DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum

Introduction: Holger Ziegler (DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum, Frankfurt/Main)

Set in Hamburg in 1943, the film is about renowned scientific researcher Dr. Rothe. When he realizes that his fiancée has been passing the results of his work to the enemy, he murders her in a fit of rage. His colleague Hösch covers up the crime because Rothe’s work is important to the Nazi war effort. But from his first taste of it, Rothe is obsessed with murdering over and over again. After the war, he works under a false name in a refugee camp, where he suddenly encounters his former colleague. 

→ Register until 20 Oct 21 at registration_fr@deutsche-kinemathek.de

This special training will take place in German. Please consult our German language event calendar for further information.