German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

I hate French films. I love Italian cinema. If someone said that to you, you'd have a pretty good idea of what they mean in terms of aesthetics, style, mood. German film? Not so much, at least post-New German Cinema with its heroes Fassbinder, Kluge, von Trotta et al. Of course there is the contemporary (and equally auteur-focused) Berlin School with its Petzolds and Hochhäuslers (which German director Oskar Roehler defined as "slow and depressing"). And recently, Germany has been very strong and internationally successful in children’s films and high-quality animation. But these are vogues or sub-industries rather than a big picture, a brand, a distinct and distinctive brand. Continue reading "What is a German/European Film?" »

Born in Germany in 1928 and resident in Argentina since her childhood, Narcisa Hirsch is a pivotal figure in Latin American experimental cinema. Despite her strong-willed individualism, she views filmmaking as a profoundly social practice, having collaborated with an informal collective of Latin American key filmmakers strongly supported and fostered by the Goethe-Institut Buenos Aires and now referred to as El Grupo Goethe. Free Screen at TIFF Cinematheque and the Goethe-Institut Toronto have invited Narcisa Hirsch for a special two-night retrospective (June 13 + 15) programmed by California College of the Arts scholar Federico Windhausen and a first encounter with Michael Snow. I sat down with Narcisa on her first day in Toronto -- one of the highlights of my film year.


Jutta Brendemühl: Argentinian dictator Jorge Rafael Videla just died. How do you, as someone who has lived through his regime, feel about that, over 30 years later?

Narcisa Hirsch: At the time it wasn’t explicit but it’s becoming clearer now: a civil war was going on in Argentina. Argentina has always had one party set against another, Peron against the non-Peronistas, the military against the militantes or guerillas or Montoneros. Videla was not especially a friend of mine. But I think that it would help Argentinians if they could recognize the historical continuity since the 19th century, because we still have that idea of two groups, the bad ones and the good ones and their ideologies. Continue reading "Narcisa Hirsch & El Grupo Goethe" »