German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

Love is a business at "Family Romance, LLC”, Werner Herzog's latest film as well as the (real) company that offers a human substitute rental service, inventing absent fathers or stand-in companions as needed. Founder Yuichi Ishii helps fulfill the dreams and emotional needs of his clients. Like the mother of the 12-year-old girl Mahiro who hires Ishii to impersonate the absent father. Soon, reality begins to blur around the #fakefeels.

How did Werner Herzog, the nomad, the adventurer, the extreme athlete in the filmmaking pantheon, get to such an emotional and vulnerable place, and to Japan? (2-min video review) Continue reading "Emotions by Proxy: Herzog’s “Family Romance,..." »

With cinemas and film festivals in Canada, Germany and across the world currently closed or postponing their live programming, we are discovering the virtues of streaming. Among the offerings, one of the best is Kanopy. The platform is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and thousands of independent filmmakers.

You can use it for free for example through the Toronto and many other public library cards. Download the Kanopy app, log in with your library account, and a portal of high-quality global content awaits.

To sift through the catalogue, I am curating a little series of my personal film recommendations here and on social media‬⁩ #MyKanopyKanon. #Docs #features #shorts #femalefilmmakers #arthouse #mainstream ... Let me know your favourites and film viewing experiences and let's turn social distancing into social connecting.

☆ Here comes Angela Merkel's favourite film: The East German film production house DEFA has many of their gems on Kanopy, and one classic is "The Legend of Paul and Paula" by Heiner Carow, who also did queer classic "Coming Out," which we have shown recently. "Paul and Paula" was meant to be shot by female DEFA director Ingrid Reschke but she was killed in a car crash before she could realize the film. Carow took over, and you'll see his dedication to her in the credits. The two super star actors who beautifully portray this bittersweet love story --Angelica Domröse and Winfried Glatzeder, now 74 and on TV hit show "Dark"-- both fled the GDR a few years later and fell from grace with the regime, but continued great careers in the west. Continue reading "#MyKanopyKanon streaming tips 6" »

With cinemas and film festivals in Canada, Germany and across the world currently closed or postponing their live programming, we are discovering the virtues of streaming. Among the offerings, one of the best is Kanopy. The platform is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and thousands of independent filmmakers.

You can use it for free for example through the Toronto Public Library. Download the Kanopy app, log in with your library account, and a portal of high-quality global content awaits.

To sift through the catalogue, I am curating a little series of my personal film recommendations here and on social media‬⁩ #MyKanopyKanon. #Docs #features #shorts #femalefilmmakers #arthouse #mainstream ... Let me know your favourites and film viewing experiences and let's turn social distancing into social connecting.

☆ Guillermo Del Toro’s “Pan’s Labyrinth” is an example of the rarer & here beautifully illustrated screen-to-book adaptation of his fantasy film by German YA star author Cornelia Funke: Watch the film & read & marvel at this exquisite book.



Continue reading "#MyKanopyKanon streaming tips 5" »

Before Christmas, Berlin filmmaker Konstantin Bock told us about his pre-Berlinale travel plans in our series "The Making of" that follows two German-Canadian film projects. Over the past months, Bock has made some important headway with the (true) story --featuring expensive Canadian NHL players-- of 1980s German hockey club owner Heinz Weifenbach who dreamt of making it big … with the help of a dictator.

Konstantin, you’re deep in research and finding a voice for writing the film. How is that going?
Screenwriter Stefanie Schmitz and I received a writing grant from the German Film Board (FFA) and immediately decided to pack our bags and move to Iserlohn, the small town in the Sauerland area of Germany where our story takes place. Previously, I had spent an entire evening on the phone with several people from Iserlohn and I realized that this is not something we can do remotely -- we really needed to be there, research and explore locally, we needed to become part of the social fabric there. Where did Heinz Weifenbach live? Who did he interact with? And who didn't want to interact with him?

Following from that insight we found that Heinz' environment needed to play a bigger part in the film than we had originally envisioned: small-town hustlers, local political quarrels and the determined dream of making it big in the German ice hockey league against all odds -- that's the foundation of our story, a scenario that quickly disintegrates when a Libyan terrorist, who seems to be their only solution against bankruptcy, enters the stage. Continue reading "THE MAKING OF: THE ICE KING "on..." »

With cinemas and film festivals in Canada, Germany and across the world currently closed or postponing their live programming, we are discovering the virtues of streaming. Among the offerings, one of the best is Kanopy. The platform is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and thousands of independent filmmakers.

You can use it for free for example through the Toronto Public Library. Download the Kanopy app, log in with your (also free) library account, and a portal of high-quality global content awaits.

To sift through the catalogue, I will curate a little series of my personal film recommendations here and on social media‬⁩ #MyKanopyKanon. #Docs #features #shorts #femalefilmmakers #arthouse #mainstream ... Let me know your favourites and film viewing experiences and let's turn social distancing into social connecting.

☆ If you like @BabylonBerlin, please watch Continue reading "#MyKanopyKanon bespoke streaming tips 4" »

With cinemas and film festivals in Canada, Germany and across the world currently closed or postponing their live programming, we are discovering the virtues of streaming. Among the offerings, one of the best is Kanopy. The platform is an award-winning video streaming service providing access to more than 30,000 independent and documentary films ─ titles of unique social and cultural value from The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and thousands of independent filmmakers.

You can use it for free for example through the Toronto Public Library. Download the Kanopy app, log in with your (also free) library account, and a portal of high-quality global content awaits.

To sift through the catalogue, I will curate a little series of my personal film recommendations here and on social media‬⁩ #MyKanopyKanon. #Docs #features #shorts #femalefilmmakers #arthouse #mainstream ... Let me know your favourites and film viewing experiences and let's turn social distancing into social connecting.

☆ A contemporary classic Continue reading "#MyKanopyKanon bespoke streaming tips 1" »