German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

It is the becoming the year of Nina Könnemann in North America. As we are waiting to have the Berlin video artist in Toronto for several weeks, MINI/Goethe-Institut Curatorial Residencies Ludlow 38 New York is presenting Könnemann's first solo show in the United States, which ties in nicely with our plans for Nina as InterMedia Artist in Residence at OCADU and University of Toronto this fall. The topic in New York: people urinating in public space. Do not be alarmed. Or be alarmed. Continue reading "Nina Könnemann: Urinating in the Public Space" »

Germany is opening TIFF 2013! Well, sort of. Bill Condon's (US) Wikileaks thriller "The Fifth Estate" (which I pray is as good and relevant it has the potential to be) stars Britain's Benedict Cumberbatch and Germany's Daniel Brühl as the two leading men, infamous Julian Assange and his friend and WikiLeaks' spokesperson Daniel Domscheit-Berg, on whose book the film is largely based (see previous blog entry on 6 upcoming Brühl films). German IT specialist and transparency advocate Domscheit-Berg is an interesting character: married to Microsoft Germany's Government Relations officer, both prominent members of Germany's renegade "Pirate Party", and known mainly for his falling out with Assange over the leak guru's alleged authoritarian management style. Needless to say WikiLeaks and Assange are not amused, as the Hollywood Reporter announced that producers DreamWorks and Disney are gearing up for a fight. THR quotes Assange as saying that "The movie is a massive propaganda attack on WikiLeaks and the character of my staff" and presenting "lie upon lie". Seems like an apropos message control battle in the NSA World we now live in.
Watch the trailer here, including a glimpse of Berlin's TV tower - the production shot a week in Berlin in January.

Brühl filled in after both Joel Kinnaman and James McAvoy dropped out due to other demands. Good for us, as we will see two well-known German actors --Moritz Bleibtreu (World War Z; Goethe!) is also on the cast-- in a major international production. And that will be my main meme and theme this year, even more so than last year: The cultural and linguistic melange (or standardization?) international film has become with its cross-casting of actors from all corners of the globe. Continue reading "German films @ TIFF 2013 (& first Goethe..." »