German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

Iconoclast, enfant terrible, agent provocateur. While many would call German filmmaker-performer-activist Christoph Schlingensief (1960-2010) fearless, he himself said shortly before his untimely death that to make good work, “I have to approach those I fear”. On May 10+15+17, GOETHE FILMS features core Schlingensief projects that tackle the ghosts of Europe's past, present and future – fascism, capitalism, division and reunification – in his signature no-holds-barred splatter style.

Here Christoph Schlingensief is in conversation with the media on the occasion of the release of his film THE 120 DAYS OF BOTTROP in November 1997:

Mr. Schlingensief, you can be seen and heard everywhere at the moment. First you put on "48 hours Survival for Germany" at documenta in Kassel, and while doing it, you were arrested. Then you made headines with your talk show on German TV RTL, and after your "Railway Mission" at Hamburg Theatre now comes the premiere of your new film. Why this ecstasy of production?

Continue reading "Christoph Schlingensief: Bottrop, Fassbinder..." »

Dear Romuald Karmakar,

With 19 “clips” over 19 days, with protagonists ranging from animals at Berlin Zoo to neo Nazis on Alexanderplatz, I was surprised but happy to hear you are one of four artists, alongside Germany's favourite Ai Wei Wei (and his mother), to animate the German Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale starting tomorrow –or rather the French Pavilion, as both countries have traded places again this year, harking back to the first post-war Biennale. But that shouldn’t matter to you as a multi-hyphenated German-French-Iranian writer-director-producer of feature films and docs anyway. I was a bit worried about what kind of shot you would be given at the grandiose art spectacle when Deutschlandfunk radio commented on your inclusion in Susanne Gaensheimer's curation: "The film community ignores this honour, the art world is irritated. As usual, Romuald Karmakar polarizes." Continue reading "To Romuald Karmakar, c/o Venice Biennale" »