Pitt Presents Avant-garde Film Series

PITTSBURGH—The University of Pittsburgh's Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures, with support from the University's School of Arts and Sciences, will present a film series titled Experimental, Underground, Revolutionary: Avant-garde Films From Germany, Austria, and Switzerland at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays Jan. 17-April 11. The screenings will be held in Room 205 Lawrence Hall, 3942 Forbes Ave., Oakland.

The series will survey the history of avant-garde films from the 1920s to the present, including such films as Kuhle Wampe (1932) and The Patriotic Woman (1979). Many of these films are rare and seldom screened. All films will have subtitles or be easily understood by non-German-speaking audiences. Screenings are free and open to the public.

A list of the screenings follows.

Jan. 17

Kuhle Wampe [To Whom Does the World Belong?] (1932), 80 minutes, directed by Slatan Dudow. Bertolt Brecht worked on the screenplay and Hanns Eisler supplied the music for what is considered the Weimar Republic's most significant Communist film about unemployment in Depression-plagued pre-Hitler Germany; the German title refers to a tent camp for the dispossessed near Berlin.

Jan. 24—The following screenings will present a selection of work from different directors that represents the re-emergence of experimental film in Germany after World War II: Madeleine—Madeleine (1963), 11 minutes, directed by Vlado Kristl;

Selbstschüsse [Self Shots] (1967), 6.25 minutes, directed by Lutz Mommartz;

Jüm—Jüm (1970), 11 minutes, directed by Werner Nekes and Dore O.;

Adolf Winkelmann, Kassel, 9.12.1967, 11.45h (1970), 8 minutes, directed by Adolf Winkelmann;

Same Player Shoots Again (1968), 12 minutes, directed by Wim Wenders;

Polly (1968), 11 minutes, directed by Rolf Wiest;

Kaskara (1974), 21 minutes, directed by Dore O.;

Empor [Upwards] (1978), 10 minutes, directed by Bastian Clevé;

Nachtwache [Night Watch] (1976), 10 minutes, directed by Bastian Clevé;

Rohfilm [Raw Film] (1968), 20 minutes, directed by Wilhelm and Birgit Hein.

Jan. 31

Machorka Muff (1963), 18 minutes, and Die Chronik der Anna Magdalena Bach (1967), 93 minutes, directed by Jean-Marie Straub and Daniel Huillet.

Feb. 7—The following films are directed by Alexander Kluge:

Brutalität in Stein [Brutality in Stone] (1960), 12 minutes;

Porträt einer Bewährung [Portrait of a Probation] (1964), 11 minutes; and

Die Patriotin [The Patriotic Woman] (1979), 121 minutes.

Feb. 15—No screenings.

Feb. 21—Screenings of films TBA featuring director Heinz Emigholz.

Feb. 28

Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation in der er lebt [Not the Homosexual Is Perverse but the Situation in Which He Lives] (1971), clip, directed by Rosa von Praunheim;

Rohfilm [Raw Film] (1968), 20 minutes, directed by Birgit and Wilhelm Hein;

Love Stinks (1982), clip, directed by Birgit and Wilhelm Hein; and

Baby, I Will Make You Sweat (1994), 63 minutes, directed by Birgit Hein.

March 7—No screenings.

March 14—Screenings featuring director Harun Farocki:

Nicht loschbares Feuer [Inextinguishable Fire] (1969);

Arbeiter verlassen die Fabrik [Workers Leaving the Factory] (1995), 36 minutes;

Auge/Machine 1 [Eye Machine 1] (2001-3);

Schnittstelle/Section [Interface] (1995), 25 minutes; and

Ich glaubte Gefangene zu Sehen [I Thought I Was Seeing Convicts] (2000), 25 minutes.

March 21—Screenings featuring director Christoph Schlingensief:

Christoph Schlingensief and His Films (2004), excerpt; and

Foreigners Out! Schlingensief's Container (2002), 90 minutes.

March 28—Screenings of films TBA featuring directors Matthias Müller, Bjorn Melhus, and Michael Brynntrup.

April 4—Austrian experimental films from the 1950s to the present, titles TBA.

April 11—Constantly Moving: Crossovers in Experimental Film and Video Art (1994-2004), a survey of various artists; and

I Want to See How You See (2003), 4 minutes, directed by Pipilotti Rist.

For more information on the screenings of these films, contact Randall Halle, Klaus W. Jonas Professor of German and Film Studies, at 412-648-2614.

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