Selected Film-Festivals and Awards in Germany

Jeans put together to form blue stars are prominently displayed on the entrance gate, a display window with the title Blockbuster has a rocket has smashed into it, and visitors to the festival center pass by a wig-wam on their way through a large gate like a wild-west fort.

A very specific type of „America fever“ has plainly broken out in Halle. Starting on October 10th, a wide and diverse array of events was offered during the course of the forum directed by the artist and curator Daniel Hermann, of Halle. The series of events led up to a three-day program of films and discussions from Oct. 24 – 26, conceived by the Berlin filmmaker and curator Marcel Schwierins. The program was rounded off with evening concerts, workshop presentations, a videothek and a minimal-cinema installation with historic Marshall Plan propaganda films.

Slide show: Daniel Hermann: Post card series „America“

A kaleidoscope of German-American projections

Among the 42 short and feature-length films flickering on the screens in Halle over the festival weekend were numerous film classics that are only rarely screened, as well as six premieres that exposed a kaleidoscope of mutual German-American projections: images of the role of women, 1950’s re-education propaganda, artistic road movies, the influence of American music (among them The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins, a film and musical gem from 1967), racism, Vietnam, and finally the international premiere of Political Advertising VII, a collection of US election campaign spots from 1952 - 2008 by the conceptual artists Antonio Muntadas and Marshall Reese.

Erikaland, the monumental sculpture by the artists’ collective of Michael Böhler, Franz Hoefner and Harry Sachs described at the beginning, a satirical take on Disneyland, prepares the viewer inwardly for the festival’s perspective right at the outset: what was being presented was not so much the real America as an imaginary one, our images and ideas of America. The very title of the Werkleitz Festival indicates a certain fuzziness: America. The name of the continent as a whole is habitually used as a synonym for the USA. And it is just these imprecisions that the festival seeks to detect and deconstruct in terms of East and West German perspectives. No country on this earth was ever able to generate such myths as the USA: whether as the “New World,” the “Land of Limitless Opportunities,” the „Wild West,“ or the „imperialist class enemy.”

German Indians

Our projections often say more about ourselves than about the object of our projections. The public reading of Sozialistische Cowboys (i.e. socialist cowboys) by the authors Friedrich von Borries and Jens-Uwe Fischer at the start of the program, and the amateur films Karl May Museum Radebeul (i.e. the Karl May Museum in Radebeul), made in 1986 in the DDR, and Powderface und die Kulturgruppe der Indianistik (i.e. Powderface and the group for the preservation of Indian culture) by the (US) American Bill Meyer, trace the phenomenon of East German enthusiasm for North American Indian culture in the festival’s film program. Fortunate circumstances enabled this unique film material to escaped the DDR censorship authorities. And the documentary film DDR/DDR by the (US) American Amie Siegel, shown for the first time in Europe at its festival premiere, also presents a visit to an East German „Indian“ group. The pictures of the German “Indians” in Saxony were shown to great effect parallelled with historic footage of the StaSi (i.e. state security) system of surveillance and interviews with former StaSi functionaries. At first viewed with suspicion, the East German „Indians“ were soon tolerated and even supported by the DDR regime. After all, North American Indians embodied the concept of an indigenous people oppressed by the destructive forces of the imperialist class enemy. But of greater relevance to the DDR “Indians” was their own vision of freedom in an unattainable country that they played out in their leisure time. When German reunification made a visit to the USA a real possibility for the first time, many inveterate „Indians“ were shocked and sobered by the reality of the social conditions and way of life of the „natives“ in the USA. Their projections were far more enjoyable than the reality they were confronted with.

Stars and myths

The hero of a film that was among the absolute high points of the festival also had to face a similar disillusionment: in The Kiss of Mary Pickford, made in the USSR in 1927 by Sergei Komarov, a movie theatre ticket taker has to endure his sweetheart’s rejection. Only when he succeeds in snatching a kiss on the cheek from the world-famous star Mary Pickford after many slapstick-like complications, does her rejection change to adoration - unfortunately shared by hundreds of other women fans. In the end both the hero and his sweetheart conclude that the glamour of stardom also has its darker aspects, and together they return to their normal lives. What is particularly striking about this rarely-screened silent film curiosity is that it was constructed around a chance take of a kiss during a visit by the silent film stars Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks – without the stars’ knowledge. The wonderful live piano accompaniment by the legendary film composer Peter Gotthard (The Legend of Paul and Paula i.a.) was received enthusiastically by the festival public.

The films by the Berlin artist Björn Melhus shown in the program Beyond the Rainbow were shown as a trilogy for the first time. Melhus offered a running commentary on his films, with intimately personal illustrations from his southern German childhood affinity for the myths of the USA conveyed by the media into which he transforms himself: whether Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz, James (Jimmy) Dean, Jim Morrison or Janis Joplin.

Those who were unable to enjoy the Werkleitz Festival live still have the opportunity to catch up on some „America-feeling.“ An innovation on the Festival website is a curated online film program with extensive introductions to the online links.