Films about memory, the German Occupation of France during World War II and the Resistance to Fascism.
Peter Nestler’s first film
Am Siel (
By the Dike Sluice), made in collaboration with Kurt Ulrich, is a portrait of a small and quiet seaside village in East Frisia in Germany, seen from the perspective of an old dike sluice.
Dedicated to Peter Nestler and based on the eponymous book by Jean-Yves Petiteau,
Itinéraire de Jean Bricard (
Itinerary of Jean Bricard) is composed of long journeys along the Loire River, shot in silvery black-and-white. This is the place where Bricard grew up during the German occupation. Observations of the land and the water accompany Bricard’s narration, recorded by Petiteau in 1994, about the rich history of the region, from commercial fishing and farming in the 1930s, though the Occupation, the Resistance and its brutal suppression. Danièle Huillet contributed to the script of the film, which Jean-Marie Straub completed after her death.
A few days after the liberation of Paris in August 1944, director Jean Grémillon departed with a team of cameramen in order to “establish the most exact record of the state of Normandy” and the brutal effects of the war on the land and the people. The result if
Le 6 Juin à l'aube (The Sixth of June at Dawn), one of the greatest documentaries directed by Grémillon, here presented in its restored long version.
Gens du Lac (People of the Lake) is Jean-Marie Straub last film is a story of resistance, this time based on a novel by Swiss writer Janine Mansard: a man remembers his youth in a fishing family on the Lake Geneva Vaudoise coast, the traffic on the lake during the Second World War and political upheavals in the immediate aftermath of the war.
The screening will be introduced by photographer and filmmaker Ian Wiblin.
Itinerary of Jean Bricard will be shown on a new 35mm print.
Am Siel,
By the Dike Sluice, Dir: Peter Nestler, West Germany, 1962, 35mm / DCP, b&w, 12 min., German with English subtitles.
Itinéraire de Jean Bricard, Itinerary of Jean Bricard, Dirs: Danièle Huillet and Jean-Marie Straub, France, 2007, 35mm, b&w, Dolby SRD, 40 min., French with English subtitles.
Le 6 Juin à l'aube,
The Sixth of June at Dawn, Dir: Jean Grémillon, France, 1944–45, 35mm, b&w, 41 min., French with English subtitles.
Gens du Lac,
People of the Lake, Dir: Jean-Marie Straub, Switzerland, 2018, HD, colour, 19 min., French with English subtitles.
Back
