PETER NESTLER - REPRISE
GOETHE-INSTITUT LONDON, SHOWROOM WORKSTATION SHEFFIELD
FRIDAY 1 – SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013
From 1 – 3 November 2013, the Goethe-Institut London in collaboration with Showroom Workstation Sheffield presents Peter Nestler – Reprise. This short season follows on from The Films of Peter Nestler, organised by the Goethe-Institut in collaboration with Tate Modern and the Showroom Workstation in Sheffield in November 2012. This comprehensive retrospective introduced Nestler’s extensive oeuvre to UK audiences for the first time and stirred a lot of interest. As his planned visit had to be cancelled, Peter Nestler – Reprise will offer a second chance to meet the director and engage with him in a dialogue about his films.
The four programmes shown at the Goethe-Institut on Friday 1 and Saturday 2 November will include three newly subtitled films. Two of these reflect Nestler’s ongoing interest in Latin America, the Ecuador-set travelogue Pachamama – Our Land (1995), and outspoken Chile Film (1973/74), made shortly after the military coup in September 1973 and pulled from broadcast on Swedish Television a day before it was meant to be shown. The third one, Die Judengasse (‘The Jew’s Alley’, 1988) traces the history of the Jews in Frankfurt.
Once more a trip to Sheffield will go ahead to screen Nestler’s portrait of A Working Men’s Club in Sheffield where it was shot almost 50 years ago. (Sun 3 Nov, 3pm, Showroom Workstation).
Contact: Maren Hobein,[log in to unmask], T 020 7596 4047
Peter Nestler – Reprise November 2013: http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710667v.htm
The Films of Peter Nestler Retrospective Novemver 2012: http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/kul/dug/flm/pet/enindex.htm
ABOUT PETER NESTLER
Much admired by fellow filmmakers such as Jean-Marie Straub and Harun Farocki, Peter Nestler (b.1937) is one of the most singular and important filmmakers to emerge in post-war Germany. In the early 1960s Nestler made a series of poetic films about the changing realities in rural and industrial areas, mostly in Germany (By the Dike Sluice, 1962 / Ödenwaldstetten, 1964), but also the UK, where he filmed A Working Men’s Club in Sheffield in 1965. In the same year he made From Greece, on the rise of fascism and the struggle against it, followed by the unsparing and exigent In the Ruhr Region (1967), named after Germany’s largest industrial area. Opposition to his political views and film aesthetics led Nestler to Sweden, where he worked for television. Since the 1970s, Nestler has directed an extraordinary body of work further expanding the form and themes of his first documentaries, particularly those of work and the changes in working conditions, the history of production processes and techniques (How to Make Glass (Manually), 1970) as well as political struggles (Chile Film, 1974/74) against oppression, war, and the return of fascism. All his films show a clear political stance and a deep interest in the recovery of forgotten histories (Up the Danube, 1969 / Die Judengasse, 1988). In the past 20 years, Nestler’s films have continued to focus on change, remembrance, preservation of traditional cultures, and ecology, from Hungary (Time, 1992) to Ecuador (Pachamama – Our Land, 1995).
The beauty and strength of Nestler’s films stem from his attention to detail and the clarity of approach to his subject matters. The careful crafting of his films is evident in the rigour and sparseness of his shots, his precise editing, original use of sound, voice over and music, as well as in his deliberate use of still photography and archive material. All this combined with a stringent political questioning makes his films urgent, topical and important.
Peter Nestler – Reprise is organised by the Goethe-Institut London and Ricardo Matos Cabo. In collaboration with the Showroom Workstation Sheffield. With special thanks to Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und Fernsehen Berlin, SWR, Cinemateca Portuguesa-Museu do Cinema, APORDOC - Associação pelo Documentário, Sveriges Television, Ruth Cherrington, Hussain Currimbhoy at Sheffield Doc/Fest.
Contact: Maren Hobein,[log in to unmask], T 020 7596 4047
Peter Nestler – Reprise November 2013: http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710667v.htm
The Films of Peter Nestler Retrospective Novemver 2012: http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lp/kul/dug/flm/pet/enindex.htm
SCREENING SCHEDULE
All films will be subtitled in English.
HOW TO MAKE GLASS (MANUALLY) + PACHAMAMA – OUR LAND
FRI 1 NOV 2013, 7PM, GOETHE-INSTIUT LONDON
In the 1970s, Peter and Zsóka Nestler collaborated on a series of educational films for television on the history of crafts and the making of things. These “biographies of objects" are rigorous investigations into the history of working techniques, production processes and materials exploring the relation between economics, politics and history. One of the most compelling one in this series, How to Make Glass (Manually) depicts different processes of glass making.
Peter Nestler directed Pachamama a few years after The North Calotte, his remarkable film about the preservation of the Sami indigenous culture and the damage brought to the landscape of Northern Europe by heavy industrialisation. As the previous film Pachamama is a travelogue, this time filmed in Ecuador, moving from the hills of Quito to the country’s mountains, fields and its coast. The film is constructed around a musical structure and motif and gently depicts the layering of history and cultures, presenting the current situation of the peasants and rural workers, their communal organisation and the hardships of their toil and struggle, as well as the transformation of the landscape through deforestation and land exploitation. We will show the Spanish version with English subtitles.
How to Make Glass (manually) (Wie macht man Glas? (handwerklich), Sweden 1970, b/w, 16mm, 24mins. Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Zsóka Nestler. / Pachamama – Our Land (Pachamama - Nuestra Tierra), Germany 1995, colour, 16mm (transferred to Digibeta), 90mins. Dir: Peter Nestler. Spanish with English subtitles.
Total Running Time: 114 minutes.
Followed by a Q & A with Peter Nestler.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710864v.htm
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ÖDENWALDSTETTEN + TIME
SAT 2 NOV 2013, 3PM, GOETHE-INSTIUT LONDON
Ödenwaldstetten describes the changes brought by industrialisation to a Swabian village in the 1960s, thus evoking the transformation the whole of Germany was undergoing at the time.
Filmed almost 30 years later, Time takes us to Hungary and introduces us to a number of Hungarian folk artists who, after years of adversity, share their life experiences and love for their craft with the filmmakers.
Ödenwaldstetten, FRG 1964, b/w, 16mm, 36mins. Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Kurt Ulrich. /
Time, Germany 1992, colour, 16mm, 43mins. Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Zsóka Nestler.
Total Running Time: 79mins
Followed by a Q & A with Peter Nestler.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710889v.htm
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FROM GREECE + CHILE FILM
SAT 2 NOV 2013, 5.30PM, GOETHE-INSTIUT LONDON
Just as urgent today as it was when it was made during the Greek crisis of 1965, From Greece looks back at anti-fascist struggle and resistance in the 1940s as a warning against the re-emergence of fascism.
Made for television and for a young audience, Chile Film is another excellent example of Nestler’s educational and political cinema. The film combines a montage of documents, ranging from spoken texts to photographs of Thomas Billhardt and Karl Erik Jagare, old photos, drawings from Chilean artists, with the music of Luis Roca and Ramon Chavez. In a clear and straightforward manner it explains the history of Chilean resistance and class struggle from the colonisation of the country up to the overthrow of Salvador Allende’s government exactly 40 years ago. Like From Greece, the film, which clearly sides with the Unidad Popular, is a powerful plead against oppression. In the beginning of the film we listen to the sentence: "The Chilean people have had to endure much for hundreds of years." The film was never broadcasted.
From Greece, FRG 1965. b/w, 16mm, 28mins. Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Reinald Schnell. /
Chile Film, Sweden 1973 /74, b/w, 16mm, 23mins. Dir. Peter Nestler in collaboration with Zsóka Nestler
Total Running Time: 51 minutes.
Followed by a Q & A with Peter Nestler.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710908v.htm
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UP THE DANUBE + DIE JUDENGASSE
SAT 2 NOV 2013, 7.30PM, GOETHE-INSTIUT LONDON
Made twenty years apart, these two films are essential to understand the core of Peter Nestler's cinematographic practice and concerns. Up the Danube follows a riverboat upstream, excavating the river’s layers of history from Roman times to the present.
Discussions about the conservation of Die Judengasse (‘Jew’s Alley’) in Frankfurt motivated Peter Nestler to reconstruct the history of the Jews in this city. It is a history of centuries of persecution and exclusion, interrupted only by a few periods in which emancipation seemed possible. As in his other films, Nestler uses different kinds of documentary material to establish the relationship between past and present.
Die Donau Rauf (Up the Danube), FRG 1969, 16mm, colour, 28mins. Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Zsóka Nestler. / The Jewish Lane (Die Judengasse), Germany 1988, colour, 16mm, 44 mins. Dir: Peter Nestler.
Total Running Time: 72 minutes.
Followed by a Q & A with Peter Nestler.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710915v.htm
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BY THE DIKE SLUICE + A WORKING MEN’S CLUB IN SHEFFIELD
SUN 3 NOV 2013, 3PM, SHOWROOM WORKSTATION SHEFFIELD
Peter Nestler’s first film, By the Dike Sluice, presents life in a small seaside village, unusually described from the perspective of an old floodgate.
Highlighting the musicality of much of his work, A Working Men's Club in Sheffield is Nestler’s paean to the working class, depicting the hard work and leisure time of those gathering at the Dial House Working Men's Club.
By the Dike Sluice (Am Siel), FRG 1962, 35mm, b/w, 13 min, Dir: Peter Nestler in collaboration with Kurz Ulrich. /
A Working Men’s Club in Sheffield (Ein Arbeiterclub in Sheffield), FRG 1965, 16mm (DigiBeta), b/w, 41mins. Dir: Peter Nestler.
Total Running Time: 54 minutes.
Followed by a Q & A with Peter Nestler.
http://www.goethe.de/ins/gb/lon/ver/en11710923v.htm
Programme: Ricardo Matos Cabo with Maren Hobein / Goethe-Institut London
VENUES AND TICKETS
Goethe-Institut London
50 Princes Gate
Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
T +44 20 7596 4000, [log in to unmask]
www.goethe.de/london
www.facebook.com/goethe.institut.london
@GI_London1
Tickets: £3 individual programme at the Goethe-Institut, £6 for all 3 programmes on Saturday, £9 all 4 screenings at the Goethe-Institut. Free for Goethe-Institut Language Students and Library Members. Booking Essential.
Showroom Workstation Sheffield
15 Paternoster Row
Sheffield S1 2BX
T: 0114 275 7727
www.showroomworkstation.org.uk
Tickets: £7 / £5 concessions / £4,50 students
Maren Hobein
Project Co-ordinator for Film
50 Princes Gate, Exhibition Road
London SW7 2PH
T +44 20 7596 4047
[log in to unmask]
www.goethe.de/london
Follow us on Facebook or Twitter:
facebook.com/goethe.institut.london
@GI_London1
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