Harkat 16mm Film Festival Harkat 16mm Film Festival

 

 

 

Filmmaker in focus

Bernd Lützeler

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Harkat Studios is showcasing seven of filmmaker Bernd Lützeler’s works, shot on various film formats from 8 mm and 35 mm to digital, and hosting the artist himself all packed into one lovely evening in our studio space. Bernd Lützeler is an artist, filmmaker and a member of the artist-run filmlab LaborBerlin, a space where filmmakers can process, edit and print their own films on 8 and 16mm celluloid film. His films have been shown at venues and festivals worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Berlinale International Film Festival, Rotterdam, Ann Arbor Film Festival, Views from the Avant-Garde and many more.

Artist’s statementIn my films, installations and expanded cinema works I often explore the techniques of moving image production and presentation in interrelation with their form and perception. Therefore, loops, found footage and the disclosure of DIY- (Jugaad) and analogue technologies have become an integral part of my work. Another strong influence in my work are the aesthetics of popular Indian culture. Over the last seventeen years I have spent a significant amount of time in Mumbai where some of my projects were produced. What fascinates me, is seeing universal global themes like urban angst, mass media or migration gaining an emphasis against the backdrop of contemporary urban India.

 

Film Lineup

 

the Voice of God
India, 2011, 35mm, 1:1.85, 10 min
Voiceover – Harish Bhimani
If God would come down to earth and try to earn a living in Bombay, most probably he would very soon become successful as a voice over artiste, lending his voice to thousands of hindi movies and even more documentaries and public service films in India. A melo-dramatic docu-drama with voice-over in stop-motion and long-time exposure.

 

Batagur Baska [by Guido Möbius]
music video, directed by Bernd Lützeler
Brazil & Germany, 2016, Super-8, 1:1.37, 8 min
They gather here every day. They come from far and without purpose. They don’t know each other and they won’t come to know each other. They carry their gadgets to optimize the experience. They engage with the world through a small frame. They believe that this moment will remain unforgotten. Digital rituals in the analogue Cloud.

 

_galore
India & Germany, 2018, Digital 4K, 1:1.33, 9 mins
The streetscapes of contemporary Indian metros are largely dominated by products. The typical local shop can be described as a windowless, rectangular box. Stepping into such a shop can be like entering a new world: Filled with products galore up to the ceiling. The product itself serves as the interior design. Shopping galore. Products galore. Profits galore.

 

A Soundfilm
Germany, 2017, Super-8, 1:1.37, 6 min
Who needs focus anyway when the camera can record sound? A psychedelic excursion into 1970’s hobby filmmaking.

 

Fictitious Force
by Philip Widmann
India & Germany, 2015, Super 16, b&w, 1:1.78, 15 min
with Tarun Katari
Cinematography – Basab Mullik
Additional Cinematography – Bernd Lützeler
Conception & Montage – Philip Widmann
A theorem from physics that describes apparent forces in circular motion when observed from an external frame of reference lends its name to this film: Fictitious Force is a cinematic exchange on the impossibility of sharing experiences, in black and white and grey.

 

Traveling with Maxim Gorkiy
Dir: Bernd Lützeler & Kolja Kunt
Germany, 2014, Super-8, 1:1.37, 11 min
As so often, also here it’s rather about allusion than description. This also applies to the persons represented. Flat silhouettes of people. Their heads depicted in profile. Faces with no expression, formal gestures. In the background, a little bit of everyday life: The hard, square, stone architecture arises from ocher-colored, brownish, blackish mush of color or mud. A demonstration of the function of the central perspective. An idealized representation of a tropical paradise. Strangely, there’s no absurdity in this.

 

Camera Threat
India & Germany, 2017, 35mm & DCP, 1:1.85, 30 min
with Mansi Multani, Pushpendra Singh & Girish Pardeshi
Voiceovers – Harish Bhimani & Shai Heredia
Somewhere in the dreary spheres of Mumbai’s film industry, Camera Threat explores the ambivalent relationship this film city has with the moving image. Seated on a casting couch, two actors are getting stuck in impromptu conversations on the side effects of a world that no longer bothers to tell facts from fiction. An expanded multi-genre film within the constraints of the so-called Masala Formula known from Indian cinema.

 

Date: 15th December, 2018
Time: 8 pm
Capacity: 40
Venue: Harkat Studios