settima

westberlin

Tätowierung [Tattoo / The Delinquent] (Johannes Schaaf, 1967)

Nov

18

National Adoption Day

Tätowierung (1967)

Benno (Christof Wackernagel), a pensive young man with dark hair and dark eyes. DPs: Petrus R. Schlömp & Wolf Wirth.

16 year old Benno (Christof Wackernagel) lives in a reformatory until the Lohmanns, a rich middle-aged #WestBerlin business couple decides to adopt him. A new world opens up, one of adulthood and responsibility. For the teenager, this neatly regulated new bourgeois life feels all wrong.

Decoder (Muscha, 1984)

Sep

28

International Right To Know Day

Decoder (1984)

In a crumbling bunker, the High Priest (Genesis P-Orridge) lectures about information. DP: Johanna Heer.

“Information is like a bank. Some of us are rich. Some of us are poor, with information. All of us can be rich. Our job, your job, is to rob the bank. To kill the guard. To go out there to destroy everybody who keeps, and hides, the whole information. Simple. Special. Information. Power.”

– The High Priest

Decoder (Muscha, 1984)

Jul

7

Milky Ways

Decoder (1984)

Christiana (Christiane F) and F.M. (FM Einheit) at their Sperrmüll table in a neon green-lit kitchen with supermarket shelving. The former junkie prepares a Schrippe with fresh produce while the musician has a selection of wrapped chocolate bars in front of him. DP: Johanna Heer.

Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt [It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives] (Rosa von Praunheim, 1971)

Jul

6

National Daniel Day

Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (1971)

A gay couple kissing on the street in front of a black-tiled Berlin bar. A third gay man nearby looks away. DP: Robert van Ackeren.

Daniel (Bernd Feuerhelm) is a young man in #WestBerlin exploring his homosexuality. Initially he opts for a spießbürgerlich, petit-bourgeois, almost heterosexual affair. He then probes further, swings by Berlin's public toilets and pools. Only when he encounters a leftwing gay commune he finds that pride, not conformity, is his way of living his life.

“Werdet stolz auf eure Homosexualität! Raus aus den Toiletten, rein in die Strassen! Freiheit für die Schwulen!”

Von Praunheim's Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers is a plea for rebellion and visibility. For revolt and love. A wakeup call for gays and straights alike. Such a stir this film pamphlet made it became the blueprint for West-Germany's gay liberation movement.

Ein Bild von Sarah Schumann [A Picture of Sarah Schumann] (Harun Farocki, 1978)

Jun

26

National Sarah Day

Ein Bild von Sarah Schumann (1978)

A close-up of the artist's hand at work. More stills and details about this film on Frieze. DP: Ingo Kratisch.

Commissioned for a West-German TV series called Kunstgeschichten (litt. both “art stories” and “#art histories”), filmmaker Harun Farocki visits artist Sarah Schumann in her #Berlin studio.

“An diesem Tag war das Bild, drei Monate nach Beginn und 67 Arbeitstagen fertig.”

– narrator

The resulting documentary shows the process of creating one art piece over the course of nine weeks. Schumann's work in that period consists of collage portraits of women important in her life.