Arsenal / Filmgalerie 451 - DVD Edition

• THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I) (1972-1975, 142 min.)
• SHAIHU UMAR (1976, 137 min.)
• GHASHIRAM KOTWAL (1977, 107 min.)
• THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II)  (1975-1977, 56 min.)
• ORG (1967-1978, 177 min.)
• RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE (1978, 95 min.)
• RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX & AMY! (1977-1980, 125 min.)
• SPECTERS OF FREEDOM - CINEMA AND DECOLONIZATION (1969-1982, 311 min.)
• KYA HUA IS SHAHAR KO? (1986, 95 min.)
• FILMS BY SHEILA MCLAUGHLIN AND LYNNE TILLMAN (1976-1987, 194 min.)
• SUDANESE FILM GROUP (1964-1989, 174 min.)
• ARCHIVE OF GAZES (1980-1993, 330 min.)
• KLAUS TELSCHER: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA (1979-1995, 296 min.)
• RIKI KALBE - 15 FILMS (1976-1998, 263 min.)
• MY WINNIPEG (2007, 79 min.)
• THE HALFMOON FILES & DAY OF THE SPARROW (2007, 2010, 187 min.)
• STATE-THEATRE #1-6 (2009-2014, 239 min.)
• HAVARIE (2016, 93 min.)
• REVISION & AND-EK GHES... (2012, 2016, 200 min.)

Informations about the individual DVDs

THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I) (1972-1975) – Director: Heinz Emigholz
DVD + 20 page booklet – 142 min. + 87 min. Extras
The project THE FORMATIVE YEARS makes visible and accessible seven early experimental works by Heinz Emigholz, which provided a crucial impetus for the international experimental film movement of the 1970s and 80s. SCHENEC-TADY I-III, ARROWPLANE and TIDE were published on the DVD THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I). They are counted among the few experimental works from Germany which have attained enduring international acclaim. Each film – ARROWPLANE, TIDE and all parts of the SCHENEC-TADY series – consist of thousands of photographs, taken frame-by-frame with a Bolex camera on 16mm film according to a previously established score. The human gaze is thus replaced by a sequence of images appeared as the product of a machine that isolated and saved the individual images, reconfiguring them in the projection in the context of an artificially created sequence of movement. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE FORMATIVE YEARS (I)

SHAIHU UMAR (1976) – Director: Adamu Halilu
DVD + 52 page booklet – 137 min + 21 min. Extras
Set in northern Nigeria towards the end of the 19th century, SHAIHU UMAR starts with a discussion between Islamic students and their renowned teacher, the wise man Shaihu Umar. Asked about his origins, Umar begins to tell his story: he comes from a modest background and is separated from his mother after his father dies and his stepfather is banished. His subsequent trials and tribulations are marked by slavery, and he is put to any number of tests until he finally becomes the adopted son of his Arabic master Abdulkarim. He attends Koran School and is made an imam upon reaching adulthood. Following a particular dream, he resolves to search for his mother. The film was long believed to be lost, but the negatives and prints were rediscovered in the archive of the Nigerian Film Corporation in 2016. – With Umaru Ladan, Mairiga Aliyu, Husaini Mohammed, Umaru Dembo, Assad Yasin, Harira Kachia (Language: Hausa, Subtitles: English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SHAIHU UMAR

GHASHIRAM KOTWAL (1977) – Director: K. Hariharan, Mani Kaul
DVD + 40 page booklet – 107 min.
GHASHIRAM KOTWAL is a stylized film version of a play chronicling the Peshwa regime in western India. The Peshwa Empire, based in Pune, was the only one of its extent in India under Brahmin rule. Placing an infant Madhav Rao on the throne as king, Nana Phadnavis takes charge as the Prime Minister. To enforce his powers, Nana appoints Ghashiram as a senior police official cum espionage agent. So it is in the heart of a feudal, decadent, yet romantic atmosphere that we witness intrigues, murders, and alliances while the British advance into Maratha territory. Through his espionage network, Nana discovers the subversive operations of the British; when Nana resists them he faces a total rout at Wadgaon (1779). GHASHIRAM KOTWAL is the first venture of YUKT, a film cooperative established by sixteen students from the Film & Television Institute of India in 1976. – With Mohan Agashe, Om Puri, Mohan Gokhale, Rajni Chauhan sowie Darsteller der Theater Academy, Pune (Language: Marathi, Subtitles: English, German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about GHASHIRAM KOTWAL

THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II) (1975-1977) – Director: Heinz Emigholz
DVD + 20 page booklet – 56 min. + 120 min. Extras
HOTEL and DEMON were published on the DVD THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II). In HOTEL Heinz Emigholz ruptures temporally linear shots by breaking them apart and then editing these parts into one another according to recognizable patterns. While in DEMON Emigholz has given a spatial element to the words and thus approached Mallarmé's dream to be able to show that language can be an object, a counterpart. – With Silke Grossmann, Heinz Emigholz / Marcia Bronstein, Susanne Christmann, Silke Grossmann, Hilka Nordhausen, Gabriele Kreis, Renée Pötzscher, Christoph Derschau, Bodo von Dewitz, Hannes Hatje, Gernot Meyer, Steffen Poppenberg, Klaus Wyborny (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE FORMATIVE YEARS (II)

ORG (1967-1978) – Director: Fernando Birri
DVD + 68 page booklet – 177 min. + 24 min. Extras
Fernando Birri‘s ORG is a monstrous, three-hour long film that has only been screened extremely rarely since it premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 1979. The story of ORG is based on an ancient Indian legend, which Thomas Mann also drew on for his story “The Transposed Heads.” But above all, ORG is an experiment in perception that features over 26,000 cuts and some 700 audio tracks. ORG was partly funded by leading actor Mario Girotti (Terence Hill). Viewing the film today provides a kaleidoscopic insight into the experimental, aesthetic and political trends of the 1970s. – With Terence Hill, Lidija Juraçik, Isaac Twen Obu, Nolika Pereda, Pietro Santalamazza, Francesco Di Giacomo (Language: Italian, Subtitles: English, German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about ORG

RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE (1978) – Director: Lana Gogoberidse
DVD + 28 page booklet –  95 min.
Sopiko is completely absorbed in her profession. As a journalist, she interviews a wide range of different women about their living conditions and desires, while she herself also makes a considerable effort to maintain the fragile balance between professional fulfilment and family obligations. Lana Gogoberidze tells a sensitive story of the connection between the private and the political in an almost documentary style and with dynamic camerawork. With its focus on the everyday struggles of an emancipated woman, RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE is regarded as one of the first feminist films of the Soviet era. – With Sofiko Chiaureli, Gia Badridze, Ketevan Orakhelashvili, Janri Lolashvili, Salome Kancheli (Language: ​Georgian, Subtitles: English, German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about RAMDENIME INTERWIU PIRAD SAKITCHEBSE

RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX & AMY! (1977-1980) – Director: Laura Mulvey, Peter Wollen
DVD + 52 page booklet –  125 min. + 77 min. Extras
Laura Mulvey and Peter Wollen are not filmmakers first and foremost; they are film theorists, critics and thinkers. Mulvey and Wollen’s texts from the 1970s set their sights on utopian and revolutionary perspectives. Mulvey emphasizes the gestures necessary for a cinematic liberation struggle, while Wollen draws on the power of fantasy and adopts cinema as a model for a new avant-garde. Both play a role in writing a manifesto for a different kind of cinema, whose militant nature is gained from radical work on (cinematic) symbolization processes. – With Dinah Stabb, Merdel Jordine, Rhiannon Tise / Feminist Improvising Group, X-ray Spex, Jack Hylton and His Orchestra (Language: English, Subtitles​: German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about RIDDLES OF THE SPHINX & AMY!

SPECTERS OF FREEDOM - CINEMA AND DECOLONIZATION (1969-1982) – Director: Ruy Guerra, Murilo Salles, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Assia Djebar, Joaquim Lopes Barbosa und Sarah Maldoror
DVD + 44 page booklet – 311 min.
The six films on this DVD edition are powerful examples of how cinema and filmmaking have engaged in the struggle against colonial oppression and in the momentous task of decolonizing a world marked by centuries of European hegemony over large parts of the Global South. If “Specters of Freedom” refers to the spectral and unruly nature of all films, particularly when they are taken out of an archive and brought back to life, the title also suggests that the colonial past keeps haunting our present. The political and poetic verve of these films – publicly released here for the first time on DVD – is anything but outdated. (Language: Arabic, English, French, Makonde, Portuguese, Xironga, Subtitles​: English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SPECTERS OF FREEDOM - CINEMA AND DECOLONIZATION

KYA HUA IS SHAHAR KO? (1986) – Director: Deepa Dhanraj
DVD + 24 page booklet – 95 min. + 70 min Extras
KYA HUA IS SHAHAR KO? (What Has Happened to this City?) explores the processes of political maneuvering which led to the Hyderabad communal riots in 1984. The city’s history, the provocative speeches of its politicians and the instrumentalisation of religious processions stands next to the testimonies and the striking visual accounts of the Old City’s working class – those who lose their livelihoods through violent attacks and long periods of imposed curfew. The film is pioneering in recording and analyzing the rhetoric and visual expression of Hindu nationalist and supremacist politics. Initially shot for the local communities in Hyderabad, its courage in capturing the ensuing violence combined with its respectful lyricism and contemplation, enhanced through Navroze Contractor’s camera work endows this political documentary with an acute contemporary relevance. Deepa Dhanraj founded the Yugantar film collective (1980–83) and continued to make numerous short, and feature length documentaries, often closely connected to Indian feminism. (Language: Hindi, Subtitles:​ English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about KYA HUA IS SHAHAR KO?

FILMS BY SHEILA MCLAUGHLIN AND LYNNE TILLMAN (1976-1987) – Director: Sheila McLaughlin
DVD + 32 page booklet – 194 min. + 30 min. Extras
Movies of Sheila McLaughlin and Lynne Tillman released on DVD for the first time. INSIDE OUT: Over three silent sequences, the short film shows moments of sustained, internal tension just before an emotional outburst on the part of the protagonists: „the moment before. With Lizzie Borden, Mary Rattray, Mirien Soto. COMMITTED: Committed is the powerful story of film star/leftist iconoclast Frances Farmer. With Sheila McLaughlin, Victoria Boothby, Lee Breuer, John Erdman, Heinz Emigholz. SHE MUST BE SEEING THINGS: The film weaves together a director’s efforts at adapting a novel by Thomas de Quincey for the screen and her conflict-filled relationship with her lover, which feeds off jealously and is hung up on day dreams and revenge fantasies. With Sheila Dabney, Lois Weaver, Kyle DeCamp, John Erdman (Language: English, Subtitles: German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about FILMS BY SHEILA MCLAUGHLIN AND LYNNE TILLMAN

SUDANESE FILM GROUP (1964-1989) – Director: Suliman Elnour, Eltayeb Mahdi, Ibrahim Shaddad
DVD + 72 page booklet – 174 min.
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a group of filmmakers working in the film department of the Ministry of Culture at the time published the magazine CINEMA. This group founded the Sudanese Film Group (SFG) in April 1989 in order to be able to act more independently of the state. Their aim was to be involved in all aspects of film production, screening and teaching and to maintain the Sudanese* passion for cinema. On 30 June 1989, however, the coup, which brought with it a distrust of all forms of art, ended all cultural endeavours. All civil society organisations were banned. In 2005 the firm hand of the state was finally loosened somewhat and SFG was able to register again. (Language: Arabic, German, Russian, Subtitles​: English, Arabic)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about SUDANESE FILM GROUP

ARCHIV DER BLICKE (1980-1993) – Director: Rüdiger Neumann
DVD – 330 min.
Rüdiger Neumann is a filmmaker and professor at the Hochschule für bildende Künste in Hamburg whose teaching has influenced two generations of filmmakers, many of whom now play an active role in shaping German cinema today. In the 1980s and 1990s, the HfbK was the only experimental and political alternative to the film schools in Munich and Berlin. Rüdiger Neumann’s controversial Thursday seminars are legendary. (no dialogue)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about ARCHIVE OF GAZES

KLAUS TELSCHER: DAS FILMISCHE WERK (1979-1995) – Director: Klaus Telscher
DVD (2 Discs) + 64 page booklet – 296 min.
Klaus Telscher is one of the most important German experimental filmmakers of the 1980s and 90s. His sophisticated work is atmospherically dense, playful as well as caustic, and his complex filmic structures are matched by his subtle photography. (Language: German, English, Français, Subtitles: English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about KLAUS TELSCHER: EXPERIMENTAL CINEMA

RIKI KALBE - 15 FILME (1976-1998) – Director: Riki Kalbe
DVD + 12 page booklet – 263 min.
The DVD brings together for the first time the cinematic oeuvre by filmmaker and photographer Riki Kalbe. She loved concrete things, discovering metaphorical universes in them, she invented the feminist hacker, anticipating reality, she researched ordinary stories and dedicated herself to hidden memory, always pursuing the question of how memory is possible at all. Between 1976 and 1998 she shot 15 films, some of them in collaboration with Barbara Kasper and others. (Language: German, Subtitles​: English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about RIKI KALBE - 15 FILMS

MY WINNIPEG (2007) – Director: Guy Maddin
DVD + 12 page booklet – 79 min.
MY WINNIPEG winds its way though the birthplace of personal mythologies, attempting to understand the nature of memory. Equal parts mystical rumination and personal history, city chronicle and deranged post-Freudian proletarian fantasy, MY WINNIPEG blends local myth with childhood trauma. All narrated by Maddin's usual entertaining and inspired energy. Commissioned by Michael Burns whose command was 'enchant me with your treatment' this was Maddin's cue to set about exploring the spell of his home town. By mixing animation, archive and re-enactments he has created an extraordinary visual homage in true individual Guy Maddin style. – With Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Darcy Fehr, Amy Stewart (Language: English, Subtitles: German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about MY WINNIPEG

THE HALFMOON FILES & DAY OF THE SPARROW (2007, 2010) – Director: Philip Scheffner
DVD (2 Discs) + 20 page booklet – 187 min.
Philip Scheffner has created a distinct form of political thinking in his films that enables a redistribution of visibility and invisibility. He creates complex image and soundscapes, interweaves stories, and meticulously follows traces that constantly open him up in new directions. THE HALFMOON FILES is a film on the complex relationships between politics, colonialism, science and media. A film about gaps, omissions and the construction of history. In short: a ghost story. DAY OF THE SPARROW is a political wildlife film. It centers around a country where the border between war and peace fades. (Language: THE HALFMOON FILES German, English, DAY OF THE SPARROW German, English, Subtitles: THE HALFMOON FILES German, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Hebrew, Japanese, DAY OF THE SPARROW: German, English, French)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about THE HALFMOON FILES & DAY OF THE SPARROW

STATE-THEATRE #1-6 (2009-2014) – Director: Daniel Kötter/Constanze Fischbeck
DVD (2 Discs) + 16 page booklet – 239 min.
The word ‚theatre‘ (theatron in greek) refers fi rst and foremost to the place and architecture of a performance, rather than to what is being performed. Even after centuries, a theatre’s architecture represents the visual order from which it emerged: the possibilities for artistic production are historically conditioned. The geometrical space of architecture is pitted against the anthropological space of its use. state-theatre departs from places that have shed their apparent societal functions: deserted areas, construction sites, unused or reinterpreted buildings – empty spaces in the urban fabric, places that were originally meant as allegoric gathering places: theaters. (Language: German, English, Farsi, Arabic, French, Subtitles​: English, German)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about STATE-THEATRE #1-6

HAVARIE (2016) – Director: Philip Scheffner
DVD + 20 page booklet –  93 min.+ 39 min. Extras
The radio traffic between the cruise liner, the Cartagena port authorities, the rescue cruiser “Salvamar Mimosa” and the helicopter “Helimer 211” structures the soundscape of the film. From the recordings with tourists and officers of the cruise liner, with the crew of a container ship, with the Harraga, les bruleurs – “who burn their passports”, and their families the biographic traces of the documentary material are extended into a cinematic imagination. Visually, the cinematic space contracts to a single, unedited sequence arching over the total duration of the film. It is a short YouTube clip which seems today as the very essence, the condensation of the situation in the Mediterranean. In single frames, the dinghy with 13 figures on board becomes an icon of the daily news images. We are forced to watch. (Language: OV with subtitles, Subtitles: English, German, French, Polish)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about HAVARIE

REVISION & AND-EK GHES... (2012, 2016) – Director: Philip Scheffner, Colorado Velcu (AND-EK GHES...)
DVD (2 Discs) + 32 page booklet –  200 min. + 36 min. Extras
A documentary turns into a cinematic REVISION. Like a puzzle, the film puts together the facts around the death of Grigore Velcu and Eudache Calderar at the German-Polish border in 1992. Scheffner composes an increasingly disturbing pattern of landscape and memory, witness testimonies, documents and investigations. The police files contain the names and adress of Grigore Velcu and Eudache Calderar. However, their families never even got to know, that a trial had been held. AND-EK GHES... continues an extraordinary collaboration between the co-directors Philip Scheffner and Colorado Velcu. It began with the film REVISION (Berlinale, Forum 2012): The attempt to establish a common cinematic space between protagonists, filmmakers and the audience has now, three years since, been enlarged. The camera duplicates itself; besides the filmmaker’s, there are one, two, three cameras that wander from hand to hand. – With Colorado Velcu, Parizan Nistor, Casino Nistor, Eldorado Velcu, Calil Velcu, Noami Nistor, Rebeca Velcu, Sara Velcu (Language: REVISION German, Romani, Romanian, AND-EK GHES… German, Romani, Romanian, Spanish, Subtitles:​ REVISION German, English, French, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish, AND-EK GHES… German, English)
DVD Informations, Credits & Content about REVISION & AND-EK GHES...

All DVDs are also available individually.​