BERLIN SUPER 80: FILMS FROM THE WEST GERMAN UNDERGROUND
This program compiles 18 short films shot on Super-8mm by West German experimental film makers between 1978 and 1984, and featuring music by Malaria, Reflections, Einstürzende Neubauten, Frieder Butzmann, Die Tödliche Doris, and others. "In the beginning of the 1980s, West Berlin was a walled-off island of decadence in the middle of the communist DDR. An urban culture of bars and clubs was thriving in the city that lived at night. The cheap Super 8 film format, already becoming obsolete in the early 80s, was the cinematic equivalent of punk in Berlin. Cameras and projectors were available at flea markets for next to nothing, and, with the lightweight equipment, screenings could be arranged spontaneously in the seediest of venues. In a fevered frenzy the musicians, photographers, painters, and filmmakers of the city's underground art scene collaborated in cross-disciplinary joint projects. Underground filmmaking became a cycle somewhat resembling a circular argument: filmmakers, who were often also musicians, started shooting performances given by their colleagues, which in turn would more often than not include screenings of works by their friends, and so on. The best of these films were dark, apocalyptic visions, which combined various techniques in radical experiments of the filmic form. Music, performance and happening fused together in a variety of Super 8 club events (in such legendary places as Risiko and S.O. 36), as well as at the first Super 8 film festival, Interfilm 1, in 1982." –AVANTO Brand & Maschmann E DOPO? (1981, 3 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by La Loora.) Christoph Doering 3302 (1979, 14.5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Die Unbekannten, Flucht Nach Vorn, MDK.) Wolkenstein & Markgraf HÜPFEN 82 (1982, 2 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Yana Yo SAX (????, 6 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by A. V. Oertzen.) Maye & Rendschmidt OHNE LIEBE GIBT ES KEINEN TOD (1980, 4.5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Stiletto Studios's FORMEL SUPER VIII (1983, 2 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Walter Gramming HAMMER UND SICHEL (1978, 4.5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Georg Marioth MORGENGESÄNGE (1984, 14 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Hormel & Bühler GELD (1982, 4 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Malaria.) Notorische Reflexe FRAGMENT VIDEO (1983, 12 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Notorische Reflexe.) Jörg Buttgereit MEIN PAPI (1981, 7 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Gundula Schmitz, Max Müller.) Die Tödliche Doris BERLINER KÜCHENMUSIK (1982, 5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Die Tödliche Doris.) Frieder Butzmann & Kiesel SPANISH FLY (1979, 5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital) Manfred Jelinski SO WAR DAS SO 36 (1984, 12 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Carambolage, Die Gelbs, Einstürzende Neubauten, Lorenz Lorenz, Malaria.) Klaus Beyer DIE GLATZE (1983, 1.5 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Klaus Beyer.) Wolkenstein & Markgraf CRAEX APART (1982, 6 min, Super-8mm-to-digital. Music by Craex Apart.)