Germany, Super 8 to 16mm films (1992-2016), color and b/w*, silent, approx. 60 min.
The Color Run*
Leopard
Laub / Leaves
Rost / Rust
Container
Gläser / Glasses
Gelbe Blätter / Yellow Leaves
Strom / Stream
Portrait
Teetrinken / Tea Time
Roter Vorhang / Red Curtain
Für M. / For M.
Wassertanz II / Water Dance II
Schlittschuhlaufen / Scating
Nacht am Kanal / Night at a Canal*
Schneefall / Snowfall*
Weiße Blumen für P. / White Flowers for P.*
Wildgänse / Wild Geese*
Yali
Abendglitzern / Evening Twinkling
Nachmittagslicht / Afternoon Light
Kakibaum III / Persimmon Tree III
Große Wasser / Big Waters
Feuerwerk / Fireworks*
I
To film with a Super 8mm camera allows me to respond immediately to what I experience. My eye at the eyepiece, the camera in my hand - perceiving and recording simultaneously - I concentrate and create films in correspondence with the subject matter, in one gesture, as it were. I surprise what happens and feel surprised at the same time. I try to catch the moment, hic et nunc and in situ. That is the main reason why I always edit in the camera and why there is no postproduction.
The small movie camera is a good companion wherever I go. It is also a good instrument to make ‘music for the eyes’, transforming fragments of real life into a cinematic form of existence. Each film reflects the process of its creation and finds a rhythm of its own.
When I film I look at things with greater care, or they look at me, and I can see them as if they were new and their signification not yet defined. This frees my perception and inspires my way of experiencing the ephemeral.
My short films are silent. What matters is the pace of the images.
To make films means to shape time and to evoke the temporal dimension of the images. By editing in the camera I visualize inherent and felt rhythms.
II
Since the beginning of my direct and personal filmmaking in the late eighties an important body of work has grown. Although every individual film is complete in itself, I always present a specific selection of films in a composed programme (or part of a programme) for every screening. Brief pauses of black leader separate and accent the single films. As within each individual film, I also structure time and create rhythms within each composed programme. One could characterise each programme, which is about 50 to a maximum 60 minutes long, as a temporary ‘montage’, exemplifying essential aspects of my work. The interplay of different short films evokes all kinds of correspondences and contrasts. The viewer experiences an intense filmic microcosm and easily loses the normal notion of time and space.
Programming my films in constantly new configurations is a very important part of my artistic practice, in accord with the way the films are created. Thus, the work remains open to changes in reading and interpretation.
III
Super 8mm is a very fragile medium and format. There is always a nomadic and performative aspect to my projections. From the very beginning I have had to take care of the presentation of the films myself, in order to create the best possible conditions for each screening - finding the right position in the room for the projector, with respect to the screen in terms of the size, height and brightness of the image. Often I bring my own projector and have to exercise all kinds of acrobatic skills in order to construct a high enough projection table, climbing on chairs or tables or ladders and projecting myself, as I usually do. I want the projector to be set up in the auditorium so that its buzzing reflects the rhythm of the 18 frames per second projected on the screen, making one aware of the medium.
Handling the projector, changing one or more reels, focusing and framing the images, introducing my programmes and talking about my filmmaking - all this creates a live event and a unique performance corresponding to the poetics of my filmmaking.
IV
The success of the digital media endangers film as film. One of the consequences is the disappearing of film stock and film labs. For years now there are no more possibilities to have Super 8mm prints made from reversal Super 8mm originals. In order to be able to show my films as films I had to accept to switch to 16mm blow ups.
Thanks to generous grants there are now many 16mm prints in composed unities that I can combine for changing programmes. This format allows to present my work also in bigger spaces, at festivals, in installations and exhibitions.