Impressions from the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge
Andre Werner during the opening ceremony.
photo: Julia Murakami
The Very Best Movies
The very best movies are not those by an astounding director, or those with a fascinating actor.
The real cult films are not only defined by their fantastic team or a great cast, they are legendary due to all the details that make a movie. A strong atmosphere, a mesmerizing score, surprising sidelines, interwoven stories, cool dialogues, a fine line-up from the leading actors to the extras, all combined in a way that makes you want to see this movie over and over again.
[DL8] was such a movie.
But it would have been nothing without all of you, who became part of this wonderful film.
Thanks a lot
Your Team DL
LAST TANGO IN BERLIN: BEGINS WITH BURROUGHS, ENDS WITH ZEDD
The last night at [DL8], the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge, brings counter-culture out of the dark and into the (dark) screening room. At 18:00 (6pm), the master of the cut-up method William S. Burroughs is dissected and reassembled inYony Leyser’s “The Man Within”, a 90-minute journey into the vast brainscape of the author whose jarring book The Naked Lunch twisted 20th literature into a pretzel of its former self. Along for the trip, in interviews and never-before-seen footage: Iggy Pop, Jello Biafra, Patti Smith, Laurie Anderson, David Cronenberg and more. Born Chicagoer Leyser will himself be in attendance. With the following Farewell Mix I, we will honour assorted works from the last ten days.
When John Waters, who also appears in The Man Within, deems someone’s work “violent, perverted art films from Hell” and adds “He’s my kind of director!”, you know you’re onto the real McCoy. Waters was enthusing about another counter-culture legend: Nick Zedd, whose self-named Cinema of Transgression movement corralled like-minded left-field luminaries like Lydia Lunch under a single banner. At 21:00 (9pm), Zedd will be personally on hand to present his own shock value shorts of choice.Titles like They Eat Scum and Whoregasm, which count among Zedd’s past works, give you a taste of what he’s about. At 22:00 (10pm), there will be the second part of the Farewell Mix leading into our From Dusk Till Dawn party, with DJ Grammophon and general bedlam. May this night never end. Be there for the shake-up, in Naherholung Sternchen, Berolinastr. 7 (U-Schillingstr., two buildings behind Kino International). KT/Team DL
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pictured: How To Make A David Lynch Film by Joe McClean as part of the Farewell Mix I at 8 pm
Sun 19 | 6pm
WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS – A MAN WITHIN | Yony Leyser
in attendance of Yony Leyser
Featuring never-before-seen archival footage of Burroughs, as well as exclusive interviews with colleagues and confidants including John Waters, Patti Smith, Iggy Pop, Gus Van Sant, Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, Sonic Youth, Laurie Anderson, Amiri Baraka, Jello Biafra, and David Cronenberg, WILLIAM S. BURROUGHS: A MAN WITHIN is a probing, yet loving look at the man whose works at once savaged conservative ideals, spawned countercultural movements, and reconfigured 20th century culture. The film is narrated by Peter Weller, with a soundtrack by Patti Smith and Sonic Youth.
Burroughs was one of the first writers to break the boundaries of queer and drug culture in the 1950’s. His novel Naked Lunch is one of the most recognized and respected literary works of the 20th century and has influenced generations of artists. The intimate documentary breaks the surface of the troubled and brilliant world of one of the greatest authors of all time.
pictured: Patti Smith and William Burroughs by Allen Ginsberg
Yony Leyser is a twenty-five-year-old filmmaker from Chicago, Illinois, and currently living in Berlin. He has directed several short films. After film school, he moved to Lawrence, Kansas, and began his first feature film, William S. Burroughs: A Man Within, about one of the most interesting icons of the 20th century. He also works as a curator, video artist and photographer, documenting people who are outside the mainstream of society. His photograph series have included Ida, a utopian transgender commune in Tennessee; Christiana, an anarchist village in Copenhagen; Kopi, Berlin’s largest squat, and naked bike rides in the US. His work has been shown in galleries and venues in Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, Paris, Vienna and Los Angeles.
90 min
pictured: Tom Thumb
Sun 19 | 9pm
SPECIAL PRESENTATION by NICK ZEDD
“Nick Zedd makes violent, perverted art films from Hell- he’s my kind of director!” John Waters
Nick Zedd is the filmmaker, writer, painter, actor and political satirist who coined the term Cinema of Transgression, a movement he spearheaded in New York 25 years ago and whose reverberations are still being felt . Mr. Zedd employs shock value through xenomorphosis, a term he coined to describe what happens when the “domain wall of an alternate universe smashes your reality tunnel and neurological re-engineering occurs.” He currently lives in Mexico.
LOOK INTO THE HYPNOTIC (INTERNATIONAL) EYE
[DL8]’s penultimate tango gets going with big city stomp: Klaus W. Eisenlohr’s Urban Research series times two. First up, the 46-minute “Moscow Diary” (Adam Kosoff, UK) followed by the “Activismo Experimental: Artists Involved” section, short sojourns including “Ein kleines Stück Papier” (“A Little Piece of Paper”) in support of which Frank Behnke, Klaus Beyer, Brandstifter, Tanja Roolfs, Carsten Wagner will make a personal appearance. Then, at 20:00 (8pm), another special guest: Rosetta Messori shows “Primordial Breath” in World Premiere, a journey in photos from her Visioni Mediterranee. Still more, at 20:30 (8:30): film festival fixture Telemach Wiesinger screens his “Neue Filme” (that is, his new films, of course), experimental works that will demonstrate why so many cities from Toronto to Seoul have featured his works in their film events. At 22:00 (10pm), another slice of our own selection: “DL Selection VIII” brings us a German, a European and two World Premieres. These last two are from one and the same filmmaker, Spain’s Santiago Parres (EZO), who will reveal “Dove” and “Sinecdoquanon”, and attend the screening as well. Johanna Wagner, maker of “Submerged” and “Danaus Gilippus”, the last films of this section, will also be in attendance. Again at the 8th Berlin International Directors Lounge – a full evening, with filmmakers galore to rub shoulders with… or just chat with in the inviting environment of Naherholung Sternchen, Berolinastr. 7 (U-Schillingstr., two buildings behind Kino International). KT/Team DL
pictured: Dove by Santiago Parres (EZO)
Sat 18 | 6pm
URBAN RESEARCH – III SPECIAL
Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr
Adam Kossoff’s Moscow Diary (pictured) and some surprise from the Urban Research Program
Sat 18 | 6:45pm
URBAN RESEARCH – III Activismo Experimental: Artists Involved!
Curated by Klaus W. Eisenlohr
Cesy Leonard, Eduardo Srur, Russell J. Chartier, Daniel Künzler, Diane Nerwen, Vladimir Turner, Sheldon Brown, Matt Grau, Brandstifter
With special guests: Frank Behnke, Klaus Beyer, Brandstifter, Tanja Roolfs, Carsten Wagner
OPENING OF THE SPECIAL EXHIBITION IN THE SCREENING THEATRE:
Brandstifter DE Asphaltbibliotheque Berlin 2011
Exhibition with lost and found sheets of paper
Find more infos about the Urban Research Program and the films at richfilm