50 Jahre Filmwerkstatt – Jubiläum

50 Years of Filmwerkstatt – Anniversary Celebration

Exhibition / Concerts / DJs

As the Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, it looks back on an eventful history that, like so many in this city, began at the Academy of Fine Arts.

Its roots date back to 1970, when, at the invitation of Hartmut Kaminski, Danish filmmaker Ole John Povlsen came to the Academy of Fine Arts and established a film class there. His students included, among others, Astrid Heibach, Candida Höfer, Hartmut Kaminski, Erinna König, and Katharina Sieverding. A year later, he founded the Düsseldorf Film Group with a group of students around Kaminski—including Lutz Mommartz, Jürgen Kuhfuß, and Rainer Komers. The group made its first public statement in 1971 with the event“Film KRITISCH”at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf.

In 1975, the Filmgruppe produced one of its best-known films,*Der gerechte Krieg 1525*, before the film class was disbanded in 1976. Out of this turning point, the Filmwerkstatt Düsseldorf was founded that same year: Funded by grants for artists, the city set up an editing suite in Villa Engelhardt equipped with S8, 16-mm, and 35-mm editing tables—thus creating the first institution for independent film production in North Rhine-Westphalia, which was later followed by others in Cologne, Münster, and Bielefeld.

In 1979, the equipment inventory was expanded to include sound and camera technology. Beginning in 1981, the city and state jointly supported the expansion of the facility as well as its non-commercial film productions. In 1991, the Filmwerkstatt moved into new premises at the Fliedner School in Kaiserswerth and was established as an independent association in 1992, with financial support from the city and the state.

From 1996 to 2001, actor and filmmaker Peter Kern served as chairman and left behind an association in financial distress. Starting in 2002, Dr. Heinz Holzapfel shaped the Filmwerkstatt; as a cinema producer and visionary of modern art house cinema, he brought the film program back to the Filmwerkstatt and established the Hafenlichtspiele. He was also responsible for the move to Birkenstraße in 2011, where the Filmwerkstatt remains an integral part of the cultural scene to this day. In 2013, Jan Wagner took over as artistic director and assumed overall management in 2015.

Exhibition:Film – Class – Group – Workshop 

The exhibition“Film – Class – Group – Workshop”presents a selection of works created at the Filmwerkstatt over the past 50 years. Also included are two films from the 1972 film class, as well as*Der gerechte Krieg 1525*from 1975, the production of which led to the establishment of the Filmwerkstatt in its current form. Most of the more recent films come from the Film Lab, the Film Workshop’s production grant program, or the Young Film Workshop. These include films by AGZ, Alisa Berger, Catherina Cramer & Giulietta Ockenfuss, Elke Jonigkeit, Moritz Krauth, Shoko Matsuyama, Lutz Mommartz, Rolf Neddermann, Jasmin Preiss, Maximilian Klemens Sänger, José Pablo Estrada Torrescano, and others.

Concerts & DJs

The day will be accompanied by a musical program on the terrace: concerts by Decha, Slideshow (Vault Sessions), and Herrmann, interspersed with DJ sets by Kaspar van de Water and Linda Skellington.

Decha is the solo project of Düsseldorf-based artist Viktoria Wehrmeister, whose voice navigates hybrid compositions ranging from lo-fi to polyphonic arrangements.

Slideshow (Vault Sessions), founded within the art academy community, combines live-generated music with a backing track in an audiovisual concert—a track composed of metallic found objects, electroacoustic distortions, and the lingering traces of pop culture.

Herrmann, a musician and producer from Düsseldorf, navigates between the club and the concert stage with his live sets, which are as danceable as they are atmospheric.

A detailed schedule will follow.