Adé für Thomas Heise – Filme und Freunde

In the organizer's words:

His death came quickly, suddenly, unexpectedly and far too soon. Thomas Heise, one of the most significant and important German directors, was someone who above all claimed autonomy for himself. He was incorruptible, as a person and as an artist. He was also unforgiving in his stubbornness - but always precise. His films do not give the viewer an attitude, which already made his films made at the Babelsberg Film Academy, Erfinder 82 and Wozu über diese Leute ein Film? so suspicious that they were banned before the upheaval, as Heise called the years 1989/1990. At the beginning of the 90s, he made the film Stau - Jetzt geht's los. Thomas Heise films young neo-Nazis in their everyday lives in Halle-Neustadt and tries to identify the causes of the protagonists' right-wing extremist world view in interviews. In his last major film, Heimat ist ein Raum aus Zeit (2019), Heise follows the traces of his family: Over a period of around 100 years, two world wars, different political systems, different places, the grandparents, the parents Rosemarie and Wolfgang, the sons Andreas and Thomas - a "radical manifesto of historicity and of a perspective on it that consistently strives for enlightenment." (Bert Rebhandl, FAZ, 28.09.2019)

Consequently, in his films, fed by his consciousness, history appears as that which gives us both promise and dissolution. In honor of Thomas Heise, we are showing films, friends are speaking. And there will also be music.

Together with the Akademie der Künste, Berlin, and the Film and Media Art Section. Thanks to our friends for their support.

With: Jürgen Kuttner, Mark Lammert, Claus Löser, Helke Misselwitz, Nino Sandow, Martin Steyer, Stephan Suschke and others.

Films:

The Foreigner (1988), 2003, 39 min
Distant Relatives / Projection, 2024, 16 min

Factory 1, 2014, installation, 102 min (foyer)