Mein Onkel

In the organizer's words:

Content:
Two worlds collide in "My Uncle": the sterile, high-tech modernity of the new housing estate where nine-year-old Gérard is growing up, and the chaotic charm of the old neighborhood where his uncle lives. Monsieur Hulot is at war with technology and causes a real mess in the electrified everyday life of Gérard's parents. Tati's greatest success features a cast of mainly non-professional actors and was awarded the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.

Introduction: Oliver Fahle, Felix Hasebrink, Jennifer Wermuth (Ruhr University Bochum)

Background:

Film series: Hinterlands of Modernity. Infrastructure Scenes/Film
Since the beginning of cinema, films have repeatedly staged large infrastructure systems. Countless works deal with railroads, ports, raw material extraction, cars, ships or telephones. This series focuses on a specific facet of the cinematic examination of infrastructures: the displaced social spaces, newly emerging wastelands, niches and peripheries, in short: the "hinterland" that modern infrastructures of the 20th century have created. Four films are dedicated to this other side of our infrastructural modernity, which can be observed in very different regions: in a major European city, in the US Rust Belt, on the Chilean Pacific coast and on the Chinese Yangtze River. The films will be presented by experts and then discussed together. The series accompanies a master's seminar on infrastructures in film at the Ruhr University Bochum.