Perlmuttknopf

Content:

"The Mother-of-Pearl Button" is dedicated to the history of Chile - from the indigenous peoples of Patagonia to the crimes of the military dictatorship. The connecting element at the center is water. The flowing rhythm of the ocean combines archive footage, impressive landscape shots and personal voices - including Guzmán's own - to create a multi-faceted cinematic essay.

Introduction: Jörn Etzold (Ruhr University Bochum)

Background:

Film series: Hinterlands of Modernity. Infrastructural 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.