Dec 20, 2019
The Berlinale Forum and Forum Expanded Present Their 2020 Anniversary Programme

The Berlinale Forum takes place for the 50th time in 2020. In collaboration with Forum Expanded, the section will be presenting the films shown in the year it was founded to celebrate this anniversary. Bringing the 1971 programme back to the big screen offers a way of examining an era as eventful in society as it was in culture. The relationship between the films, their historical context, and our own present day will form the subject of a day of panel discussions on February 27, 2020.

When Ulrich and Erika Gregor and their colleagues founded the International Forum of New Cinema, they had a clear eye for the many radical innovations in cinema, the turbulent socio-political situation and the need to keep film history alive. Films made in countries yet to appear on the world map of cinema celebrated their premieres here, as did formalist adventures and non-narrative experiments. Film classics known the world over already formed part of the festival together with works that would later attain the same status. They also showed numerous films of an overtly political nature that were suffused with the countercultural zeitgeist. Today, numerous films originally shown at the Forum form the centerpiece of Arsenal – Institute for Film and Video Art’s archive of independent and radical films, which is the only collection of its kind in the world.

In 2020, Berlinale Forum and Forum Expanded will replay the section’s entire 1971 edition. 21 programmes will be shown during the festival, with the remaining 22 to be presented at Arsenal once the festival is over. The central questions here are: What is the legacy of the Forum’s first year and what significance does this legacy have today? How has the Forum developed over time and what has become of the concept of counter-culture that was of such decisive importance in 1971? At the screenings and a day of panel discussions on February 27, 2020, audiences will have the opportunity to discuss these questions in depth with filmmakers, scholars and artists.

Soviet cinema classics such as Alexandr Medvedkin’s Schastye (Happiness) form part of the anniversary programme, as do key feminist works (The Woman’s Film by the Newsreel Group). Documentaries about the American civil rights movement (The Murder of Fred Hampton by Howard Alk) equally screen alongside unsettlingly radical features, such as Ostia by Sergio Citti or Gishiki (The Ceremony) by Nagisa Ōshima.

Forum and Forum Expanded 2020 Anniversary Programme

Anaparastasi (Reconstruction)
Greece 1970
by Theo Angelopoulos
with Toula Stathopoulou, Jannis Totsikas, Thanos Gammenos

Angela – Portrait of A Revolutionary
USA / France 1971
by Yolande du Luart
Documentary form

El cuarto poder
Spain 1971
by Helena Lumbreras, Mariano Lisa
Documentary form

El Ghorba (Les passagers) (The Passengers)
Algeria 1971
by Annie Tresgot
with Mohammed Chouki
Documentary form

Eldridge Cleaver, Black Panther
Algeria / France 1970
by William Klein
Documentary form

Gishiki (The Ceremony)
Japan 1971
by Nagisa Ōshima
with Kenzo Kawarazaki, Atsuko Kaku, Atsuo Nakamura

The Great Chicago Conspiracy Circus
Canada 1970
by Kerry Feltham
with Mel Dixon, Jim Lawrence, Neil Walsh
Documentary form

Der große Verhau (The Big Mess)
Federal Republic of Germany 1971
by Alexander Kluge
with Maria and Vinzenz Sterr, Sigi Graue, Hannelore Hoger

Mare’s Tail
United Kingdom 1969
by David Larcher

Mes voisins (My Neighbours)
France 1971
by Med Hondo
Documentary form

Monangambeee
Algeria 1969
by Sarah Maldoror
with Mohamed Zinet, Carlos Pestana, Elisa Pestana
Short film

On vous parle de Paris: Maspero, les mots ont un sens (Calling from Paris: Maspero. Words Have a Meaning)
France 1970
by Chris Marker
Short film / documentary form

The Murder of Fred Hampton
USA 1971
by Howard Alk
Documentary form

Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt (It Is Not the Homosexual Who Is Perverse, But the Society in Which He Lives)
Federal Republic of Germany 1971
by Rosa von Praunheim
with Bernd Feuerhelm, Beryt Bohlen, Ernst Kuchling

O.K.
Federal Republic of Germany 1970
by Michael Verhoeven
with Friedrich von Thun, Hartmut Becker, Wolfgang Fischer

Ossessione (Obsession)
Italy 1942
by Luchino Visconti
with Massimo Girotti, Clara Calamai, Juan de Landa

Ostia
Italy 1970
by Sergio Citti
with Laurent Terzieff, Franco Citti, Anita Sanders

Phela-ndaba (End of the Dialogue)
South Africa 1970
by Antonia Caccia, Chris Curling, Simon Louvish, Nana Mahomo, Vus Make, Rakhetla Tsehlana
Documentary form

Eine Prämie für Irene (A Bonus for Irene)
Federal Republic of Germany 1971
by Helke Sander
with Gundula Schroeder, Sarah Schumann, Helga Foster

Remparts d’argile (Ramparts of Clay)
France / Algeria 1970
by Jean-Louis Bertuccelli
with Leila Schenna, Jean-Louis Trintignant and the people of Tehouda (Algeria)

Eine Sache, die sich versteht (15x) (Something Self Explanatory (15x))
Federal Republic of Germany 1971
by Harun Farocki, Hartmut Bitomsky
with Rolf Becker, Herbert Chwoika, Norbert Langner

Schastye (Happiness)
USSR 1935
by Alexandr Medvedkin
with Pyotr Zinovyev, Yelena Yegorova, Lidija Nenasheva

Sochaux, 11 Juin 68 (Sochaux, 11th of June 1968)
France 1970
by Bruno Muel, Groupe Medvedkine de Sochaux
Short film / documentary form

Soleil Ô (Oh, Sun!)
France / Mauritania 1970
by Med Hondo
with Robert Liensol, Théo Légitimus, Ambroise M. Bice

Les trois-quarts de la vie (Three Quarters of a Life)
France 1970
by Groupe Medvedkine Sochaux
Short film / documentary form

W.R. – Misterije Organizma (W.R. – The Mysteries of the Organism)
Yugoslavia / Federal Republic of Germany 1971
by Dušan Makavejev
with Milena Dravić, Jagoda Kaloper, Ivica Vidović

The Woman’s Film (Newsreel #55)
USA 1971
by Women's Caucus--San Francisco Newsreel (Louise Alaimo, Judith Smith, Ellen Sorrin)
Documentary form

Les yeux ne veulent pas en tout temps se fermer ou Peut-être qu’un jour Rome se permettra de choisir à son tour (Othon) (Eyes Do Not Want to Close at All Times or Perhaps One Day Rome Will Permit Herself to Choose in Her Turn (Othon))
Federal Republic of Germany / Italy 1970
by Jean-Marie Straub, Danièle Huillet
with Adriano Aprà, Anne Brumagne, Ennio Lauricella

Press Office
December 20, 2019