Bickels [Socialism]

Forum 2017

The ‘Casa do Povo’ cultural centre in São Paulo, an icon of the secular Jewish workers’ movement: a crumbling theatre flanked by staircases, entryways and corridors. Construction noise drones away in the background, clinking crockery, a broom sweeping over tiled floors, an expressive façade of countless adjustable panes of glass covered by a patina. It’s October 2016 and a group of young people are preparing a preview of Bickels [Socialism]. The venue is to form a prologue to the completed film, which tours 22 buildings in Israel designed by Samuel Bickels, most of which for kibbutzim. Dining halls, children’s houses, agricultural buildings, bright structures inserted into the Mediterranean landscape with great ingenuity. An architecture with a sell-by date: That many are now empty or have been repurposed at best is linked to the decline of the socialist ideals they embody.
Paintings by Jewish artist Meir Axelrod from the Crimea in the 1930s form the epilogue. It tells the tragic story of the Vio Nova kibbutz, which first foundered under the British Mandate in Palestine and later fell victim to Stalinism, before being liquidated entirely under the German occupation.

by Heinz Emigholz Germany / Israel 2017 English 92’ Colour Documentary form

Crew

Written and Directed by	Heinz Emigholz
Cinematography	Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Editing	Heinz Emigholz, Till Beckmann
Sound Design	Christian Obermaier
Sound	Till Beckmann
Producers	Heinz Emigholz, Galia Bar Or Mishkan Museum of Art

Produced by

Heinz Emigholz Filmproduktion

http://www.pym.de http://www.pym.de

Mishkan Museum of Art

http://museumeinharod.org.il http://museumeinharod.org.il

Additional information

Download additional information

Heinz Emigholz

Born in Achim, near Bremen, Germany in 1948. He has worked as a filmmaker, artist, writer, cinematographer, producer and journalist in Germany and the USA since 1973. In 1974, he began an encyclopedic series of drawings, “Die Basis des Make-Up”, which was the subject of a major exhibition in the Hamburger Bahnhof gallery in Berlin in 2007/08. In 1984, he embarked on the “Photography and Beyond” film series. From 1993 to 2013, he was professor of experimental filmmaking at the Berlin University of the Arts where he also co-founded the Institute for Time-Based Media and the art and media course. He has been a member of the Academy of Arts in Berlin since 2013.

Filmography (selection)

1973 Schenec-Tady I; Short film · Schenec-Tady I; 27 min., Forum 1975 · Schenec-Tady II; Short film 1974 Arrowplane; 24 min., Forum 1974 · Arrowplane; Short film · Tide; Short film · Tide; 33 min., Forum 1976 1975 Schenec-Tady III; Short film 1976 Hotel; 27 min., Forum 1976 · Hotel; Short film 1977 Demon – Die Übersetzung von Stéphane Mallarmés Le Demon de l’Analogie (Demon - The Translation of Stéphane Mallarmé´`s The Demon of Analogy); Short film 1981 Normalsatz · Normalsatz; 105 min., Forum 1982 1983 The Basis of Make-Up I (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 1); Short film 1985 Die Basis des Make-Up (The Basis of Make-Up) · Die Basis des Make-Up; 85 min. 1987 Die Wiese der Sachen (The Meadow of Things); 87 min., Panorama 1988, Forum Expanded 2016 · Die Wiese der Sachen (The Meadow of Things) 1991 Der Zynische Körper (The Holy Bunch) 1999 Sullivans Banken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 2) (Sullivan's Banks); Short film · Maillarts Brücken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 3) (Maillart's Bridges); Short film · Maillarts Brücken (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 3) (Maillart's Bridges); 24 min., Forum 2001 2000 The Basis of Make-Up II (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 4); Short film 2003 Goff in der Wüste (Goff in the Desert) · Goff in der Wüste (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 7) (Goff in the Desert); 110 min., Forum 2003 2004 The Basis of Make-Up III (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 9); Short film 2005 D’Annunzios Höhle (D'Annunzio's Cave) · D’Annunzios Höhle (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 8) (D'Annunzio's Cave); 60 min., Forum 2005 2007 Schindlers Häuser (Schindler's Houses) 2008 Loos ornamental (Photographie und jenseits – Teil 13); 72 min., Forum 2008 · Loos ornamental · Ornament und Verbrechen von Adolf Loos (Ornament and Crime by Adolf Loos); co-directed by Benjamin Krieg 2009 Sense of Architecture 2011 Eine Serie von Gedanken (A Series of Thoughts) 2012 Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi und römischer Beton (Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi and Roman Concrete ); 100 min., Forum 2012 · Parabeton – Pier Luigi Nervi und römischer Beton (Parabeton - Pier Luigi Nervi an Roman Concrete) · Auguste Perret in Frankreich und Algerien (Auguste Perret in France and Algeria) · Perret in Frankreich and Algerien (Perret in France and Algeria); 110 min. 2014 The Airstrip · The Airstrip – Aufbruch der Moderne, Teil III (The Airstrip – Decampment of Modernism, Part III); 108 min., Forum 2014 2015 Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief]; Short film · Le Corbusier [IIIII] Asger Jorn [Relief]; 29 min., Forum Expanded 2016 2017 2+2=22 [The Alphabet] · 2+2=22 [The Alphabet]; 88 min., Forum 2017 · Bickels [Socialism] · Bickels [Socialism]; 92 min., Forum 2017 · Streetscapes [Dialogue] · Streetscapes [Dialogue]; 132 min., Forum 2017 · Dieste [Uruguay] · Dieste [Uruguay]; 95 min., Forum 2017 2018 Two Basilicas; Short film · Two Basilicas; 36 min., Forum Expanded 2018 2019 Years of Construction 2020 Die letzte Stadt (The Last City)

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2020