CULTURAL NATIONALISM

Skip Norman, USA/Germany, 16mm > digital, 11 min, 1969

Black Power on a snowy meadow in West Berlin. Speech by Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party.

Skip Norman (1933–2015). Filmmaker, photographer, and cinematographer originally from Baltimore, Maryland; relocated to Germany in the 1960s where he made numerous films of his own or in collaboration with artists including Harun Farocki, Holger Meins, and Helke Sander; continued working as cinematographer on projects by Haile Gerima, Nikki Giovanni, and others upon returning to the USA. Retrospective of his films organized by Open City Documentary Festival in 2023.

Drowned

Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka), Austria, 16mm, 3 min, 2022

“Als sie ertrunken war und hinunter schwamm / Von den Bächen in die größeren Flüsse [Once she had drowned and started her slow descent / Down the streams to where the great rivers broaden].” In her touching, untrained voice, the filmmaker sings this Brecht/Weill song from the 1920s. No atmosphere; this song is happening in a different space. Plants on the shore, swayed by flowing water … What connection, what dialogue materializes here during the filming, what acts of selfassurance, shared rhythm; what solution? … To speak of transience would be euphemistic. The (un)touchable unity of the body, inside and out. Materially and metaphysically.—Madeleine Bernstorff

Friedl vom Gröller (Kubelka) (1946). Works in photography and film; 80+ films since 1968; screenings at venues including Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, and documenta 12. Grand Austrian State Prize for Artistic Photography (2005) and Austrian Art Prize for Film (2016). Founder of Friedl Kubelka School for Artistic Photography (1990) and Friedl Kubelka School for Independent Film (2006). MCFF presented the artist’s first dual photography and film retrospective (2010). Lives in Vienna, Austria.