Jointly organised by MARUPAKKAM and Goethe-Institut Chennai
Filmmaker in Focus : Bernd Lützeler
Artist and filmmaker Bernd Lützeler lives and works between Berlin and Mumbai. In his works he explores techniques of moving image production and presentation in relation with their form and perception. Loops, found footage and jugaad (diy) technologies are an integral part of his films and expanded cinema works. His travels to Mumbai have a strong impact on his work that often looks into the aesthetics of popular Indian cinema and television within the urban context. His films have been shown at venues and festivals worldwide, including Centre Pompidou, Berlinale International Film Festival, Rotterdam, San Francisco Cinematheque, Views from the Avant-Garde and many more. Bernd is an active member of the artist-run analogue filmlab LaborBerlin.
ARTIST'S STATEMENT
In my films, installations and expanded cinema works I often explore the techniques of moving image production and presentation in interrelation with their form and perception. Therefore, loops, found footage and the disclosure of DIY- and analogue technologies have become an integral part of my work. I am an active member of the artist-run filmlab LaborBerlin e.V., a space where filmmakers can process, edit and copy their own films on 8 and 16mm celluloid film. Another strong influence in my work are the aesthetics of popular Indian culture. Over the last sixteen years I have spent a significant amount of time in Mumbai where some of my projects were produced. What fascinates me, is seeing universal global themes like urban angst, mass media or migration gaining an emphasis against the backdrop of inequality and overpopulation in contemporary urban India.
1. the Voice of God
India & Germany, 2011, 35mm, 1:1.85, 10 min
Voiceover - Harish Bhimani
If God would come down to earth and try to earn a living in Bombay, most probably he
would very soon become successful as a voice over artiste, lending his voice to thousands
of hindi movies and even more documentaries and public service films in India.
A melo-dramatic docu-drama with voice-over in stop-motion and long-time exposure.
2. Traveling with Maxim Gorkiy
Dir: Bernd Lützeler & Kolja Kunt
Germany, 2014, Super-8, 1:1.37, 11 min
As so often, also here it's rather about allusion than description. This also applies to the
persons represented. Flat silhouettes of people. Their heads depicted in profile. Faces
with no expression, formal gestures. In the background, a little bit of everyday life:
The hard, square, stone architecture arises from ocher-colored, brownish, blackish mush of
color or mud. A demonstration of the function of the central perspective. An idealized
representation of a tropical paradise. Strangely, there's no absurdity in this.
3. Batagur Baska [by Guido Möbius]
music video, directed by Bernd Lützeler
Germany, 2016, Super-8, 1:1.37, 8 min
They gather here every day. They come from far and without purpose. They don't know
each other and they won't come to know each other. They carry their gadgets to optimize
the experience. They engage with the world through a small frame. They believe that this
moment will remain unforgotten.
4. Fictitious Force
by Philip Widmann
India & Germany, 2015, Super 16, b&w, 1:1.78, 15 min
with Tarun Katari
Cinematography - Basab Mullik
Additional Cinematography - Bernd Lützeler
Conception & Montage - Philip Widmann
A theorem from physics that describes apparent forces in circular motion when observed
from an external frame of reference lends its name to this film: Fictitious Force is a
cinematic exchange on the impossibility of sharing experiences, in black and white and
grey.
5. Camera Threat
India & Germany, 2017, 35mm & DCP, 1:1.85, 30 min
with Mansi Multani, Pushpendra Singh & Girish Pardeshi
Voiceover - Harish Bhimani & Shai Heredia
Somewhere in the rather dreary spheres of Mumbai's film industry, stuck between
star-cult, superstition and the daily gridlock, Camera Threat explores the ambivalent, and
sometimes paranoid relationship that this film city has with the moving image as such.
Seated on a casting couch, two actors are getting trapped in their impromptu
conversations on the unwanted side effects of a world that no longer bothers to tell facts
from fiction. An expanded multi-genre film within the constraints of the so-called Masala
Formula popularly known from Indian cinema,
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