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Filmstunde_23

Subject: Filmmaking
Berlinale Special 2024
© Simon Haseneder
In 1968, a classroom in a girls’ high school in Munich is transformed into a film studio under the direction of the young Edgar Reitz. The film lesson begins: the first documented attempt in cinema history to teach film aesthetics as a stand-alone subject. In 2023, Edgar Reitz, now world-famous as the director of the film epic Heimat, is approached by an elderly woman who identifies herself as one of his pupils from 1968. The two arrange a class reunion. Compiled from a documentary made about the project at the time, the Super 8 films shot by the pupils and the filmed reunion in 2023, a kind of long exposure of the last 55 years of film history is created. Are the personalities of the pupils already evident in the exercise films? And what do the women have to say now about contemporary film culture? Filmstunde_23 is a declaration of love for filmmaking.
by Jörg Adolph (Director, Screenplay), Edgar Reitz (Director, Screenplay) Germany 2024 German 89' Colour & Black/White World premiere | Documentary form

Crew

Directors Jörg Adolph, Edgar Reitz
Screenplay Jörg Adolph, Edgar Reitz
Cinematography Matthias Reitz-Zausinger, Markus Schindler, Daniel Schönauer, Thomas Mauch (1968), Dedo Weigert (1968)
Editing Jörg Adolph, Anja Pohl
Sound Design Jörg Elsner
Sound Jonas Egert, Michael Hinreiner
Producer Ingo Fliess
Executive Producer Ferdinand Freising
Co-Producers Florian Kummert, Christian Reitz
Co-Production Edgar Reitz Filmproduktion
Bayerischer Rundfunk

Produced by

if... Productions

Photos

Edgar Reitz

© Julia Stipsits

The filmmaker and writer was born in Morbach, Germany in 1932. He studied theatre and German literature and is a member of the Oberhausen Group that initiated the German auteur film in 1962. His feature, documentary and experimental films, including Die Reise nach Wien, Stunde Null and the Heimat trilogy, have garnered great international attention and received many awards. He is a university professor and the author of numerous articles and illustrated books on film. His autobiography was published in 2022. In 2024, Filmstunde_23 celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale. The film has been released in cinemas in 2025.

Filmography

1967 Mahlzeiten · Fußnoten 1968 Filmstunde 1969 Cardillac 1971 Kino zwei · Geschichten vom Kübelkind; co-directed by: Ula Stöckl 1972 Das goldene Ding; co-directed by: Alf Brustellin, Nikos Perakis, Ula Stöckl 1973 Die Reise nach Wien 1977 Stunde Null 1979 Der Schneider von Ulm 1981 Geschichten aus den Hunsrückdörfern 1984 Heimat – eine Deutsche Chronik; 11 parts 1992 Die zweite Heimat – Chronik einer Jugend; 13 parts 1995 Die Nacht der Regisseure 2004 Heimat 3 – Chronik einer Zeitenwende; 6 parts 2006 Heimat – Fragmente – Die Frauen 2007 Ortswechsel 2013 Kafka geht ins Kino · Die andere Heimat 2024 Filmstunde_23; co-directed by: Jörg Adolph 2025 Leibniz - Chronik eines verschollenen Bildes (Leibniz - Chronicle of a lost Painting); co-directed by: Anatol Schuster

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2025

Jörg Adolph

The documentary filmmaker was born in Herford, Germany in 1967. He studied modern German literature and media studies, art history and ethnology in Marburg as well as directing at the University of Television and Film in Munich. His films have received numerous prizes, including the German Television Award and the German Documentary Award.

Filmography (documentaries)

2000 Klein, schnell und außer Kontrolle 2010 How to Make a Book with Steidl; co-director: Gereon Wetzel 2011 Die große Passion 2013 Making of Heimat 2018 Elternschule; co-director: Ralf Bücheler 2020 Das geheime Leben der Bäume 2022 Vogelperspektiven 2024 Filmstunde_23; co-director: Edgar Reitz

Bio- & filmography as of Berlinale 2024