at filmforum: movie screening + filmmaker Erika Suderburg speaking and answering questions afterwards

the movie was a collage of images and ideas (showing not telling) that included video footage and archival footage of:

• the Roman Forum
• Berlin’s Trümmerfrauen (rubble women) clearing bombing debris
• the reconstruction of Berlin under the Marshall Plan
• the 1999 re-opening of the Reichstag
• Iraqi troops observed via night vision before the U.S. invasion of Iraq
• the first night of the bombing of Baghdad
• the bombing, aerial reconnaissance and rebuilding of WWII and post-WWII Berlin
• contemporary footage of a 2.8 million person peace march in Rome
• war protest and a neighborhood candlelight vigil in Los Angeles
• Chichen Itza in Yucatán, Mexico

things Erika talked about during q&a after movie:

• it’s a movie about film and filmmakers, video, television (the banality yet consequentiality of newscaster’s comments during the bombing of Iraq)
• l.a. and berlin as sister cities
• what we’re not shown (Iraq bombings vs. WWII bombings) [notetoself: Herzog's Lessons of Darkness]
• how to convey feelings of being in the place
• soundtrack—how thought out it was (she added footsteps, etc. to the silent archival footage. there are layers and layers of sound that communicate as much as the images themselves. esp. eerie in the Berlin ruins footage)
• Reichstag reconstructed; looking down on your government leaders in the Bundestag while they talk of reunification or Jewish memorial; beautiful architecture of dome (Norman Foster)
• Berlin reconstruction, Marshall Plan (how we don’t have one for Iraq), and reunification—how hard it was
• russian graffiti on berlin wall
• christa wolf, sebald

[event details]

This entry was posted on January 28, 2007 and is filed under film/video, history/memory, lists, los angeles.