Enthusiasmus

Story

In 1931, the first Soviet sound film was shown in full: Vertov, who also gave a speech in Yiddish, put Enthusiasm on for an audience of 1800 workers in the Schauburg cinema on the Reeperbahn – where today the “dancing towers” stand. One month later, the film was banned by the SPD Reich Interior Minister. The print has been deteriorating ever since. The Donbass Symphony brings together industrial sounds with pictures of working life in the Donbass Basin: in the street, steel furnaces and threshing machines, close-ups of workers – with one outstanding feature: the socialist pathos is missing. The camera makes exuberant jumps. The montage creates a ballet of machines. Starting in 1972, Peter Kubelka from Vienna started his plan to take the film further in its experimental form, with a slight shift in picture and sound (»re-synchronisation«) instead of a simple restoration. For a more intense view of the history of this film and its restoration, we offer a conversation between Rasmus Gerlach and Peter Kubelka at 4pm on 4.10. at the Lichtmeß cinema.https://dokfilmwoche.com/de/project/enthusiasmus-donbass-sinfonie/ SUPPORTING FILM: WUNDERSCHEIN D, NZ, 2019, 15 min., directed by Guillaume CailleauA production plant for Euro notes. In the visual undertow of the camera, the coating and printing of the notes becomes an artificial act. Contours and motifs dissolve into abstract shapes and combine to make ornamental patterns. Capitalism as a kaleidoscope, money as an optical illusion. Psychedelic money-making.

Director