Nationwide cinema initiative January 27
Next Saturday, we will be showing SHOAH (1985) by Claude Lanzmann. The almost 10-hour film will be shown in cooperation with the Kinemathek Karlsruhe on two consecutive days and in two different cinemas. The screenings are part of the nationwide cinema initiative January 27 - 80 Years of the Liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which was initiated by the Haus des Dokumentarfilms in Stuttgart.
The “Day of Remembrance of the Victims of National Socialism” has existed since 1996. On January 27, 1945, the Red Army liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration and extermination camp and rescued the surviving prisoners. In cooperation with the Haus der Geschichte Baden-Württemberg, the Haus des Dokumentarfilms has launched a FEDERAL CINEMA INITIATIVE JANUARY 27. In total, more than 40 cinemas and other institutions throughout Germany are showing programs dealing with the Shoah and accompanying these films with discussion events.
Of course, we are not the only ones using Claude Lanzmann's undisputed masterpiece to address the topic. The work takes the time it needs to immerse us in a time and a subject matter of such depth. 10 hours is still too little, but it should be enough for now. As the film is so long, we are showing it over two days, split into two parts, in two cinemas:
Part 1: Saturday, 25.1. 15:00 at Blaue Salon of HfG.
Part 2: Sunday, 26.1., 11:00 at the Kinemathek Karlsruhe.
We will be present at both venues as a cinema team (meaning the combined expertise of the two teams from Kinemathek Karlsruhe and Kino im Blauen Salon) and will accompany the film with an introduction and discussion.
Claude Lanzmann's epochal documentary about the systematic extermination of European Jews by the National Socialists is the central milestone in the cinematic examination of the Shoah and the question of the representability of Nazi crimes. In detailed interviews with survivors, perpetrators and eyewitnesses, which are as impressive as they are depressing in their directness, and with long shots of the scenes of the crimes, Lanzmann succeeds in bringing the events of the past to life in the truest sense. “I got people to speak by slipping into the role of an attentive listener rather than by asking questions. I later learned that you have to have a lot of knowledge to be able to ask questions at all.”
