Film Series
STP-on-Demand: Cinematic Perspectives on Shaping the Past
![STP-on-Demand STP-on-Demand](/resources/files/png86/stp-en-formatkey-png-w320m.png)
Fall 2020 Film Program
How do we perceive the past?
Whether we are aware of it or not, memory and remembrance play significant roles in spaces we move through. Memorials, monuments, statues, and other representations of communally acknowledging history, comprise the central focus of Shaping the Past – a project which explores how memory takes shape, and how our interpretations of remembrance continually transform society.
The past is often shaped in tangible ways, with visible representations that exist openly in our physical and material world. For instance: we pass monuments and parks on our commutes to work, we visit memorials on holidays, we gather around them in parks and squares to meet and socialize.
But how does the past take shape through a completely different medium: film?
Approaching and shaping (or reshaping) the past through film is a complex process all its own, situated somewhere between concrete and abstract. Like memorials, films carry authorial and artistic intent, but are simultaneously open to numerous possibilities for interpretation. Like memorials, we assess films and ask ourselves questions about representation: whose stories do we see? From whose points of view? Who makes films? Who isn’t making films?
It is sometimes easy to forget that the way we collectively remember historical events – the American Civil War, for instance – is almost entirely shaped by recorded histories (oral and written), still images, and reenactments in feature or documentary films. When asked to recall our visual cultural memory of the Holocaust, feature films and documentary films alike come to mind.
But even documentaries are not objective works; even with documentaries, we must consider the perspectives of the filmmaker/s and their own biases, the origins of the source material, the post-production editing process, the way primary and secondary sources alike are curated to present a cohesive narrative.
STP-on-Demand, curated by colleagues of the Goethe-Instituts and Goethe Pop Ups across North America, is a series that comprises works representing a variety of ways in which we see the past shaped through film. These films can be filmed across North America. All are available with English subtitles; please check the individual listing information for subtitles in further languages.
The STP-on-Demand film schedule for fall 2020 is the following:
October 28 | Was Bleibt / Šta Ostaje (What Remains / Revisited) (2020), dir. Clarissa Thieme
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Seattle in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum Seattle for the program German Cinema Now!.
November 5 - November 8 | We Almost Lost Bochum (2019), dir. Julian Brimmers & Benjamin Westermann
*Presented by Goethe-Institut Toronto with Wavelength Music
November 12 - November 15 | Muttererde (2017), dir. Jessica Lauren Elizabeth Taylor
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Seattle
November 13-16 | Mother I Am Suffocating. This Is My Last Film About You. (2019), dir. Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Houston in partnership with Houston Cinema Arts Society for Houston Cinema Arts Festival.
November 20 - November 22 | Black Deutschland (2006), dir. Oliver Hardt
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Houston & Goethe Pop Up Kansas City
November 20 - November 22 | The Black Museum (2018), dir. Oliver Hardt
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Houston & Goethe Pop Up Kansas City
November 25 | Becoming Black (2020), dir. Ines Johnson-Spain
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Seattle in partnership with the Northwest Film Forum Seattle for the program German Cinema Now!.
November 27 - November 29 | The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till (2005), dir. Keith A. Beauchamp
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Kansas City
November 30 - December 4 | The Bicycle (1982), dir. Evelyn Schmidt
*Presented by Goethe-Institut Washington for Films Across Borders: Stories of Resilience and Hope
November 30 - December 4 | Jacob the Liar (1974), dir. Frank Beyer
*Presented by Goethe-Institut Washington for Films Across Borders: Stories of Resilience and Hope
December 3, 5:00pm CST | Memory Culture in Film: Commemorating Emmett Till
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Kansas City
December 4 - December 6 | From Here (2020), dir. Christina Antonakos-Wallace
*Presented by Goethe Pop Up Houston & Goethe Pop Up Kansas City
Details
Online
USA
Language: Various languages with subtitles (English, Spanish, French)
Price: Free Admission
info-washington@goethe.de
Part of series Shaping the Past: Memory Month Washington