In focus
Dieter Chill: cameraman and filmmaker
For decades, cameraman and filmmaker Dieter Chill has been capturing current social conditions and revealing perspectives on the past and future. Some of his films have already been shown at Zeughauskino, such as the camera work Vokzal – Bahnhof Brest (1994), Kehrein, Kehraus (1997) and Autobahn Ost (2004), created in collaboration with documentary filmmaker Gerd Kroske. Now, a two-day retrospective offers the opportunity to get to know Chill's sensitive documentary filmmaking, which focuses on individual fates and extraordinary historical events, and thus to look back on 40 years of German-German film history.
Two themes that characterize Chill's cinematic work are at the center: On the one hand, documentary portraits of different personalities whose biographies convey ideas about the complexity – and abysmal nature – of German history and the present. These are the life stories of persecuted Jews in Germany or of artists who were endangered by the circumstances in which they lived.
On the other hand, Chill's film and camera work revolves around conflicts and contradictions that focus on the period of upheaval in Germany in 1989 and its consequences: polyphonic images of society, fearless assessments that respect the views of individuals; nothing less than documented departures, transformations, and new beginnings. We look forward to rediscovering films, some of which are rarely shown, and to talking with Dieter Chill, who will be present on both days. (Tilman Schumacher)
