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Can you tell us how and why the German Film Office came about?
The Goethe-Institut and German Films both represent German culture across the world. The Goethe-Institut has a broader mission of international cultural exchange, with 150 branches in 99 countries and direct, long-standing connections to local audiences, while German Films operates within the international film industry to promote contemporary German cinema. With the German Film Office, both organizations saw an opportunity to come together to expand access to German films in New York, where we are based, and across the United States.
The German Film Office is coming up on five years of operation since it opened on October 1, 2020. How have you seen the Office's mission evolve and succeed in that time?
We started the German Film Office during the first year of the pandemic, so things have changed dramatically since then. We have gone from exclusively online activities to a wide range of in-person events across the country, while still trying to serve more remote audiences via streaming. The response has been overwhelmingly positive, encouraging us to keep creating a community around German cinema with our programming, our newsletter, our social media platforms—and to keep supporting our festival and arthouse theater partners in bringing German films and German filmmakers to their venues.
Your work in German film dates back to 2011 as program curator at the Goethe-Institut. What drew you to the cinema of Germany?
Film was the first art form that I connected with as a child. This was long before streaming, so it was all about the physical experience of cinema and the cinema as a place. I stepped from the movie theaters of my hometown, Porto, into the ones of Heidelberg, where I went to college, and later Berlin. I discovered German cinema along the way. It’s been very rewarding to present films I personally believe in to audiences, to draw their attention to new, upcoming filmmakers as well as overlooked ones, and to highlight the experiences and perspectives of women and minority filmmakers.
The film Two to One will be screening at the Cinema in collaboration with the German Film Office. Can you tell us a little about this film and give us your thoughts on it?
Two to One is a heist comedy set in East Germany during the reunification process. Besides its obvious star, Academy Award nominee Sandra Hüller, its cast includes some of the best-known names in contemporary German cinema: Ronald Zehrfeld, Max Riemelt, Peter Kurth, to name just a few. I first watched it at the Chicago International Film Festival last year and loved to see how positively audiences responded to it. Comedy does not always translate across language and cultural barriers, but there’s something very relatable about a small community that is swept up by capitalism and decides to fend for itself. Personally, I also appreciate the fun facts about this movie: director Natja Brunckhorst was Christiane F. in Uli Edel’s 1981 portrayal of youth drug addiction. Ronald Zehrfeld and Max Riemelt—Sandra Hüller’s accomplices in the heist—were a cop duo in Dominik Graf’s cult series In the Face of Crime.
German actress and Academy Award nominee Sandra Hüller features as part of the ensemble cast in Two to One. How do you see her acclaim fitting in to the efforts and successes of German cinema in the United States?
To me Sandra is a real star, and I look forward to seeing her shine even brighter. Anatomy of a Fall is a French production and The Zone of Interest a British production, but Sandra’s nomination has nonetheless helped elevate German cinema at the international level. One of the great things about Sandra is that, despite all the attention, she’s still out there playing roles, sometimes just supporting ones, in small German productions. That can make all the difference for a film.
Can you tell us a few of your favorite films? — German, American, anything!
In terms of German cinema, I love old Wim Wenders films like Wings of Desire and Paris, Texas, but also really enjoyed his recent Perfect Days. I have always been very fond of Fatih Akin as a filmmaker who came of age as I was myself beginning to explore German cinema, so I’m very curious about his new film, Amrum, that premiered in Cannes. Alexander Kluge’s Yesterday Girl is one of my all-time favorites, and I find Fassbinder’s work to be a gift that keeps on giving. Sad Jokes by Fabian Stumm is exactly the kind of subtle, gentle film that I love seeing represent contemporary German filmmaking internationally. This summer, I have been revisiting the American films of my childhood and youth, and just recently watched Jaws and Poltergeist with my daughter. Portuguese memoir films are perhaps the closest to my heart, and I particularly love Visit, or Memories and Confessions by Manoel de Oliveira.
What excites you most about the current cinema landscape?
I am looking forward to catching up with our current cinema at New York Film Festival, which, for me, is always at its pulse. I can’t wait to watch Sound of Falling by Mascha Schilinski, a story spanning four generations of women on a German farm that won the Jury Prize in Cannes. That’s what excites me the most about my work: the new voices showing us how to look differently at places, both physical and emotional, that we might have thought we knew well.
What can we expect to see from the German Film Office?
We have a very busy season ahead of us, starting with the theatrical release of the Riefenstahl documentary on September 5 and followed by multiple German films at NYFF including Sound of Falling, the latest Petzold, and new films by Ulrich Köhler and Alexandre Koberidze, among others. Then we have feminist icon Ulrike Ottinger at the Academy Museum in LA and Metrograph in New York. We’re also excited to celebrate seminal East German director Konrad Wolf’s 100th anniversary with a streaming series. We’re also seeking to connect more with audiences outside of the city, so I’m particularly happy with this new collaboration with the Cinema Arts Centre and hope that more screenings will follow.
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We're incredibly excited to be collaborating with Sara and the German Film Office to bring German film to the Cinema Arts Centre! Two to One is screening this Thursday, August 21st at 7:30 PM as part of our Foreign Cinema Night series, presented by Ettinger Law Firm and the German Film Office, with introduction from series programmer Sahib Singh Bakshi. Grab a ticket for this highlight of contemporary German cinema while they're still available!
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