April/May 2020


STUMMFILM (silent movie) 2020-lockdown - art - covid 19
Do we need culture? What does art do? Which system is relevant?
a short film by Martina Veh & Chrstopher Bodenstein, 10 min.

The silence of artists from the Munich cultural scene in a forest on 28.04.2020 at the time of the COVID-19 shutdown. The artists are silent. 90 minutes long. The texts are taken from mobile phone interviews with the participants.

World premiere: FSFF (Five Lakes Film Festival) 2020, Starnberg, 31 August 2020.

Martina Veh: Director, Production, Concept, Editing
Christopher Bodenstein: Concept, Camera, Editing
Gunnar Geisse: Sound Design, Composition

Julia Horkel: Production Assistance
Ivo Yordanov: 2nd camera

Thanks to Thomas Radigk, Julia Horkel,
Tmc production with Thomas Morgott:

Ivo Yordanov, Max Acker, Emil Jakob, Pietro Fiorito, Cvetan Ivanov
Lichtscherbe Sonja Lenkeit and Wolfgang Wein GbR,
Andreas Hofmann photography
Johannes Brucej, Marie-Louis Ott, Dr. Marie-Carin von Gummpenberg, Stephan Lanius, Stephanie Krug, Christl Wein, Matthias Helwig, Seraphin Veh, Nicolai Baehr, Festival Office FSFF

STUMMFILM - 2020 - lockdown - art - covid 19
Do we need culture? What does art do? Which system is relevant?
____________________________________
how it came about:
Lyrical inspiration is a text from Stanley Kubrick's first unreleased debut film. A war film.

"This forest then
and all that happens now
is outside history.
Only the unchanging shapes of fear and doubt and death
are from our world.
These people that you see
keep our language and our time
but have no other country
but the mind."
- Stanley Kubrick
____________________

Julia Horkel gave us 500 euros. That was our budget. Without that, the film would not have happened.

We capture a political and historical situation. Lockdown. Originally the film is meant to be a trilogy. STUMMFILM is the first part.

Thought starting point:
In times of Corona, the art & culture scene is known to be "not relevant to the system". As a result, this scene asks itself what its role, function and place in society is. So far, we naturally see - and this is our task in society - as a field of research in the examination of society and its development, a mirror that asks questions like "How do we want to live?" or "Who are we?" "What are our goals in a world that has become global in post-colonialism". The art & culture scene has always occupied a kind of "in-between space". This in-between space threatens to become narrower and narrower during the pandemic and eventually disappears - through the closure of institutions and organisations, theatres and workshops. This is how it was felt in the art scene and confirmed in daily existence.

So we organised a "walking day" on 28.04.2020 in the absence of space in the society. We went for a hike. We decided to go to the outskirts of Munich, to a forest, and just stopped there. We found about 30 art & culture creators from Munich and the surrounding area, who arrived in small groups as prescribed and, after leaving their vehicles, followed the coordinates that had been set beforehand, silently and already entrusted with the task of mentally withdrawing into their own worlds, which kept them very busy during these months. Mobile phones stayed at home. Only a few onions marked the way into the forest to a commercial forest plantation. Relevant to the system, those 30 people simply stood there, each at a safe distance of 2 metres. They stood there for 90 minutes and indulged in their thoughts. Emotions, inner dialogues, inner conflicts, between fear and longing, between thoughts of their projects, as well as being questioned as creators of art and culture. Also knowing that her place and significance in society is in question. Just as concretely their entire built-up careers, which they had shaped for many years, sometimes very successfully, sometimes less successfully following their artistic reputation. We documented these 90 minutes, with 2 cameras and 4 assistants.

Credits:
Protagonists alphabetically:

Peter Cloé
Singer

Micaela Czisch
Actress, theatre pedagogue

Helena Dechentreiter
Actress

Jonathan Dechentreiter
Pupil

Freddy Angel
Visual artist, musician

Andrea Fessmann
Conductor, singer, organiser

Gunnar Geisse
Musician, Composer

Marie-Carin von Gumppenberg
Political scientist

Julia Horkel
Graphic artist, painter

Sebastian Horn
Musician

David Hunter
Saxophonist

Nadja Fiebiger
Lyricist, Actress

Stephanie Krug
Opera and concert singer

Philipp Kolb
Man

Stephan Lanius
Double bass, performer, organiser, author

Ks. Christopher Robson
Opera and concert singer

Ralf Sartori
Tango teacher, philosopher, publisher

Christl Wein
Stage and costume designer

Caludia Weinhart
Stage and costume designer

Team:
Martina Veh
Director, production, concept, editing

Christopher Bodenstein
Concept, camera, editing

Gunnar Geisse
Sound Design, Composition

Julia Horkel
Production assistance

Ivo Yordanov
2nd camera

Max Acker
1st assistant
Emil Jakob
2nd assistant

Pietro Fiorito
3rd assistant

Cvetan Ivanov
4th assistant

Wolfgang Wein
Photographer

Andreas Hoffmann
Photographer

Matthias Helwig
Location Scouting



Thanks to
Thomas Radigk
Julia Horkel
Tmc production
Thomas Morgott, Ivo Yordanov, Max Acker, Emil Jakob, Pietro Fiorito, Cvetan Ivanov
Lichtscherbe Sonja Lenkeit and Wolfgang Wein GbR
Wolfgang Wein
Andreas Hofmann photohraphy
Andreas Hofmann
Johannes Brucej
Marie-Louis Ott
Dr. Marie-Carin von Gummpenberg
Stephan Lanius
Stephanie Krug
Christl Wein
Matthias Helwig
Seraphin Veh
Nicolai Baehr

© photo: Christopher Bodenstein