“FILMSTUNDE_23 [Subject: Filmmaking]”, interview with directors Edgar Reitz and Jörg Adolph

March 1, 2024

Edgar Reitz on his experience in 1968, the first in film history, to teach film aesthetics as an independent subject at school

“FILMSTUNDE_23 [Subject: Filmmaking]”, interview with directors Edgar Reitz and Jörg Adolph Chiara Nicoletti

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In 1968, the classroom of a girls’ grammar school in Munich is transformed into a film studio under the direction of young director Edgar Reitz. The “film lesson” begins: the first documented attempt in film history to teach film aesthetics as an independent subject. 2023: Edgar Reitz, the world-famous director of the “Heimat trilogy“, is approached by an elderly lady. She recognises herself as one of his former students. They arrange a class reunion.

“FILMSTUNDE_23 [Subject: Filmmaking]“, premiering at the 74th Berlinale, directed by Edgar Reitz and Jörg Adolph, is a montage documentary of the 1968 film class experience made by Reitz and his class reunion with his students in 2023.

As the directors declare in their press notes: “SUBJECT: FILMMAKING is a declaration of love for filmmaking and an appeal to finally bring film education into schools. A film about lifetime and the still unredeemed possibilities of the art of film”.

“FILMSTUNDE_23 [Subject: Filmmaking]” is an ode to film literacy reminding us that film should be taught in school since childhood.

Plot

In 1968, the young Edgar Reitz teaches filmmaking at a girls' school - a pioneering experiment in educational policy. 55 years later, an unlikely class reunion takes place.

Written by: Chiara Nicoletti

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