New Look German Film Festival Launches 2014 Programme

New Look German Film Festival Launches 2014 Programme

From the origins of football in Germany to a Kiwi musician helping Germans rediscover their musical roots, the new look Goethe-Institut German Film Festival has a lot to offer. Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall, 25 films (18 feature films and 7 short films) showcase very different facets of German life, both past and present, across a range of genres - from drama, triller and comedy to horror, war and western.

The filmmakers represented are the new face of German cinema and their films, such as The Dark Valley, Two Lives, Fack Ju Goehte, and Love Steaks, featured heavily at this year’s German Film Awards.

For this first time since 2009 the festival will screen in Auckland and Dunedin, as well as Wellington. The festival will feature some special guests and exclusive events, including a Jazz Concert, a Yodelling Workshop, and a high-profile Panel & Workshop focussing on International Co-Production.

The Goethe-Institut are especially thrilled that Kiwi horn player Hayden Chisholm will be back in the country for the festival to celebrate the opening night film, Sound of Heimat, in which he stars. Joining him will be Sound of Heimat director Arne Birkenstock, music teacher and legendary yodeller Loni Kuisle (who also stars in the opening night film) and journalist, editor and filmmaker Maren Niemeyer, who will lead the Panel and Workshop events.

The German Film Festival will begin in Wellington (4-14 September, Paramount) before to moving to Auckland (11-21 September, Rialto Cinemas Newmarket) and Dunedin (25-28 September, Rialto Cinemas).

The full programme, with schedule, is available online at: www.goethe.de/nz

About Hayden Chisholm
Hayden Chisholm is a saxophonist and composer originally from New Plymouth. After studying in Cologne with a DAAD scholarship he continued his musical travels worldwide with a New Zealand Young Achievers Award. In 1995 he developed a radical new microtonal system he termed “split scales” for saxophone which he presented on his debut solo CD Circe. Since then his compositions have been recorded by BBC and WDR radios and he has toured and recorded extensively worldwide with a host of ensembles. He has created music for several Rebecca Horn installations as well as composing scores for her films. He has taught at universities throughout the world and for the last ten years has given an annual masterclass in Greece. He curates the Plushmusic festival in Cologne and Bremen. In 2013 he released the 13 Box Set “13 Views of the Heart’s Cargo” and received one of Europe’s most prestigious jazz honours, the SWR Jazz Prize.

About Arne Birkenstock
Arne Birkenstock is a writer and filmmaker who lives in Cologne. He studied Economics, Spanish and Portuguese language and literature, History and Political Science in Germany and Argentina. Birkenstock directed and produced numerous successful feature length documentaries for cinema, such as Beltracchi- The Art of Forgery (German Film Award for Best Documentary 2014), 12 Tangos – Adios Buenos Aires, Chandani – the Daughter of the Elephant Whisperer (German Film Award for Best Children‘s Feature 2011), Sound of Heimat and The Moscow Trials. Arne Birkenstock also works as an instructor and consultant for several film and media schools in Germany and served as a juror for several festivals and film funding commissions. He is a board member of the German Documentary Association AG DOK and a member of the European Documentary Network EDN, the German Film Academy and the European Film Academy.

About Loni Kuisle
Loni Kuisle was born in Niedersonthofen / Allgäu in 1949 and grew up as the eldest of eight kids in very a musical family. Folk music and singing has been a substantial part of all her life. Loni has founded numerous choirs and singing groups for children and seniors alike. She has been organising traditional concerts such as Advent concerts in her home town. Loni Kuisle is a passionate music teacher and singing instructor – yodelling is the source of her life. She loves her family, gardening and the mountains.

About Maren Niemeyer
Maren Niemeyer, born in Bremen, Germany, studied journalism, German philology and film theory in Paris and Berlin. She has worked as a journalist, editor and documentary filmmaker for national and international radio and tv channels, mainly for ARD, ZDF, Deutsche Welle -TV and the German-French culture channel ARTE. In 2006 she was a workshop-leader and jury member of Afghanistan’s first short film festival in Kabul. In 2007 Niemeyer produced the ARTE / ARD documentary series about the magic hippie trail to Kathmandu in the late sixties and in 2008 she produced a worldwide broadcasted series about the myth of German Design for Deutsche Welle TV. In 2009 Maren Niemeyer was Commissioning Editor for NDR / ARTE. Since 2010 she has been working as Programme Advisor for the Film Department of the Goethe-Institut Headquarter in Munich.

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