Kino im Blauen Salon at HfG Karlsruhe will present a program of short films featuring classics and rediscovered works of experimental urban cinema as part of the semester series “Kino über der Stadt” [Cinema Above the City]. Prof. Dr. Evelyn Echle will provide an introduction to the program.
Experimental films are among cinema’s earliest and most radical explorations of the city. Long before urban spaces became the natural setting for fictional narratives, filmmakers explored their dynamics through montage, rhythm, movement, and light. In these works, the city does not appear merely as a backdrop, but as a network of streets, facades, bridges, traffic, and people, as an organism whose energy unfolds only through the cinematic gaze.
As part of the series “Kino über der Stadt,” a selection of classics and rediscovered gems from film history is being presented, exploring the relationship between cinema and urban space in a wide variety of ways. From the early urban symphonies »Manhatta«, »Jeux des reflets et de la vitesse«, and »Rain«, through the pulsating visual compositions of Shirley Clarke, D. A. Pennebaker, and Marie Menken, to Claude Lelouch’s legendary »C’était un rendez-vous«, the program brings together films that not only depict the city but set it in motion.
The short films
A Tale of Two Cities (2007, Jem Cohen)
Go! Go! Go! (1962, Marie Menken)
The Wonder Ring (1955, Stan Brakhage)
Adolf Winkelmann, Kassel, 9.12.1967, 11.54h (1968, Adolf Winkelmann)
Les Mains négatives (1978, Marguerite Duras)
Aimless Walk (1930, Alexander Hackenschmied)
Regen (1929, Joris Ivens)
Bridges-Go-Round (1958, Shirley Clarke)
Evelyn Echle (Dr. phil.) is a professor of cultural and media theory in the Design Department at Pforzheim University and the Bern University of the Arts. Her research focuses on the aesthetic intersections of experimental media cultures, with an emphasis on film and media history.
Blue Salon, Room 012, HfG Karlsruhe
Free admission; donations appreciated
