Six weekend conferences between May and November

The series of events taking place in 2012 under the umbrella title of HANDS ON FASSBINDER is a collective project mounted by the German film journal REVOLVER, the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB), the Berlin cinema Zeughauskino, the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Foundation (RWFF) and the German Federal Agency for Civic Education. The project has been made possible by a grant from the German Capital Cultural Fund.

The organization of this comprehensive series of events is being coordinated by Hannes Brühwiler and Saskia Walker from REVOLVER. They are being supported by Kata Krasznahorkai, curator with Berlin’s Collegium Hungaricum, which is hosting the conferences. The film screenings preceding each weekend conference and corresponding to the respective themes under discussion will take place in the German Historical Museum’s Zeughauskino. Discussions at the conferences will concentrate on contemporary approaches to the reception of Fassbinder’s oeuvre against the background of the historical significance his work is now being attributed. In the course of the conferences, actors, film and media specialists, critics, philosophers and scholars will be invited to shed new light on Fassbinder’s artistic legacy.  The themes in overview:

11 + 12 May         #1 PARALLEL WORLDS

09 + 10 June        #2 HISTORICAL PERCEPTIONS

14 + 15 July         #3 ON POLITICS

15 + 16 Sept.       #4 WHO LOVES – works in the group

27 + 28 Oct.          #5 TELEVISION STORIES

17 + 18 Nov.       #6 MY FASSBINDER – Fassbinder in international cinema

The series of film screenings begins on Friday May 11 at 7.30 p.m. with WORLD ON A WIRE (parts I+II in German with English subtitles). There will be a repeat screening on May 17 at 7 p.m. The official opening will take place on Saturday May 12 in the Collegium Hungaricum under the motto of “Fassbinder today.” Participants include Christoph Hochhäusler, Saskia Walker, Hannes Brühwiler, the Director of the CHB, Can Togay, and the President of the RWFF, Juliane Lorenz.

The 28-minute radio play No One is Evil and No One is Good, produced in 1972 for the broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk, will precede the conference’s lecture section, in which Frankfurt Allgemeine Zeitung features editor Dietmar Dath will speak on the theme: “It’s not true! – RWF and the missing question of reality.” A performance by Oliver Augst and Michael Daemgen of pieces from their album ARBEIT FASSBINDER RABEN will round off the first weekend.

RWF’s birthday on May 31 (he would have been 67) will be marked by a special screening at 8 p.m. in the Zeughauskino of IN A YEAR WITH 13 MOONS.

More Information:

The complete program of events from May – November can be viewed here:

Further information 1 on HANDS ON FASSBINDER by REVOLVER.

Further information 2 on the Collegium Hungaricum Berlin (CHB).

Further information 3 on the film program in the Zeughauskino Berlin.

Further information 4 on the parallel event to “Who loves.”

Entire program