Directors Lounge ScreeningDagie Brundert: Ode an Sommer

Berlin's cultural scene would not be the same, if filmmaker Dagie Brundert was not there. The artist started off in the 90's with some female colleagues as FBI, Freie Berliner Ischen. With ironic and unconventional films they challenged established and artsy art forms, skewed films spiced up with resonances of Camp and Beat, as it reverberated in some young circles in the first decade after the breakdown of the wall. Since then, Brundert stuck to her guns of Super-8 filmmaking with admirable creative productivity. She records everyday occurrences, the obvious things on sight and the things offside, however always dispersing a positive message.

This selection of extremely rare short films, including Il Mostro Verde, which features Merz’s Living Sculpture, reveals the exciting, eclectic collaborations among painters, poets, directors, and theater actors in 1960s Italy. Films by Tonino De Bernardi and Paolo Menzio and artists such as Ugo Nespolo and Luca Maria Patella highlight an adventurous underground cinema influenced by Arte Povera in Turin, the experimental films of Cooperative Cinema Indipendente in Rome, and the American avant-garde and independent film scene.