Extensive photo film programme at Cinemateket
Image credit: Helmut Newton - The Bad And The Beautiful
As part of this year's Copenhagen Photo Festival we are happy to present an extensive film programme at Cinemateket in the center of Copenhagen. The film house is celebrating the art of photography by showing a number of unique films by and about prominent photographers – from Muybridge and Newton to Nan Goldin, Sally Man, Jette Bang and Steen Møller Christensen.
Several screenings are followed by a talk about the film and photographer. We look forward to seeing you at Cinemateket!
Programme at the Cinemateket
From 6 to 17 June, you can find :
6 June - 'What Remains: The Life and Work of Sally Mann' by Steven Cantor
9 June - 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed' by Laura Poitras
10 June - 'Exposing Muybridge' by Mark Shaffer
10 June - 'Helmuth Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful' by Gero von Boehm
14 June - 'Flash of a Dream' by Robert Michael Fox
14 June - 'Helmuth Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful' by Gero von Boehm
16 June - 'Exposing Muybridge' by Mark Shaffer
17 June - 'Flash of a Dream' by Robert Michael Fox
17 June - 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed' by Laura Poitras
How to participate?
Ticket price: 85 kr. (55 kr. for members).
Read more about the programme and buy your ticket at Cinemateket
Screening + Talk // Steen Møller Rasmussen part 2 - shorts
Screening + Talk // 16:30
On the occasion of the photographer and filmmaker Steen Møller Rasmussen's 70th birthday, the Cinemateket has put together a bouquet of this unique visual artist's diverse film and video works. They will be shown on June 20 and 24 – each time with the artist present and interviewed by Lars Movin (in Danish).
This second program covers the period from the mid-90s and a good ten years onwards and focuses on works which deal with different subjects, but which under the surface have language as a common focus; how we communicate is a recurrent question. Another cue could be "investigations" – of the medium, the material, the image in a broader sense.
The films are:
Frederiksberg d. 8.9.1996 (co-directors: Niels Olaf Gudme & Peter Land) (1996, 19 min.)
Parachute Jump (1999, 15 min.)
One Shot + One Shot Two (2003, 1 + 1 min.)
Richard Winther – en undersøgelse (1999, 21 min.)
Fotografi (2006, 34 min.)
Director: Steen Møller Rasmussen
Denmark 1996-2006. 92min + 30min. Intro/Q&A. Danish dialogue. With Keld Helmer-Petersen, Per Bak Jensen, Krass Clement, Kirsten Klein
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening + Talk // Steen Møller Rasmussen part 1 - shorts
Screening + Talk // 18:30
On the occasion of the photographer and filmmaker Steen Møller Rasmussen's 70th birthday, the Cinemateket has put together a bouquet of this unique visual artist's diverse film and video works. They will be shown on June 20 and 24 – each time with the artist present and interviewed by Lars Movin (in Danish).
This first program – shown on the birthday itself – consists of productions from the mid-80s to the mid-90s and reflects various facets of the art scene in which the main character has found inspiration and to a large extent has also been a part of of. All titles are executed on the 16mm format in which they were originally created.
The films are:
In/Out the Flat #5 (1984, 16mm, 20 min.)
Tretten (1989, 16mm, 26 min.)
Fin de Beckett (1991, 16mm, 25 min.)
The Place To Be (1996, 16mm, 31 min
Director: Steen Møller Rasmussen
Denmark 1984. 16mm. 102min. + 45min. Intro/Q&A. Danish dialogue. With Claus Carstensen, Peter Bonde
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Talk // Jette Bang as photographer
Talk // 18:30
During the 1930s and 40s, the photographer Jette Bang (1914-64) documented a Greenland that was disappearing in favor of modernization and Europeanisation. With presence, tenderness and effort, she got very close to women and children in particular, of whom she created intimate portraits in their everyday life.
She was the first woman to document the original Greenland, and her photographs and documentary films were groundbreaking, not least because they depicted a Greenland completely different from what the Danes had seen before.
Jette Bang's photographs are the first professional photographic works of art from Greenland, and her images are considered a unique cultural heritage.
Get to know Jette Bang's work thoroughly when Leise Johnsen, director of Det Grønlandske Hus and author of the photo book 'From the Polar Bear's Belly', presents this photo lecture (in Danish). With a rich selection of Jette Bang's images, she introduces the audience to Bang's method and explains why her images are considered cultural heritage.
Denmark 2023. 60min. Danish dialogue
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening // All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Screening // 18:30
Each year, 75,000 Americans die from an overdose of addictive, pain-relieving drugs, the so-called opioids.
‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ draws an intimate portrait of the uncompromising photo artist Nan Goldin, who today fights as activist in order for the pharmaceutical dynasty The Sackler Family to be held accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic.
Goldin (b. 1953) broke through with his skinless photographs of gay and transgender subcultures in Boston and New York in the 1970s and 80s and today hangs in the world’s leading museums - museums that receive generous donations from, among others, The Sackler Family.
The film focuses on Goldin’s fierce battle against Sackler. But at the same time, it unfolds a story about the journey from an insecure childhood to a limitless artistic life. The uncovering of the devastating social problem is thus provided with a personal story about family relationships, abuse, love and art.
The film won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2022 and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023.
Director: Laura Poitras
USA 2022. DCP. 122min. English dialogue with Danish subtitles. With Nan Goldin, David Velasco, Megan Kapler, Marina Berio.
Screening // All the Beauty and the Bloodshed
Screening // 21:45
Each year, 75,000 Americans die from an overdose of addictive, pain-relieving drugs, the so-called opioids.
‘All the Beauty and the Bloodshed’ draws an intimate portrait of the uncompromising photo artist Nan Goldin, who today fights as activist in order for the pharmaceutical dynasty The Sackler Family to be held accountable for its role in the opioid epidemic.
Goldin (b. 1953) broke through with his skinless photographs of gay and transgender subcultures in Boston and New York in the 1970s and 80s and today hangs in the world’s leading museums - museums that receive generous donations from, among others, The Sackler Family.
The film focuses on Goldin’s fierce battle against Sackler. But at the same time, it unfolds a story about the journey from an insecure childhood to a limitless artistic life. The uncovering of the devastating social problem is thus provided with a personal story about family relationships, abuse, love and art.
The film won the Golden Lion in Venice in 2022 and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023.
Director: Laura Poitras
USA 2022. DCP. 122min. English dialogue with Danish subtitles. With Nan Goldin, David Velasco, Megan Kapler, Marina Berio.
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening // Flash of a Dream
Screening // 16:00
Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914) emigrated from Denmark to America in 1870, where he settled in New York.
Here, in the years around the turn of the century, he depicted and photographed the conditions of the poorest in the city’s slums. His searching direct style was something completely new at the time and became a breakthrough for documentary photojournalism. Today, Riis is one of the best-known Danes in the United States.
Robert Michael Fox’s documentary ‘Flash of a Dream’ tells the story of the pioneering photographer and follows in his footsteps in the streets of his hometown Ribe (in Jutland) and New York. Riis’ original photos are supplemented by old film footage, and the poetic image flow is carried forward by the main character’s own words on the audio side - recited by the actor Peter Stormare.
Director: Robert Michael Fox
Denmark 2001. 35mm. 55min. English dialogue
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening // Flash of a Dream
Screening // 16:45
Jacob A. Riis (1849-1914) emigrated from Denmark to America in 1870, where he settled in New York.
Here, in the years around the turn of the century, he depicted and photographed the conditions of the poorest in the city’s slums. His searching direct style was something completely new at the time and became a breakthrough for documentary photojournalism. Today, Riis is one of the best-known Danes in the United States.
Robert Michael Fox’s documentary ‘Flash of a Dream’ tells the story of the pioneering photographer and follows in his footsteps in the streets of his hometown Ribe (in Jutland) and New York. Riis’ original photos are supplemented by old film footage, and the poetic image flow is carried forward by the main character’s own words on the audio side - recited by the actor Peter Stormare.
Director: Robert Michael Fox
Denmark 2001. 35mm. 55min. English dialogue
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening // Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful
Screening // 20:30
This documentary film about one of history’s most significant photographers, German-Australian Helmut Newton (1920-2004), takes us on a fascinating journey into the artist’s works and working methods. Newton is particularly known for his photographs of naked women.
The film premiered on the centenary of his birth and is particularly notable for its updated gender perspective:
“‘The Bad and the Beautiful’ is less about Newton himself and more about how his work made the women he photographed feel,” wrote IndieWire.
“That interview-heavy structure gives voice to the models whom we recognize from Newton’s photos—Grace Jones, in that iconic nude Playboy shoot with then-boyfriend Dolph Lundgren; Isabella Rossellini, her face gripped by former flame David Lynch.”
The women in Newton’s professional life speak out about working with him – both with their experiences with him in front of and behind the camera. The film contains interviews with prominent female icons such as Charlotte Rampling and Anna Wintour.
Director: Gero Van Böhm
Germany 2020. DCP. 90min. English dialogue with Danish subtitles. With Charlotte Rampling, Grace Jones, Isabella Rossellini
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all
Screening // Exposing Muybridge
Screening // 19:00
Eadweard James Muybridge (1830-1904) is commonly known as the film medium's photo-technical father figure – the one who photographed a riding horse in a sequence of fast glimpses and thereby subverted the image aesthetics of centuries, where the horse's four legs were heaved up under the belly simultaneously. He proved hundreds of painters wrong.
But he did much, much more than that. Muybridge was an extreme, talented and very possibly mad person. Muybridge spelled his name in 7-8 different ways and lived 7-8 lives. He photographed immigrant’s lives, Yosemite’s nature, Alaska, Central America, rich people's houses, did odd railroad PR assignments. All with the aid of heavy mechanics, even heavier sheets of photo glass, and life-threatening routes.
He was also a cold-blooded killer driven by jealousy. Muybridge mysteriously escaped a prison sentence – by pleading insanity at the time of the murder. Even this feature-length documentary almost doesn't feel adequate for the dramas his life contained!
In his later life, he became, due to the fame of his horse images, a cultural star who was invited on royal visits around Europe, where he was presented as both inventor and storyteller.
The film is a high-end classic portrait documentary: Here are wondrous historical photos, an agile cutting rhythm and not least a large-scale and sophisticated recreation of the shutter footage with the racehorse.
The final part is quite moving and interesting from both a gender and historical perspective: Muybridge traveled around with lectures about his so-called zoopraxiscope and a curious university project about movement among animals, people, the disabled, blacks and women.
Director: Marc Schaffer
USA 2021. DCP Farve. 88min. + 15min. Intro. English dialogue with Danish subtitles. Tilled over 15 år. With Gary Oldman, Marta Braun, Philip Brookman
Get you tickets here: https://www.dfi.dk/cinemateket/biograf/filmserier/serie/copenhagen-photo-festival#all