This year's frankfurter formen-program shows various works by Berlin-based filmmaker, photographer, video artist and curator Theo Thiesmeier. Thiesmeier studied in Peter Kubelka's film class at the Städelschule in the 1980s, followed by visits and employments at the Cooper Union School of Art (where he studied with Robert Breer and P. Adams Sitney) and at Anthology Film Archive in New York. For ten years he was part of the collective Filmsamstag, where he organized film evenings together with Ute Aurand, Renate Sami, Milena Gierke, Bärbel Freund and others. His early film works on Super 8 and 16mm combine a curious view of his surroundings, peppered with a peculiar sense of humor, with an interest in the specific recording mechanisms of the chosen medium. For example, the given length of the Super 8 cassette affects the conception and editing of the individual films, as in Hannover, which shows the last coal mine "Zeche Hannover" in Bochum, Dartmoor (shot in South West England) and Wald, shot in the Frankfurt city forest, all made between 1983 and 1985. In Kamera (1989) he transfers this contrainte of the Super 8 film concept to the conditions of the 16mm Bolex camera. Bude - Kommen und Gehen (1991/1995/2001) is a film both witty and light as well as beautiful in form, capturing scenes of a Frankfurt Trinkhalle:

A Bude, Wasserhäuschen, Trinkhalle or Kiosk is a place where alcohol, newspapers, sweets, cigarettes and such things are sold without an accessible salesroom. Customers stand at or near the building while drinking beer, smoking, reading the newspaper and talking. It's a very urban place that relocates private behavior into a public space. I was more interested in the moments of movement, standing, posing, and social interactions in general, rather than individual biographical stories of the protagonists. All shots were taken by three cameras simultaneously. This allowed me to capture simplest everyday movements, to be able to edit them together in a way that I had wanted for a long time. (T.T.)

The program will feature a mix of Super 8, 16mm and digitized films (which have been re-worked after their completion). We are very pleased that Theo Thiesmeier will be present to introduce the program.

A special pleasure: Two new Super 8 films by James Edmonds and Gunter Deller will be screened beforehand, and both will be present as well. In Disappearences (2023), Edmonds depicts his "first visit to England after a gap of two years. It’s as if I’m discovering each subject for the first time. Objects picked up one by one. Every form seems to contain its dissolution, a premonition of loss. Holding on to the edge of a cloud, a hungry ghost throws its wishes to the sea." (J.E.) Film mit Möwe (Politika) features "found objects arranged directly in camera during walks in a fishing village on the Greek island of Euboea, a cinematic impression painted with light." (G.D.)

We’d like to thank the Hochschule für Bildende Künste – Städelschule for making this screening possible in their premises, a first for exf f. we’re really happy about.