If there are key revolutionary years of the 20th century, 1919 was surely one of them. The tumultuous events of that year will be explored in this programme in many different ways, such as a newsreel covering the funeral of Rosa Luxemburg. As far as fiction cinema is concerned, one thing is certain: German film production was at full speed in 1919. Anders als die Anderen (with Conrad Veidt and Anita Berber) and Der Mädchenhirt will provide insight into the popular genre of Sittenfilm. Independently produced features will transport you to Canada (Back to God’s Country with the wonderful actress and screenwriter Nell Shipman) and Norway, where the delicately filmed Historien om en gut offers you an outstanding drama of adolescence. Discover the actress Olga Yuzhakova in Jakov Protazanov’s To nadežda to revnost’ slepaja, head to India with Kaliya Mardan, and lose yourself in animated advertisements from 1919. Last but not least, there will be films by well-known masters like Dreyer and Stiller, always worthy of reacquaintance.
Curated by Mariann Lewinsky and Karl Wratschko

The films shot in 1899 are a marvel. If you are into film history, these are the monuments of 19th century cinematography. If you seek glimpses of times long past, to be able to see in living pictures moments from 120 years ago amounts to a mystical experience. Four of the six programmes present films from the most important producers of that year: Star Film, Mutoscope & Biograph (including the Dutch, French and German branches) and Lumière brothers. The remaining two strands comprise films never screened in public at the time: the first one a selection of films by Auguste Baron and his experimental system of synchronised image and sound; the second, a selection of private films made by aristocratic families, the Greffulhes and Gramonts. Cinematography recorded snippets of one of the world’s most pivotalevents of that year, the Dreyfus Affair, colonialist crimes and the fashionable hat of Countess Greffulhe.
Curated by Mariann Lewinsky

Remember when you first heard the melodious name Musidora? It was a name out of time and reality. No family name attached. Was she a goddess? A poetess? A golden nymph? No. As it was revealed in subsequent encounters, Musidora was a superstar of French silent cinema who played an evil vampire Irma Vep in an early horror serial. How many noticed that here in Bologna in 2011 films were shown by a comic actress of the same name, or when in 2017 two films were screened by a director who happened to have exactly the same name? No surprise: they are all different shades of one mystical figure; a seductive silhouette that the surrealist boys raved about a hundred years ago. But the Musidora we want to bring back is a woman of many dimensions, knowing that we can hardly do her justice. There is Musidora the writer, poet, stage actress, visual artist and film historian. Let’s start with some films, among them the newly restored Pour Don Carlos, some experimental screenings and an exhibition.
Curated by Emilie Cauquy and Mariann Lewinsky