Deutschlandfunk Kultur – cultural news
Cultural news
Thursday 4 March 2021
Jean-Luc Godard withdraws from the film industry
“I will end my life as a director, my life as a director by completing these two scenarios. Then I will bid farewell to the films.” This is what Jean-Luc Godard said in an interview for Kerala International Film Festival in India. The current 90-year-old project is of the French-German television station Arte. Godard has produced 54 movies in his nearly 70-year career. “Puff” was one of the first. The last one so far is called a “picture book”. In 2010, Master Nouvelle Vague was awarded an Honorary Academy Award for his life’s work. It was his 20th international award.
Actress Katharina Matz is dead
Katarina Matz died Wednesday evening in Berlin at the age of 90. This German theater was announced. Director Wolfgang Langov brought her there in 1954 after she completed her training in Magdeburg. Four years later she moved to Hamburger Kammerspiele for Ida Ehre and then to Thalia Theater. Until early last year she worked with directors Jürgen Flame, Leander Houseman and Stephan Kimmig. Katarina Matz has also been filming for film and television since 1954. She played her last TV role in 2020 in Tatort’s “A Few Words After Midnight”.
Budgets Committee supports funding for a “reboot culture”
It’s really over now: The Bundestag’s Budget Committee has also approved an additional billion dollars for the “Neustart Kultur” Corona aid program. The Minister of State for Culture had already promised them to artists and cultural workers at the beginning of February and the Cabinet agreed. Scholarship programs will be expanded in the areas of music, literature and performing arts and new programs, through which, according to Grütters, “previous funding gaps” will be bridged. Theaters, concert halls, festivals and clubs will continue to provide assistance across sectors until operations resume.
The first bears in the Berlinale
In the “Short Film” category, director Olga Lukovnikova from Moldova won the Golden Bear award for “My Uncle Tudor”. It is a 20-minute co-production between Belgium, Portugal and Hungary. The press release says she tells of childhood trauma in a seemingly idyllic setting. The Silver Bear goes to China to Zhang Dalei for his story about visiting his grandfather. The prizes will be awarded at the special Berlinale Summer Festival in June. The jury included Egyptian artist Bassem Magdy and Austrian photographer Christine A. Mayer and German actor Sebastian Orzendowski.
Music industry geared flowing
The German music industry has gone through the year of the epidemic well. It generated a nine percent increase compared to 2019. This is thanks to the ever-growing broadcast business, the Federal Association of the Music Industry announced. Because nearly three quarters of the sales were made with it. According to industry figures, the temporary store closures were clearly noticeable in CD sales: the share of total sales decreased by nearly a fifth to around 22 percent. For the first time in a long time, records are back at third with 5.5 percent of total market share, ahead of the downloads.
The Museums Association wants to take advantage of the open opportunities quickly
“We call on the federal states to seek exchange with museums and state museum associations.” This is what the president of the German Museums Association, Eckart Kony, said after the recent Corona decisions taken by the federal and state governments. The homes already meet the requirements needed in many areas. Cohn was relieved that a new beginning of culture was on the horizon, as the regional events running from March 8th opened “room for maneuver”.
Violinist Michael Wake has passed away
He belonged to the Clara Schumann family: Michael Vick, born in Konigsberg in 1928, died in Stuttgart at the age of 92. After the war, he studied in West Berlin and was the lead violinist at the RIAS Symphony Orchestra from 1952 to 1961 and went to the University of Auckland in New Zealand for a few years after the wall was built. From 1974 until his retirement in 1989 he worked in Stuttgart. Wake survived the bombing of what is now Kaliningrad in 1944, but was arrested in a Soviet camp in Germany because of his non-Jewish father. Michael Vick wrote a contemporary witness book on the topic in 1989, written for the introduction by writer Siegfried Linz. Wieck died on February 27.
Cultural workers are skeptical of Corona’s decisions
Cultural workers are skeptical of federal and state Corona decisions. The head of Artistic Directors of the Theater Association, Hasco Weber, said on Deutschland Funk Culture the damage is now enormous. Correlation with incidence values is difficult. Additionally, with culture, in addition to existential questions, one encounters a great loss of meaning that cannot be easily understood. The odds are bleak, Weber said. The Managing Director of the German Cultural Council, Olaf Zimmermann, sees fundamental damage in the field of culture, not only financially, but also emotionally. He also said in Deutschland Funk Kultur that many artists are in desperation. And he demanded not to deal with cultural institutions differently from other areas in society. Appropriate precautions have been taken while observing hygiene concepts. Zimmermann says one can offer something very safe for visitors and employees.
Disney closes at least 60 stores in North America
Disney’s American entertainment group wants to drastically reduce its presence in the classic retail sector and focus more on online shopping instead. Therefore, according to the company, at least 60 stores will be closed in North America this year. How many jobs will be lost is still unclear. Disney has already announced that it will lay off about 32,000 employees in the first half of fiscal year 2021. Disney’s theme parks and cruises are particularly affected by the pandemic. According to its own information, the group also had more than 300 “Disney Store” branches around the world, including Times Square in New York.
Favorite Annie Awards “Soul” and “Wolfwalkers”
“Soul” and “Wolfwalkers” are both nominated for this year’s Annie Awards with ten chances to win. Famous awards are given to film, television and video game production in 36 categories. Disney’s Pixar “Soul” explores the New York jazz scene and the world of souls with philosophical questions. In the “Best Film” category, it competes with “The Croods – Everything at the Beginning”, “The Willoughby Family”, “Trolls World Tour” and another Pixar film, “Onward: No half Measures.” German director Max Lang could also win an Annie with fellow director Daniel Sindon. Her cartoon “The Snail and the Whale”, based on the children’s book of British author Julia Donaldson, has been nominated for the “Special Production” category. The 48 Annie Awards winners will be honored on April 16th at the award ceremony online.
Ulrike Ottinger Award
Ulrike Ottinger received a Hans Thoma Award for her work in her lifetime.
Director and artist Ottinger got times when he was
The art mainly featured male heroes, “contrary to all norms, he developed a very independent and strong visual style that remains an inspiration today”, is the interpretation given. Ottinger became known as Paris’s pop art painter in the 1960s. They have won many awards
Documentaries and sometimes very long films. He is 78 years old and has been a member of the Oscar Film Academy since 2019.
FBI criticizes “der Moderne museum”
The Federal Court of Auditors takes the planning for Berlin’s der Moderne museum sharply to court. The Berliner Morgenpost reported this, citing a report from the Audit Bureau to the Bundestag Budget Committee. In it, financial observers complained that no attempt had been made to comply with the € 200 million cost ceiling originally set by Parliament. In addition, there will be costly rescheduling and space concept that is costly to build and will significantly increase subsequent operating costs. Neither the Ministry of Culture and Information, the building management, nor the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation made a “visible effort” to maintain the budget. Der Moderne Museum will be built on Berlin’s Kulturforum by 2026.
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