The Martin E. Segal Theater Center presents
Schlingensief – A Voice that Shook the Silence
At the Segal Theatre Film and Performance Festival 2024
A film by
Bettina Böhler
Theater, Documentary, Film, Multimedia, Opera, Performance Art
This film will be screened in-person on May 18th and also be available to watch online May 16th onwards for 3 weeks.
About The Film
Country
Germany
Language
German with English subtitles
Running Time
122
minutes
Year of Release
2020
SCHLINGENSIEF – A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE focuses on Christoph Schlingensief as a “family person” (Schlingensief on Schlingensief) who dealt equally with his relationship to his parents and his relationship to Germany in his work. The film traces his development from pubescent filmmaker with an artistic bloodlust to revolutionary stage director in Berlin and Bayreuth, and, ultimately, to Germany’s “national artist”, who was purportedly venerated by all and invited to create the German Pavilion for the 2011 Venice Biennale. SCHLINGENSIEF – A VOICE THAT SHOOK THE SILENCE explores Schlingensief’s untiring, and ultimately inexhaustible, love-hate relationship to Germany, to its high culture, and to its petite-bourgeoisie sentiments – which he attributed to himself more than anyone else – via scenes of East Germans being made into sausage, shouts of “Kill Helmut Kohl!” (documenta X) and an attempt to rehabilitate Wagner (PARSIFAL).
Director, Screenplay, Editor: Bettina Böhler / With: Christoph Schlingensief, Margit Carstensen, Irm Hermann, Volker Spengler, Alfred Edel, Udo Kier, Sophie Rois, Bernhard Schütz, Kerstin Grassmann, Helge Schneider, Dietrich Kuhlbrodt, Susanne Bredehöft, Tilda Swinton, Artur Albrecht, Achim von Paczenzky, Helga Stöwhase, Sebastian Rudolph a.o. / Script Counselling: Angelina Maccarone / Research and Assistant: Lydia Anemüller / Sound Design: Daniel Iribarren / Sound Mixer: Adrian Baumeister / Producer: Frieder Schlaich, Irene von Alberti / Produced by Filmgalerie 451 / In Coproduction with Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (Rolf Bergmann) und Westdeutscher Rundfunk (Jutta Krug) / Founded by Die Beauftragte der Bundesregierung für Kultur und Medien, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW, Deutscher Filmförderfonds
About The Artist(s)
BETTINA BÖHLER was born in Freiburg in 1960 and is one of Germany's premier film editors. She has
edited over 80 feature films, documentaries and TV movies and has worked with Christian Petzold,
Valeska Grisebach and other filmmakers of the Berlin School. She also has also long been associated
with influential directors such as Christoph Schlingensief, Angelina Maccarone, Oskar Roehler and Margarethe von Trotta.
She started her career in film at the age of 18 as an assistant editor and has been an editor since 1985.
In 2007 Bettina Böhler was awarded the Bremer Filmpreis for Lifetime Achievement in European
Cinema ("Bremen Film Award"). She was nominated for the Deutscher Filmpreis for Best Film Editing
twice: in 2012 for her work on BARBARA (Christian Petzold) and in 2017 for WILD (Nicolette Krebitz).
Bettina Böhler lectured at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie Berlin (DFFB). She is a member of
the European Film Academy, the Akademie der Künste in Berlin and the Academy of Motion Picture
Arts and Sciences.