Docu-Forum Online, 13. January 2021: ART COMES FROM THE BEAK THE WAY IT HAS GROWN
A Film by Sabine Herpich
Duration: 106 minutes, 2020, German with English Subtitles
At the Mosaik art studio in Berlin, artists with disabilities are absorbed in their work. Sabine Herpich observes the artists in the course of creation and directs her gaze at the institution itself: its processes, staff and spaces. The film succeeds in maintaining its focus on the art itself rather than the handicaps of its creators. It is around these works that the institution takes form, thus coming into view first and foremost as an institution for art, not one for people with disabilities. The idea of art becomes holistic, encompassing the people who make it as well as the places where it is created; it means looking at the works, and talking about them, but also art as work, complete with working hours and wage. The filmmaker herself is not invisible. She asks the artists about their thoughts, ideas, methods. As the artists before the camera meet the gaze of the filmmaker, a heightened sense of attention and sensitivity is produced – for the moods of the works, their creators and observers, as well as for this film about art itself, with its gentle, yet not timid, precise yet non-restrictive form.
Festivals and awards
Berlin International Film Festival, 2020 (Section Forum)
Cine Aléman Madrid, Spain 2020
Cine Aléman Buenos Aires, Argentina 2020
Film and Art Festival Two Riverside, Poland 2020
Docaviv, Israel 2020
The International Film Festival of Asian Pacific Countries in Vladivostok Pacific Meridian, Russia 2020
Duisburger Filmwoche, Germany 2020 (Award: 3Sat Dokumentarfilmpreis)