Films by Damian Scholl

Germany 2023, 101 min
by Isa Willinger

The global plastic crisis is dismantled and reassembled in a well-researched, cinematic film that not only points to the problems, but also to possible solutions. Probably the most important climate film of the year, with an attentive eye on greenwashing and climate racism. (CPH:DOX)There are 500 times more plastic particles in the world’s oceans than there are stars in our galaxy. Plastic is in the oceans, rivers, air, soil and inside ourselves. And the plastics industry is planning to expand their business in the coming decades. ‘Plastic Fantastic’ is a film about the global plastic crisis. But it’s also a thorough and well-researched film about circular production, greenwashing, microplastics, carbon emissions and climate racism – and it’s made by a director who actually knows how to turn it all into a deeply engaging and, above all, human film. We meet shirt-sleeved plastic lobbyists, scientists and the activists who walk around Hawaii and Kenya picking up plastic waste with their bare hands while trying to put an end to the catastrophic production of plastic.

Germany 2019, 93 min
by Halina Dyrschka

How can an artist discover abstraction by the beginning of the 20th century and nobody is noticing? A woman, misjudged and concealed, rocks the art world with her mind-blowing oeuvre. Hilma af Klint was a pioneer creating her first abstract painting in 1906, four years before Vassily Kandinsky. But why was she ignored? Why are her paintings not available on the market? This first film on her is about her life and work, the role of women in art history and the discovery of an art scandal. Her quest for meaning in life and a boundless thinking led into a timeless, outstanding oeuvre.“‘Beyond the Visible’ bristles with the excitement of discovery and also with the impatience that recognition has taken so long,” A.O. Scott wrote. “It refreshes the eyes and the mind.”

Germany 2017, 107 min
by Andres Veiel

Joseph Beuys, the man with the hat, the felt and the ‘fat corner’. Thirty years after his death he feels like a visionary who was, and still is, ahead of his time. He was the first German artist to be given a solo exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum in New York whilst at home in Germany his work was often still derided as the ‘most expensive trash of all time’. Once asked if he was indifferent to such comments he retorted: ‘Yes. I want to expand people’s perceptions.’Andres Veiel lets the artist speak for himself. From previously unpublished audio and video footage Veiel creates an associative, porous portrait which, like the artist himself, opens up spaces for ideas rather than proclaiming statements. Beuys boxes, chats, lectures, explains art to a dead hare and asks: ‘Do you want to instigate a revolution without laughter?’ But we also experience the man, the teacher and the Green Party candidate. Once, shortly before his death, he consents to being photographed without his hat. Veiel’s film makes visible the contradictions and tensions which gave rise to Beuys’ Gesamtkunstwerk. Beuys’ expanded concept of art feeds directly into today’s social, political and moral debates. (68th BERLINALE)