Films by Oliver Held

Germany 2020, 85 min
by monika pirch

„We are living in the middle of nowhere, so you need to do something about it." states Stefan Reichmann, artistic director of Haldern Pop.So every year in August more than 400 people handbuild the Haldern Pop Festival and bring their dream of an independ music festival to life.  Whatever the weather and always with surprising guests. Musicians from all over the world and rural traditions get together and tell a touching story about „Heimat" and the vital power of culture.

Germany 2013, 36 min
by Oliver Held

LUTZ is an experimental documentary about Lutz Mommartz – not so much the person, but rather the filmmaker and his working methods. Mommartz was one of the most important German experimental filmmakers of the 1970s, winning the German Film Prize in 1977 and 1978. However, in the 1990s he fell into a creative crisis. He subsequently disappeared from cinema screens and with him his style of filmmaking. A style which unmasks interpersonal relationships better than any Dogma-film. Three years ago the Museum of Modern Art in New York purchased four of his films.

Germany 2011, 52 min
by Gerhard Schick

The Marathon des Sables is the world's most difficult extreme footrace: 250km through the Sahara at temperatures of up to 50˚ in the shade. Why do runners put themselves through such torture? Claudia Odekerken has been preparing for the race for a long time. We accompany her during her training and travel with her to the desert. The mixture of fear and euphoria makes this an intensely up close and personal film. During the race it departs from reality and journeys into the runners' inner worlds. In the desert they can leave everything behind, and things emerge which are often suppressed in daily life. The film tells of their pain, their wins and losses, and above all of their battles with themselves. The one who makes it to the finish line is at that moment the happiest person on Earth.

Germany 2011, 45 min
by Peter Scharf, Katja Duregger

A dead soldier's blood-soaked t-shirt; a nun kissing a priest; a gaunt young man with AIDS; all were images used by the fashion label Benetton to advertise its clothing in the 90s. The provocative campaign was the work of Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, a man who brought topics such as war, racism, the death penalty, and the misery of refugees into the business of advertising. His posters set off a storm of indignation throughout the world; in many places they were banned. Toscani's “Reverse Psychology Marketing” challenges the intelligence and the consciousness of its audience; rather than praising products and tempting people to buy, it seeks to enlighten. The Rage of Images examines the now 68-year-old artist and pioneer of anti-advertising whose career began with fashion shoots for labels such as Fiorucci, Armani and Esprit. It also looks at the private man who broke with Benetton in 2001 and now works independently, designing ad campaigns that go far beyond the mainstream.