Films by Tilman Urbach

Germany 2023, 106 min
by Tilman Urbach

Alexander von Schlippenbach is a free jazz hero from Berlin who experienced total freedom in music from the 1960s on. The film follows him to the present day and also considers the political background of European free jazz in the spirit of optimism of the '68 movement. In the film v. Schlippenbach meets old companions. He travels to a studio in Cologne where he meets up with trumpeter Manfred Schoof. As they play together they reminisce about the 60s, when jazz was free of any entertainment attitude. Free Jazz was the expression of a radical social utopia. In Dresden, v. Schlippenbach meets the percussionist Günter 'Baby' Sommer and talks about the numerous concerts the two free jazzers played together in the GDR, where they used to be celebrated like pop stars. Here thousands of fans understood the FreeJazz as an expression of freedom. In Borken the label boss Jost Gebers shows his FMP archive and discovers photos and band recordings from Schlippenbach's early days. Also in the scene Gebers makes v. Schlippenbach more clear as a person. The camera observes Alexander v. Schlippenbach not only at home, where he lives in Moabit with his wife, jazz pianist Aki Takase, but also on tour in Munich. Nevertheless, the film TASTENARBEITER – ALEXANDER VON SCHLIPPENBACHis neither a pure music film nor a concert film, but rather concentrates on the biographical breaks and disappointments in life, but also on his spirit of optimism that happend to v. Schlippenbach.

Germany 2017, 93 min
by Tilman Urbach

Josef Urbach was a young artist when patrons of the art Scene in Essen, the jewish families Simon, Levy, Abel and Stern, facilitated a study trip to Italy for him for several months in 1921. The paintings created on this trip were passed on the families´ art collections. But when the Nazis came to power, everything changed drastically. In 1937 they declared two of his works as degenerate art and removed them from the Museum Folkwang. Little by little, Urbach lost his patrons, his paintings in Jewish collections were destroyed during the Reichskristallnacht or later confiscated and stolen.80 years later, the filmmaker Tilman Urbach goes in search of his grand uncle´s lost paintings. He visits the collectors´ descendants in Belgium, Sweden and Holland. Not only is the artist Josef Urbach´s life reflected, but also the fate of his Jewish patrons and collectors. The film examines the issue of Lost Art by allocating it to life stories and faces – and can be viewed as part of a current debate.

2014, 90 min
by Tilman Urbach

In summer 2010 the internationally known painter Gotthard Graubner opened his studio on the Museumsinsel in Neuss/Hombroich to the filmmaker Tilman Urbach. The result is a unique insight into Graubner’s work process. He tells of his artistic driving forces, but also of his doubts at the beginning of his long career. In addition Graubner was involved in the constitution of the collection on the Museumsinsel Hombroich. Accompanied by the camera, he takes us around the island.In an exhibition in the Museum Quadrat in Bottrop Graubner opens up an artistic dialogue with the master of abstract colour painting: Josef Albers. Later the film crew accompanies Graubner to Paris, where he shows an exhibition in a gallery. A cinematic portrait of one of the great artists of our time, whose abstract paintings deal with nothing but colour. He died in May 2013.