STOLPERSTEINE (2022/23)

At the centre of this seminar stands a film each group will make. Working from the first idea through pre-production, production and post, students develop their own non-fiction projects across the term — every one made for the programme’s short film series Stolpersteine: Films Against Oblivion, documentaries built around the brass memorial stones laid in the pavement for the victims of National Socialism. The creative, experimental use of image and sound is expressly encouraged, and deepened in separate lectures on each.

The making is grounded in theory. Before and alongside the production, the seminar works through documentary as a form — its history from the 1920s to the present, and the concepts at its core: documentary truth, authenticity, fact and fiction, knowledge and mediation. In an age of “fake news” and of film spreading across platforms like YouTube and Instagram, these terms are more contested than ever — and they shape every decision the groups make.

The finished films are then presented and, soon after, discussed. At the centre of this seminar stands a film each group will make. Working from the first idea through pre-production, production and post, students develop their own non-fiction projects across the term — every one made for the programme’s short film series Stolpersteine: Films Against Oblivion, documentaries built around the brass memorial stones laid in the pavement for the victims of National Socialism. The creative, experimental use of image and sound is expressly encouraged, and deepened in separate lectures on each.