June 2012, arsenal cinema

UdK-Seminar: The interview

SCHULDNERBERICHTE, 2002

An interview is close to an avowal, a confession, an interrogation, a "talking cure" and seems based on the law of absolute identification. The person speaking assures us that s/he is doing it in her/his name. An interview is a place where one plays oneself, constantly affirming oneself and performing, in which speech acts are used to claim a one-to-one identity. The interviewer's attention and behavior are challenged in a very particular way. Where do you position yourself? How do you inter-react? What ideas of exchange do you have? What will happen after the interview? Our film program presents three films for discussion. In Alan Berliner's NOBODY'S BUSINESS (USA 1996, 6.6.), the witness refuses to speak, in Hayn / Remmert's SCHULDNERBERICHTE (D 2002, 13.6.) the interviews are anonymous and Syberberg's SEX-BUSINESS – MADE IN PASING (BRD 1969, 27.6.) is a situational "contribution to film sociology in Germany 1969". (Madeleine Bernstorff)