JOHN BERGER OR THE ART OF LOOKING a film by Cordelia Dvorák.
Director’s statement
This film is a sensitive gift of love for John Berger, steward of the voiceless and the underprivileged, perpetually critical and highly engaged political intellectual, generous collaborator, extraordinary host and cook, who till the age of 90 had remained curiously inquisitive – a truly universal human being.
SINOPSIS
How paintings become narratives and stories turn into images, rarely did anybody demonstrate this as poignantly as John Berger. The seeing was his life subject, the “looking eye” his intellectual burning glass.
JOHN BERGER OR THE ART OF LOOKING is an intimate portrait of the writer and art-critic whose ground-breaking work on seeing has shaped our understanding for over five decades. Covering an astonishing range of topics and art-forms, Berger’s work was founded also on outstanding artistic dialogues. Echoing some of his most unusual and astonishing collaborations JOHN BERGER OR THE ART OF LOOKING introduces Berger’s “lending his eyes” to theatre wizard Simon McBurney, film-director Michael Dibb, visual artist John Christie, cartoonist Selçuk Demirel, photographer Jean Mohr as well as two of his children, film-critic Katya Berger and the painter Yves Berger. It is the last film with Berger, who died shortly after the end of the shooting on January 2nd 2017 in Paris. It’s designed as a portrait of works and collaborations, where Berger himself takes the audience on an inspiring journey through his writing and his life in his favourite role, that of the storyteller.
John Berger’s comment when he saw the rough cut of the film: «Oh, what a life … During watching, I almost forgot, that it was about me!»
Germany/ France, 2016
54 min., HD 1920/1080, color
Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktions GmbH in co-production with ZDF and BBC in association with ARTE, SRF, SVT
Author and director: Cordelia Dvorák – DoP: Piotr Rosolowski – Sound: Jule Katinka Cramer – Editor: Alfredo Castro / Gesa Marten – Co-producer: Mark Bell, BBC – Producer: Heino Deckert, Daniel Saltzwedel, Cordelia Dvorák.
World Sales: info@deckert-distribution.com / vaida@majade.de – Language(s): English, French, German ; Subtitles: English.
Festivals: DoKfest München, Thessaloniki International Filmfestival; FICG Festival Internacional de Cine Guadalajára: FIFA International Filmfestival for the Arts Montreal; Animation & Contemporary Art Filmfestival Olomouc; IDF Documentarist International Filmfestival Istanbul; IFF New Zealand; Festival Étonnants Voyageurs St. Malo; IDF Cinéma Vérité Teheran a.o.
