Sommerspiele (WORLD PREMIERE MAY 2023)
25 min. film
Sommerspiele is Eszter Salamon’s second film. Set in several spaces which were built to host the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, it creates connections between the past and present, performance and film, body and architecture, movement and camera. The film examines the presence and absence of bodies in public spaces and the function of historical places within the current social and political imagination. Its cinematic composition is built upon historical facts, personal memories, and speculation.
With references to the German Avant Garde artist Valeska Gert’s (Gertrud Valesca Samosch, 1892-1978) work and life, Salamon confronts the historical context of the Nazi Summer Olympic Games. The historical traces of the site carry memories of the numerous relationships that architects and artists had with the National Socialist regime while others, including Gert herself, were considered makers of 'Degenerate Art’.
Sommerspiele addresses the politics of remembering and forgetting with the aim of gaining new awareness. It faces the failures of collective memory in the form of a poetic resistance to the cinematographic, choreographic, sculptural, and architectural representations of Nazi propaganda. While doing so, the film emphasises ‘the grotesque’ that Valeska Gert used as an artistic weapon and through its narrative, it destabilises our memory of the images of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games.
Director Eszter Salamon Voice and Performance Eszter Salamon Director of Photography Marie Zahir Editing and Story Advisor Minze Tummescheit Colour Grading and Special Effects Arne Hector Sound Design and Mixing Christian Obermaier
Assistant Director João Carvalho Additional Images Ashton C. Green, Minze Tummescheit Assistant Camera Viola Zichy, Loup Deflandre, Greta Markurt Gaffer Eli Börnicke, Janne Ebel, Katja Rivas Pinzón, Elisa Daniel Sound Recordist Manuela Schininà, Donata Schmidt-Werthern, Marina Funck, Arne Hector Electrician Ashton C. Green, Elisa Daniel, Harebell Suzuki, Nikita Znak, Mica Dans, Victoria Bergmann, Sol Astolfi, Héctor Calderon Drone Operator Andrea Schmidt, Anne Misselwitz Set Assistant Javier Blanco, Santiago Doljanin, Marilou Fiévet Best Boy Arne Weiß Catering Matthias Halke, Mašiko
Post-production Supervisor Minze Tummescheit Foley Artist Carsten Richter Foley Mixer Hanse Warns Foley Editor Helene Seidl Vocal Coach Johanna Peine
Camera and Sound Equipment flockefilm GmbH, Florian Brückner, Maier Bros., Camelot Broadcast Services Foley Stage Studio Warns Vocals Recording Mariia Mias at Viktoria Studios Berlin Postproduction Studio cinéma copains
Production Botschaft GbR / Alexandra Wellensiek, Studio ES / Elodie Perrin, Institute of Speculative Narration and Embodiment Production Manager João Carvalho Production Assistant Héctor Calderon, Laura Gönczy, Sonja Schreiber, May Dugast
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance, KHiO - Oslo National University of the Arts Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Regional Directory of Cultural Affairs of Paris – Ministry of Culture and Communication, French Ministry for Culture - DGCA (Direction Générale de la Création Artistique)
Special thanks to Verwaltung Olympiapark Berlin, Sommerbad Olympiastadion, Waldbühne Berlin / Ananda Siegling
Special thanks to Svea Immel, Christoph Fey / Von Have Fey Rechtsanwälte, Bojana Cvejić, Lívia Páldi, Franziska Kollinger, Agnes Kern, Paola Yacoub
© 2023 Eszter Salamon
25 min. film
Sommerspiele is Eszter Salamon’s second film. Set in several spaces which were built to host the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, it creates connections between the past and present, performance and film, body and architecture, movement and camera. The film examines the presence and absence of bodies in public spaces and the function of historical places within the current social and political imagination. Its cinematic composition is built upon historical facts, personal memories, and speculation.
With references to the German Avant Garde artist Valeska Gert’s (Gertrud Valesca Samosch, 1892-1978) work and life, Salamon confronts the historical context of the Nazi Summer Olympic Games. The historical traces of the site carry memories of the numerous relationships that architects and artists had with the National Socialist regime while others, including Gert herself, were considered makers of 'Degenerate Art’.
Sommerspiele addresses the politics of remembering and forgetting with the aim of gaining new awareness. It faces the failures of collective memory in the form of a poetic resistance to the cinematographic, choreographic, sculptural, and architectural representations of Nazi propaganda. While doing so, the film emphasises ‘the grotesque’ that Valeska Gert used as an artistic weapon and through its narrative, it destabilises our memory of the images of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games.
Director Eszter Salamon Voice and Performance Eszter Salamon Director of Photography Marie Zahir Editing and Story Advisor Minze Tummescheit Colour Grading and Special Effects Arne Hector Sound Design and Mixing Christian Obermaier
Assistant Director João Carvalho Additional Images Ashton C. Green, Minze Tummescheit Assistant Camera Viola Zichy, Loup Deflandre, Greta Markurt Gaffer Eli Börnicke, Janne Ebel, Katja Rivas Pinzón, Elisa Daniel Sound Recordist Manuela Schininà, Donata Schmidt-Werthern, Marina Funck, Arne Hector Electrician Ashton C. Green, Elisa Daniel, Harebell Suzuki, Nikita Znak, Mica Dans, Victoria Bergmann, Sol Astolfi, Héctor Calderon Drone Operator Andrea Schmidt, Anne Misselwitz Set Assistant Javier Blanco, Santiago Doljanin, Marilou Fiévet Best Boy Arne Weiß Catering Matthias Halke, Mašiko
Post-production Supervisor Minze Tummescheit Foley Artist Carsten Richter Foley Mixer Hanse Warns Foley Editor Helene Seidl Vocal Coach Johanna Peine
Camera and Sound Equipment flockefilm GmbH, Florian Brückner, Maier Bros., Camelot Broadcast Services Foley Stage Studio Warns Vocals Recording Mariia Mias at Viktoria Studios Berlin Postproduction Studio cinéma copains
Production Botschaft GbR / Alexandra Wellensiek, Studio ES / Elodie Perrin, Institute of Speculative Narration and Embodiment Production Manager João Carvalho Production Assistant Héctor Calderon, Laura Gönczy, Sonja Schreiber, May Dugast
Supported by the NATIONAL PERFORMANCE NETWORK - STEPPING OUT, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media within the framework of the initiative NEUSTART KULTUR. Assistance Program for Dance, KHiO - Oslo National University of the Arts Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe, the Regional Directory of Cultural Affairs of Paris – Ministry of Culture and Communication, French Ministry for Culture - DGCA (Direction Générale de la Création Artistique)
Special thanks to Verwaltung Olympiapark Berlin, Sommerbad Olympiastadion, Waldbühne Berlin / Ananda Siegling
Special thanks to Svea Immel, Christoph Fey / Von Have Fey Rechtsanwälte, Bojana Cvejić, Lívia Páldi, Franziska Kollinger, Agnes Kern, Paola Yacoub
© 2023 Eszter Salamon
Eszter Salamon in Sommerspiele (2023), short film directed by Eszter Salamon, Film Still © Marie Zahir