Thursday, March 11th @ 7:00pm
Please Join us and our partners from LACMA and the Consulate General of Mexico LA on Thursday, May 11th, 2023 @ 7:00 PM for a free screening of the film KUHLE WAMPE, OR WHO OWNS THE WORLD?
KUHLE WAMPE, OR WHO OWNS THE WORLD
Germany, 1932, 74 Minutes, digital. In German w/ English subtitles. Director: Slatan Dudow, Screenplay: Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Ottwalt, Cinematography: Günther Krampf, Editor: Peter Meyrowitz, Music: Hanns Eisler, Production Co.: Prometheus Film-Verleih und Vertrieb GmbH (Berlin), Producers: Willi Münzenberg, Lazar Wechsler, Cast: Hertha Thiele, Ernst Busch, Martha Wolter, Adolf Fischer, Lilli Schoenborn, Max Sablotzki, Gerhard Bienert, Erwin Geschonneck, Willi Schur, Alfred Schäfer,
A working-class family in Berlin in 1931 where survival is difficult, with massive unemployment in the wake of the Great Depression. After Anni’s brother commits suicide in despair, her family finds itself forced to move to Kuhle Wampe, a lakeside camp on the outskirts of Berlin, now home to increasing numbers of unemployed. When Anni’s relationship with Franz ends, she moves back to Berlin and gets involved in the workers’ youth movement.
The film functioned as a radical appeal to the spectator in the context of social polarization toward the end of the post-revolutionary Weimar Republic. Produced as a collaborative project by Slatan Dudow, Bertolt Brecht, Ernst Ottwalt, and Hanns Eisler, under the protection of the Communist Party and with the participation of many prominent leftist artists, Kuhle Wampe was released less than a year before the Nazi takeover in 1933. The film was the subject of vehement disputes and was banned twice for revolutionary and communist tendencies that were perceived to threaten the state.
Co-presented by the Goethe-Institut, LACMA and the Consulate General of Mexico in Los Angeles in cooperation with The DEFA Film Library and within the context of LACMA’s exhibition Pressing Politics: Revolutionary Graphics from Mexico and Germany on view Oct 29, 2022–Jul 22, 2023.
FREE PARKING is available at Metro/Retail parking structure located at
676 S. Westlake Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90057
Public transport is possible with the red line to MacArthur Park/Westlake stop.
Using carpool or ride-share options are appreciated.
