Session 73, Illegal_Cinema Documentarism and Dreamwork. A Preliminary Introduction to the Films of Peter Weiss

Screening of several films by Peter Weiss, proposed by Andreas Wutz, followed by discussion.

Peter Weiss, the Swedish-German writer best known for his The Aesthetics of Resistance novel and the play Marat/Sade, was a great admirer of the films of Luis Buñuel. Not only did Weiss dedicate the main chapter of his film aesthetics Avant Garde Film (1956) to him; Buñuel would also have been his director of choice for a possible filming of The Aesthetics of Resistance. Weiss, though, not only wrote about film, but also made it. From 1952 to 1961, he made eighteen different films –experimental short films, documentaries and two feature films. This session of Illegal_Cinema provides a viewing of some of these.

Andreas Wutz (Munich, 1962) is an independent artist who studied painting and installation. His work has subsequently focused on photography, installation and film. His work uses strategies from the documentary, art, and experimental film and is driven by a deep interest in political and social issues and in certain historical references. From 2013 to 2015, he taught Audiovisual Art at the Instituto Europeo de Diseño, Barcelona, and the University of California, San Diego. Wutz currently lives and works in Bilbao.