Documentary and conversation “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer”

Documentary and conversation “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer”

• Insomnia Room, Condell 1585, Valparaíso.
• Saturday, June 15 – 7:30 p.m.
• Free entry.

Since his beginnings, German filmmaker Werner Herzog has astonished with innovative and provocative films that address the relationship between human beings and a dazzling and relentless nature. A portrait of his life and work is what is presented by “Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer”, a documentary by German Thomas von Steinaecker that is part of the European Film Festival that will be held throughout the country.

The performance will be accompanied by an interesting conversation between Bruno Cuneo, prominent poet, art theorist and academic at the PUCV Art Institute, and the filmmaker Ignacio Agüero. Both will comment on the documentary and, of course, the extensive work of the great Werner Herzog.

The event is within the framework of the European Film Festival, which will be held until June 16 with free admission, offering a unique cinematographic experience for all film lovers in Chile. This year –with an expansion that goes from Arica to Punta Arenas–, the event has established an alliance with the Chilean Film Theater Network, who will exhibit the programming through their headquarters throughout the country. The event is an activity coordinated by the Delegation of the European Union in Chile, together with the participating embassies and European cultural centers. Sponsored by the Ministry of Cultures, Arts and Heritage.

“I have decided to pursue the Herzog enigma.”

“Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer” will arrive in Chile after its acclaimed appearance at festivals such as Telluride, Viennale, IDFA and CPH:DOX, among many others. Thomas von Steinaecker’s camera follows the filmmaker and his closest entourage, including his wife, analyze his career from his beginnings in cinema. Along with them, Nicole Kidman, Christian Bale and Robert Pattinson review their work with him, Wim Wenders tells how the director helped him reach a wider audience and Oscar winner Chloe Zhao talks about his admiration for him. These are some of the faces that accompany Werner Herzog on an emotional and analytical journey through his work.

“Ever since I first saw “Aguirre, the Wrath of God” by chance on late-night television programming as a teenager in the 1980s, I have been fascinated by Werner Herzog. Everything about this film was different and strange: the music, Klaus Kinski, the story and, last but not least, the documentary-style camera. The fact that such a film was made in a cinematically boring Germany was incredible to me. When I lived in the United States in the early 2000s, to my amazement, I encountered Herzog again. He was watching films by a very different director. A director who mainly made documentaries with almost incredible stories; Especially “Grizzly Man,” the story about a bear enthusiast who ends up being eaten by grizzly bears, impressed and deeply disturbed me. And my amazement grew when I saw Herzog himself in magazines and late-night shows,” says Thomas von Steinaecker, who was also fascinated by his written work.

“Herzog wrote two books in the form of a diary: “Wandering on the Ice” and “The Conquest of the Useless”, which impressed me as a writer and are unparalleled in German literary history,” adds the filmmaker. “Herzog has not left me since, partly because I later realized that I grew up in Sachrang, in the Bavarian region of Chiemgau, and that Herzog’s Bavarian style was very familiar to me. Two fleeting personal encounters, in which he appeared surprisingly accessible on the one hand and completely inscrutable on the other, only increased the fascination. Since then, I have decided to pursue the Herzog enigma. I never aspired to solve this riddle that would have taken away Herzog’s aura, so to speak. However, I was curious about Herzog, the man who, in some way, I imagined had a fiery temperament and was difficult to control in front of the camera.”

“Werner Herzog: Radical Dreamer” will show an intimate side of the director to his followers and will bring new audiences closer to a fundamental creator within contemporary cinema. The conversation will help to glimpse the keys to a unique and incomparable work that continues to captivate film buffs around the world.