Klaus Wildenhahn

Klaus Wildenhahn’s form of “Direct Cinema” was made on television. As a young TV “Realisator”, i.e. director, Wildenhahn’s encounter with British documentary filmmaker Richard Leacock and films by D. A. Pennebaker inspired him in the early 1960s to create television coverage that thoroughly refrained from using instructive comments and arranged situations. Wildenhahn influenced an entire generation of documentary filmmakers through his artist portraits, such as ‘Smith, James O. – Organist USA’ (NDR, 1966), and workers’ films like ‘In der Fremde’ (NDR, 1967). Wildenhahn would have turned 90 this summer. The Deutsche Kinemathek is marking this occasion with a comprehensive retrospective on view in the Mediathek Fernsehen, recalling the work and impact of the filmmaker who died in 2018. Selected documents and exhibits from Wildenhahn’s estate augment the cinematic program curated by Eva Orbanz.