Werner Nekes (1944 – 2017) is one of the key figu­res of German avant-gar­de cine­ma. In the mid-1960s, he tra­ded the visu­al arts for a 16mm came­ra and began expe­ri­men­ting with both the fil­ming and edi­ting process. 

Landscapes – from Hamburg to Sweden – are a recur­ring motif in his work. Using sin­gle-fra­me shots and mul­ti­ple expo­su­res, he dis­sects and recon­structs the­se lands­ca­pes in a way that tou­ches on the ori­gi­nal magic and won­der of the medi­um. Nekes refer­red to his films as ​“light the­a­ter,” a play with opti­cal illusions.

In Photophthalmia, this dia­lo­gue with pre-cine­ma emer­ges most expli­cit­ly. The film pays tri­bu­te to Ghent pro­fes­sor Joseph Plateau, the foun­ding father of the cine­ma­to­grap­hic prin­ci­ple. According to legend, Plateau sta­red at the sun for so long during his research into afte­ri­ma­ges that it left him blind.

• Spacecut (DE, 1971, 42', colour, 16mm)
• Makimono (DE, 1974, 38', colour, 16mm)
• Photophthalmia (DE, 1975, 28', colour, 16mm)

Filmprints: DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum
Introduction by Larissa Krampert and Björn Schmitt (exf f. – tage des expe­ri­men­tel­len films frankfurt)