Film & Kunst: "Johnny and Me - Eine Zeitreise mit John Heartfield"

As part of the Film & Art series, Cinema Quadrat and Kunsthalle Mannheim are showing this fascinating documentary about a fascinating artist - "A film full of metamorphoses and magical ideas. Everything is staged in an incredibly unusual way, with great attention to detail. Quite unique and absolutely worth seeing." (WDR Westart)

JOHNNY AND ME - A JOURNEY THROUGH TIME WITH JOHN HEARTFIELD

DEU/CHE/AUT 2023. dir: Katrin Rothe. Documentary/animation film. 104 min. FSK: 12

"For John Heartfield, art was a weapon" - this sentence from the film describes the attitude of this young, talented artist in the Weimar Republic, who fought as an anti-fascist with his drawings, photo montages and paintings against the strengthening of the NSDAP and the rise of Hitler. Born Helmut Herzfeld in Berlin-Schmargendorf in 1891, he changed his name in 1916 to protest against German nationalism in the midst of the war. He had been a member of the KPD since 1918, designed posters and propaganda material for the Communists' election campaign and denounced the link between capital and politics, which also facilitated Hitler's rise. Together with his brother Wieland, he founded the Malik publishing house with an attached art shop and published political essays and socially critical novels by Maxim Gorki, Upton Sinclair and Oskar Maria Graf, among others, in addition to the art portfolios of George Grosz. He went into exile in 1933 and lived in the GDR from 1950 until his death. The film approaches John Heartfield, the master of collage, in an attractive montage of scenes, historical documents and various animation techniques.

Introduction: Dr. Dorothee Höfert