Remembering Werner Nekes

Werner Nekes (1944-2017) was one of the most important German avant-garde filmmakers alongside Dore O., Klaus Wyborny and Heinz Emigholz. Coming from the world of modern visual art, he ventured into filmmaking in the mid-1960s, making meticulously composed short 16mm films. These early works served as a laboratory in which he explored techniques such as single-frame editing and multiple exposures. Despite his structural concerns, Nekes infused his films with a delightful sense of humour from the outset. This mixture of experimentation and humour reached its zenith in his later features shot on 35mm, beginning with LAGADO (1977).

After settling in Mülheim an der Ruhr in 1978, Nekes curated a vast collection dedicated to the prehistory and early stages of cinema, comprising tens of thousands of artefacts. After his death, this collection was divided between three institutions, including the DFF.

Nekes’ fascination with the evolution of visual perception permeated many aspects of his later work. To commemorate what would have been Nekes’ 80th birthday, the DFF cinema is showing a documentary about his life and a selection of three of his films this month, with another film from his repertoire to be screened in June.