Defense of Time

Screening Schedule

Nov 24 (Sat.) 20:00 at Yokogawa Cinema

See Time Table

Details

©Peter Nestler

＜Story＞
A documentary focusing on the singularly unique style of the husband-wife filmmaker duo Jean-Marie Straub and Danièle Huillet whom Nestler was friends with. Combining onstage comments made in Stockholm in 2004, scenes from the duo’s films and their shooting process, Pedro Costa documentaries and various photographs and paintings, Nestler’s film is a meditation on artists and their art. The film also includes footage of some of the last location work of Huillet, who passed away in 2006.

＜Staff＞Director：Peter Nestler

Year of production: 1972
Running time: 27’
Country: Sweden

Director

Peter Nestler
Born on June 1, 1937 in Freiburg, Germany. Studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts, Munich, while also appearing in films and on television as an actor.
His first work as a director was the documentary short By the Dike Sluice, produced in 1961–1962. After that, he remained active as a TV actor, using the income to finance further documentary shorts. His style, characterized by the poetic technique of combining distant shots with historical photographs and illustrations, was not understood by contemporary critics. Before long, German TV stations stopped commissioning documentaries from him, and at the end of 1966, he relocated to Sweden, the home country of his mother. He soon found a job making children’s programs for a Swedish television station. In between those, he produced critical documentaries that engaged with history and society. From late 1980s onwards, he would once again start getting requests from German TV stations. This resulted in works on a variety of themes such as life of Jewish people during the Nazi period, customs and history of Native Americans in South America, or Hungarian artists.
Presently living in Stockholm, Nestler is considered the leading documentary filmmaker in Europe.