A special screening with Director Marcel Ophuls in person!

The renowned documentarian Marcel Ophuls (The Sorrow and The Pity, The Memory of Justice, Hotel Terminus, November Days) learned the filmmaking craft under the guidance of his father Max, John Huston, and François Truffaut, among others. In February 2015, he was honored with the Berlinale Camera Award for his celebrated body of work.

Penn German and Cinema & Media Studies welcome Marcel Ophuls for a tribute to his essential and ongoing contributions to cinema.

NOVEMBER DAYS (Marcel Ophuls, 1991, 2h 9min)

Marcel Ophuls’ documentary NOVEMBER DAYS was commissioned by the BBC and shot one year after the fall of the Berlin Wall. By way of a series of interviews, it explores the “hangover” in the wake of German reunification. In taking stock of this situation, Ophuls quickly departs from the conventional reportage model, approaching his material in a playful manner and infusing his commentary on it with ironic humor. For Ophuls, history is a concept that is constantly shifting. His interviewees – who range from GDR head of state Egon Krenz, dramatist Heiner Müller and neo-Nazi Michael Kühnen to members of the general public – are not degraded into contemporary witnesses of a fact-driven narrative. Rather, it is through their experiences and perspectives that the story emerges.