No. 001 - 'Subject: Filmmaking' by Reitz & Adolph (2024)

Watched by Matthew Donlan at Golden Age Cinema

In 1968, a group of students undertook a 4-week film class. 55 years later they reunite with their teacher to review their work in Subject: Filmmaking.

Across four weeks in 1968, Edgar Reitz taught a group of 13–14-year-old girls the techniques and theory of film. The practice, documented for German television, was part social experiment, part proof of concept for political lobbying. Reitz’s belief was that film was a different language, like the written word, and so children needed to be taught how to be literate in the medium. The best way to learn was by immersing them in the practice and tasking them to create their own short films.

The documentary itself is standard in its delivery, intercutting the archival footage from 1968 with contemporary observational footage and interviews. Where it excels is in the subject matter. Watching a group of teenagers so quickly uncover a passion for filmmaking and their older selves rediscovering the magic is beautiful. The classroom lectures are charming, the short films are entertaining, and their reflections are sincere.

Reitz said it would be easy to teach the techniques, harder to teach the consequences of film and hardest still to be introspective. The first becomes immediately apparent on watching the short films. Each brings a unique style, an almost innate understanding of form, to their subject matter. On the latter, the film too is full of introspection as the women vulnerably identify their inspirations rewatching the final projects.

The consequences of film, however, are the clearest thanks to the temporal distance and articulation of Reitz. Rewatching their films, the women experience the consequences firsthand. In their voice and on the face, you see them transported back to 1968, as they wander their childhood homes, sit in their classroom and discover the city streets. They discover that film is a time machine. It transports their souls back to that moment, with zero distance or impairment of memory. You can feel the nostalgia, tender and mournful, wash over the participants as they experience their lives again, on the cusp of adulthood, when everything was ahead of them.

Subject: Filmmaking is screening in Australia exclusively at Golden Age Cinema, with one screening left on Sunday.

Editor’s Recommendation

The Palestinian Film Festival is screening in Sydney 1-4 May at Dendy Newtown.

Now, more than ever, it is important for everyone to educate themselves on the atrocities happening in Palestine. In the face of Israeli occupation, genocide and siege, these films present a Palestine of resilience, resistance and hope. If such creativity can occur in these conditions, imagine what would be possible in a free Palestine. One where filmmakers aren’t hunted, tortured and executed for telling the truth.

Selected Screenings: Thursday 1 May - Wednesday 7 May

Cinema Astragale
Eva (1962, Joseph Losey)
Thursday

Cinema Reborn Film Festival | 30 April - 6 May (highlights)
The Mini-skirted Dynamo (1996, Rivka Hartman)
4K Restoration World PremiereSunday

How The West Was Lost (1987, David Noakes)
Tuesday

Fantastic Film Festival | 24 April - 16 May (highlights)
Salt Along the Tongue (2024, Parish Malfitano)
Tuesday

Palestinian Film Festival | 1-4 May (highlights)
From Ground Zero (2024, Rashid Masharawi)
Sunday

Pink Flamingo Cinema
Venus in Furs (1969, Jesús Franco)
Wednesday

Waverley Library Bad Movie Club
Surf Nazis Must Die (1987, Peter George)
Friday
German Film Festival | 1-21 May (highlights)
Long Story Short (2024, David Dietl)
Opening Night - Moore ParkThursday

Riefenstahl (2024, Andres Veiel)
Q+A w/ Director
Friday

Berlin Alexanderplatz Part One (1980, Rainer Werner Fassbinder)
Saturday

Hysteria (2025, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay)
Centrepiece Event
Wednesday

Riverside Parramatta | selected highlights
Tinā (Mother) (2025, Miki Magasiva)
Thursday

NT Live: Dr Strangelove (2025, Sean Foley)
Friday

Roseville Cinema | selected highlights
Tinā (Mother) (2025, Miki Magasiva)
Daily

The Correspondent (2025, Kriv Stenders)
Daily

Hayden Orpheum | selected highlights
Maya and the Wave (2025, Stephanie Johnes)
Sydney premiere & Q+A w/ Director
Tuesday

Cinema Paradiso (1988, Giuseppe Tornatore)
Director’s Cut
Sunday

Tinā (Mother) (2025, Miki Magasiva)
Daily

The Correspondent (2025, Kriv Stenders)
Daily

Golden Age Cinema | selected highlights
No Other Land (2024, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor)
Thursday

Subject: Filmmaking (2024, Edgar Reitz & Jörg Adolph)
Sunday

Inland Empire (2006, David Lynch)
Monday

Ritz Cinemas, Randwick | selected highlights

Cult Classics (link)
Come and See (1985, Elem Klimov)
Saturday & Monday

Celluloid Film (link)
The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese)
Friday

Classic Matinees (link)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
Saturday & Monday

Make It Musical (link)
Calamity Jane (1953, David Butler)
Sunday & Wednesday

Meet Cute (link)
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days (2003, Donald Petrie)
Tuesday

Dendy Newtown | selected highlights
Dale Frank Nobody’s Sweetie (2025, Jenny Hicks)
Q&A preview
Thursday

Night Shift (link)
Tokyo Drifter (1966, Seijun Suzuki)
Daily

Palace Cinemas | selected highlights
The Correspondent (2025, Kriv Stenders)
Daily

Cult Vault (link)
Goodfellas (1990, Martin Scorsese)
Monday

Matinee Memories (link)The 39 Steps (1935, Alfred Hitchcock)
Saturday

Art Gallery of NSW
GIFT (2025, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi & Eiko Ishibashi)
Saturday & Sunday

Daisies (1966, Věra Chytilová)
Film series ‘Folly’
Wednesday

Sydney Opera House | selected highlights
The Correspondent (2025, Kriv Stenders)
Q&A with Peter Greste, Kriv Stenders, Carmel Travers and Richard Roxburgh.
Saturday

Gallipoli (1981, Peter Weir)
Introduction by Mark Lee
Saturday