Ladies and gentlemen, dear guests,
a warm welcome on behalf of SIGNIS, the World Catholic Association for Communication, and INTERFILM, the International Interchurch Film Organisation. Since 1995 these two have made up the Ecumenical Jury of the festival. The involvement of the church film organisations dates back till 1963, when an evangelical and a catholic film prize was awarded for the first time at the International Mannheim Film Week, as the festival was called then. I would like to thank the festival for its hospitality to the churches during all these years and still today.
It has a solid basis. This year the festival honours Aleksandr Sokurov as Master of Cinema and pays homage to the late Krzysztof Kieslowski. In this way, two artists are remembered whose work always focused on the relationship between faith and today’s world. In their films they create a unique universe displaying a characteristic way of looking at people, events, stories and the world as a whole that combines transcendence and immanence. I am delighted that by honouring these two men the festival emphasises a profound dimension of cinema and also sets a benchmark for the works of the young film authors to whom this festival is dedicated. This festival stands for high esthetical standards and criteria. This gives the ecumenical jury a wide range of films to choose from, since the ecumenical award is dedicated to films standing out by their esthetical, ethical and spiritual quality.
In our film culture high standards generally are regarded as bad for business. I would therefore like to take the opportunity for a short political-cultural reflection referring to Peter Sloterdijk’s book “Wrath and Time” published only a short time ago. Years ago, Peter Sloterdijk gave a memorable speech on “cinema and breath” as part of the festival’s programme demonstrating that this event is an appropriate setting for intellectual reflections of this kind. Regarding the often quoted “return of religion”, it is not only the correction of the self-image of a secular society unaware of its own foundations but also leads to a feeling of anxiety. This anxiety arises from the conflict between the absoluteness which religions are claiming for and the personal freedoms that westerners are used to. It indicates that religions by no means are agencies just to increase our own well-being which we make use of in addition to psychotherapy from time to time.
I think it is fitting that Sloterdijk describes the basic conflict and misunderstanding between the West and the world of Islam as a clash between an erotical stimulated, over-relaxed culture of spoiling and a culture of ambition and heightening of the self, in catchwords: between laziness and pride. The contrast shows that we successfully achieved a process of devaluation and indifference. Our psychological and cultural climate can only profit from some more awareness of distinction and form, of ambition and style, of discipline and absoluteness. Coming back to the festival I would say that we urgently need places which set high standards and demand a lot – a sort of cultural training centres which nourish our self awareness, our abilities for enthusiasm, even our powers of resistance. Film as a commodity for entertainment cannot stir up such emotions. Even cinema owners are starting to realize that entertainment alone can get very tiresome. I am convinced that the festival will remain a place of enthusiasm and thus a very suitable place for an ecumenical film jury. Thank you!
Mannheim, November 21, 2006/Karsten Visarius