MA Littler

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MA Littler (* 6. July 1979 in Frankfurt am Main as Marc Alexander Littler ) is a German-South African film director, producer and writer. As a filmmaker, MA Littler stands in the tradition of independent and auteur films . He is known for his uncompromising aesthetic and cinematic portrayal of underground art, radical politics and non-conformist characters.

life and work

Littler spent much of his childhood and youth in Germany, South Africa and the USA . He studied directing at the Vancouver Film School in Canada . He also worked as a bouncer, bartender, taxi driver, translator, screenwriter, journalist and ambulance driver. Littler founded what is now Slowboat Films GmbH as early as 1999 and has since appeared as a producer of his films, in which loners, outsiders and lateral thinkers are shown who can realize their art and their ideas beyond the usual thinking and production structures. Music documentaries are at the heart of this production company.

Littler covers a wide range of topics in his films; on his spiritual journeys he focuses on the folk of musicians such as Sean Wheeler and Zander Schloss as well as the social criticism of thinkers such as Noam Chomsky or Mark Mirabello.

In 2004 Littler shot his first full-length documentary film Voodoo Rhythm on the Swiss rock 'n' roll record label Voodoo Rhythm Records of the same name .

With the documentary The Dead Brothers followed in 2005 the portrait of the protagonists around the Swiss funeral band The Dead Brothers and with Zownir - Radical Man the cinematic portrait of Miron Zownir , one of the most censored photographers, filmmakers and crime writers , was created in 2006 .

His first feature film in 2007, The Road To Nod - with locations in Germany and Ireland - is a road movie based on biblical motifs , combining the revelations of the content of the Old Testament with the subversive rock 'n' roll spirit of the underground in a film noir aesthetic . After serving in prison, the gangster Parrish finds that the business has changed completely and that there is no more room for him.

In The Folk Singer - A Tale Of Men, Music & Amerika, a film made in the USA in 2008 with the blues and folk musician Konrad Wert alias Possese by Paul James , artistic demands and poverty as well as the contrast between art and commerce are thematized. Here Littler deliberately relies on mixing stylistic elements of fact and fiction.

For the documentary road movie The Kingdom Of Survival from 2011, Littler deals with the theories of radical thinkers such as Noam Chomsky , Mark Mirabello , Ramsey Kanaan , Joe Bageant and Mark Oehler . Despite the small production budget of $ 10,000, Littler's documentary was shown at numerous international film festivals (including IDFA Amsterdam , Montreal World Film Festival , Raindance London .)

In 2012 Littler realized his experimental nature film Lost Coast . In black and white shots and without a single spoken word, the film meditates on the lost relationship between modern, rational man and nature.

In 2013 the Goethe-Institut in Porto Allegre Littler dedicated a retrospective. At the same time, he taught a two-week film workshop with Brazilian film students.

With his documentary Hard Soil - The Muddy Roots Of American Music , Littler looked at the modern forms of American folk and roots music in 2014 and portrayed a generation of maladjusted musicians in poetic images.

In 2014, Littler dedicated both the Hackesche Höfe Filmtheater and Eiszeit Kino in Berlin and the German Film Museum in Frankfurt am Main a retrospective of his films lasting several days.

In 2016 Littler's film ARMENIA was released , which celebrated its world premiere in November 2016 at the German Film Museum .

Littler has been the editor of the transatlantic literature and art magazine SARGASSO since 2017 .

For the Swiss musician Faber , Littler directed the video clips for Generation YouPorn in 2019 , Tell me what your name is (Pt. 2) and Vivaldi .

style

Stylistically, most of his films cannot be clearly assigned to a genre, as the use of many elements from feature films and documentaries often blurs the clear separation of the factual and the fictional. His imagery is characterized by long shots and a slow pace.

Filmography

  • 1999: Erehwon (short film), writer / director / producer
  • 2001: Wild Turkey (short film), writer / director / producer
  • 2002: East Main & 4TH (short film), writer / director / producer
  • 2003: St. Hank (short film) , book / director / producer
  • 2004: Voodoo Rhythm , writer / director / producer
  • 2005: Dead Brothers - Death is not the End , writer / director / producer
  • 2006: Zownir - Radical Man , writer / director / producer
  • 2007: The Road To Nod , Writer / Director / Producer
  • 2008: The Folk Singer - A Tale of Men, Music & America , writer / director / producer
  • 2011: The Kingdom of Survival , writer / director / producer
  • 2012: A Night in Zagreb , script / director
  • 2012: Lost Coast , writer / director / producer
  • 2014: Hard Soil - The Muddy Roots of American Music , Writer / Director / Producer
  • 2016: Armenia, writer / director / producer
  • 2019: Franz Wright - Last Words, writer / director / producer

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ M. A. Littler . 3sat Kulturzeit, November 19, 2014; accessed on March 31, 2015
  2. ↑ Katja Thorwarth: I prefer to live in my own hell . Frankfurter Rundschau , November 6, 2014; Interview; accessed on March 31, 2015
  3. ↑ Visiting the cinema: MA Littler . Cinema Munster; accessed on March 31, 2015
  4. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Films for lateral thinkers. Retrieved April 26, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Miron Zownir - Radical Man Presskit . (PDF; 18 MB) Slowboat Films; accessed on March 31, 2015
  6. ↑ The Road to Nod press kit . (PDF; 35 MB) Slowboat Films; accessed on March 31, 2015
  7. ↑ Martin Hossbach: Pain Resistant, Effective and Stoic ( Memento of December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Spex , November 24, 2009; accessed on March 31, 2015.
  8. ↑ Alexandra Horn: Survival Techniques . In: Neues Deutschland , November 9, 2011; Contribution to The Kingdom Of Survival ; Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  9. ^ The Kingdom of Survival ( Memento of February 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam. Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  10. ^ German Films and German Co-Productions at Montreal 2011 ( Memento from June 21, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: German Films; Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  11. ^ Raindance Festival Film Detail Raindance Festival; archived on February 4, 2016.
  12. ↑ Lost Coast world premiere . ( Memento from March 13, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) In: Lichter Filmfestival; Retrieved April 1, 2015.
  13. ↑ M. A. Littler in conversation with Bibiana Nilsson, Goethe-Institut Porto Alegre September 2013 Goethe-Institut; Retrieved April 1, 2015
  14. ↑ World premiere Hard Soil Berlin . Hackesche Höfe cinema; Retrieved April 1, 2015
  15. ↑ Cristina Moles Kaupp: 15 years of Slowboat Films . Tip Berlin, May 15, 2014; Retrieved April 1, 2015
  16. ↑ Slowboat Films retrospective . Film institute; Retrieved April 1, 2015
  17. ↑ Imprint. In: sargasso-magazine.com. Retrieved November 3, 2019 (American English).
  18. ↑ Faber. In: YouTube. Retrieved November 3, 2019 .
  19. ↑ Interview with M. A. Littler at the Raindance Festival youtube; Retrieved April 1, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Littler, MA
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Littler, Marc Alexander (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German-South African film director
DATE OF BIRTH July 6, 1979
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main