Person
Lutz Mommartz
Erkelenz, Germany
For over five decades, experimental filmmaker Lutz Mommartz shaped the German film and art scene with a radically different understanding of film. Since the 1960s, he was active i…
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For over five decades, experimental filmmaker Lutz Mommartz shaped the German film and art scene with a radically different understanding of film. Since the 1960s, he was active in Düsseldorf as a filmmaker and artist, and his work raised key questions about the authenticity of film and its relationship with the audience. He achieved his international breakthrough in 1967 at the Knokke Festival, when his film "Self-Shots" won an award. Parallel to his work as a municipal official, he was a motivator in the Düsseldorf art scene, for example, as co-founder of the legendary artists' bar Creamcheese, and was represented in numerous exhibitions such as documenta 4 (with his "Zweileinwandkino" (two-screen cinema) in 1968) and STRATEGY: GET ARTS (Edinburgh, 1970). He received the Silver Federal Film Prize in 1977 for "As if by Beckett" and in 1978 for "The Garden of Eden" Mommartz stood for "the other cinema," beyond the mainstream, with the goal of establishing film as a means of artistic expression. In the 1970s, as part of the Düsseldorf Film Group, he campaigned for the institutional recognition of film in art. In 1975, he was appointed the first professor of film at the University of Fine Arts Münster (then an outpost of the Düsseldorf Art Academy) and headed the film class until 1999. In 2020, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf dedicated a retrospective to Mommartz's work. His works were most recently exhibited at the ZKM Karlsruhe and the Julia Stoschek Foundation. Lutz Mommartz is remembered as a pioneer of artistic film—uncomfortable, experimental, and ahead of his time.
Filmography
Movies and shows, newest first
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2007
Margret’s Film
Movie Director
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1996
Window to The Yard
Movie Director
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1996
Painting
Movie Director
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1993
Wall of Shadows
Movie Writer
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1989
Fear Under the Stars
Movie Director
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1988
Four Little Pieces
Movie Director
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1987
Slow Waltz
Movie
-
1987
Focus
Movie Director
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1986
The Last Smoke
Movie Director
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1985
Marble Always Remains Cool
Movie Director
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1985
Dress
Movie Director
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1983
Every Human is A Table, Only I Am A Chair
Movie Director
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1983
Transit to Berlin
Movie Director
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1982
Filming Operation
Movie
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1981
Tango Through Germany
Movie Director
-
1979
Schattenkur
Movie Director
More credits
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1979
Eddie and Lutz
Movie Director
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1978
More Than Two
Movie Director
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1977
The Garden of Eden
Movie Director
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1976
As if by Beckett
Movie Director
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1975
Mambo
Movie
-
1975
Die Schiller
Movie Director
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1975
Wing Flapping
Movie Director
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1975
The Fair War 1525
Movie Director
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1974
The Fear at the Rhein
Movie Director
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1974
Haircut
Movie Director
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1972
Monuments
Movie Director
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1972
Film Group Düsseldorf - Sketch
Movie Director
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1972
The City of Düsseldorf is Very Beautiful
Movie Director
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1971
Inspection
Movie Director
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1971
The Beautiful Sigmar
Movie Director
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1971
Most of My Friends Now Live in Berlin
Movie Director
- 1971
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1970
Old Age Porn
Movie
-
1970
Solidarity of Tenents
Movie Director
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1970
Spanish Crime Story
Movie Director
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1970
The Breath of Sheep
Movie Director
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1970
Spaniards Meeting in Essen
Movie Director
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1970
Görreskeller und JETZT - Köln
Movie Director
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1969
Social Sculpture
Movie Director
