VIDEO-PORTRAITS
Hanno Baethe
SEHNSUCHT NACH SODOM, 1989, 45 Min.
Kurt Raab was commissioned to write a book about himself and the the New German Film. The book remained unwritten. He decided to do sketches on video with Hanno Beathe instead. At this time Kurt Raab did not know he was carrying AIDS virus.
The video is a dialogue, the visit of friends, and film work. For Kurt Raab it meant consistency and a continuation of the life he had let till then. The editing confronts the viewer with the questions and expectations the actor Raab had life before his illness and gives him Raab's answers in the view of his imminent death.
STAY JUST A MOMENT, 1990. 12 Min.
"I experience a difference, I don't see it, don't feel it. When you'll be as old as I am, you'll have to suffer from it - inside you are still 17 but on the outside the people just see an old man." Berk interprets the suffering of the young spirit trying to overcome this increasingly painful difference. Sensuous pictures capture this dilemma.
ZERO DIET, 1992, 15. Min.
"Sublet contract, social security, zero diet." Words, nothing but the usual heap of words we, the wealthy and the rich, spirit out of this side of the earth, blind for catastrophes that do not concern us and lulled by all those words. We have to use them every day and can also afford to do so since this is real. Words, nothing but words and what do they mean? What do you think, happens when these words are spoken by people in Calcutta.
TAETOWIERT, 1994, 53 Min.
The video describes the fate and the personality of young women (Monika), who is charged with aiding and abetting a murder.
Monika relates, Monika acts out events, alone or supported by actors. Occasionally, Hanno Beathe uses images to accentuate her feelings.
His stylistic mixture of documentary, fiction, art and experiment is masterly.