Der kleine Godard

Little Godard

In "Little Godard. To the Production Board for Young German Film", Hamburg's experimental filmmaker Hellmuth Costard used a Super 8 film system he developed himself that allowed for numerous Super 8 cameras to be synchronised to each other during filming. "Power to Super 8!" was the cry before video cameras became ubiquitous, a low-cost solution for amateurs and even independent professional filmmakers. The content of the film is bookended by an application for a subsidy in which Costard formulates his objection to using the screenplay to evaluate a potential film project…

"Is it possible to make films in Germany today?" Jean-Luc Godard asked that question in 1978 when he was asked to evaluate an invitation to make a film in Hamburg. In the end, the film was not made. But "Little Godard" answers the question by demonstrating how movies are made here. On the set of the film "Moritz, Dear Moritz", it uses the undisturbed sequence of events as the perfect backdrop to the moment during a break in filming when the director Hark Bohm rather alarmingly asks, "Where is my script?"

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)