Gerockt und Nazis abgeblockt | Ralf Wenzel in conversation with Irmhild Scheuer (in German language)
A film about the antifascist actions of the Rock Against Right Initiative on June 16/17, 1980
Directors: Klaus Fischbach, Iris-Angela Klett, Frank Thöner, Sigrid Fischbach
Germany 1980 / 42:42 min.
Shortened version: Germany 2020 / 6:50 min.
With this homage we pay tribute to our colleague Frank Thöner, who, in December 2019, passed away at the age of 59 following a short and severe illness. For 40 years, Frank Thöner shaped the cultural life of the city of Kassel turning his passion and commitment into his profession. He was a founding member of Filmladen Kassel, which first began screenings on 11.06.1981. In 1982 he established the Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival and remained closely connected with the festival from that time onwards, offering both his service and his counsel. In 1991 he laid the foundation for the Kassel Open-Air Cinema. In 1995 – together with other cinema enthusiasts – he founded the BALi Kino GmbH (independent cinema company of Kassel), which, in addition to the two auditoriums at the KulturBahnhof, also ran Kassel’s GloriaKino from 2001 onwards. The many events with music and film, a testament to his love for that “special” type of cinema between “La dolce vita” and “Das Leben ist eine Baustelle” (“Life is all you get”), remain unforgotten.
Der Störenfried – Ermittlungen zu Oskar Brüsewitz | Thomas Frickel im Gespräch mit Irmhild Scheuer
Der Störenfried – Ermittlungen zu Oskar Brüsewitz (Germany 1992 / 94 Min. / Thomas Frickel) available from November 19 at https://kasseler-dokfest.culturebase.org
Less known are the activities of Frank Thöner as a filmmaker and as a distributor. At the beginning of the 1990s he organized the distribution of a film that was very important to him and for which he undauntedly broke new ground. On August 8, 1976, the spectacular self-immolation of the protestant pastor Oskar Brüsewitz ended a trial of strength that had lasted for years. Against the resistance of the local GDR powers, the quarrelsome pastor tried with cunning and humor to expand the state-allocated free space of his church. A provincial farce. But in Prussian. And with a fatal ending.
