Film | Friday, September 20 - Thursday, September 26

Washington Jewish Film Festival: The Tobacconist (2018), dir. Nikolaus Leytner

The Edlavitch Jewish Community Center of Washington, DC, together with the Goethe-Institut Washington, presents several encore screenings of The Tobacconist, Nikolaus Leytner's 2018 adaptation of Robert Seethaler's 2012 novel of the same name. A tender tale of a young man's friendship with Sigmund Freud during the Nazi occupation of Vienna, The Tobacconist was the annual JxJ Festival's sold-out closing night film in May 2019. Beginning with a matinée screening at 1:00 on Friday, the film will run in the JCC's brand new Cafritz Hall cinema until September 26.

Exhibition Opening & Discussion | Thursday, September 26, 5:30 pm

Finding Bauhaus in the Public Library: Opening Reception and Panel Discussion

The Bauhaus (1919-1933) was a German art school that imagined a better world and launched some of the greatest architects, designers and artists of the 20th century - including Mies van der Rohe, architect of DC’s own MLK Library. Yet the school’s social vision was eclipsed by World War II and the rise of a fascist regime. Today we see traces of Bauhaus design everywhere - but what became of its utopian ideals? Further, what new perspective does this history offer on present-day challenges of inequality and shrinking public space? Join us for a cross-cultural conversation with experts from the fields of art and design, architecture, and education about historical experiments and today’s realities in design for the public good.

Electronic Music | Friday, September 27 - Saturday, September 28

EUROBEATS Festival of Electronic Music ft. Perel

The Goethe-Institut Washington, in partnership with the European Union National Institutes for Culture (EUNIC) and Union Stage, invites you a two day festival of electronic music. The EUROBEATS Festival aims to highlight top young European artists at the forefront of electronic music. EUROBEATS will feature 10 European electronic musicians from 10 countries at Union Stage in Washington, DC, from September 27-28, 2019, from 6 pm – 1:35 am each day. Germany is proud to host Berlin-based DJ Perel. A native of Saxony whose career path led her straight into the center of Berlin’s vibrant club scene, Perel has steadily made a name for herself as an eclectic DJ and cunning producer.

Film & Discussion | Saturday, September 28, 1:00 pm

“Serious Games”: Hito Steyerl‘s November (2018) and In Free Fall (2010)

Invoking Sergei Eisenstein’s revolutionary October (1928), artist Hito Steyerl avows: “November is the time after October, a time when revolution seems to be over, and peripheral struggles have become particular, localist, and almost impossible to communicate.” Exhibited at Documenta 12 (2007), the film loosely follows Steyerl’s childhood friend, sociologist Andrea Wolf, and the appropriation of her likeness as an icon of martyrdom. Steyerl plays up the dissemination of images in the digital age and the stories inscribed to them, while delivering a scathing critique of Germany’s armed involvement in foreign affairs.

Following the financial crisis of 2008, Hito Steyerl sets her film In Free Fall in a graveyard for scrapped airplanes in the Mojave Desert. Featuring Hollywood aviation disaster montages, interviews with the junkyard proprietor, an actor portraying an aeronautics expert, and an out-of-work cinematographer, the title evokes a double entendre connecting aviation and economic crashes. Like many of Steyerl’s works, In Free Fall confounds the distinction between documentary and fiction to articulate themes such as workers’ labor, the culture industry, and the ills of capitalism.

New Five-Week Intensive Courses Starting Soon

Registration is currently ongoing for additional five-week intensive courses at many levels for adults beginning in October. Enter promo-code October2019 at check-out (case sensitive; offers may not be combined; code valid from 9/9-10/11/2019) and save 10%.
 

Competition "Our sustainable future"

How can we design a sustainable future for everyone? Take part in the contest “Our Sustainable Future” and tell us about your ideas in German. The winning teams will be invited to participate in our international sustainability conference in Berlin.

 

Wiesn in a Box at Burning Man 2019

Wiesn in a Box’s mobile Oktoberfest has traveled all over the country, from Atlanta to Portland and back. But no stop has been quite like Burning Man in Black Rock City, Nevada. The 8-day event brought together 70,000 people to create a new community in the middle of the desert.