Filmarbeit mit Douglas Sirk

This extremely rare documentary was shot in 1978 during the filming of BOURBON STREET BLUES, one of three shorts Douglas Sirk made with his students while teaching at the Munich Film School (Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen München). It was directed by Gustavo Graef-Marino who was a student himself at that time and went on to direct several feature films himself in the 80ies and 90ies. His best known film would probably be JOHNNY CIEN PESOS (1993).

It consists mostly of two extensive interviews with Sirk in which he recalls his career in the USA and reflects upon filmmaking in general and the then current state of (the new) German cinema which he criticises for attempting a “kind of artistic exclusiveness”. In between those Interviews, there is footage of Sirk preparing the shooting of BOURBON STREET BLUES and setting up some shots with the students, a few interview bits with the students themselves and the actors (including Annemarie Düringer and Sirk＇s most famous admirer Rainer Werner Fassbinder who persuaded his idol to take on the scholarship in Munich in the first place) and its well known cinematographer Michael Ballhaus.