Tribute to Artavazd Peleshyan

Tribute to ... is the title the ZKM | Film Institute has given to a series of retrospectives devoted to prominent figures in the world of the cinema.

The Armenian director Artavazd Peleshyan [b. 1938 in Leninakan] ranks as the last great innovator in the field of cinema montage. Jean-Luc Godard regards him as the most important contemporary film-maker and Francis Ford Coppola has unreserved admiration for him. His epoch-making oeuvre spanning a period of 40 years comprises just 12 films of short to medium length, all of which consist only of music and pictures. If a film without actors is the definition of a documentary film in the broadest sense of the word, Peleshyan’s works have given this genre its supreme artistic expression.

he director will be present for the showing of nine of his films, which in view of the fact that the other three have been lost is tantamount to a complete retrospective. It is the first to be staged in the German-speaking countries. An introduction will be given by Andrei Ujica.
[1] Artavazd Peleshyan:
»Our century«
1982/90, s/w, 50/30 min

[2] Artavazd Peleshyan:
»The seasons«
1972-75, s/w, 29 min

Filmstills courtesy of Artavazd Peleshyan