For the Love of Movies

Who says you can't mix work with pleasure? On Thursday afternoon you can! At 3 o'clock the IMC meeting room will temporarily be transformed into a movie theatre, when Katrin Heimann shows the 2004-documentary "The Five Obstructions" by Danish film's enfants terribles Jørgen Leth and Lars von Trier.

- "I love movies and I love watching them together with other people and discuss them because four eyes see more than two - and the more the merrier", says Katrin when asked about the reason for her new IMC movie club.

Perfect for Interdisciplinarity 

It's not just about the sheer pleasure of watching a movie together though. According to Katrin there is also an aspect to movie-watching which makes it relevant to an interdisciplinary research center like IMC.

- "I study movies and I came to do that in Aarhus at the IMC for its interdisciplinary context and environment, so I want to get to know all the other people who are interested in movies, see what they see in movies in general and in the movies we watch specifically, and also how their research might be related. Movies are so rich - the perfect link for interdisciplinary cooperations and thoughts", says Katrin Heimann.

Fascinating Obstacles

Given that Katrin has a background in philosophy you could be forgiven for thinking that her interest in movies is primarily concerned with the contextual or psychological aspects of the movie narrative. But you'd be wrong. It's quite the opposite in fact.

- "I am especially interested in the formal aspects of film, its narrative devices such as camera technique, montage, lightning and their effect on film content." In fact that's why she chose to show this particular film; "I found Jørgen Leth's and Lars von Trier's movie especially interesting in this regard. It's the same movie remade four times under different conditions determined by von Trier, some of them explicitly concerning the stylistic and formal devices to be used. In the first obstruction for instance, Leth is only allowed to use shots with a maximum length of 12 frames, which is only half a second. What a firework for a brain interested in the representational possibilities of different media and especially film!", says Katrin.  

A Recommendation 

After the film Katrin says she's really looking forward to discuss it with others. And you can bring your film nerd friend too. Katrin only asks that you write her beforehand to let her know how many are coming. "I need to know roughly how big a cake to bake", she says. 

You can contact Katrin at: katrinheimann@gmail.com. Details about the movie club event can be found here.

Oh, and if you can't wait till Thursday for your fix of cinema, Katrin has a recommendation for Wednesday too: an event taking place at Kunsthal Aarhus where Peter Ole Pedersen will present the movie "SYMBIOPSYCHOTAXIPLASM TAKE ONE" as part of the spring film screening. Hereby recommended.