Lutz Mommartz

Directing·Mar 6, 1934·Erkelenz, Germany

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For over five decades, experimental filmmaker Lutz Mommartz shaped the German film and art scene with a radically different understanding of film. Since the 1960s, he was active in Düsseldorf as a filmmaker and artist, and his work raised key questions about the authenticity of film and its relationship with the audience. He achieved his international breakthrough in 1967 at the Knokke Festival, when his film "Self-Shots" won an award. Parallel to his work as a municipal official, he was a motivator in the Düsseldorf art scene, for example, as co-founder of the legendary artists' bar Creamcheese, and was represented in numerous exhibitions such as documenta 4 (with his "Zweileinwandkino" (two-screen cinema) in 1968) and STRATEGY: GET ARTS (Edinburgh, 1970). He received the Silver Federal Film Prize in 1977 for "As if by Beckett" and in 1978 for "The Garden of Eden" Mommartz stood for "the other cinema," beyond the mainstream, with the goal of establishing film as a means of artistic expression. In the 1970s, as part of the Düsseldorf Film Group, he campaigned for the institutional recognition of film in art. In 1975, he was appointed the first professor of film at the University of Fine Arts Münster (then an outpost of the Düsseldorf Art Academy) and headed the film class until 1999. In 2020, the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf dedicated a retrospective to Mommartz's work. His works were most recently exhibited at the ZKM Karlsruhe and the Julia Stoschek Foundation. Lutz Mommartz is remembered as a pioneer of artistic film—uncomfortable, experimental, and ahead of his time.

Film	Credit
MMargret’s Film2007 · Director	Director
WWindow to The Yard1996 · Director	Director
Painting1996 · Director	Director
WWall of Shadows1993 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
FFear Under the Stars1989 · Director	Director
FFour Little Pieces1988 · Director	Director
SSlow Waltz1987 · Actor, Director	Actor, Director
FFocus1987 · Director, Producer	Director, Producer
TThe Last Smoke1986 · Director	Director
MMarble Always Remains Cool1985 · Director	Director
DDress1985 · Director	Director
EEvery Human is A Table, Only I Am A Chair1983 · Director	Director
TTransit to Berlin1983 · Director	Director
FFilming Operation1982 · Actor, Director	Actor, Director
TTango Through Germany1981 · Director	Director
SSchattenkur1979 · Director	Director
EEddie and Lutz1979 · Director	Director
MMore Than Two1978 · Director	Director
The Garden of Eden1977 · Director	Director
As if by Beckett1976 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
DDie Schiller1975 · Director	Director
TThe Fair War 15251975 · Director	Director
WWing Flapping1975 · Director	Director
TThe Fear at the Rhein1974 · Director	Director
Haircut1974 · Director	Director
FFilm Group Düsseldorf - Sketch1972 · Director	Director
TThe City of Düsseldorf is Very Beautiful1972 · Director	Director
MMonuments1972 · Director	Director
The Beautiful Sigmar1971 · Director	Director
MMost of My Friends Now Live in Berlin1971 · Director	Director
IInspection1971 · Director	Director
TThe Aggressive Brown Water Inside the Tubes of the Professors1971 · Director	Director
Old Age Porn1970 · Actor, Director, Writer	Actor, Director, Writer
SSpanish Crime Story1970 · Director	Director
The Breath of Sheep1970 · Director	Director
SSolidarity of Tenents1970 · Director	Director
GGörreskeller und JETZT - Köln1970 · Director	Director
SSpaniards Meeting in Essen1970 · Director	Director
Social Sculpture1969 · Director	Director
OOverwhelmed1969 · Director	Director
4400 m IFF1969 · Director	Director
WWählt ADF1969 · Director	Director
TTeenage Art1969 · Director	Director
WWay to the Neighbour1968 · Director	Director
IImmatrikulation1968 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
33 Glasses1968 · Director	Director
TTwo-Screen Cinema1968 · Director	Director
RRailroad1967 · Director	Director
MMarkeneier1967 · Director	Director
SSelf Shots1967 · Actor, Director	Actor, Director
TThe Stairs1967 · Actor, Director, Writer	Actor, Director, Writer
TThe Finger1967 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
DDanceloop1967 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
UUp / Down1967 · Director, Writer	Director, Writer
CColor Stripes1967 · Director	Director
OOtto Piene's Studio Party1966 · Director	Director