Docs Against Gravity Presents: Masterclass - Werner Herzog

The Masterclass is hosted by: Michal Chacinski, translator, film critic and reporter for TVP Kultura channel and Pamela Cohn, filmmaker and arts journalist.

Herzog mystery

A living legend of feature and documentary film, Werner Herzog. Author of more than 50 films, a director who throughout his life has posed questions about limits that nature and human impose on each other. He then overcomes these limits as a filmmaker and presents on-screen what he finds on the other side. Although as a filmmaker Herzog seems to be the untameable great madman of cinema, not afraid to risk the life of his crew or his own in order to overcome yet another limit, meeting him in person proves that reality is different. Herzog gets irritated by suppositions of his alleged imprudence and denies the accusations of being unpredictable. He has his own calculated risk theory and his own method of working with the film crew – an effective one, too, as the same people have collaborated with him over the years. But above all, he has his own idea of what cinema is. He is only half-joking when he claims to have re-invented the cinema, as he never held any interest in the films of others and did not want to learn from anyone.

Currently Herzog is experiencing a revival of interest in his work. Over the last few years he has shot his best documentaries: “White Diamond”, “Grizzly Man” and “Encounters at the End of the World”. He has returned to making feature films (his newest one is produced by David Lynch).

Only few filmmakers manage to remain a mystery, despite having made dozens of films. This is the case of Herzog. I invite you to a meeting at least partly unravel the Herzog mystery.