2022
SEARCHING FOR FRITZ KANN
AUF DER SUCHE NACH FRITZ KANN
Germany, Poland, Argentina
99 min. cinema documentary
director, producer: Marcel Kolvenbach
choreography: Reut Shemesh
camera: Katja Rivas Pinzon
music: Cassis B. Staudt
production: publicnomad
distribution: Real Fiction Films
A personal search retracing the life of Fritz Kann, the filmmaker‘s grandmother‘s first Jewish husband, deported and murdered in 1942. The film links family silence, survivor testimonies, and dance performance into a reflection on memory and loss.
In his film, Marcel Kolvenbach follows in the footsteps of his grandmother‘s first jewish husband: Fritz Kann. He was deported in 1942 and murdered by the Nazis in Izbica. For a long time, there was silence in the family about Fritz Kann; not a single photo revealed his existence. The search for the deportee takes the audience from a former slaughterhouse in DGüsseldorf on a journey via Poland to Argentina and back to East Berlin. During his search, Marcel Kolvenbach's path crosses with that of other seekers. The focus is on encounters with contemporary witnesses, descendants, and historians. The choreography of Israeli dancer Reut Shemesh creates an imaginary space that reinterprets the gaps in the family history. The interviews with contemporary witnesses featured in the production are now part of the permanent exhibition (interactive audio/video stations) at the Erinnerungsort Alter Schlachthof (Old Slaughterhouse Memorial Site) / Library of the DGÜsseldorf University of Applied Sciences (HSD), which was created in parallel with the film in collaboration with historian Dr. Achim Schröder, Dr. Andreas Kahrs, Steffen Hänschen and the Gutmann Family members.
FRITZ KANN Realfiction Films