Film: DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN (The Art of Staying Many)

In the summer of 2024, Forums for Art, Freedom and Democracy toured Germany for three months under the title DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN and made guest appearances in Leipzig, Düsseldorf, Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Berlin, Potsdam, Erfurt, Weimar and Dresden. In these eight cities, a dense program of performing arts, discourse and workshops blossomed on market squares and theater forecourts, on festival stages and in lecture halls: A Taiwanese dance piece was performed here, two philosophers discussed a humanistic world there and next door, in the transcultural beauty salon, encounters in beauty were practiced.
The actors Tina Pfurr and Hauke Heumann are right in the middle of it all. They talk to politicians and international directors, artists and social workers: How do we argue properly again? What drives the people who are defending democracy here in the summer heat? What's the point of all this if there's going to be a secure right-wing extremist summer festival in the same neighborhood square next week? And what role do the arts play in this - now and in the future?
DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN (The Art of Staying Many) is a film by Felix Meyer-Christian commissioned by the Fonds Darstellende Künste, which brings together the polyphony in the arts and summarizes their struggle against exclusion and polarization in a discursive and poetic approach. With: Şeyda Kurt, Sivan Ben Yishai, Awet Tesfaiesus, Awet Tesfaiesus, Sookee, Omri Boehm, Viktor Szeri, Joana Tischkau, Rabih Mroué, Lina Majadalanie, Annett Gröschner, Luce deLire, Carsten Brosda, Aljoscha Begrich, Anica Happich and numerous other voices.
Length: approx. 90 minutes
In German, English and Spanish with English subtitles for deaf people.
After its premiere in March 2025, the film will be shown at festivals, venues and theaters of the independent performing arts.
Team
Writer and director: Felix-Meyer Christian / with: Hauke Heumann & Tina Pfurr / first camera: Thomas Oswald / second camera: Uli Decker & Eli Börnicke / editing: Stéphanie Morin / music: Marcus Thomas / sound design: Martin Lutz / sound: Martin Lutz and Marcus Thomas / color grading Nour Yazbeck for PLANEMO / director of photography, production manager, assistant director: Jana Cisar & Lotte Sagert / additional camera: Dorothea Pilz & Felix Meyer-Christian / additional editing: Roman Hagenbrock / assistant editor: Valentin Braun / lighting design & lighting master “Inflatable” shoot: Fabian Eichner / costume design & stage assistance “Inflatable” shoot: Zoë Sebanyiga / conversion Inflatable by atelier. lanika & Costa Compagnie / Editors: Steffen Klewar & Anna Kondring
A film by Felix-Meyer Christian commissioned by Fonds Darstellende Künste. Funded by: The Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media as part of NEUSTART KULTUR.
“DIE KUNST, VIELE ZU BLEIBEN - Bundesweite Foren für Kunst, Freiheit und Demokratie”, initiated by the Fonds Darstellende Künste, took place in cooperation with the Goethe-Institut, Chamäleon Berlin, fabrik Potsdam, FFT Düsseldorf, Hans Otto Theater Potsdam, HELLERAU - Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Impulse Theater Festival, Kunstfest Weimar 2024, LOFFT - DAS THEATER Leipzig, OSTEN Festival Bitterfeld-Wolfen, Plattenstufen-Festspiele presented by PHOENIX Theaterfestival Erfurt, Residenz Schauspiel Leipzig, Societaetstheater Dresden, Sophiensӕle Berlin, Zentralwerk e. V. Dresden, Zirkustheater Festival Dresden.