Critical Perspectives on Werner Herzog’s “Lessons of Darkness”

The Department of Film & Media and the Multicultural Germany Project present:

Critical Perspectives on Werner Herzog’s “Lessons of Darkness” (1992)

Wednesday, February 22, 2012, 6–9 pm
Geballe Room, Townsend Center for the Humanities
220 Stephens Hall, Berkeley, CA 94720–2340

Moderator: Tony Kaes

Presenters:
Nicholas Baer
Kris Fallon
Deniz Göktürk
Justin Vaccaro
Linda Williams

Twenty years after its contentious premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival, Werner Herzog’s Lessons of Darkness (1992) – an aestheticized cinematic portrait of the Kuwaiti oil fires following the first Gulf War – remains mesmerizing, inflammatory, and highly topical. At this special event, the Department of Film & Media and the Multicultural Germany Project present a screening of Herzog’s film, as well as critical commentary by five professors and graduate students at UC Berkeley: Nicholas Baer (Film & Media / Critical Theory), Kris Fallon (Film & Media / New Media), Deniz Göktürk (German / Film & Media / Middle Eastern Studies), Justin Vaccaro (Film & Media), and Linda Williams (Rhetoric / Film & Media / Gender & Women’s Studies). Tony Kaes, Class of 1939 Professor of German and Film & Media, will lead what promises to be a stimulating and timely discussion on the nexus of aesthetics, politics, and the aftermath of war.