Industrial Film Ruhr 2024

This is where the music plays!

Sound worlds in industrial films

On Sunday, November 17, 2024, the “INDUSTRIEFILM RUHR” will enter the next round!

Then we invite you from 14 p.m. to 18.30 p.m. to our regular event in the historic cinema ambience of the Essen film studio Glückauf, Rüttenscheider Straße 2, 45128 Essen.

The theme of this year’s IndustrieFilm Ruhr event is “This is where the music plays! Sound worlds in industrial films”.

What would a film be without sounds, commentary or music? They are integral components of the audio-visual medium of film, which is usually perceived as a unity of image and sound, but which appeals to viewers on different levels of perception. Even in the silent film era, films were never really silent, as the performances were usually accompanied live and directly by music or commented on by a speaker. With the breakthrough of sound film in 1927, sound and image could be technically combined to form a unit and sound became a consciously used stylistic device by filmmakers. Music, sounds or commentary can underline, deepen or strengthen the perception of narrative rhythm and images in a subliminal, emotional and associative way. But they can also set counterpoints and irritate. This also applies to the deliberate omission of background music, which is intended to convey a factual and sober style, especially in documentaries such as educational and teaching films.

Sound and especially music are often a powerful stylistic device in feature films and documentaries – and therefore in industrial films. The program for this year’s IndustrieFilm Ruhr shows a cross-section of the diverse applications and possibilities of the interplay of image and sound in films from the Ruhr industry from the 1920s to the end of the 1960s. The spectrum ranges from the silent film “Spuk!” (1925), which will be accompanied live by a pianist, to the animated film “Max and Mine” (1957), in which the sounds emphasise the rhythm of the film images, to “technik – 3 studies in jazz” (1961), in which music becomes the dominant stylistic device, which the images and the film editing follow. Among the composers then and now there are some well-known names, such as: B. those of Bert Kämpfert or Hans Posegga – and Oskar Sala is also not missing, a pioneer of electronic music, which has been used comparatively often and happily in commissioned productions by the industry.

It is an essential element of IndustrieFilm Ruhr that we not only show films, but also talk about them. And so we look forward to welcoming you to the 16th retrospective at the Glückauf cinema in Essen and are looking forward to attractive films and interesting discussions.

The INDUSTRIEFILM RUHR team looks forward to seeing you!

TICKETS

Entrance fee 12€
at the box office of Filmstudio Glückauf or online at
FILMSPIEGEL-ESSEN.DE

(Photo: Still from the film “Steel – Theme with Variations”, source: Salzgitter AG Corporate Archives/ Mannesmann Archives, Mülheim/Ruhr)

The films on Sunday, November 17, 2024

Association of Thomas Flour Producers, Berlin

Spooky!

The film “Spooky!” is about the miracle in the neighbor’s garden, where the plants grow and bloom so well. The reason for this is the use of a fertilizer, the so-called Thomas flour from steel production.

Movie information Spooky!

Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacturing

Call to the world

“Call to the World” is a romantic documentary film about the manufacturing process of the Olympic bell using the casting process for the great sports festival in Berlin in 1936. Musically, this work is accompanied by sounds from the pen of Rudolf Perak (1891-1972), a musician and composer from Austria.

Film info Call to the World

Ruhrkohlen-Beratung GmbH, Essen

Max and Mine

Sometimes it's too warm in the apartment, sometimes too cold - that frustrates Max the bear. But thanks to the "regulator dwarves" he can solve his heating problem. The cheerful cartoon from 1957, with music by Bert Kaempfert and Karl-Heinz Reichel, advertised an automatically regulated coke central heating system.

Film information Max and Mine (ca. 1957)

Mining Industry Association, Bonn

Miner at the lever

“Bergman at the Lever” provides impressionistic insights into the world underground in various mining industries in the Federal Republic of Germany at the beginning of the 1960s. The film relies entirely on the impact of its images and music.

Film information Miner at the Lever

August Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg

Mattress

A fresh wind blew through the Thyssen trade fair pavilion at the Hanover Trade Fair in 1969: August Thyssen-Hütte AG hired Klaus Havenstein as presenter for a two-hour, light-hearted revue with games, films, interviews and specialist lectures. The short film with the working title "The Mattress", which visualizes various quality tests, was also created for this trade fair show.

Film information The Mattress

Mannesmann AG, Dusseldorf

Steel – theme with variations

At the beginning of 1960, Mannesmann AG commissioned director Hugo Niebeling to make an image film to be shown at the Hanover Trade Fair. The result: an experimental short film with electronic music that received the highest national and international awards.

Film info Steel – Theme with Variations

Fried. Krupp, Essen

technique – 3 studies in jazz

In three scenes of almost equal length, the "three studies", the film presents work processes in various workshops of the Fried. Krupp company in Essen. It is about steel and its processing up to the finished end product. The spoken word is completely omitted. What is special is that the film images are leftover cuts from the film "Krupp today - people and work" from 1958, which were edited to the existing jazz music.

Film info technology – 3 studies in jazz

AEG, Frankfurt a. M. / Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG, Essen

Springorum power plant

It is actually just one of many coal-fired power stations that were built in the 1960s. The Springorum power station in the south of Bochum, which has long since disappeared, was given an artistically ambitious monument in the film of the same name. Music plays a key role in this.

Film information Kraftwerk Springorum

August Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg

Only the fog is grey [summary]

“Only the fog is grey” is not the title of an advertising brochure for tourism in the Ruhr region, but the title of an award-winning industrial film from 1965. It presents the new Beeckerwerth plant of August Thyssen-Hütte AG in Duisburg. Here, for the first time, workers are given a voice in an industrial film, reporting on their relationship to work and their leisure time.

Film information Only the fog is grey

Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG, Oberhausen

Steelworkers make music

Mozart, Schubert and Beethoven, but also concert entertainment music and modern jazz were part of the repertoire of the factory symphony orchestra of the Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG (HOAG) in the 1950s. In 1953, the musicians played a concert that was even immortalized on celluloid.

Film information Steelworkers make music

Program in detail

Sunday, November 17, 2024,

14.00 to 18.30 clock (GMT)

Spooky!
Association of Thomas Flour Producers, Berlin

24 mins, black and white, 1925

Silent film with piano accompaniment

thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg

Director: Eberhard Fangauf-Bush

Call to the world
Bochum Association for Cast Steel Manufacturing, Bochum

10 mins, black and white, 1936

Music: Rudolf Perak

Historical Archive Krupp, Essen

Director: Ulrich Kayser

Max and Mine

Ruhrkohlen-Beratung GmbH, Essen

12 mins, black and white, 1957

Music: Karl-Heinz Reichel, Bert Kaempfert

montan.dok/Mining Archive Bochum

Director: Hans Held

Miner at the lever

Mining Industry Association, Bonn

10 mins, black and white, 1961

Music: Eric Landy

montan.dok/Mining Archive Bochum

Director: Bert Brandt

Mattress

August Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg

2 mins, black and white, 1969

Music: Roland Kovac

thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg

BREAK

Steel – theme with variations

Mannesmann AG, Dusseldorf

13 mins, color, 1960

Music: Oskar Sala

Salzgitter AG Corporate Archives/Mannesmann Archives, Mülheim an der Ruhr

Director: Hugo Niebeling

technique – 3 studies in jazz
Fried. Krupp, Essen

9 mins, color, 1961

Music: Martin Böttcher, Pete Rugolo

Historical Archive Krupp, Essen

Director: Hans Heinrich Hermann

Springorum power plant

General Electricity Company, Frankfurt a. M. / Gelsenkirchener Bergwerks-AG, Essen

10 mins, color, 1963

Music: Bert Grund

Historical Corporate Archives RWE, Essen

Director: Hans Joachim Ruths

Only the fog is grey [Summary]

August Thyssen-Hütte AG, Duisburg

Music: Hans Posegga

11 mins, color, 1965

thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg

Director: Robert Menegoz

Steelworkers make music

Memories of a ball experience by Hans Bund

Hüttenwerk Oberhausen AG, Oberhausen

Music: Hans Bund

7 mins, black and white, 1953

thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives, Duisburg

Director: Hermann Kahlo

Filmstudio Glückauf
Rüttenscheider Str. 2
45128 Essen
Tel: 0201/43936633
filmspiegel-essen.de

Film theater companies
Hanns-Peter Huester
Oliver Flothkötter
Steeler Street 208–212
45138 Essen
Phone 0201.275555 and 0201.289550
info@essener-filmkunsttheater.de

Krupp Historical Archive
Prof. Dr. Ralf Stremmel
Felix Hartelt, M.Sc.
Villa Hill
hill 1
45133 Essen
Phone 0201.188-4821
archive@hak-krupp-stiftung.de

Historical Corporate Archives RWE
Hans-Georg Thomas
Ernestinenstrasse 60
45141 Essen
Phone 0201.5179-7634
hans-georg.thomas@rwe.com

Cinematheque in the Ruhr area
Film archive for the region
Paul Hofmann
District Court Street 32
47119 Duisburg
Phone 0203.89903
kinemathek-im-ruhrgebiet@web.de

Mining history
Documentation Center/
Mining Archive Bochum
Dr. Stefan Przigoda
At the Mining Museum 28
44791 Bochum
Phone 0234.5877-154
stefan.przigoda@bergbaumuseum.de

Regional Association Ruhr
Department of Industrial Culture
Timo Hauge
Kronprinzenstrasse 35
45128 Essen
Phone 0201.2069-0
info@rvr.ruhr

Salzgitter AG Corporate Archive
Mannesmann Archive
Dr. Kornelia Rennert
Wiesenstrasse 36
45473 Mülheim an der Ruhr
Phone 0208.458-1666
gruppearchiv@salzgitter-ag.de

thyssenkrupp Corporate Archives
Astrid Dörnemann MA
Friedrich-Ebert-Strasse 12
47119 Duisburg
Phone 0203.52-66822
corporate-archives@thyssenkrupp.com

From Essen main station take the lines U11, 101 or 107 to Philharmonie,

from there 5 minutes walk towards Rüttenscheid

A trademark for the region

As a resident of the Ruhr area, one is tempted to ask: Where else, if not here, could the idea for such a format have come about and such an event have developed successfully to this day?

The industrial character of the region with its people and its probably unique density of large business archives with nationally significant records were important prerequisites for this. The same applies to the commitment and the long-term close cooperation between the archives, the Essen Filmkunsttheater GmbH, the Initiative Kinemathek im Ruhrgebiet and the Regionalverband Ruhr as a public corporation. Finally, a success factor and quality feature was and is the accompanying embedding of the films shown in the historical context, which often enables a deeper understanding.

starting point Villa Hügel

The idea for the retrospective, which is still unique in Germany, was born in the summer of 1996 at Villa Hügel, when Thyssen, Krupp/Hoesch and Mannesmann presented film treasures from their archives and experts discussed the potential of industrial film as a medium and source. It was these archives that then showed film documents in the Glückauf film studio in Essen in November 1997 - that was the first IndustrieFilm Ruhr. In 1999, the Bochum Mining Archive took part for the first time. Since then, the circle of participating archives and industries has constantly expanded.