Wim Wenders: Early Shorts (West Germany, 1967-82)

This program of Wenders’s extremely rare short films showcases a nascent talent already infused with the themes and moods that would echo across a career. A fascination with American culture, the omnipresence of pop music, and an eye for the dissatisfaction of contemporary life in postwar West Germany: here is Wenders at his beginnings. The 1967 Same Player Shoots Again offers a formal exercise, while Polizeifilm (1968) investigates the police and student unrest. Meanwhile, music dominates Silver City Revisited (1968), inspired by 78 shellac records; Alabama (2000 Light Years), named after a Coltrane tune; 3 American LPs (1969), and the later Reverse Angle (1982), on New York and New Wave.

Part of the Wim Wenders: Portraits Along the Road series at BAMPFA.

Free gallery admission with same-day film ticket!