Albstadt – Many years ago, Susanne Goebel and Wolfram Hannemann went to school together in Kornwestheim. Then they part ways; she became museum director in Albstadt and he became a documentary filmmaker. They recently met again at their Golden Confirmation, and they started talking to each other about their work. Hannemann talked about his latest full-length documentary “Kultourhelden – Vom Ende eines Era”, which premiered in 2021, had received distribution funding via the Media and Film Funding Act (MFG) Baden-Württemberg and was even shown in cinemas in Vienna and Innsbruck. It is about the last two privately run traveling cinemas in the country, a medium of cultural mediation that is on the verge of extinction.

What Vienna and Innsbruck are fine with, Tailfingen is cheap. The two former schoolmates quickly agreed that the Maschenmuseum would not be a very ordinary place for the presentation of a documentary film about traveling cinemas – but on the other hand it was also predestined for the certain historical patina that it owes to its traditional machinery. And so Hannemann came to Tailfingen with his film and offered – according to Goebel – “a small, fine film company” the opportunity to get to know a little-known piece of cultural history.

The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree

Klaus Friedrich and Gerhard Göbelt are additional educators; It had not been agreed from the start that she would one day tour the countries with rolls of film and a projector. Meanwhile, Klaus Friedrich’s aunt had already run a silent film cinema, his mother had worked in the industry; the apple is not that far from the main field. At some point in the early 1980s, Friedrich switched to touring around the country with heavy boxes in a van, pitching his tents in the festival halls of various rural communities and showing his films. Which movies? “Emil and the Detectives” was the debut, later Joseph Vilsmaier’s “Autumn Milk” attracted numerous visitors to the performances.

“The Fisherwoman” ran on Lake Constance

For eight years, from 1990 to 1998, Friedrich and Gerhard Göbelt were partners; these weren’t easy times. The traveling cinemas only ever released the current films six or eight weeks after the film palaces on site; The two file a petition with the Federal Cartel Office to get the copies sooner. And even had success, which, however, did not last long. They often take three or four films with them at a time and then “see what’s going well”. In the afternoons they liked to show children’s films, after which it was the youth’s turn, and in the evenings the adults were served – 12- to 14-hour days were the rule rather than the exception. A particularly unusual location for a cinema performance was the Näser quarry below the Michaelisberg near Cleebronn; Among other things, a horror film was on the program – and the projector in the transporter. And then there was the Lake Constance ferry – what was going on? Of course “The Fisherwoman from Lake Constance”.

Homesick for the hum of the projector

“Cultural Heroes – From the End of an Era” not only gives the two young retirees Friedrich and Göbelt a reason to reminisce, but also the viewer – it’s not by chance, Friedrich and Göbelt remember best, that cinema-goers had after the advent of digitization Withdrawal symptoms shown: they missed the hum of the 35 millimeter projector. Wolfram Hannemann preserved this hum – in a figurative sense – in his film. It is 105 minutes long and was shot in record time – from the first take to the final scene a year ago. “Corona has accommodated me,” says Hannemann. “There’s nothing else.”