Admired by the likes of Jean-Marie Straub and Harun Farocki, Peter Nestler was one of the most important filmmakers to emerge from postwar Germany. From his early films about the changing realities of rural and industrial areas in Germany and the UK, to his work for Swedish television, Nestler has remained a precise observer of the poetry and politics of labor, crafting meticulous portraits of industrial processes, working conditions, and workers themselves, as well as the background of struggle and oppression against which the era’s proletariat toiled. A vigorous yet nuanced opponent of fascism, an excavator of lost histories and a masterful formalist whose works are rich with a materiality all their own, Nestler has spent five decades chronicling how things get made, whether in a factory or at the level of ideology. This June, the Film Society is pleased to host Nestler himself for his first major retrospective in years, including a wealth of new digital restorations courtesy of Deutsche Kinemathek.

Presented in partnership with the 2017 Robert Flaherty Film Seminar and with support from MUBI and Goethe-Institut. Organized by Dennis Lim and Dan Sullivan, in collaboration with Ricardo Matos Cabo

Acknowledgments: Deutsche Kinemathek, Courtisane, Christopher Small, Ted Fendt, Barbara Ulrich, Nuno Lisboa, Anita Reher