The Dumpster kid does not fit into society. It starts with the fact that it grows up in a hospital’s rubbish dump, from a discarded placenta. But only until Mrs. Dr. Wohlfahrt (Mrs. Dr. Welfare) discovers it and is disgusted, as, according to her, this is not acceptable. Thus, the Dumpster kid leaves the dumpster and, henceforth, strays through society in its red stocking and its red dress, and if it dies, then, fortunately, only until the next film.

In 1969 Ula Stöckl and Edgar Reitz took the enthusiasm of the French actress Kristine de Loup for an Austrian swearword as an occasion to create the character of the Dumpster kid. Just as the Dumpster kid had no place in society, the films had no place in Cinema. So without further ado Stöckl and Reitz invented the “Kneipenkino” (Pub cinema)  which we recreate for LICHTER in the “Mal Seh’n” Cinema: 22 films of varying length à la carte. Now that the series was digitally restored – How would you like it? 

In 1963, Ula Stöckl (*1938 in Ulm) began studying at the College of Design’s Institute for film design in her hometown Ulm. Thereby, she was one of the very first women to ever get accepted at film schools in the Federal Republic of Germany. Her graduation film Neun Leben hat die Katze was widely recognized and today is often regarded as the first feminist movie. Furthermore, since the 1980s, she has been active as a lecturer, among others at the German Film and Television Academy in Berlin (dffb). Nowadays, she still teaches at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, in the subjects Direction and Women in Film. In February of 2018, the Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art in Berlin dedicated a retrospective to her.

 

In 1962, Edgar Reitz (*1932 in Morbach) founded the Institute for film design at HfG Ulm with Alexander Kluge, where he taught Direction and Camera theory himself. He is co-signatory of the Oberhausen Manifesto (1962) and is considered an important representative of New German Cinema. He became known internationally through his “Heimat“ trilogy. He has published numerous theoretical works on Film and was professor for film at the State Academy of Fine Art in Karlsruhe.