Herbaria

Was haben botanische Präparate und analoges Filmmaterial gemeinsam? Beide bewahren etwas aus der Vergangenheit und müssen selbst konserviert werden. Dabei kann sich der Zweck der Bewahrung, das Erkenntnisinteresse, über die Zeitläufte hinweg ändern. Die Dinge können auch verloren gehen, umständehalber. Filmemacher und -archivar Listorti zieht in HERBARIA entsprechende Parallelen und verweist dabei auf Gemeinsamkeiten zwischen Argentinien und Deutschland: von den deutschen Botanikern, die einst die Flora Argentiniens erforschten, bis zur deutsch-argentinischen Experimentalfilmerin Narcisa Hirsch, die sich zum Erblühen von Krokussen in Berlin äußert. (Lars Penning)

In Anwesenheit von Leandro Listorti.

In one playful passage in the film, a little girl tells a story that begins with a killer plant and culminates in the end of the world. At another point, the German filmmaker Narcisa Hirsch meditates on the idea of extinction in her house in Bariloche, Argentina. Director Leandro Listorti knows all too well that species disappear, and that the dramatic reduction of biological species since the mid-nineteenth century is scandalous. But not only do species die, but also films and even the knowledge surrounding their projection and conservation. Drawing a legitimate parallel between the two, Listorti uses testimonies from botanists and people linked to cinematheques and museums, juxtaposing scientific (and other) films with nineteenth-century systems of species conservation, supplementing them with information on the state of the existence of the worlds of plants and of images when relevant.
A lucid treatise on extinction, the film lacks neither humor nor beauty. The number of unforgettable shots of flowers is irrefutable proof of the pleasure that cinema can lavish upon us and of its direct relationship with knowledge, a pleasure that flowers produce due to their paradoxical way of invoking both life and death, as alluded to in the epilogue with elegance and precision. (Roger Koza)

In the presence of Leandro Listorti.

Leandro Listorti: DEAD YOUTH (2010), FRESNO (2014, K), LA PELÍCULA INFINITA (2018), PETIT DAGUERRE (2018, K)