Lightstruck presents *Tales of the Dumpster Kid* by Ula Stöckl & Edgar Reitz.

“In form and content possibly the most original German avant-garde work of the seventies…” (Amos Vogel, Film as a Subversive Art)

Between 1969-1971, Ula Stöckl (*The Cat Has Nine Lives*) and Edgar Reitz (*Heimat*) produced one of the most engaging and iconoclastic film projects of the New German Cinema, completely rejecting the standards and tropes of a contemporary film landscape already in extreme flux. With proto-punk spirit and dark, sardonic humor, the filmmakers dramatize the daringly absurd adventures of a Kübelkind (“Dumpster Kid”, played by the perfect Kristine de Loup), whose unpredictable meanderings through various narrative vignettes represents a radical feminist odyssey of chilling social commentary and outrageous satire.

Through its various episodes (ranging in length from one minute to nearly a half-hour), Tales of the Dumpster Kid resolutely maintains its simple yet striking visual style, while cavalierly raiding and reshaping a whole host of narrative genres – musical, comedy, family drama, gangster, horror, erotic, fairy tale, and even The Three Musketeers – each one of them repurposed to the filmmakers’ ends with an incisive yet dada spirit. Alternately audacious, hilarious, disturbing, and unexpectedly moving, Stöckl and Reitz’s project is the cinematic embodiment of righteous contrarianism.

The Dumpster Kid was born from the filmmakers’ mutual dissatisfaction with the established, arbitrary guidelines of getting films made and seen, “because in 1969 we had no desire to make another ninety-minute film that would get no distribution.” Instead, they completely rewrote the rules of what could comprise contemporary cinema, conceiving of a massive, evolving project devoted to the titular character who functioned as a stand-in not only for the artists’ own defiance, but for the oppressed and outraged women still demanding radical change at the end of the sixties. Made on a limited scale in an immensely playful spirit, the filmmakers also consciously populated the films with their friends; in one case this meant a 28-year-old Werner Herzog delivering one of his creepiest performances as a soft-spoken sadist.

Of a projected 64 episodes, 22 were actually produced, running well over three hours in total. For this program, befitting the playful and intentional anti-structure of the project, Lightstruck will provide a menu of film choices, and the audience will determine which episodes are seen, in which order, on the night of the program. The evening will run no more than 120 minutes, meaning it will be up to you to determine what we see at the show!

This program contains adult material.

*Geschichten vom Kübelkind* (*Tales of the Dumpser Kid*) (1969-71)

Directed by Ula Stöckl & Edgar Reitz

Starring Kristine de Loup

Program curated by Zena Grey, Mark Toscano, and you. Notes by Mark Toscano. Thanks to Gesa Knolle and Arsenal Distribution.

This is an 18+ event

Presented by Lightstruck

2220 Arts

Lightstruck: TALES OF THE DUMPSTER KID

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2220 Arts + Archives

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