Wim Wenders has clarified his much-discussed statement about filmmakers’ role in politics that kicked off a firestorm at Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.
Wenders was at the center of a heated debate at the Berlinale in February after the celebrated German filmmaker, who served as jury president, said during the opening press conference that filmmakers “should stay out of politics.”
“We have to stay out of politics because if we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” Wenders said at the time. “But we are the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, not the work of politicians.”
The statement then dominated the discourse at the festival, with nearly every filmmaker and actor facing a question about politics — including the ongoing conflict in Gaza and ICE raids in the U.S. — during their respective press conferences. Author Arundhati Roy even pulled out of the festival in protest, and festival director Tricia Tuttle had to put out a statement in response to the frenzy.
Asked to reflect on his statement Sunday during a press conference at Venice Film Festival, where he is presenting his latest documentary “From Inside Out — The Architecture of Peter Zumthor,” Wenders said that he “could repeat the same thing,” though admitted he “could be more explicit.”
