Wilhelm Hein

Film

Wilhelm Hein (1940 - Duisburg) is a filmmaker, film collector and catalyst. He began making films in the late 60’s, co-founding Cologne’s XSCREEN which between 1968-1971 brought aktionismus and artists such as Jack Smith, Kenneth Anger and Otto Mühl to Europe and into collision with museums, public television and sometimes the police.

Already in the 1960s, Hein utilized multiple-screen projection, live performances and other innovative practices into his own filmmaking. Peter Weibel writes that ‘what Hein and his generation achieved was to distinguish the medium of film by defining its specific properties: the materiality of the film, the quality of the projector and the screen, the nature of the celluloid and the lightbeam of the projection.’

One of film’s true individualists, Wilhelm remains dedicated to the moving image as a means of provocation, subversion and documentation of the most intimate type.