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Night of Cinema Debate: Foucault-Derrida

September 12th, 2014
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News from Berlin - Michel Foucault and Jacques Derrida; both are considered to be the main representatives of postmodernism – suitably, both disagreed with this label. Incessantly criticising and arguing with each other on the academic level, they are considered to be the two most influential French philosophers during the latter-half the 20th century. This year is a 30th anniversary of Foucault’s death, and the 10th anniversary of Derrida’s.

To commemorate these two figures, the French Institute in Berlin has organised the night of “debate-cinema” on the 15th of September, between 19.00 and 22.30.

19h - Foucault contra Foucault (Foucault versus Foucault), a documentary movie of François Caillat, ARTE France 2014, 52 Min.

20h – Discussion with Georg W. Bertram (Institute of Philosophy, Freie University) and Kathrin Röggla (Academy of Arts in Berlin).

21h – Derrida, le courage de la pensée, (Derrida, the courage of thinking), a documentary movie of Virginie Linhart and Benoît Peeters, ARTE France 2014, 52 Min.

The French TV channel ARTE portrayed the two philosophers. François Caillat described in his movie the philosophical development of Foucault. The philosopher liked to neglect himself as just a philosopher, but rather an academic spanning several disciplines: psychologist, historian and sociologist. Virginie Linharts and Benoît Peeters presented the life of Derrida since his childhood in colonised Algeria, through his path as a philosopher, developing his famous concept of “deconstruction”.

Between the showing of the movies, Kathrin Röggla and Georg W. Bertraö will speak about their experiences of these two philosophers, the different approach to them in Germany and the political implications of their work.  The debate will be moderated by Dorian Astor, famous for his biography of Nietzsche.

News from Berlin – Berlin Global