The experimental short film »Fest der Liebe« is an attack on the prologue to Leni Riefenstahl’s »Fest der Schönheit«. The film questions the cinematic style of »Fest der Schönheit« and parodies the propagandistic content and values conveyed by the work of the controversial filmmaker from the Nazi era. Parallels to the aesthetic models of the current cultural and media landscape are unmistakable: both male and female bodies still – or again – have to conform to certain norms and an ideal image that hardly or not at all deviates from that of the Riefenstahl era. »Fest der Liebe« is not about toned muscles and graceful movements, but about the question of whether there is an Eros beyond the norm.
Tom Weller is a lecturer in sports education, trainer in queer fitness groups, author and filmmaker and studied sport, history and film directing in Cologne. In his projects, he works primarily on queer history and body politics.
