The Prediction Of Extreme Events
Film Screening & Ticket Information
When & Where to See this Film!
In Person Date, Time & Location:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 5TH • 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
KAS Zukor • 35th St. • Long Island City, NY 11106
SCREENING BLOCK:
Agitating Visions: Two films that ask you to take a closer look.
Synopsis
E. J. Gumbel was one of the first to describe and understand extreme events through extreme value statistics, but forgotten is his political life that made him once one of the most exposed enemies of the Nazis, fighting against populism and the rise of fascism. David Ruf’s documentary film ‘Gumbel’s Extreme Values’, tells the story of his life through animation, archive material and interviews.
Credits
David Ruf, Director, Land of Light
Anke Klaaßen, Writer, Land of Light
Hartmut Schwenk, Producer, Mont Blanc, Mankell`s Africa, Der schwermütige Spieler
Dominik Berg, Camera, The Swarm, The Hannas, Offline, Dangerous Truth
Nuno Viegas, Animation
Director Statement
In the face of the extremes of Nazism, we are usually concerned with the perpetrators and the victims, less with the roots of the violence and how it changed society. And we tend to forget the voices of those who tried to prevent the violence.
E. J. Gumbel was one of the best known and most hated enemies of the Nazis in his time. His notoriety was such that his name itself became a dirty word. The Nazis hated Gumbel because he uncompromisingly showed how the first German democracy sacrificed its ideals and the means by which the fascists came to power.
Our present reminds me of this period of German history. Gumbel, too, grew up in a time marked by a sense of security and progress, especially in contrast to all that was to follow – wars, annihilation, loss of freedom, the age of fascism. Gumbel was an optimist and a democrat in the half of the century that went down in history as a downfall of civilization. A pacifist in an era of extreme violence. A Cassandra figure whose grim warnings went unheard. And thus a reminder for each of us to protect our society and its values in the face of the extremes we are dealing with today.
Director Biography
David Ruf was born in Bavaria, Germany. After graduating from high school, he shot his first documentary film on the volunteer industry in Kolkata, India. He traveled in the Middle East, South America and traveled through Russia and Ukraine on a moped. From 2007 to 2014 he studied documentary film directing at the Filmakademie Baden-Württemberg. His graduation film was “Children of Light,” a feature film with Syrian children living as refugees on the Turkish-Syrian border. The film was awarded the “Program Award 2018” of the Public German Television. In 2017, he founded the production company “Rocinante Film”.
