August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century (film screening and gallery tours)

Dates: Saturday and Sunday, June 14 and 15, 2008
Location: Getty Center, Museum Lecture Hall and Museum galleries
Admission: Free; no reservations required.

Learn the story of August Sander's portrait project with this free afternoon event combining screenings of a 2002 documentary video about the photographer with tours of the exhibition August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century.

The video and the exhibition explore August Sander's monumental project of the 1910s, '20s, and '30s to create a collective portrait of the German people. Aiming to capture "natural portraits that show the subjects in an environment corresponding to their own individuality," Sander explored classes, occupations, and social roles, capturing tradesmen and artists, women and laborers, aristocrats and mental patients, along with their surroundings and dress.

Schedule
Screenings take place at 12:30 p.m., 2:30 p.m., and 4:30 p.m. in the Museum Lecture Hall.

Gallery tours take place at 1:30 p.m and 3:30 p.m. in the exhibition galleries.

About the Documentary August Sander: People of the Twentieth Century
The 44-minute documentary introduces Sander's life and work. Beginning with his origins in a poor miner's family in western Germany, it traces his early career as a studio photographer, his most productive period in the '20s and '30s, and the attempts of the Nazis to destroy his work because some of his subjects did not represent the ideal Aryan type. The video features rare interviews with Sander's family members and acquaintances, including his daughter Sigrid Biow (who died in 2001), his former assistant Renate Prior, and his grandson Gerd Sander, who manages the Sander estate.

The documentary was produced and directed by German documentary filmmaker Reiner Holzemer, who has also made films about numerous other 20th-century photographers, including William Eggleston, René Burri, and Walker Evans.

How to Get Here
The Getty Center is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive in Los Angeles, California, approximately 12 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles. See Hours, Directions, Parking for maps and driving directions.