Achim von Paczensky

Using unpublished and newly digitalised archive footage and film material, Bettina Böhler has brilliantly assembled this film about the life and work of the exceptional artist Christoph Schlingensief, who died in 2010.

An eccentric homage to the Rainer Werner Fassbinder days of German filmmaking.

As stated in the opening titles and at the end Freakstars 3000 is supposed to be a commentary on the problems of the non-disabled people. The more I was shocked about how the disabled were depicted in this film the more I started to realize that in every non-disabled TV counterpart of this show (German TV shows like "Popstars" or "Friedmann" or the home shopping channels) its mentally "non-handicapped" participants are treated in a completely identical way: The total prostitution of the mind in front a huge TV audience at the expense of one's most important gifts one should hang on to: dignity. On the other hand one could completely understand people who are furious about "exploiting" these handicapped persons. But that's what Schlingensief's works are all about: shock people and don't care about those who cannot or will not try to get the message (if there is one).

Part of the Bonn opera production "Freax". Schlingensief's disabled protagonists initially move through the circus ring in artist costumes, as in Tod Browning's Freaks (1932), interspersed with and thus communicating with footage of their controversial opera performance in Bonn. Their initially cheerful procession turns into a passion play, with individual protagonists being symbolically crucified and thus once again mutilated by others.

The movie version of Christoph Schlingensief's stageplay.

Feature documentary about Christoph Schlingensief's political party/art project "Chance 2000".