Why Are We Creative
Event Information
About this Event
Directed by Hermann Vaske
Documentary feature / Germany / 82 mins
Strand: Arty / In competition
UK Premiere
Screening: Sunday 22 September 20:45 | Tuesday 24 September 15:45
Review:
The variety and quality of talking heads in WHY ARE WE CREATIVE? May well be unparalleled. David Bowie, Stephen Hawking, David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino, Ai Weiwei, Nelson Mandela, Dennis Hooper, the Dalai Lama, John Cleese, Harvey Keitel. In total, over 50 Nobel Prize laureates and Academy Award winners are asked the eponymous question. Their answers differ enormously. Some are dismissive of such reductionism, others are taken unawares by such a direct question, and some seem to be as involved in deconstructing creativity as Hermann Vaske himself - a man who has dedicated his life to this supposedly simple question.
More than an attempt to find a genuine answer to that question, however, the film serves as a unique survey of the artistic world. The motivations and inspirations of so many successful, creative people have never been brought together so intensely as here. Certain similarities are unavoidable - privilege, for example, seems to provide an apt basis for the creative arts. But it is diversity more than similarity that overwhelms - that one question could have so many different, even contrary answers is a fascination in itself. / Review by Milo Garner
Credits:
Director: Hermann Vaske
Writer: Hermann Vaske, Chris Langham, Risa Mickenberg, Mark Williams, Dave Trott, Michael Grimm, Paul Arden
Producer: Hermann Vaske, Charles V. Bender
Executive Producer: Hermann Vaske
Cast: David Bowie, Björk, John Cleese, Ai Weiwei, Pussy Riot
