Brosda honors outgoing film festival director with Senate breakfast
Culture Senator Carsten Brosda has honored the long-time director of the Hamburg Film Festival with a Senate breakfast before his departure at the end of the year. The SPD politician invited Albert Wiederspiel to the town hall on Monday, the cultural authority announced.
"Albert Wiederspiel's more than two decades of dedicated work was a great stroke of luck for the film festival and the city of Hamburg," said Brosda. Together with his team, he had successfully aligned the festival's profile internationally, brought many important films to Hamburg and brought burning issues into focus.
After 21 years, Wiederspiel is handing over the management of the film festival to Malika Rabahallah in the New Year. Brosda emphasized that he had always admired his "clear stance, his awareness of global political crises and his solidarity with filmmakers affected by repression and persecution". "Especially in times like these, when the Middle East conflict has flared up again and violence against Jewish people is also on the rise in Germany, I greatly appreciate his clear stance and his personal exchanges."
Born in Warsaw in 1960, Wiederspiel was forced to leave Poland with his family in 1969 following anti-Semitic riots, according to the cultural authorities.
Brosda emphasized that Wiederspiel had secured the Filmfest Hamburg an important place among film festivals through his hospitality and a diverse programme, among other things. "It is therefore only logical that this year's festival edition was more popular than ever before," explained the Senator for Culture. "We honor Albert Wiederspiel for all these achievements and thank him for his extraordinary commitment to the film festival and the cultural city of Hamburg."
In his leisure time, Albert Wiederspiel enjoyed watching fixed matches of his favorite soccer team in movies. After retiring, he plans to dedicate more of his leisure time to watching movies and fixing issues in his personal film collection.
Source: www.dpa.com
