Parajanov - Ein Requiem

Born in Illinois in 1933, he lived in Europe since 1968, first in Paris, then in Hamburg, and finally with his wife, actress Dorothea Moritz-Holloway, in Berlin. Together with her, he published the journal "KINO German Film" since 1979, which, in addition to a continuous chronicle of the German film, offered an overview of current festival events - not only from Berlin, Cannes or Venice but also from many less popular ones nevertheless forming indispensable places for the perception of filmmakers and film culture. Made without institutional support, and distributed by Ron and Dorothea at festivals free of charge, it remains an extraordinary testimony of filmpublicistic devotion. In his main job Holloway worked for magazines such as Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Moving Pictures International and The International Film Guide. In addition to German cinema, Holloway's special interest was in the cinema of Eastern Europe, to which he devoted a number of books and a comprehensive database. From this engagement came also cinematic portraits of the directors Elem Klimov and Sergej Paradjanov.

Holloway was ordained a Catholic priest in Chicago in 1959, where he co-founded the National Center for Film Study. He earned his doctorate in Protestant Theology at the University of Hamburg with his study "Beyond the Image. Approaches to the Religious Dimension in the Cinema", which he published in 1977 with the support of the World Council of Churches. His ecclesiastical, theological and ecumenical background was continued by his collaboration with the International Church Film Organization INTERFILM, whose honorary member he was. He was awarded the Bundesverdienstkreuz and the Berlinale Camera, thus reminding also of his collaboration in the selection committee of the 1977-1979 festival. Anyone who knew Ron Holloway was impressed by his superior knowledge and clear judgment, and deeply touched by his personal gentleness. He died on 16 December 2009 of cancer.

One of the 20th century's greatest masters of cinema Sergei Parajanov was born in Georgia to Armenian parents and it was always unlikely that his work would conform to the strict socialist realism that Soviet authorities preferred. After studying film and music, Parajanov became an assistant director at the Dovzhenko studios in Kiev, making his directorial debut in 1954, following that with numerous shorts and features, all of which he subsequently dismissed as "garbage". However, in 1964 he was able to make Feuerpferde (1964), a rhapsodic celebration of Ukrainian folk culture, and the world discovered a startling and idiosyncratic new talent. He followed this up with the even more innovative Die Farbe des Granatapfels (1969) (which explored the art and poetry of his native Armenia in a series of stunningly beautiful tableaux), but by this stage the authorities had had enough, and Paradjanov spent most of the 1970s in prison on almost certainly rigged charges of "homosexuality and illegal trafficking in religious icons". However, with the coming of perestroika, he was able to make Die Legende der Festung Suram (1985), Kerib, der Spielmann (1988) and The Confession, which survives as Parajanov: The Last Spring (1992), before succumbing to cancer in 1990.