Ernest Thiesmeier, Theo Thiesmeier, and their blended family. Still from the film "Familie sein" by Ernest and Theo Thiesmeier
© Stiftung Humboldt Forum im Berliner Schloss / Ernest and Theo Thiesmeier
A group of people sits in a room with windows and plants, smiling and in different outfits.
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What defines a family today? In their film ‘Familie sein.’ (Being family), Theo Thiesmeier and Ernest Thiesmeier – father and son – explore different family structures: blended families, queer families, extended families, single-parent households.

On 1 May, the two directors will bring their own patchwork family to the Humboldt Forum. Together with the curator Laura Goldenbaum they discuss the ideas that led to the production of this work. How do the family concepts shown relate to the directors’ own family structures? What prompted them to engage with their own familiy? What makes it unique?

The film navigates the tension between self-description and external attribution. It reveals how roles are defined and identities formulated, and how closeness is formed. At the same time, it opens up a space for projections. Categories emerge in the viewer’s gaze, are examined, shifted and dissolved.

Visually, the footage is arranged as group portraits. In the Living Room, they can be viewed together as a continuous video loop. This creates a polyphonic picture of the contemporary family: open, precise, questioning.

Participants: Ernest Thiesmier, Theo Thiesmeier and further family members
Host: Laura Goldenbaum

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