The Sun Island is an essay film about coincidences, shattered lives, and posthumous fame. A found footage family film about love and passion, friendship and heartbreak set in Frankfurt and Berlin between the wars (1927–1935), during WWII, and into the present. It includes the history of the Frankfurt Großmarkhalle (Central Market)—a landmark building of the International Style—before and after its acquisition by the European Central Bank, as part of its new headquarters.

Writer/director Thomas Elsaesser is Emeritus Professor in the Department of Media & Culture at the University of Amsterdam and author of several prize-winning books. From 2006 to 2012 he was Visiting Professor at Yale. Since 2013 he teaches part-time at Columbia University, New York.

He is the grandson of German architect Martin Elsaesser, a protagonist of The Sun Island. He is also the co-editor of Martin Elsaesser—Schriften (Niggli, 2014) and of Martin Elsaesser und das Neue Frankfurt (Wasmuth, 2009).

FOR MORE ABOUT THE FILM.

Free and open to the public. Light reception to precede at 7:45 P.M.

Sponsored by the Michael A. and Erika A. Metzger Special Events Endowment Fund and the Graduate Group in German and Austrian Studies.