GREAT FREEDOM: A Review by Jacob Shevitz & M. Woods
In honor of Pride Month, this is the third installment of our weekly Reeling Pride Month Film Showcase presented by MUBI. We are also celebrating the upcoming 41st edition of Reeling: The Chicago LGBTQ+ International Film Festival.
Thanks to MUBI we are thrilled to present the universally critically acclaimed GREAT FREEDOM, accompanied by the short film JEAN GENET IN CHICAGO, by local Chicago screen gem, Frédéric Moffet.
Don’t forget to take advantage of MUBI’s exclusive 30-day free-trial offer at www.mubi.com/reeling
The Germany shown in Sebastian Meise's GREAT FREEDOM represents the institutionalized terrorism of governments and societies where bigotry, homophobia, transphobia, and hate is codified. In his first film in almost a decade, Sebastian Meise directs Franz Rogowsky in an award winning performance as Hans Hoffman, a man who finds himself imprisoned repeatedly for engaging in sex acts with other men. Deemed criminal by the state, he is imprisoned and befriends his straight cellmate Viktor (Georg Friedrich) who happens to be a convicted murderer.
The strength of these performances shows in the intricately-woven, compelling depiction of a friendship; at the core of this relationship is an earnest representation of mutual care that feels tangible and equally despairing; throughout the movie, we witness Hans Hoffman’s struggle through repeated heartbreaks and punishing tragedy, a narrative of trials that span over two decades, shot from a voyeuristic, meticulous, almost static point of view that makes him look as if he’s always trapped in his prison. From the very start we are brought into a surveillance state, in which Hoffman’s privacy is already pierced by a panoptic police voyeur - a comment on the fascist political regime, our complicity as spectators within that structure, and the use of media to spy, capture, sexualize, gratify, propagandize, and document a doctored reality.
But it is not that the film demands attention. Meise intricately weaves a unique language of sometimes self-reflexive filmmaking into a narrative that captivates, but the performances tie together the human element. That’s what ultimately makes this a movie not just about oppression and pain, but the importance of human understanding and decency.
A review by Jacob Shevitz & M. Woods
Co-Presented by HotHouse
Friday, October 30, 7:00 PM
Chicago Filmmakers (1326 W. Hollywood Ave)
Catherine Murphy and Iris de Oliveira | 2025 | 70 min | Digital Projection
Hosted by Toni Asante Lightfoot!
In 1963, global icon Paulo Freire led an experimental project teaching hundreds of rural farmers to read, write and vote in Brazil, until he was arrested and forced into exile during a U.S.-backed coup d'état.
Told through the collective memories of farmers, students, and educators who participated in the “Culture Circles," where they learned to read and write in 40 hours, Reading the World contains rare archival footage of 1960s Brazil that was recently recovered after being buried for decades. The innovative teaching method used critical and creative thinking instead of memorization and repetition. By contextualizing and personalizing the lessons, educators used their surroundings to teach vocabulary and construct meaning. Hundreds of Brazilians became literate and were allowed to vote as a consequence, strengthening the blossoming democracy and social movement that was disrupting the colonial structures. After a shocking coup d’état, the farmers’ notebooks were set on fire, and Freire was eventually forced into exile for 16 years, spreading his pedagogy around the globe and impacting democracy and education until today. Today Freire is considered one of the most influential philosophers of education in the twentieth century, and revered by educators across the world.
Toni Asante Lightfoot is a poet, educator, and community activist dedicated to improving the physical, emotional, and financial health of her adopted community of Chicago and of her home Washington, D.C. She has edited several collections of poetry . Lightfoot has taught poetry for over 25 years in libraries, prisons, universities, and juvenile detention centers across the United States and in Trinidad and Tobago, where she also co-owned a bed & breakfast dedicated to housing artists and connecting them with Trinidadian artists and activists.