October 10 & 12–Woodstock Film Festival: Karl Berger – Music Mind

Published by cody on September 12, 2018September 12, 2018

CMS Founder and Director Karl Berger is the subject of a documentary premiering at the 2018 Woodstock Film Festival.

The October 10 premiere (7:00 PM) at the Woodstock Playhouse will also feature a performance with Karl, Ingrid Sertso and Steven Bernstein, Billy Martin, Peter Apfelbaum, Ken Filiano, and special guests.

The film will also screen on October 12 (8:30 PM) at the Orpheum in Saugerties.

Legendary jazz improvisational pioneer and longtime Woodstock resident Karl Berger is celebrated with intimacy and grandeur in Karl Berger – Music Mind. The film traces his journey from Heidelberg to Paris to New York to Woodstock, culminating with his celebrated anniversary concert at this year’s Theaterhaus Jazz Festival in Stuttgart. Berger, who founded the Creative Music Studio (CMS) with jazz innovator Ornette Coleman and singer/wife Ingrid Sertso, first encountered jazz by playing with U.S. soldiers who were stationed in postwar Germany. He went on to collaborate with the likes of Don Cherry, Carla Bley, Jack DeJohnette, Dave Holland, Pat Metheny, Anthony Braxton, and established the CMS in Woodstock as one of the premier places for free improvisation and world music. In a film rich with interviews, music and archival footage, Music Mind provides an inside look into the creative process and unique approach toward music that makes Karl Berger…Karl Berger. 

Avery Davenport

Julian Benedikt is an award-winning director and photographer best known for his films Jazz Seen: The Life and Times of William Claxton(2001), Blue Note – A Story of Modern Jazz (1997) and Play Your Own Thing: A Story of Jazz in Europe (2006). He is driven by his passion: people, light and music. Benedikt has worked with many of the most influential people in music, as well as with renownend personalities in sports, art and fashion such as Dennis Hopper, B.B. King, Burt Bacharach, Billy Wilder, Roger Federer, Carlos Santana, Lionel Hampton, Tyson Gaye, David Lynch, Cindy Crawford, Robert Evans, Marianne Faithfull, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Jodie Foster, Daryl Hannah, Jeff Koons, Karl Lagerfeld, Juliette Gréco, Helmut and June Newton, Luciano Pavarotti, Paloma Picasso, Jan Garbarek, Pat Metheny, Claudia Schiffer, Ettore Sottsass, Sigourney Weaver, John Frankenheimer, Herbie Hancock, and Vidal Sassoon.

Cast/Featuring:
 Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso, Enrico Rava, Carla Bley, Jack DeJohnette, a.o.
Producer(s): 
Axel Kroell

Director(s):
 Julian Benedikt
Screenwriter(s):
 Julian Benedikt
Cinematographer(s):
 Ma Raab
Editor(s):
 Alexander Costea, David Feuerstein
Composer(s)/Music:
 Karl Berger, Ingrid Sertso
Sound Designer(s): Joshua Sedlak, Klaus Ploch, Fabian Schäffler