The first time I heard Werner Herzog speak was last fall when he was interviewed on NPR. His voice stopped me in my tracks. He was discussing his then recent films, My Son, My Son, What have Ye Done? And Bad Lieutenant, Port of Call. He talked about his films like they had body parts and landscapes. He used words that unwrapped ideas, bending my ear to hear the silence between each thought that was surely tethered to a great mind. I wanted to know more. I set out to watch his films and quickly consumed Fitzcaraldo, The Enigma of Kasper Hauser, Stroszek, Even Dwarfs Start Small, Bad Lieutenant, and Wheel of Time: A smattering of the sixty some films he has produced. I devoured and left scars in the book Herzog on Herzog, edited by Paul Cronin.

 

Soon after hearing the interview I discovered Werner Herzog’s Rogue film School Seminar. Described as not for the faint-hearted: it is for those who have traveled on foot, who have worked as bouncers in sex clubs or as wardens in a lunatic asylum, for those who are willing to learn about lock-picking or forging shooting permits in countries not favoring their projects. In short: for those who have a sense of poetry. For those who are pilgrims. For those who can tell a story to four-year-old children and hold their attention. For those who have a fire burning within. For those who have a dream.