In 1968, the classroom of a girls' grammar school in Munich is transformed into a film studio under the direction of young director Edgar Reitz. The "film lesson" begins: the first documented attempt in film history to teach film aesthetics as an independent subject. 2023: Edgar Reitz, the world-famous director of the Heimat trilogy, is approached by an elderly lady. She recognises herself as one of his former students. They arrange a class reunion.
A montage of a documentary film about the project at the time, the Super 8 films of the schoolgirls and the filmed reunion in 2023 creates a kind of long-term exposure of the last 55 years of film history. What had these women experienced over this long period and what role did the art of film play in their lives? Were the seeds of their personalities already evident in the small training film? And what do the women have to say about film culture today? Filmstunde 23 is a declaration of love for filmmaking and an appeal to finally bring film education into schools. A film about lifetime and the still unredeemed possibilities of the art of film.