In a 2025 interview, Herzog stated: "This 'Germinal' nonsense. They want to preserve the mistake. A filmmaker does not want you to see the dirt on the lens. A filmmaker wants you to see the soul. The soul is not in the grain. The soul is in the cut."
The GFD responded via a manifesto: "Herzog is wrong. The soul is in the friction. The Germinal Filme Drive celebrates friction." Despite the controversy, the Germinal Filme Drive has successfully restored 34 feature films that were previously considered "lost." Their long-term goal is to create a "Time Capsule Drive"—a 100TB hard drive encased in lead and buried under the Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, set to be opened in 2095. Germinal Filme Drive
When you arrive at the venue (often a warehouse, a closed theater, or a library basement), you will not see a Blu-ray player. You will see a custom-built PC running Linux with a proprietary playback key. In a 2025 interview, Herzog stated: "This 'Germinal'