May 2012, arsenal cinema
Deutsche Kinemathek colloquium: Avant-garde in the archive?!
[Translate to english:] KASKARA, 1974
How do avant-garde and experimental films come into the archive – and then back into the public sphere? Often having come about in unconventional ways and long perceived to be on the edge of film history, these films usually only find their way into an archive because of the personal commitment of individual collectors. Once there, they often put the standard strategies of archives into question: How does one describe works whose contents are not conventional? What rules of conservation should be set for material which does not have a negative as an original? How do films which have their own materiality as a theme be appropriately restored?
Four international collections – the Academy Film Archive in Los Angeles, the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam, the Deutsche Kinemathek, as well as Arsenal – Institute for Film und Video Art – are presenting their avant-garde collections and discussing the challenges and perspectives when dealing with such films. Daniel Meiller (Deutsche Kinemathek), Simona Monizza (EYE Film Institute), Mark Toscano (Academy Film Archive) and Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal) will explain what archiving and digitalization strategies are possible and introduce concepts for bringing the undiscovered to the surface. This year's parallel children's colloquium, for children aged between eight and 14, is also about how to raise awareness about archive work and avant-garde films. (15. & 16.6.)
The 13th German cinematheque award will be awarded on the evening of 15.6. Entrance to the colloquium and the award ceremony is free. More details at www.deutsche-kinemathek.de (Anke Hahn)
