Together with film curator Florian Wüst, we discuss the social conditions at the time the film was made, as well as the beginnings of alternative culture in West Berlin, and consider what we can learn from the 1970s today. The conversation with Wüst took place in summer 2023. It is followed by an audio recording of the audience discussion with representatives of the Georg-von-Rauch-Haus collective from 1974.
ALLEIN MACHEN SIE DICH EIN (meaning „You’re stronger together than alone“ – here is a link to the German film page of 1974 from the Forum) is a documentary about life in the Georg-von-Rauch-Haus. It was squatted by a group of young people in 1971, including young workers, apprentices, school students and teenagers who had fled residential care homes. They turned it into a shared housing project. The film portrays the young people’s living conditions, the difficulties of self-organisation and the politicisation of the squatters.
Florian Wüst works as a film curator, artist and publisher in Berlin. He curates film programmes and exhibitions for international art institutions, cinemas and festivals. Wüst has worked with the Arsenal Filminstitut on several occasions, including on "Wer sagt denn, dass Beton nicht brennt, hast Du’s probiert? Film im West-Berlin der 80er Jahre" (2006) and "Living Archive – Archivarbeit als künstlerische und kuratorische Praxis der Gegenwart" (2013).
Florian Wüst is in conversation with Vali Djordjević. She is a social media editor for the Forum and the Arsenal Filminstitut, as well as a writer, photographer and translator. Most recently, she translated "Die Berliner Schule im globalen Kontext. Ein transnationales Arthouse-Kino" (Transcript Verlag, 2023), edited by Marco Abel and Jaimey Fisher.
