Arsenal Reading Group

From January 2026, Arsenal will be putting on a reading group that works with texts on film heritage and film archives as sites of negotiation, reinterpretation and collective practice. No specialist expertise is needed to take part, the group is open to anyone interested. The starting points are the knowledge and curiosity that the participants bring to the process, including personal experiences with films and archives, different perspectives and diverse backgrounds and contexts whether professional or otherwise. The goal is to create a space for everyone to collectively read, learn, unlearn, collect knowledge, share insecurities and be able to develop questions about how an archive can be preserved, made accessible, used and changed.   

Over the course of the monthly meetings (or more frequent ones as necessary), the participants are invited to find out how our understanding of film and its archives is produced in different geographical contexts, how it is stored, catalogued and activated and what it means to work with archival film material from a para- or transnational perspective.

The first edition is dedicated to film heritage institutions, their tasks and the structures. This includes collection policies, material questions, cataloguing, access, rights, restauration practises and much more. The reading materials here draw on a particular type of text: codes of ethics and mission statements that will be made available beforehand. Alongside the joint reading of archive theory texts, other possible themes include the concept of film heritage, private archives, restitution, decolonising archives, the role of archives as safe spaces, the dangers they face and the ways in which they can be secured and the lasting connections between film archives and narratives of state control, colonial violence, resistance and solidarity. The reading group moves between theory and practice. Academic texts stand alongside case studies, essays, manifestos or artistic positions.

The group sets out its own themes and chooses texts in line with these. The languages for reading and discussion are German and English. Please register in advance: archive@arsenal-berlin.de.

(Ella Schechter/Stefanie Schulte Strathaus)