Listening Sessions 
at the Restaurant MARS

The third edition of the Archival Assembly festival took place in September 2024. The theme was “Resounding Archives: The Politics of Listening to the Moving Image”. The focus was on engaging with the auditory elements of international film heritage as opposed to the dominance of the image. What do we find out about film heritage based on the soundtrack? What do we find out about cinema when we include oral histories, Q&As, different language versions, gossip or radio reports on cinema?

Shortly before the start of the festival, migas, a listening bar opened in the neighbourhood in Lindower Straße where music can be heard collectively accompanied by drinks, with equal attention being paid to the selection of both. During the festival, individually compiled audio recordings from film archives could be heard there, which are now available on our website: arsenal-berlin.de/archiv-distribution/archivprojekte/archival-assembly/archival-assembly-3/listening-sessions/.

The self-dubbed “accidental archivist” Didi Cheeka curated a program from audio archives in Nigeria; artist and filmmaker Filipa César and storyteller Marinho de Pina combined voices and sounds from Malofo in Guinea-Bissau; film scholars Johannes Praetorius-Rhein and Jonas Schöneberg from the Goethe-Universität Frankfurt presented Hanswolfgang Berg’s radio programs about cinema (produced between 1946 and 1969 for SWF); the sound artist Sara Pinheiro composed a piece from the foley sounds at the Národní filmový archiv Prag; and from Arsenal, there were recordings of Q&As from screenings at the Forum in the 1970s and 1980s at the Delphi cinema.

In January, we’ve reserved a table at Restaurant MARS, where one can listen to these listening sessions for one week via earphones. The programs are supplemented by additional text and visual materials. While listening and browsing together, there is also the opportunity to get chatting to people on the nearby tables about what’s being heard. (Stefanie Schulte Strathaus) (14.–20.1. at the opening hours of the Restaurant MARS)