The filmmaker and writer Xiaolu Guo (*1973) is currently the guest of the DAAD's Berlin artistic program. China and London, film and literature – she moves flexibly between two cultures, two languages and two types of art. In FAR AND NEAR (UK/China 2003, 27.6.) she plays a writer who remembers her childhood in the Welsh mountains. SHE, A CHINESE (UK/Germany/France 2009, 30.6.) tells the story of the adventurous Mei who goes from a village in the huge city of Chongqing and ends up in London, with inter-titles providing the commentary, rock music and elements from gangster cinema. Documentary and fiction are intertwined in HOW IS YOUR FISH TODAY? (China/UK 2006, 27.6.), in which a screenplay writer follows his protagonist through China and encounters him in the county of Mohe, a legendary spot for observing the Northern Lights.

Conflicts and comedies, memoirs and visions – there are myriad ways of filming Jewish life, as shown by the program of the 18. Jewish Film Festival which has finally come of age. Fittingly for such an occasion, the festival is particularly comprehensive this year: 30 films, six venues, a plethora of guests – please see the calendar.

Walter Ruttmann's BERLIN. DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSSTADT (D 1927) is not only a singular portrait of the dazzling metropolis in the mid-1920s but also the linchpin of an eponymous series of short and long documentaries from the 1920s and 30s. The city symphonies employed rhythmic montage and associative sequences of images to capture the increasing dynamism, mechanization and modernity of cities. Rhythm, tempo, movement, abstraction and the joy of experimenting shaped these filmic approaches to Berlin, Nice, Moscow, New York and Paris. Those we are showing in June are taken from across film history and include specimens which revere the first city symphonies as well as distant echoes of the early cinematic urban explorations.

Heinz Emigholz's PARABETON - PIER LUIGI NERVI AND ROMAN CONCRETE, which premiered in this year's Forum program, can be seen in Arsenal cinema in July. In addition, we will be presenting a retrospective of other architecture films by Heinz Emigholz within the next few weeks: SENSE OF ARCHITECTURE (24.6.), MAILLARTS BRÜCKEN, ZWEI PROJEKTE VON FRIEDRICH KIESLER UND SULLIVANS BANKEN (29.6.), EINE SERIE VON GEDANKEN (1.7.), SCHINDLERS HÄUSER (8.7.), LOOS ORNAMENTAL (11.7.), GOFF IN DER WÜSTE (15.7.), D'ANNUNZIOS HÖHLE UND MISCELLANEA III (18.7.).

This month, we are accompanying a seminar held by Ulrike Vedder and Alexandra Tacke at Humboldt University about working environments in literature and film.