Cinema Archive Detail

May 2012
Filmmakers' Choice
In this month's Filmmakers' Choice session on May 21, Bärbel Freund presents films by Karl Heil, Reinhard Kahn and Michel Leiner. Karl Heil's MMH (1981) introduces us to several young people in search of happiness in the West Berlin of the time, their existences in this summery, urban space becoming tangible in the process. The adventurous, defiant and dreamily playful way in which Karl Heil discovered the medium of film for himself is shared by Reinhard Kahn and Michel Leiner, both from Frankfurt. PLATZWUNDER (1983/84) by Kahn / Leiner draws on Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg. In RÜCKE VOR AUF: FRÜHLINGSMORGEN (1988/89) and ETWAS AUS GLAS (1989/95), both by Reinhard Kahn, Hamburg and its surroundings also enchant us. The characters radiate with a fine soulful aura from the deepest twilight: a restless sense of yearning, departure and blessed uselessness (Peter Nau).
May 2012
Living Archive on Tour!
Madhushree Dutta, a former Goethe Institute Living Archive fellow, is the head of 'Majlis' in Mumbai, a centre for interdisciplinary art initiatives. The "Cinema City" series produced by Majlis is being exhibited at the National Gallery of Modern Art in Mumbai, including a seminar entitled "Archiving the Contemporary". Stefanie Schulte Strathaus and Nicole Wolf will be presenting the Living Archive Project there on May 19 as well as presenting film programs in Mumbai, Bangalore, Calcutta and Pune.
May 2012
Public Screening on May 30: "Alyam, Alyam"
For this month's public screening on May 30, we will be viewing Ahmed El Maanouni's ALYAM ALYAM (Morocco 1978, 87 min). This film will be discussed at the request of Ala Younis, artist and curator from Amman. She is currently in Berlin as a Goethe-Institut Fellow to participate in the Living Archive project. ALYAM ALYAM is famous Moroccan director Ahmed El Maanouni’s first film. In 1978 he was awarded the grand prize of the "Mannheim Film Festival". The film portrays a peasant family and their daily lives, a topic that is discussed here for the first time in Moroccan film.
May 2012
Living Archive: Open Day for Teachers
What can a cinema, a film archive and films accomplish when it comes to the aesthetic and cultural education of young people who have grown up in the digital age? This is one of the many questions that Stefanie Schlüter is exploring as part of her "Living Archive" project. To this end, she will be opening the doors of the Arsenal film archive on May 21 from 3pm to 6pm to teachers from all types of school and of all age groups.
This program comprises a group tour around the archive rooms themselves and the screening of short films chosen collectively. Teachers are invited to browse through the archive, which houses over 10,000 films and videos. In the second part of the program, Stefanie Schlüter will then present the different opportunities the Arsenal archive offers to teachers in order that questions about the past, present and future of the moving image can be developed together with students.
May 2012
"Heroes": This month's film
To coincide with the children's exhibition at the Deutsche Kinemathek on the theme “Heroes” we are presenting fitting films on each last Sunday of a month. On May 27, the Danish film HODDER SAVES THE WORLD! (En som Hodder, Henrik Ruben Genz, 2004) will be showing, in which a fairy confronts a nine-year-old with a request which he can't refuse. Young heroes that present the "Hero ticket" from the exhibition will receive free entry.
May 2012
Vaginal Davis presents: Rising Stars, Falling Stars – We Must Have Music!
In her new series, which is dedicated to the Arsenal’s archive from a musical point of view, artist, performer and project participant Vaginal Davis will be presenting John Cassavetes' classic THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE (USA 1976). "John Cassavetes is not just the most independent of independent filmmakers because he plays with the components of the thriller or puts them through their paces. Cassavetes doesn't try to obtain freedom, he just has it. It is the freedom to use the camera, montage and music in a fully subjective and excessive manner to explore his themes and obsessions." (Anke Leweke)
May 2012
Joyce Wieland Retrospective
"I think of Canada as female. All the art I've been doing or will be doing is about Canada. I may tend to overly identify with Canada." (Joyce Wieland, 1931–1998) A sailboat passes by and the word SAILBOAT can be read: the structuralist film reflects the relationship between static text and the moving images – until Hollis Frampton casually steps in front of the running camera from off-screen and a seemingly strictly composed work briefly becomes a home movie. There, at Lake Ontario, the two of them also shot A&B IN ONTARIO (1966–84), a sort of game of hide and seek with the Bolex camera. These films, as well as Wieland's complex reflection on Canada LA RAISON AVANT LA PASSION / REASON OVER PASSION (1969) and 1933, a looped street scene in New York (1967), were obtained by deceased Arsenal staff member Alf Bold in 1993 for our collection. After Joyce Wieland herself died in 1998, we were able to use the experimental film fund bequeathed to us by Alf Bold to obtain seven further films of hers. It gives us great pleasure that the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) has now released the complete works of this outstanding artist as a DVD box-set. We will be presenting it from May 1-3 together with the CFMDC and the Canadian Embassy in Berlin. Lauren Howes (CFMDC) and the film scholars and curators Tabea Metzel (FU Berlin), Robin Curtis (NYU Berlin) and Madeleine Bernstorff will introduce the individual films and conclude the series by discussing Wieland's entire oeuvre. Tickets for the whole three-day program are available.
May 2012
Living Archive: Open Day for Teachers
What can a cinema, a film archive and films accomplish when it comes to the aesthetic and cultural education of young people who have grown up in the digital age? This is one of the many questions that Stefanie Schlüter is exploring as part of her "Living Archive" project. To this end, she will be opening the doors of the Arsenal film archive on May 21 from 3pm to 6pm to teachers from all types of school and of all age groups.
This program comprises a group tour around the archive rooms themselves and the screening of short films chosen collectively. Teachers are invited to browse through the archive, which houses over 10,000 films and videos. In the second part of the program, Stefanie Schlüter will then present the different opportunities the Arsenal archive offers to teachers in order that questions about the past, present and future of the moving image can be developed together with students.
May 2012
Main Prize for "Dom" ("The House") in Pilsen
Suzanna Liová's feature debut DOM (THE HOUSE) has received the main prize at the 25th Festival of Czech Film in Pilsen. The Film, which had its world premiere in last year's Forum program, tells the story of a generational conflict in the Czech province. Stone by stone, Imrich is building a small house for his daughter Eva almost entirely on his own. But for Eva, who is about to graduate from school, the prospect of moving into the house is about as appealing as being imprisoned in a jail she herself has helped to build. She has very different plans for her future. Her grumpy, stingy, controlling father has already broken with Eva’s sister, Jana, after she got herself involved with a scoundrel with whom she now has three children. So the father is twice as vigilant with Eva, but she still manages to indulge in a few little freedoms: skipping school for a couple of days, doing little jobs to save up cash for the trip she longs to make to London, and an affair with an older man who turns out to be her English teacher. A generational conflict in a milieu where even the minor characters are described in such detail that one suspects the film has been modeled on directors like Mike Leigh or Ken Loach. But the speechlessness and deeply entrenched feelings of the parent generation here also reflect the profound impact of radical social change and the struggle to come to terms with that change. This makes Zuzana Liová’s feature a notable example of young, intelligent cinema from Eastern Europe. (Anna Hoffmann)
April 2012
New on realeyz.tv: "Aufnahme"
We are delighted to present Stefan Landorf‘s multi-layered debut AUFNAHME (EMERGENCY ROOM) on our VOD channel at realeyz.tv. The director – a former doctor himself – turns his attention to a Berlin hospital. Medical terms such as ward visits, doctor’s rounds, anamnesis, clinical patterns can also be applied to the film’s structure, which makes the institution appear like an organism being given a check up and prodded in various ways.

Filmmakers' Choice

Living Archive on Tour!

Public Screening on May 30: "Alyam, Alyam"

Living Archive: Open Day for Teachers

"Heroes": This month's film

Vaginal Davis presents: Rising Stars, Falling Stars – We Must Have Music!

Joyce Wieland Retrospective

Living Archive: Open Day for Teachers

Main Prize for "Dom" ("The House") in Pilsen

New on realeyz.tv: "Aufnahme"