From May 1 until June 8 we will show films by writer, director, producer and activist Tatjana Turanskyj on our streaming platform arsenal 3 Tatjana Turanskyj started out working collectively in the areas of performance and theater, made videos and staged performances with Hangover Ltd., and cofounded the OK-GIRL$ Gallery before founding a production company with a focus on feminist auteur films. The feature films she has created since then, beginning with EINE FLEXIBLE FRAU, follow a playful and exuberant approach to address discourses on gender relations and changes in the world of work. Her artistic practice goes hand in hand with her commitment to feminist film politics, and she is one of the cofounders of the Pro Quote Regie initiative.

One of the partner archives of the “Archive außer sich” project is the Cimatheque - Alternative Film Centre in Cairo. The Centre offers screenings, workshops, a library and a laboratory in addition to its archive, which contains manuscripts, photographs and periodicals, as well as 35-mm copies and material on important cinematic works from the region and beyond. The archive also includes items of lesser-known film heritage: ephemeral materials, found footage, amateur and advertising films, newsreels, experimental documentaries, short films and press kits for B-movies. The Cimatheque archive is a special one: filmmakers contribute their work knowing that it is not only in safe hands, but can also participate in a public discourse. The first of these was Atteyat Al Abnoudy (1939-2018), who entrusted a large portion of her films to the Cimatheque team in 2011, shortly after the revolution, hoping they would be preserved there and made accessible again. The Cimatheque digitized not just some of her films, but even outtakes and footage that had never been shown publicly. In 2018 they held a retrospective dedicated to the work of the documentary filmmaker, which was subsequently shown at the Arsenal and is now being shown again on arsenal 3.

In May, “Archive besides” will be showing Atteyat Al Abnoudy's films on our streaming platform arsenal 3.

An online discussion with Asmaa Yehia El-Taher, Atteyat Al Abnoudy's daughter, and Tamer El Said, filmmaker and co-founder of Cimatheque will take place on May 20 at 8pm. It can be seen on our Youtube Channel, questions can be asked via chat.

The Forum und Forum Expanded programmes will be shown for members of the film industry during the European Film Market (March 1–5) and will be screened in cinemas for the public from June 10–20, 2021. All information on the films and installations is now online and can be found here for the Forum and here for the Forum Expanded.

The release of three publications on the work of filmmaker Med Hondo, who died in March 2019, marks the conclusion of the exhibition, festival and book project “Cours, cours, camarade, le vieux monde est derrière toi – Run, comrade, run, the old world is behind you – The Cinema of Med Hondo,” organized by Arsenal and curated by Enoka Ayemba, Marie-Hélène Gutberlet and Brigitta Kuster.

The two books and an e-publication, comprising an integral part of the overall project, are based on and expand upon a variety of events held at Arsenal, Archive Kabinett, SAVVY Contemporary and the silent green Kulturquartier in August 2017. These three publications bring together different perspectives on Med Hondo’s work and include a series of interviews with the filmmaker that have been translated into English for the first time.

Over the course of his long career, Med Hondo not only created films that address decolonization and the history of the African diaspora, developing new artistic means for doing so. He was also equally successful in developing alternatives to European and American production and distribution structures.