This year’s Summer School is taking place from August 22-24. How can the medium of film make room for social discourse and political action in the cinema and in exhibition spaces? The events and workshops take a look at variety of ways that artistic practice can influence social and political processes, be it through working in a collective, artistic actionism, or spectator-oriented aesthetic strategies that understand reception as participation. The focus is on films or film curatorial concepts that can be considered less as declarations than as political action. Using historical and contemporary examples, the school will look at what had to be done to get things moving in the interplay of image-politics and social practice. The presentations are partly in German language only.

The more we are dedicated to preserving, rediscovering, and revitalizing archival films, the more we have to make sure that there is enough competence in dealing with analog film material in the future. For this reason Arsenal is offering a workshop in 16mm shooting, processing, archiving, print intersection and cleaning, digitization and projection in cinema from August 30 to September 4th. Arsenal members and partners will accompany the participants through the entire process: from producing a 16mm film, to digitizing it, then on to projecting it in the cinema, with added insights into archiving and caring for prints. The last day will involve a tour of the archive.

Registration deadline was August, 5.

What do 16mm, 35mm and 70mm actually mean? What is screen masking and what is it used for? How does a dissolve work? And what is actually happening when the image on the screen stops moving and begins to melt? If you’re interested in finding out how films get on to the screen, Arsenal would like to invite you to take a peek behind the scenes on one of our projection room tours. Our projectionist Bodo Pagels will show you round the projection room, tell you all about film formats, projectors and projection techniques, demonstrate how films are fed into the projector and provide a full introduction to the secrets of film projection. He will also be happy to answer any questions you might have about the cinema set-up and will adapt the tour to your wishes and interests as far as possible. The next scheduled tour will take place on Saturday May 25, at 4pm. Please register in advance. 


Surprise: Another film event for children will take place on March 31, dedicated to the very subject of surprise: We have selected films that are surprising in very different ways. A surprising image appears right in the middle of Renate Sami‘s WENN DU EINE ROSE SIEHST (Germany 1995). In the short, silent movie TULIPAN (Germany 2001) by Bärbel Freund and Ute Aurand, what is invisible becomes visible COOTS (UK 1998) and BLINK (UK 1977) by Guy Sherwin are small black and white puzzles and Maya Deren’s montage is surprising in A STUDY IN CHOREOGRAPHY FOR THE CAMERA (USA 1945). The students the Wilhelm-von-Humboldt-Gemeinschaftsschule surprise us with their imagination and speed and there will be a surprise film at the end. For everyone aged six and above.

Our next film event for children on March 10 is all about sound and music in film.

What are those ringing, scratching, rustling sounds in film? Since the very first films were shown in 1895, they were accompanied by sound effects and music. Nowadays, music and sound come from a previously recorded soundtrack. Before we carry out our own experiments with sound and develop ideas for our own soundtrack to HOW A MOSQUITO OPERATES together and play it live, we will get to discover what can be seen and heard in six short films: FLUKE by Emily Breer (USA 1985) travels through air and water. In ROSALIE ET LÉONTINE VONT AU THÉÂTRE by Romeo Bosetti, two friends amuse themselves royally (France 1911). Ribbons fly in M.M. Serras PP II (USA 1986) and find new forms in FADENSPIELE II (Germany 2003). In Cathy Joritz’s NEGATIVE MAN (FRG 1985) a speaking man transforms into something else without noticing. HOW A MOSQUITO OPERATES (USA 1912) gets right up close to a mosquito.