The next edition of our children's film studio takes place on Sunday, December 15.

Work seldom appears in film, even though it’s full of exciting and playful processes which filmmakers can also show an interest in. In OFENBAUER (East Germany 1962), Jürgen Böttcher and five cameramen follow how an old furnace is removed from a coal mine and a new one is installed: tense faces, examining hands, the sound of rushing wind, and steel cables stretched almost to breaking point. Harun Farocki and Hartmut Bitomsky watch children playing in TRANSPORT 1 + 2 (West Germany 1973), as well as how they recognize that greater strength is obtained by working together. In VERLORENE FORMEN (Germany 2019) by Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz, two girls observe the laborious, centuries-old process of bronze casting in England. Following the screening, Anna Faroqhi and Haim Peretz will shoot a short stop-trick film with the audience about work.

For all six years and up.

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 November 30, at 4pm. Please register in advance. 


The work of film projectionist in the cinema usually takes place out of view – in the projection booth. This short film program to take part in introduces children to the job of the film projectionist and gives an introduction to the art of film projection. The film PREMIÈRE SÉANCE (France 1895/1995) about the legendary first cinema screening by the Lumière brothers in Paris in 1895 lays out the historical threads: in the early days of the cinema, the film projector was still set up in the auditorium and operated by a hand crank. The colorful, squeaking COLORFILM (Standish Lawder, USA 1972) shows how film strips turn into music when put through the film projector. In the Cuban documentary POR PRIMERA VEZ (Octavio Cortázar, Cuba 1967), a travelling cinema passes through the most remote corners of Cuba and brings films to people that have never been to the cinema. A truck serves as a projection booth and place for sleeping.

An event as part of the SchoolCinemaWeeks on November 13, moderated by Stefanie Schlüter, classes: 1–3. Registation necessary.

DER PARK (2017) is the name of the film made by the children of the “Grüne Soße” day crèche in Frankfurt am Main. And as they’re visiting us in Berlin on November 24, we are showing their film and two early films they’ve made a soundtrack for: FRANKFURT ALTER MARKT, Auguste and Louis Lumière, France 1896, and EINE FAHRT DURCH BERLIN, Oskar Messter, Germany 1910.

DER PARK brought us to other films that were filmed outside in parks: crows at the Lietzensee park in Berlin (SANS TITRE, Karl Heil, Germany 2018), Indian figures and running children at the Rietberg Park in Zurich (IM PARK, Ute Aurand, Germany 2009), figures in the park of Versailles (BAGATELLE FOR WILLARD MAAS, Marie Menken, USA 1961), and a mysterious woman in costume between the fountains at the Villa d’Este in Tivoli near Rome (EAUX D’ARTIFICE, Kenneth Anger, USA 1953).

For 7 and upwards.

The archive — traditionally defined as a repository or ordered system of documents — has incessantly played a significant role in the construction of historical knowledge. Manifesting itself in various forms of traces, it remains until today the primary site for storing, retrieving and interpreting the past. But how could the archive account for all the moments that have not been recorded, the moments of which there has not been a physical trace as such?

The 10-week workshop is participatory, discussion-based, multi-disciplinary and open to artists, writers and researchers with interest and/or experience in the subject matter. Sessions will start on October 15 and will take place weekly through December 17 every Tuesday from 6pm to 9pm at silent green Kulturquartier.

The next edition of our children's film events will take place on Sunday October 20, for all kids from 8 years upwards: Since the first time films were shown in 1895, they were accompanied by sounds and music. Both then and now, noises, music, and sounds were combined. Before we make our own sound experiments and create a soundtrack to LE CHAUDRON INFERNAL (Georges Méliès, France 1903) together and play it live, we discover what can be seen and heard in six short films: we walk through a corn field in SUSAN THROUGH CORN (Kathleen Laughlin, USA 1985) and experience Rosalie in love and dancing in ROSALIE DANSEUSE (Romeo Bosetti, France 1911). FADENSPIELE III plays with mountains, lines, and sounds (Detel Aurand, Ute Aurand, Germany 2013). ZWEIGROSCHENZAUBER (Hans Richter, Germany 1930) presents us an eddy of images, sounds, and words, MOTHLIGHT (Stan Brakhage, USA 1963) moths in the light, and LE CHAUDRON INFERNAL miraculous transformations.

Our next film program for children aged 5 and aboved on September 29 depicts patterns and variations - on textiles, from light and color, painted and photographed. 117 Scottish patterns are featured in TARTANS, PLAIDS, BACKPIPES (Petra Kraus-Karon, Germany 1990). This squared frenzy of colors is followed by Hans Richter’s black-and-white FILMSTUDIE (Germany 1926). Objects filmed through a kaleidoscope become patterns, a crown of moving eyes, framed by abstract animations. TUSALAVA (UK 1928), an animated film by the New Zealand filmmaker Len Lye, whose visual language was inspired by the indigenous art of the South Pacific, is also black-and-white. Unknown creatures reminiscent of cells appear. THE ROOM OF CHROMATIC MYSTERY (2006) by the Australian filmmaking couple Corinne und Arthur Cantrill leads the viewer into a room of colored light, accompanied by a sound collage of noises and voices. After the screenings, all will be invited to create their own colored (light) patterns.

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.

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.