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 October 20, at 4pm. Please register in advance. 


The first ever Autumn School for teachers takes place from 11.–13.10. and is entitled “Showing and Telling in Film”. The further training program unites film analysis and practice, presents different teaching methods, and offers an in-depth look at forms of film narration and documentation. The Autumn School was conceived by film educators and scholars Bettina Henzler and Stefanie Schlüter, who will be carrying out the program together with film director and historian Brigitta Wagner.

The next edition of our film workshop takes place on September 16, open to all children aged 5 years and older. Colors, dots and patterns dance to music, abstract shapes create a space for the concrete. This program focuses on films by artists that were made without a camera. In FREE RADICALS (USA 1958) Len Lye makes the lines scratched into film material dance to the rhythms of drums. In the hand-painted commercial film COLOUR FLIGHT (Len Lye, GB 1938), freely painted abstract shapes and stenciled planes happily make their rounds to music. The rhythmically composed play of light MOTHLIGHT (Stan Brakhage, USA 1963) has moths, blossom and leaves stuck to filmstrips appear fleetingly on the screen. Bärbel Neubauer also works with natural materials in ALGORITHMEN (Germany 1994) which acquires its colorful texture from the stamping of leaves. We use pens and tools to transform filmstrips and watch the results on the screen.

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 for the second time from August 31 to September 5. 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.

The workshop will delve into the various working areas, covering the basics with equal parts theory and practice. No previous knowledge necessary.

This year's summer school takes place from August 23–25.

Keywording, tagging, algorithms, indexing – all these terms revolve around the possibilities of approaching archives and the challenges involved with a data bank. How do you find what you’re looking for? How much are conceptual terms attributed to an artistic work defined by contemporary reception or in turn define it? How do film archives differ from other archives and how can we safeguard something as ephemeral as “oral history,” incorporating it into a meaningful systematics of search functions?

The presentations and workshops at this year’s Summer School are about the practice of indexing in archives, looking both back and into the future: What requirements should be fulfilled by contemporary databanks? Can search functions be developed that will last into the future, beyond the Zeitgeist? What criteria do we need to consider?

The next edition of our childrens' workshop is taking place on April 23: What’s ringing, scratching, rustling there in the film? Ever since films were first shown in 1895, they have been accompanied by sounds and music. Today, a sound track collects sounds, music and noise. Before ourselves experimenting with sounds and noise and coming up with ideas for a soundtrack for DIE EXPEDITION ZUM SÜDPOL (Astrid Rieger, Germany 2002) that we will then perform live, we will find out what can be seen and heard in six shorts: In STUDIE NR. 9 (Germany 1931) by Oskar Fischinger and TRADE TATTOO (USA 1937) by Len Lye, sounds become movement, SIDEWALKS (USA 1966) by Marie Menken runs behind the lines on the sidewalk and DAS HEMD (Germany 1996) allows objects to become independent. LE PUITS FANTASTIQUE (France 1903) shows us astonishing transformations and in RIVERRED (Germany 2011), siblings play on a river bank. DIE EXPEDITION ZUM SÜDPOL turns us into polar explorers.(for everyone aged 8 and up)

Our next event for children and adults aged 5 and above takes place on March 18.

People like looking at animals: At the zoo, in the circus and in the cinema. This program centers on experimental and early films where animals are the main attraction. In CATFILM FOR KATY AND CYNNIE (USA 1973), felines are the protagonists of an artistic experiment. In ENNESKEABEN (Denmark 1909) and HUNDE-VARIETÉ (France 1907) performing animals show what they can do: A chimpanzee rides a bicycle on stage and costumed dogs dance. In ÜBUNG ZUR GELASSENHEIT I–III (2002–2004) nobody takes any notice of the holy cows that sit and relax on busy roads in the jungle of big Indian cities. In LA GENETTE (France 1912) and TROIS AMIS (France 1909), people get closer to animals in the wild. A genet plunders a bird’s nest and blunders into a trap. Two children in an African country feed a small elephant that chases them away. We look at animals in so many ways, but do they look back?

The next edition of Big Cinema, Small Cinema takes place on January 11 and is for all childres aged 8 and above.

A spiraling spiral; a triangular shape comes into the picture; a circle that emerges and collapses. Can films be told without a plot?Just as some painters have tried to make do without objects or composers without tonality, filmmakers have over and over again tried to eschew plot. In OPUS 2 (G 1921) and OPUS 3 (G 1924) by Walter Ruttmann, the main characters are geometrical shapes and their movements. In Hans Richter’s FILMSTUDIE (G 1926), people, faces and constructed objects appear while in Mary Ellen Bute's short film The next edition of Big Cinema, Small Cinema takes place on January 11 and is for all childres aged 8 and above.

A spiraling spiral; a triangular shape comes into the picture; a circle that emerges and collapses. Can films be told without a plot?Just as some painters have tried to make do without objects or composers without tonality, filmmakers have over and over again tried to eschew plot. In OPUS 2 (Germany 1921) and OPUS 3 (Germany 1924) by Walter Ruttmann, the main characters are geometrical shapes and their movements. In Hans Richter’s FILMSTUDIE (Germany 1926), people, faces and constructed objects appear while in Mary Ellen Bute's short film ESCAPE (USA 1937) and Lara Faroqhi’s CIRCLE PHASES (Germany 2018) the idea is to use pictures to make visible musical works. We want to explore whether stories can be told even if there is no real plot. ESCAPE (USA 1937) and Lara Faroqhi’s CIRCLE PHASES (Germany 2018) the idea is to use pictures to make visible musical works. We want to explore whether stories can be told even if there is no real plot.