Filmprogramme at Sinema Transtopia

60 Years of DFFB: For the anni­ver­sa­ry, a film series explo­res the con­nec­tions bet­ween the academy’s past and pre­sent. Three spot­lights – femi­nist, migrant, que­er – fall on per­spec­ti­ves that still have to fight for visi­bi­li­ty: women who cam­pai­gned for equa­li­ty, stu­dents with migrant and inter­na­tio­nal bio­gra­phies, and a que­er cine­ma that is ren­ego­tia­ting its own term.

Thu Oct 29, 8:00 pm — Terms of Encounter

Terms of Encoun­ter revi­sits an inter­sec­tion­al pro­gram on “migrant pres­ents” at the DFFB and ima­gi­nes how it might be tied to unwrit­ten Black per­spec­ti­ves in Ger­ma­ny, past and future. The film coll­ec­ti­ve Blick­pi­lo­tin e.V. (Kath­rin Schulz, Regi­na Holz­kamp née Schüt­ze, Maria Schmidt, Ste­fa­nie Het­ze and Made­lei­ne Bernstorff) was foun­ded in 1989 to pro­mo­te and pro­gram femi­nist art house cine­ma. In 1998, Schüt­ze and Bea­te Spil­le orga­ni­zed a scree­ning of films direc­ted in Ger­ma­ny by women stem­ming from Kenya and Zim­bab­we who were stu­dy­ing at the DFFB, under the title “Begeg­nun­gen mit afri­ka­ni­schen Regis­seu­rin­nen (Encoun­ters with Afri­can Women Direc­tors).” The pro­gram took place at Emi­taay (form­er­ly K.O.B.), a squat­ted house and cul­tu­ral space on Pots­da­mer Stra­ße in Ber­lin-Schö­ne­berg, and fea­tured stu­dent and inde­pen­dent works by Wan­ji­ru Kin­yan­jui, Tsit­si Dan­gar­emb­ga and Auma Oba­ma, with a key­note from Marie-Hélè­ne Gut­ber­let. Terms of Encoun­ter reframes the his­to­ric pro­gram with a per­for­mance by Mmak­gosi Kga­bi that intro­du­ces Grif­fith and Hering’s ear­ly rese­arch into the films of Mon­a­li­sa A.J. God­ef­froy, a film stu­dent from Swa­zi­land (today Eswa­ti­ni) who enrol­led at the DFFB in 1977. With spe­cial thanks to Bir­git Koh­ler, Bran­wen Okpa­ko, Micha­el Meert, Don Edkins and Pri­scil­la Lay­ne.

Performance: Mmakgosi Kgabi

approx. 10 min

Black in the Western World

Direc­tor: Wan­ji­ru Kin­yan­jui · Cine­ma­to­gra­phy: Bea­trix Dell­er, Elke Götz · Cast: Paul Ford, Tsit­si Dan­gar­emb­ga, Nata­lie Asfa­ha, Sheya Felix Kalua­pa
Ger­ma­ny 1992 · 16mm · 23 min · Ger­man, Eng­lish · no sub­tit­les

At the start of the 1990s, Ken­yan DFFB stu­dent Wan­ji­ru Kin­yan­jui grapp­led with how it felt to be Black in Ger­ma­ny. Racist mate­ri­al from Ger­man ever­y­day cul­tu­re rubs up against con­ver­sa­ti­ons with other Black peo­p­le in Euro­pe. — Source: Ber­li­na­le, Fik­ti­ons­be­schei­ni­gung

Die Schönheitsverschwörung

(The Beau­ty Con­spi­ra­cy)
Direc­tor: Tsit­si Dan­gar­emb­ga · Cine­ma­to­gra­phy: Rai­ner März
Ger­ma­ny 1994 · digi­tal · 12 min · Ger­man, Eng­lish · Ger­man sub­tit­les (for the Eng­lish parts)

Tsit­si Dangarembga’s docu­men­ta­ry-eth­no­gra­phic video Die Schön­heits­ver­schwö­rung (The Beau­ty Con­spi­ra­cy) exami­nes an Afro beau­ty shop on Kant­stra­ße in Ber­lin with iro­nic empha­sis. Cus­to­mers recount their expe­ri­en­ces in post-reuni­fi­ca­ti­on Ber­lin and, as it were, pro­vi­de a brief pri­mer on the mer­chan­di­se: hair straigh­ten­ers and skin-blea­ching creams. The social effects of majo­ri­ta­ri­an noti­ons of beau­ty beco­me evi­dent in a varie­ty of ways. — Source: Film­mu­se­um Pots­dam

All That Glitters

Direc­tor: Auma Oba­ma · Cine­ma­to­gra­phy: Men­ga Huon­der-Jen­ny · Cast: Bar­phe Enow, San­dy Bacher, Cyrill Berndt
Ger­ma­ny 1993 · 16mm · 21 min · Eng­lish · no sub­tit­les

It is the ear­ly 1990s, and Wen­do (Bar­phe Enow) wat­ches a tele­vi­si­on news report describ­ing the far-right attacks in Ger­ma­ny resul­ting in the fata­li­ties of Ama­deu Anto­nio, Jor­ge João Gomon­dai, Mah­mud Azhar, among others, and the xeno­pho­bic arson attacks in Solin­gen. She and her child, Achieng (San­dy Bacher), trust a hel­pful stran­ger (Cyrill Berndt) in the park who impli­ca­tes hims­elf into their lives.

Cura­ted by Kari­na Grif­fith and Tobi­as Hering
Guest: Mmak­gosi Kga­bi

Fri Oct 30, 6:00 pm — Breaking the Waves

Wie das Meer und sei­ne Wogen (Like the Sea and Its Waves, 1980) is the second part of a tri­lo­gy that Edna Poli­ti began at the DFFB – a cine­ma­tic nego­tia­ti­on of the con­flict bet­ween Pal­es­ti­ne and Isra­el. In the docu­men­ta­ry Für die Paläs­ti­nen­ser – eine Israe­lin berich­tet (For the Pal­es­ti­ni­ans: An Israe­li Woman Reports, 1974), the Leba­ne­se-born Jewish film­ma­ker shows the situa­ti­on of the Pal­es­ti­ni­an popu­la­ti­on and its oppres­si­on and explo­ita­ti­on by Israe­li socie­ty. The final part, Anou Banou oder Die Töch­ter der Uto­pie (Anou Banou or the Daugh­ters of Uto­pia, 1983), inter­ro­ga­tes the role of women within the kib­butz move­ment and the foun­ding of the Sta­te of Isra­el. Wie das Meer und sei­ne Wogen, like­wi­se pro­du­ced with Das klei­ne Fern­seh­spiel, is the only fic­tion film in the series. The poli­ti­cal con­flict is explo­red through the rela­ti­onship bet­ween two women who went to school tog­e­ther in Leba­non and reu­ni­te in exi­le in Paris. Eva, a Jew, went to Jeru­sa­lem; Samia, a Mus­lim, remain­ed in Bei­rut. Edna Poli­ti stu­di­ed at the DFFB from 1971 to 1975, but her gra­dua­ti­on film was not com­ple­ted until 1980. The scree­ning is the Ger­man pre­mie­re of the res­to­red ver­si­on. The film demons­tra­tes how the key­words of the anni­ver­sa­ry pro­gram — femi­nist, migrant, que­er — are inter­wo­ven with one ano­ther, and it also makes pain­ful­ly clear who is able to return.

Wie das Meer und seine Wogen

(Like the Sea and Its Waves)
Direc­tor: Edna Poli­ti · West Ger­ma­ny 1980 · DCP · 93 min · French, Hebrew, Ara­bic with Ger­man sub­tit­les

Cura­ted by Fio­na Berg, Sophie Holz­ber­ger and Ari­sa Purk­pong
Guest: Edna Poli­ti

Fri Oct 30, 8:30 pm — Queer Fantasies

In Auf Raben zu tref­fen, Bar­ba­ra Teu­fel stages a love sto­ry bet­ween Fre­de­rick the Gre­at and Vol­taire as a playful dance of the Enligh­ten­ment, while Ange­li­ka Levi’s Sex­par­ty (Sex Par­ty) pres­ents the sen­suous frag­ment of a lost les­bi­an film. The pan of Über­wa­chungs­ka­me­ra (Secu­ri­ty Came­ra) in the social spot for MANEO hints at the dys­to­pia that Car­los Perei­ra sket­ches out ele­gant­ly in a cine­ma­tic no-man’s‑lands in his enig­ma­tic art film Sli­ma­ne. Elke Götz’s Mein ist Dein gan­zes Herz (Your Heart Is All Mine) fol­lows the fan­ta­sti­cal life of a les­bi­an office worker who has to choo­se bet­ween a baro­que role-play with her mother and her love for a fema­le but­cher.

Auf Raben zu treffen

(Mee­ting Ravens)
Direc­tor: Bar­ba­ra Teu­fel · Ger­ma­ny 1990 · 16mm · 4 min · Ger­man · no sub­tit­les

Sexparty

(Sex Par­ty)
Direc­tor: Ange­li­ka Levi · West Ger­ma­ny 1987 · Super 8 · 10 min · no dia­lo­gue

Überwachungskamera

(Secu­ri­ty Came­ra)
Direc­tor: Chris­toph Hel­ler · Ger­ma­ny 2006 · 35mm · 1 min · no dia­lo­gue

Slimane

Direc­tor: Car­los Perei­ra · Ger­ma­ny 2023 · DCP · 19 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

Mein ist Dein ganzes Herz

(Your Heart Is All Mine)
Direc­tor: Elke Götz · Ger­ma­ny 1992 · digi­tal · 50 min · Ger­man with Eng­lish sub­tit­les

Cura­ted by Toby Ashraf and Sophie Holz­ber­ger
Guests: Bar­ba­ra Teu­fel, Ange­li­ka Levi, Car­los Perei­ra, Elke Götz, and others