The Film-Arche (Ark)

The filmArche is Europe’s first self-organised film school and a non-profit association based in Berlin-Neukölln. Over 200 filmmakers meet here regularly to further their education and make films together.

The film school provides facilities and resources for a comprehensive three-year course across six specialisms: screenwriting, directing, cinematography, editing, production and documentary filmmaking. Upon starting the first semester, students automatically become members of the association.

The filmArche is mainly self-funded through membership fees.

And I was running a Super 8 workshop last Saturday and Sunday! Filming and eco developing in experimental soups made from veggies and fruit!

Here are a few photos! We had the finest (Kodachrome) weather and developed one group film, a rather fresh Kodachrome (“to be developed until 2004”) in Caffenol: beautiful crisp orange images! (Flipped over to positive: complementary colour = blue!). The next day was cloudy … no problem for the greatest b&w films on the market: TriX from Kodak and UN54 from German Wolfen!! 3 more films, developed in a wonderful yummy veggie and fruit soup!

Old Ladies Filming

I’ve just come back from a short trip to Bochum, a city in the Ruhr region with a wonderful art museum, which had invited me to make a film together with elderly ladies from the care home! All as part of an exhibition marking the 150th anniversary of Bochum’s Stadtpark / City Park!

It was exhausting but brilliant. We had little time (they get tired quickly) and the weather was absolutely dreadful: cold and rainy. Nevertheless, the ladies were lovely; they were really keen to do something out of the ordinary, put on their hoods and hats, and came out with us to the nearby park.

They were curious; some of them remembered Super 8 from the past, but it was more a case of “My husband always used to do that!”, so the barrier to trying it themselves was quite high – an old, vague fear of not doing something properly came to the surface.
But my two wonderful colleagues, Chiaki and Olivia, and I are masters at dispelling fears, and we eventually convinced them that you can simply pick up a camera and try something new. And it’s fun!

We filmed two film cassettes (black & white Kodak TriX film) and, on the second day of the workshop, developed them with fruit and magnolia blossom soup that we’d chopped and cooked together! Deliciously fragrant fun! And a powerful developer!

And: the films turned out well: lots of cool and beautiful scenes. Now they’re being digitised and I’ll finish the film. Plus sound. Exhibition opening: 24 April!

Dresden Schmalfilmtage / Small Format Days

So, I’ve only just got home – from Dresden to Berlin, a two-hour train journey – and now I’m going to tell you a bit about what it was like this year at one of my favourite little film festivals, the Dresden Schmalfilmtage / Narrow-Gauge Film Festival!

It’s a festival put together with love, and there are always strange and rare films to be seen in the various programmes that you’re guaranteed not to see anywhere else. All the films shown were shot on analogue film, i.e. on 8 or 16 mm, but were mostly screened digitally.

Dresden already had a hint of spring in the air; I even felt a Mediterranean breeze, but the nights were cold. Still, we loved sitting outside at the tables during the breaks with beer, wine and cigarettes, getting lost in film discussions – I love talking about Super 8 in such a nerdy way!

I love: the view from my hotel, Russian vareniki, night-time road repairers, fabric flowers, quirky little machines, brutalist buildings, all the films shown, and all my film mates!

Oh, and what was really hilarious: this year they’d used an AI translator to translate the live announcements in real time, from English to German and vice versa. In two years’ time it’ll no doubt work perfectly, but this time the poor AI really struggled and spouted some wonderful blunders and unintentionally brilliant poetry!

Click, it’s a film:

Video 14.03.26, 21 14 02

Breakfast this morning, organizers and film makers:

Blurred People at Kotti

My Kotti, the Kottbusser Tor: ‘Squatter neighbourhood, Little Istanbul, drug scene, artists‘ and scene district: the Kottbusser Tor has seen a lot. You can see it, hear it and smell it. But the centre of the Kreuzberg district SO36 is also a diverse and characteristic place with many great bars, restaurants, culture and history,’ as Berlin’s TIP magazine describes it.
I lived nearby for a long time and was both annoyed and delighted. Everything.

Now I’ve come up with a mini project and am taking Kotti pictures, pinhole camera photos with Kotti and people coming and going, with short (1 second) and long (20 seconds) exposure times.
I used two different Illy cameras with different sized holes! Two different apertures (260 and 533) which results in – under bright sunshine condition – exposure times of 2 seconds and 10 seconds.

Here are two from yesterday (bad scan), the first sunny and mild day after a long, grey and freezing cold winter!

Rummaging Through My Archive

In preparation for my feature-length film ‘Khani’s Reise’ (Khanis Journey), I rummage through my archive for old travel clips from when we were travelling in the USA and Canada 20 years ago.

I have a bunch of Super 8 films from that time, some of which have been digitised, some of which haven’t! This will be the start of the new film, as an introduction, so to speak.

Some loops here:

Got A Stipend!

Cheers! Got a stipend! For a medium long film project. From the wonderful Berlin Funding programme for artists in film/video.
(The funding is intended for artists (women and trans, inter and non-binary people) who have already completed their artistic training and/or who can prove that they have been working as a filmmaker for several years. The work grant amount to € 2,000 per month. They are usually awarded for a period of four to six months depending on the specific requirements of the project – subject to the availability of funds. (I got 4 months!))