Cinema of Commoning

Imruh Bakari (Participant)

Activity: Participating in or organising an event types › Participating in a conference, workshop, ...

Description

A project by bi’bak and various international partners, aims to bring together a network and gather knowledge of cinemas and cinema initiatives around the world. Through hybrid conversations, it hopes to create a statement that proposes a future model of an alternative cinema which is oriented towards the “commons” with regards to accessibility, artistic freedom and financial sustainability. The project takes place in two steps: From March on, a collectively curated film programme will be shown at partner cinemas in Bangkok, Jakarta, Istanbul, Dubai, Santiago de Chile, Cluj and Luanda. In June, a three day symposium will bring together partner initiatives, film professionals and cinephiles in Berlin in order to develop further concepts and strategies for sustainable spaces dedicated to film culture. By doing so, CINEMA OF COMMONING argues for cinema as a transnational space for artistic and social practice, as a place of public discourse, as an agent of cultural memory and urban heritage, and as a site to preserve and distribute film and video formats
that are rarely accessible.
Funded by Kulturstiftung des Bundes and the Berlin Senate fo

Period	24 Jun 2022 → 26 Jun 2022
Event type	Conference
Location	Berlin, GermanyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International

Documents & Links

TRANSNATIONALITY, CULTURAL MEMORY AND ARCHIVAL WORK Through transnationality, forms of multi-perspectival knowledge emerge. This knowledge connects places geographically near and distant with pasts, presents and futures, and decentres eurocentric views by bringing transnational and postcolonial positions to forefront. So too does it incorporate examinations of migratory movements and class issues, as well as the relationships between different communities and generations. A cinema of the commons brings together diverse social groups and worlds, who, through a shared reception of and engagement with film, cross and transform to challenge familiar ways of seeing and interpreting. How do we understand the simultaneous locality and globality of cinema today? How must a commons-oriented cinema be shaped when its actors and audiences, its themes and images, are transnational? Film as cultural heritage is not only preserved through restoration and preservation measures, but also requires screening continuity, the possibility of shared aesthetic experiences, and discursive contextualization. In transnational societies, such screenings are important for negotiating forms of community, exclusion, dissidence, and participation, and for enabling discussion about which and whose cultural memory is being preserved. How do different “multidirectional memories” (Rothberg) relate to each other and which forms of film archiving enable a dialogical remembering that does justice to the diversity of different, sometimes contradictory, cultures of memory and tradition? 12:30 On-site registration upon arrival 13:00 Keynote: Stefanie Schulte Strathaus (Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst, Berlin) Most film archives are based on the concept of national heritage. Mechanisms of exclusion and canonization define a community of heirs. The archivist preserves the archive, while the curator presents archival films to the public. Digitisation, interdisciplinary research, and decolonial discourse challenge this concept: Contemporary archival work is defined less by its object than by its practice. How does this change the notion of film heritage? Can the new archive shape the future of cinema? 13:45 Short break 14:00 Panel I: How Should a Cinema Oriented Towards the Commons be Designed When its Actors, Audiences, Themes and Images are Transnational? Imruh Bakari (University of Winchester) Lyse Ishimwe Nsengiyumva (Recognition, Brüssel) Sarnt Utamachote (un.thai.tled, Berlin) Moderation: Can Sungu (bi’bak / Sinema Transtopia, Berlin) Through transnationality, forms of multi-perspectival knowledge emerge. This knowledge connects places geographically near and distant with pasts, presents and futures, and decentres eurocentric views by bringing transnational and postcolonial positions to forefront. So too does it incorporate examinations of migratory movements and class issues, as well as the relationships between different communities and generations. This panel focuses on questions of the simultaneous locality and globality that converges in the cinema space: How must a commons-oriented cinema be shaped when its actors, audiences, themes and images are transnational? How do counter-narratives – ones that negotiate marginalized knowledge and perspectives – find their way into broader social discourse? What strategies exist within transnational frames of reference that challenge the insistence on the nation-state in film festivals and film funding? 16:00 Short break 16:30 Short film screening: Abschied Farewell Želimir Žilnik, BRD 1975, 9 min. OV with English subtitles 16:45 Panel II: Transnational Film Heritage: Diaspora and Informal Archives Daniella Shreir (Another Gaze / Another Screen) Ivan Velisavljević (Akademski Kino Klub, Belgrade) Mohanad Yaqubi (Subversive Film, Brussels / Ramallah) Moderation: Tobias Hering (Curator, Berlin) Film as cultural heritage is not only preserved through restoration and preservation measures, but also requires screening continuity, the possibility of shared aesthetic experiences, and discursive contextualization. In transnational societies, such screenings are important for negotiating forms of community, exclusion, dissidence, and participation, and for enabling discussion about which and whose cultural memory is being preserved. How do different cultures of memory relate to each other and which forms of film archiving enable a dialogical remembering that does justice to the diversity of different, sometimes contradictory, cultures of memory and tradition? What strategies and approaches might assist with archiving films and making those that have not received sufficient attention accessible once more? How can transnational, non-institutionalized alliances be created that operate beyond “national film heritage”? 18:30 Conclusion / Get-together