Building museums in Berlin requires some patience. The opening of the Museum der Moderne is expected to be delayed by only a few years. The renovation of the Pergamon Museum, on the other hand, is expected to last until 2043.
Another construction site that has been going on for years, not to say decades, is the planned film house, which is intended to not only give the Berlinale its own representative location, but also give the Deutsche Kinemathek a worthy home. An area next to the Martin Gropius Building has actually been earmarked for this major initiative for a long time, but before it happens, the Kinemathek is moving into a new location just in time for the Berlinale, which is clearly planned to be temporary, but promises much more than just being a temporary arrangement.
For years, the cinema library – together with the dffb film school, the Arsenal and the film library – had a very representative location on Potsdamer Platz. However, in view of the rising rents, a move became necessary, which, after an intensive location search, led to the former power plant, less than a kilometer away. The impressive brick building from the 1920s, known to night owls of the 1990s as a center of club culture, is located in a backyard between Wilhelmstrasse and Mauerstrasse in Berlin-Mitte.
“Screen time.” German Cinematheque. January 23rd to February 6th. Free entry on the opening weekend
After careful renovations in the listed building, the cinema library is now moving in here, but without its impressive permanent exhibition. Given that the exhibition space is less than a third the size of the Filmhaus at Potsdamer Platz, it was painfully necessary to forego a presentation of the collection of objects from film and television history. Instead, the focus is now on the images and the visual presentation using projection, which not only corresponds to the zeitgeist of modern museums, but also makes perfect sense for a film museum.
A look behind the scenes
“Screentime” is the name of the installation, which is projected onto large gauze curtains in the exhibition room and shows an outline of German film history in just over 30 minutes. Particularly nice: In addition to excerpts from films from “The Last Man” to “Münchausen” to “Against the Wall”, photos from the filming of the corresponding films are shown, allowing a look behind the scenes. And thus fulfill one of the requirements of the cinema library: that of communication. How are films made, how are they shot, and how are old, fragile film materials restored? Questions like these should be discussed in workshops or lectures, also in changing exhibitions, for which the open space of the E-Werk with its diverse possibilities seems more than suitable.
But the films themselves are not neglected either: During the Berlinale, the Kinemathek will be one of the screening locations for the retrospective, and even during regular operations, the Kinemathek finally has its own cinema hall, although small, but equipped with projection technology from analogue to digital. To start with, there will be three film programs each lasting about an hour, for example “Tricks for Kids” with animated films mostly made in the GDR in the 1960s, and there will soon be regular evening screenings.
The first major special exhibition has also already been prepared; starting in May it will be about “Queer Cinema.” Until then, the new rooms of the Berlin Cinematheque invite you to take a first look; some exhibits from the archives can be seen, such as costumes from “Cabaret” or the tracksuit Emilio Sakraya in his role as rapper Xatar in Fatih Akin’s “Rheingold” wore. A visit to the excellently stocked film library in the house is also worthwhile.
The cinema library has rented this new location for ten years. It remains to be seen whether the city will be able to build a permanent home for film as a cultural and economic factor.