Organised and curated by Till Kadritzke and Carlos Kong (Princeton University/EXC 2020 Doctoral Fellow, April–September 2025), project Moving Images, Transforming Germanness: Race, Migration and Transnational Filmmaking in Germany, 1968–1989, Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies", supported by Constellations (Anna Luhn). In cooperation with Sinema Transtopia.

The film series adopts the 'Temporal Communities' approach to analyse works of literature as the outcome of specific practices entangled in global networks and reframes the history of German film by looking at a wide array of transnational filmmaking practices in Germany since the 1960s.

In following different trajectories of transnational filmmaking in Germany and assembling films created within transnational networks, the series seeks to shed light on the important work performed by archival initiatives, cultural projects and a growing number of individual curators, exhibitors, researchers and artists over the last years. They all have restored, studied and made available films that have been unseen or underappreciated in Germany, often because they fell through existing national categories.

The series consists of four evenings that each highlight a different dimension of or route to transnational filmmaking in Germany, such as filmmakers in exile, Turkish productions in Germany or international students at film schools. Each evening will combine the screening of one or two films with an introductory presentation or a talk following the screenings.

Programme:

Cultural Nationalism (1968, Skip Norman, 11 min)
On Africa (1970, Skip Norman, 38 min)
Oyoyo (1980, Chetna Vora, 45 min)

Introduction by Dr. Ying Sze Pek (DFG Graduiertenkolleg "Das Dokumentarische: Exzess und Entzug", Ruhr University Bochum)

The second event in the series examines the transnational film practices of students at film schools in former West and East Germany, focusing on two exemplary filmmakers: Skip Norman's Cultural Nationalism (1969) combines a speech by Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, with a shot of a snowy field in West Berlin, thematising racial and class disenfranchisement. In On Africa (1970), Norman juxtaposes tracking shots of Berlin with photographs and economic data on West Africa, producing an essay film that explores the continent's underdevelopment, conquest, and decolonisation. Shot in a student residence in Karlshorst, Berlin, Chetna Vora's Oyoyo (1980) features the lived experiences of foreign students in the former German Democratic Republic, highlighting intimate moments of friendship and transnational solidarity.

Oyoyo: Digitisation and restoration of the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, supported by the Film Heritage Funding Programme, financed by BKM, Länder and FFA.

Upcoming Screenings:

Filmmakers in German Exile

Anton P. Cechov – Ein Leben (1981, Sohrab Shahid Saless, 95 min)

Introduction by Behrang Samsami (author and journalist)

Legacies of Transnational Filmmaking

Spielerinnen (2024, Aysun Bademsoy, 86 min)

Film Talk with Aysun Bademsoy

Previous Screening:

Almanya Acı Vatan
Germany, Bitter Homeland
Şerif Gören, Turkey 1979, 90 min, Turkish with English subtitles

Introduction by Prof. Dr. Ömer Alkin (Applied Media and Communication Studies, Hochschule Niederrhein)