new media center_kuda.org

Filmmaker Florian Schneider has organised a retrospective about Michal Mraktisch for the Berlin Documentary Forum on June 2-6 2010 under the title "Missing Image". Alan Toner asks Florian Schneider about the background of this remarkable film-maker and his role and influence for the development of the Documentary Film as we know it today.

Curator Eduardo Thomas was presenting contemporary experimental documentaries in his series “authorship”, “authority” and “authenticity” at the Berlin Documentary Forum. He selected films, that erode the seemingly immutable conventions of the consistent abuse of hierarchical structures within the field of documentary filmmaking. In this in-depth interview by Alan Toner, Eduardo Thomas introduces the films he selected, reflects on his series and discusses the questions he encounters when thinking about documentary practices today.

Conceived by film-maker Eyal Sivan, the long-term project “Documentary Moments” elaborates documentary film practice through screenings and encounters with film-makers who shaped particular moments of the practice’s history. Its initial chapter is an homage to artists who contributed to the renaissance of documentary film in the post-war period: Alain Resnais (b. 1921), Edgar Morin (b. 1921), Marcel Ophuls (b. 1928), and Frederick Wiseman (b. 1930).

In Take 3 of the Documentary Moments, Eyal Sivan and film historian Stella Bruzzi introduce Frederick Wiseman and "direct" cinema.

Conceived by film-maker Eyal Sivan, the long-term project “Documentary Moments” elaborates documentary film practice through screenings and encounters with film-makers who shaped particular moments of the practice’s history. Its initial chapter is an homage to artists who contributed to the renaissance of documentary film in the post-war period: Alain Resnais (b. 1921), Edgar Morin (b. 1921), Marcel Ophuls (b. 1928), and Frederick Wiseman (b.

Filmmaker Lee Anne Schmitt presented her film "California Company Town" at the Berlin Documentary Forum on June 4th 2010. In this interview, she discusses artistic and film making practice with Alan Toner. Having chosen chosen to work with 16mm film, she describes her rationale, working conditions and artistic practice. These are significantly determined by the difficult economic situation faced by independent filmmakers today.

Alan Toner asks Angela Melitopoulos and Bettina Knaup about their performance "Möglichkeitsraum - Feminism and Performance Art" presented at the Berlin Documentary Forum on June 3rd 2010. Most of the program cannot be screened online due to copyright problems that burden much video performance art. Bettina Knaup and Angela Melitopoulos explain the particular situation of that genre, and how it is effecting their work with an archive of feminist performance art.

In this in-depth interview film historian Stella Bruzzi and Alan Toner discuss the development of documentary film in relation to advances in film technology, and consider possible perspectives for the future. This conversation took place during the Berlin Documentary Forum, where Stella Bruzzi investigated in conversation with Frederick Wiseman questions about “direct” cinema and the potential of the documentary image to produce truth.

Rabih Mroué opened the Berlin Documentary Forum with his performance "The Inhabitants of Images" on June 2nd 2010. In this interview, Alan Toner and Rabih Mroué discuss implications that images might have and the possibility that they bear an reality of their own. Rabih Mroué also gives some insights about his performance, for those who didn't get a chance to see it.

Conceived by filmmaker Eyal Sivan, the long-term project “Documentary Moments” that was for the first time presented at the Berlin Documentary Forum, elaborates documentary film practice through screenings and encounters with filmmakers who shaped particular moments of the practice’s history. In this interview, Alan Toner discusses with Eyal Sivan the background of the "Documentary Moments" and questions that evolve from revisiting films and filmmakers who have shaped the concept of the Documentary so strongly.

Artists Eileen Simpson and Ben White re-animate the film "Struggle in Jerash" by appropriating the tactic of the commercial DVD director’s commentary, subverting its standard authorial voice and placing the audience at the centre of a copyright-expired film. The film offers access to the process of self-understanding through the careful compilation of new commentary voiceover by contemporary Jordanian thinkers on the first feature film shot in Jordan (D: Wassif Sheik Yassin, 1957).

Filmmaker Florian Schneider has organised a retrospective about Michal Mraktisch for the Berlin Documentary Forum on June 2-6 2010 under the title "Missing Image". This conversation between Florian Schneider and Rick Prelinger, founder of the Prelinger Archives sums up the series "Missing Image".

Video artist Angela Melitopoulos engages Media Activism Brian Holmes at the Berlin Documentary Forum in a dialogue on extra-disciplinary Art Practices and Media Activism while he is presenting his archives and research. Holmes examines four audiovisual regimes that have emerged in the, USA since WW II: broadcast television in the Cold War consumer society; video as a subversion of the televisual norm; networked computing and its new forms of “control environments”; and new communication tactics of migration movements.

Conceived by film-maker Eyal Sivan, the long-term project “Documentary Moments” elaborates documentary film practice through screenings and encounters with film-makers who shaped particular moments of the practice’s history. Its initial chapter is an homage to artists who contributed to the renaissance of documentary film in the post-war period: Alain Resnais (b. 1921), Edgar Morin (b. 1921), Marcel Ophuls (b. 1928), and Frederick Wiseman (b. 1930).

Take 2 focuses on "Chronicle of a Summer" by Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin (FR 1961, 76 min.).

The Arsenal - Institute for Film and Video Art works on establishing new relations between the conservation and actualization of a film archive. Video artist Angela Melitopoulos engages curator Stefanie Schulte Strathaus at the Berlin Documentary Forum, who presents the idea of a "living" film archive in a selection of feminist and queer films from three historic cinematic events at the Arsenal. (German only)

A conversation between Catherine David and Joachim Koester at the Berlin Documentary Forum. The project evolves around key art works from the past fifteen years as well as new pieces that explore the link between aesthetics, history and politics. David’s prologue to a subsequent exhibition (BDF 2,2012) highlights the work of artist Joachim Koester, who explores the tension between imaginary sites, aesthetic tropes and physical places.

Conceived by film-maker Eyal Sivan, the long-term project “Documentary Moments” elaborates documentary film practice through screenings and encounters with film-makers who shaped particular moments of the practice’s history. Its initial chapter is an homage to artists who contributed to the renaissance of documentary film in the post-war period: Alain Resnais (b. 1921), Edgar Morin (b. 1921), Marcel Ophuls (b. 1928), and Frederick Wiseman (b.

Cultural historians Ariella Azoulay and Issam Nassar discuss at the Berlin Documentary Forum the representation of Palestinian refugees in photographs from 1947 to the early 1950s. Their conversation addresses theoretical and aesthetic aspects of interpreting photographs, as well as the role photography can play in questioning the dominant discourse on the creation of the State of Israel.

The second History Lesson at SUMMIT non-aligned initiatives in education culture featured a conversation between yugoslavian filmmaker Zelimir Zilnik and Jeebesh Bagchi (Raqs media collective) from Delhi.

In 2006, a group of friends decided to make a film about filesharing that *we* would recognise. There have been a few documentaries by 'old media' crews who don't understand the net and see peer-to-peer organisation as a threat to their livelihoods. They have no reason to represent the filesharing movement positively, and no capacity to represent it lucidly.

For more than 10 years, Muha writes lyrics that are very much connected with everyday life of the Roma community in Nivi Sad, and turns them into hip-hop songs. In 2007 he made his first professional studio recordings; the album “Crni smo mi” (“We are Black”) was released in July and promoted at the EXIT Festival (MTV Movement campaign).

Dictionay of War Taipei, October 24th 2008

Ever since September 11th not only has the perception of risk escalated but the meaning of fear has changed. At a personal level people have been speculating over their exposure to danger and institutions revising their security measures. Their capacity to cope with threats has been undermined by a loss of trust and morale. Fear has saturated every aspect of life. The American government has had to measure their ambition for global domination against the simmering prospects of revenge and sabotage occurring in their own locale.

Dictionay of War Taipei, October 25th 2008

Dictionay of War Taipei, October 25th 2008

Leaving behind the 20th century, the 21st century has appeared with two directions. On the one hand, a hope for the world with more freedom after the fall of the Berlin Wall; on the other hand, the hegemony of capital which has been named ‘Empire’ is as the imperial system based on the military operations and the occupations over multitude.

Dictionay of War Taipei, October 25th 2008

War is mostly about waiting. In strategy there is delay. In fear there is hesitation. In engagement there is exit. Languor, boredom, nullity: waiting around for orders, mobilization or attack. Capture and detention, setbacks and impediments, quagmires and fog: in all there is a tendency to confusion and deferral. Far from the politics of decision and the friend/enemy divide, waiting reminds us of all that is uncertain or undecidable in war.

Dictionay of War Taipei, October 25th 2008

Subtle! Subtle! It approaches the formless. ─ Sun Tze, Art of War, 500 BC

Micro-urbanism came out of a shifting paradigm of city and philosophy, which suggests there are internal realities to be investigated in order to describe how things interact and coordinate in the micro-scale realm, and which manifest the true spirit of a city and its people.