Yes, 2020 is a year for celebration — of 125 years of cinema, in the case of Germany precisely traced back to 1 November
1895, when the Skladanowsky brothers proudly presented their Bioskop movie projector at Varieté Wintergarten Berlin. Since then, we all have made cinema history, created when people come together to watch film.
At this juncture, and more so than a few months ago when we debated whether/when Netflix films might be allowed at Cannes, none of us know what the rest of the year will bring let alone the mid-term future of cinema-going, when and how Cannes or TIFF will happen, what will change for the next Berlinale eleven months from now. How will we reconvene “after”, how will audiences feel & behave (as Chinese cinemas are struggling to lure audiences back), how will the in-cinema experience change and what can we do to shape it in a positive way and secure a truly shared human experience going forward?
The 125-year milestone, past world wars, censorship, economic crises and the reinvention of mass media, gives inspiration and hope beyond a nostalgia for “better times” to re-evaluate what role cinema plays in our lives as a room for encounter and shared experience. Berlin cinema marketing agency Herz & Säle has poured the love of (physical) cinema into a #125JahreKino social media campaign, and this logo. They appeal to industry players to share social media content on their cinematic histories and to actively engage their audiences. Impulses range from profiling “moving moments”, “craziest experience” to “biggest plans”, from “most loyal customers”, “favourite actors” to “most dedicated staffer”, Top 125 lists, first kisses and best song competitions in cooperation with local media outlets, archives, or companies.
Another, similar initiative is the digital platform #
zurückinskino (back into cinema) that is looking ahead to how and when we will return into the theatrical space through ideas- and content-sharing by cinema operators, marketers, and distributors on how to stay in touch with their audiences, demonstrating how creative and dynamic the industry is in times of acute crisis. “Helping each other, together,” is the motto for discussing best-practice and visibility models for this moment and to be ready for a return into theatres.
Berlin’s independent cinemas specifically have banded together under the battle slogan “
Fortsetzung Folgt” (“to be continued”). 73 screens in Berlin alone normally present daily premieres and big live arthouse events as well as an enormous the-more-out-there-the-better diversity of festivals. Like all cinemas, their existence (and that of their staff) is threatened. This crowd-funding appeal hopes to bridge their “creative break.”
Berlin’s (and the Berlinale’s) arthouse cinema Arsenal specifically has created a third, virtual space: “
Arsenal 3” –1 and 2 being their theatres at Filmhaus Potsdamer Platz-- presents a stream & donate platform highlighting some of the best international artists and works in their collection. Like Philip Scheffner, who we showed in our
Goethe Media Space at the Goethe-Institut Toronto and a previous work by
Isabell Spengler, whose reimagining of Niagara Falls we commissioned in 2015 with Images Festival for presentation at Trinity Square Video.
Let’s hope Joni Mitchell doesn’t have to rewrite her song:
Don't it always seem to go that you don't know what you've got till it's gone. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. They took all the cinemas. Put 'em in a cinema museum…
These initiatives and more springing up daily foster and defend cinema’s role as an essential socio-cultural hub by crowd-sourcing ideas, initiatives and funds, to make cinema ready for an unknown future. And that focus alone is one positive outcome of the crisis.
Long live cinema, vive le cinema, Kino für immer!
Support local & global cinema with #125JahreKino #125YearsCinema #zurückinskino #tobecontinued #fortsetzungfolgt #kulturortkino #kinoausliebe #fortheloveofcinema #supportyourlocalcinema #sharingiscaring #wereinthistogether @herzundsaele @zurueckinskino @german_films ...
by
@JuttaBrendemuhl
P.S. Our friends & partners at German Films in Munich have set up a
"Corona Updates" site dedicated to keeping you posted about festival status updates, cinema closures and FAQs.
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