All screenings from “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” are  free and open to the public @ Supermarkt, Brunnenstr. 64, Berlin

PROGRAM

“Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” short fim festival curated by Ming Turner
Trans-ideology: Nostalgia aims to show a selection of new video works from international artists that cover a wide range of ideas surrounding the concept of nostalgia. Fabio DaSilva and Jim Faught suggest in their article ‘Nostalgia: A Sphere and Process of Contemporary Ideology’ (1982) that nostalgia isolates and mythicises selected objects from the past so that we feel we are enjoying a more tranquil and conflictless past. This nostalgic past is somehow not completely the reality, rather, it is ambiguous and is purified. DaSilva and Faught indicate that the past is usually perceived as more tranquil than the present. The nostalgic past ignores real material conditions and tensions, and embraces an emotional utopia.

“Edge of Berlin”  film screenings curated by Stephan Takkides
To supplement the workshop The Edge of Berlin, Stephan Takkides will present a short series of feature-length films that are set in the suburbs, edgelands and liminal zones of Berlin. In addition to these, he will show a couple of documentaries dealing with related spaces on the outskirts of Mersin in southern Turkey and the periphery of London.

Monday, August 5
19:00 – 20:00 “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” shortfilm festival begins (curated by Ming Turner) 
TBA

20:00 – 21:30 ”Edge of Berlin” film screenings begins (curated by Takkides) 
Insel der Schwäne (Swan Island)
Director: Herrmann Zschoche
DEFA
1983
German language (English subtitles or live translation)
85 minutes

A fourteen year old moves with his family from an idyllic countryside town to Marzahn, a developing prefab housing project on Berlin’s eastern outer edge. Despite being made by the state-owned East German film studio (DEFA), the film was controversial in its dystopian portrayal of life in high-density social housing at a time when the apartment blocks were still under construction.

Tuesday, August 6
19:00 – 20:00 “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” short film festival continues
TBA

20:00 – 21:30 ”Edge of Berlin” film screenings continues
Ostkreuz
Director: Michael Klier
ZDF
1991
German language (English subtitles)
84 minutes

Set just after the fall of the wall, the film centres on Elfie and her unemployed mother, living in a complex of shipping containers in the former no-man’s land between East and West Berlin. In her struggle to earn enough money for a deposit on a new home in the west, Elfie gets involved in petty criminality and finds herself alienated from her mother and her new partner.

Wednesday, August 7
19:00 – 19:30 “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” short film festival continues
TBA

20:00 – 21:30 ”Edge of Berlin” film screenings continues
Flight to Berlin (Fluchtpunkt Berlin)
Director: Christopher Petit
Road Movies Produktion / BFI / Channel Four
1983
English language
90 minutes

A little-known film by Chris Petit set in 1980s West Berlin with an elliptical plot about a woman hiding out in a strange city. The film was chosen for the series for its liminal location shots (much of the movie is set in cars, airports, railway stations, police stations, elevators, hotel rooms) and for the way it portrays Berlin as a place of escape, a sort of edgeland in itself.

Thursday, August 8
19:00 – 19:30 “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” short film festival continues
TBA

20:00 – 21:30 ”Edge of Berlin” film screenings continues 
Am Rand der Städte (On the Outskirts)
Director: Aysun Bademsoy
Harun Farocki Filmproduktion
2006
Turkish/German language (English subtitles)
83 minutes

This documentary by Aysun Bademsoy features interviews with former Turkish immigrants in Germany, who have returned to their homeland and are living in tall apartment blocks on the outskirts of Mersin. Known as “Deutschländer”, they find themselves unable to fit into the local way of life, culturally on the edge of two countries, as well as geographically on the edge of the city.

Friday, August 9
19:00 – 20:00 “Trans-ideology: Nostalgia” short film festival ends
TBA

20:00– 21:30 ”Edge of Berlin” film screenings ends 
The London Perambulator
Director: John Rogers
2009
Vanity Projects
English language
45 minutes

Nick Papadimitriou – and his wanderings around London’s edgelands – are the subject of this 2009 documentary. Papadimitriou describes his practice of walking and archiving as ”deep topography”. His extensive and eccentric writing has formed research for books by Will Self and Iain Sinclair.