Sammelt Filme!

The Collect Films! series focuses on private collectors and independent archives. In addition to the collections held by German film archives, there are numerous collections that have been established through the initiative of private individuals or associations and reflect their specific interests and preferences. Through their dedication, they enable a more diverse preservation of film heritage and greater accessibility, as many archives are increasingly restricting the lending of analog copies.

The Eskalierende-Träume Archive came into being following a spontaneous purchase of a film print in 2017, when a color-stable ORWO print of Kurt Hoffmann’s Hokuspokus (1966) was offered for sale on a major U.S. online marketplace. The rarity of a good GDR copy—the Kodak film stock used for West German copies tends to have a strong red cast—fueled the decision to use it for public screenings and to save it from disappearing into a collector’s basement. Today, the archive is maintained by a collective (Lydia Kayß, Sarah Kübler, Andreas Beilharz, André Malberg)—still with the goal of providing the most accessible entry point possible to rare film and television, primarily from Germany. The holdings of the Eskalierende Träume Archive are therefore open to the public and available for loan to any movie theater.