Collect Films!

Several cinematheques and film museums are responsible for preserving and maintaining film heritage in Germany, but there are also numerous small archives and collections. They are often owned by private individuals, associations or communities and pursue their own specialised collection interests. Where the large public archives reach their limits, the small archives and collections step in and ensure a more diverse transmission of film heritage. What gaps do the small archives fill? What is collected there, by whom and for what reason? These questions are explored in our event series Sammelt Filme!, in which we have the Werkstattkino as our guest in July.

The Werkstattkino is the most beautiful spawn of Munich's underground cinema. As a registered, non-profit association, it has been running a backyard cinema in the Gärtnerplatz district for almost 50 years and owns a widely appreciated collection of around 3,000 analogue film prints. "A jewel of the aberrant, a catacomb of vision, a cinephile's pub," is how Hans Schifferle described the Werkstattkino in the Süddeutsche Zeitung. From Agitprop and Blaxploitation to Italowesterns, Pinku Eiga, Punk, Visconti and cartoons: this is where the world's film history, in all its colourfulness and contradictions, has a home. Bernd Brehmer - cinéaste, programme maker, projectionist, cinema worker and part of the collective for 30 years - brings a selection of special gems to Berlin. (Philipp Stiasny)